It takes longer than I want to admit before I get control of my wild emotions and sigh in defeat. “What she needs isyou.Everyone else in her life has let her down; she needs us to be better than that. To have her back when shit gets tough.” I glance at him from the corner of my eye. “You all in?”
He doesn’t hesitate a single second. “Always.” But I’m not willing to accept his answer so easily.
“I mean it. If the guild is attacked, where does your allegiance lie? The front lines defending your legacy, or at your mate’s side? Because she’s spent her entire life on the backburner, Knight. She can’t have her mates casting her aside for other priorities. She needs to come first; always. If you can't do that? Do the humane thing and walk away now while she can still hate you.”
I hate that I respect him for taking time to think over his answer before responding.
“I’ve accomplished more in my life than I ever dreamed, but it’s always been for someone else.” He rests back on his hands, staring up at the night rapidly spreading across the sky above us. “I loved my time as guild master. I was able to give people that desperately needed it a home, and guide an entire generation into putting their skills to good use. Gave them a purpose and a family they could count on when times got tough. I raised Arson as my own son. But now?” He glances at me, scanning my face before his lips curve in the barest shadow of a smile. “I want to be selfish for once. If that means I step down from my position? I’m happy to do it.”
Sighing, he tracks the shooting star that races across the sky. “If I’d known you were out there, I would have taken you in, too, you know. I’m sorry I wasn’t there when you needed me, but I’m asking that you let me be there for you now. Because we have a mate that’s far too fucking good for this world that needs us to stand between her and everyone that wouldn’t hesitate to take advantage of her.”
Extending a hand, he sucks in a deep breath. “I love her more than I hate you. Truce?”
Pretty sure I can manage both.
Fighting my instincts, I take his hand, discreetly attempting to break a couple of bones. Or at least fracture them; I’m not picky.
“For now.”
Unless he hurts my girl again. Kiara’s basilisk? He and I have an understanding, and he’ll be fully grown in less than a year. That’s plenty of time for Havoc to show his true colors, and an easy way to dispose of any mates that prove to be dead weight.
Chapter 38
Riot
“Where the fuck are they?” I mutter.
I’m two seconds away from flipping this entire fucking desk. The only thing keeping me in check is my sister, and I take a moment to suck in a few deep, pissed off breaths. She needs me, and I can’t very well help her from a jail cell.
One stint was enough for a lifetime, thank you very much. Never going back to that hellhole.
The first drawer is useless, as is the second. The computer I couldn’t crack, but the USB my boss gave me is busy at work while I scour this son of a bitch’s office for anything useful. Not that my efforts are turning up much.
“Come on,” I beg, shoving aside every picture and file for anything that might reveal who the fuck this bastard sold my sister to. But three months in, trying to earn enough trust to gain access to their records or someone with loose lips that knows what happened to Lyra without blowing my cover, and I still haven’t found where he stores the information I need.
Footsteps echo down the hallway and I curse, quietly shutting the desk drawer and plucking out the USB before the program is done running its course. Activating my ability requires more concentration than it used to, but I have more motivation than ever to keep a low profile. The door opens a split-second after I’ve finished shrinking down, and I use the shadows of my ‘boss’s’ desk to hide.
“Everything’s finally coming together, Garret. With her by my side, I'll be untouchable,” he says, and my stomach churns. “She’s perfect.”
Is that what this has all been about? Abducting women until he found one he liked?
Fucking disgusting.
I glance at my watch and curse, making a break for it. I stick to the shadows, but this small, I’m unlikely to draw attention. A blessing and a curse, because I can only hold it for so long.
Diving under the crack of the door, I roll to the other side before my ability wears off, and I return to my usual, massive size. Out of breath, I do my best to blend in, avoiding eye contact with anyone I pass in the halls, but memorizing every face that I pass.
Every single person that works under this bastard is just as guilty as far as I’m concerned.
Maybe now that he's fixated on some woman, he'll call off the search for the shifter.
But as much as I wish I could believe it, I know better. A sphinx? It proves everything that deranged man has spent a lifetime claiming; that mythological shifters still exist. And if he has his way? He’ll have every single one of them stuffed in a cage, sold to the highest bidder in some twisted effort to prove that he’s more powerful than every single one of them. It’s naive, unhinged, and flat out wrong. But like hell anyone will convince the pompous bastard otherwise.
No, he's never going to stop hunting that sphinx. Not when he’s the key to finding where all the creatures of legend are hiding. It's been weeks without any sign of the man, but that hasn’t deterred my ‘boss.’
Despite my best efforts.
The shifter was borderline feral when I busted him out of this prison, but I tried to herd him toward Mercy Ridge so he at least had a chance. Even volunteered to be part of the team sent to scour the city for him to try and throw them off the trail, and that’s when I foundher. The sweet little thing that took one look at me and didn’t see a monster. Just… threw herself at me with complete and utter faith, trusting that I’d catch her. She asked me tosave her.
