Griffin

It was a little disorienting to wake up alone in my childhood bed instead of my new place. It didn't help that Wulfric wasn't next to me. I still wasn't completely sure about what he did at night while I slept, but I loved knowing he was nearby, and he always crept back into the bed when he thought I was waking up. Sometimes I woke up before he got back, and would keep my eyes shut until he did. It was adorable.

Waking up like this, alone and with the memory of yesterday's awful revelations casting a shadow in my mind, was cold in comparison.

I checked my phone for messages (nothing since Wulfric's acknowledgment of my text from last night letting him know I was staying with my parents) and hurried downstairs, where I could hear the sounds of my siblings chattering and my fathers moving around the kitchen making breakfast. They didn't cook every morning, but at least half the time one of them would. Today, I didn't know if they were cooking because they felt like it or because they were still trying to cheer me up. I kind of hoped it was the second one, because I wasn't too proud to admit to liking my parents taking care of me sometimes. Especially on days like today, where I really, really didn't want to be an adult dealing with adult problems.

Like how I accidentally fed some of my life to my soulmate.

Or how awful he must be feeling about all of this. I probably should have stuck around to talk with him yesterday, but I was too overwhelmed at the time to do it. And then I made it worse by spending the night here instead of going back and spending it with Wulfric like we were used to.

I was going to have to talk to him today, but I had no idea what to say or how to feel.

When I got to the kitchen, Dad and Pop both had a little hitch in their movements as they not-so-subtly tried to get a good look at me. Then Dad turned back to the stove and Pop kept dicing tomatoes. It looked and smelled like we were having breakfast tacos today, and the thought had my stomach gurgling. The pack house always had great food provided by the kitchen staff, but it just wasn't the same as eating my dads' home cooking.

Meanwhile, Margo sat at the counter going on about her upcoming birthday (which wasn't all that soon, and which wasn't even the next birthday in our family). Apparently, she and her mate, Krish, were planning some massive road trip starting the day after she turned eighteen and Margo was trying to talk our dads into letting her do it a year early.

Yeah, like our parents would let her go galivanting cross-country at age seventeen. They couldn't possibly be considering it... right?

"...and after Yellowstone, we're going to visit these hot springs that are nearby. And there are places where you can go horseback riding! I've always wanted to try it and Krish already knows how, so it's perfect. And you know, his parents just got him a car with really great safety ratings, so there's nothing to worry about there either."

Dad was sort of nodding along as Margo spoke, and Pop's only contribution was to say, "We'll have to think about it, honey. Let's talk again later."

Margo squealed and clapped her hands in excitement while I gaped at them. Dad's eyes flicked toward me again and I finally understood. They probably weren't entirely following everything Margo was saying because they were too focused on me.

That was confirmed when Dad's eyes widened and he spun toward Margo a minute later. "Wait, you want to do what?" he asked, and I laughed.

Tyler bounded into the room with Blair on his heels, providing a welcome distraction. He reached onto Pop's cutting board to steal a piece of tomato and Dad freaked out so bad, his spatula went flying out of his hands when he reached out to snatch Tyler's hand back.

"Ty!" Dad yelled, pulling him in for a massive hug. Tyler hugged him back and looked confused until Pop stepped into his line of vision and held up the knife he'd been using, which still had tomato seeds on it.

"Watch it, kid. You could have lost a finger," Pop said.

Blair came over and sat next to me while our parents continued to alternately snuggle and scold Tyler. She shook her head in his direction, though I could see a bit of worry in her eyes. "He doesn't think," she said.

"He'll learn," I said. Twelve was still so young.

Blair shook her head slowly. "I don't know, if he hasn't learned not to stick his hand by a moving knife by now..."

"Hey, people learn every day of their lives," I argued. "There's no age limit. And besides, did you know your brain isn't considered fully developed until you're in your mid-twenties? You guys are less than halfway there. Don't be so hard on him." Or on yourself, I thought, but didn't say it. Blair could be really intense, and didn't always cope well when she was disappointed in herself.

"Really?"

"Really."

Margo scoffed, and I laughed a little. She had always been one of those thirteen-going-on-thirty types, completely unable to accept her own childhood. Margo had been trying to establish her own maturity and independence since she was... well, about Blair and Tyler's age, now that I thought about it. At sixteen years old, I wasn't surprised she was unhappy with the idea she still had growing up to do.

"It's not a bad thing," I said.

"Yeah, well, you realize you're saying you have an undeveloped brain, too, right?" Margo pointed out. She had a glint in her eyes that told me she thought she was playing a trump card, but I just nodded calmly.

"Yeah." And I kind of liked the idea that I still had some growing up to do. It made me feel less like a failure for still not knowing what to do with my life.

Ty slid into the stool next to Blair's, and I sank into the routine of breakfast with my family. As conversation flowed, my dads stopped acting so paranoid around me, and it eventually started to feel more like a normal morning and less like I was hiding away from the world. By the time we were finishing up and my phone buzzed with a text, I wasn't even anxious to find that it was from Wulfric, asking to talk to me. I sent a quick affirmative and helped my parents clean up breakfast. Margo and Blair took care of their own plates and Ty tried to stick around to help out longer, but Dad gently sent him away so we could chat while we finished up.

"How are you feeling?" he asked softly once it was just the three of us.

I thought about it just to make sure, then answered with the truth: "Weirdly okay."

Pop clapped me on the back as he walked by to put the condiments back in the fridge and Dad hummed thoughtfully.

"I'm going to head back to my place after we're done here," I added.

"Are you meeting Wulf?" Dad asked and I nodded. "Good."

A little knot of anxiety I wasn't aware I was harboring eased at that. "You guys aren't mad at him?"

They didn't have to ask what for. "No, should we be?" Pop said with a grin that looked only a little bit forced.

"Nope." Phew! Honestly, I knew it would all be okay in the end, but I thought it would take my parents longer to get over what Wulf accidentally did to me. They tended to overreact when it came to our safety.

"Well okay then."

The rest of cleanup went quickly and quietly, and all too soon I was running back toward the pack house with a bundle of clothes in my mouth. It was a little earlier than I needed to leave to meet with Wulf, so I wasn't expecting to run into him in the woods. He nodded his head in a polite but detached greeting and kept walking for another few steps while I watched him. I wished I had a way to laugh as a wolf, because it was too funny to see him treat me like a stranger and then sniff at the air and realize who I was. Come to think of it, this was his first time seeing me shifted. Was it weird for him?

Wulfric walked back toward me, looking uncertain now. At first I thought it was because of my form, but then his brow furrowed guiltily and his eyes slid away from me. "Griffin," he said softly.

I spit out the bundle of clothes and yipped like a pup in response, hoping that might set a brighter tone, or even get a laugh out of him. I knew we had to have a serious talk, but that didn't mean we needed to start out all doom and gloom. The corners of Wulf's mouth twitched, and I considered that a victory. I spun in a circle, snapping at my tail, and he finally let out a little chuckle.

"It's a shame we can't talk like this," he said.

That made me pause. Would we be able to mind link once our bond was complete? I knew it was possible with human mates, though rare, but I knew nothing about vampire mates. As far as I knew, we were a first.

I didn't feel like playing anymore, so I shifted back and sauntered over to my clothes, shimmying into them as teasingly as I could manage. Wulfric's eyes skated over my body, but they didn't flare with heat like I wanted. It was probably for the best. After all, we still had to talk.

I didn't have shoes, since those were a lot harder to carry with me, and it was nice to feel the earth under my feet as we slowly made our way back to the pack house. It might have been more pleasant to have our talk out here under the trees, but there was too little privacy.

"How was your night?" I asked, both because I was curious and because I hated this silence between us.

Wulfric looked at me with a sort of wry amusement I wasn't expecting. "Not great," he said in a similar tone. "Yours?"

"Mine was fine. Want to talk about it?"

We had just reached the pack house, and Wulfric held the door open for me to step inside. "Not here," he answered.

So we were quiet again until we reached my suite. Wulfric took off his shoes and set them on the little mat my dad brought over, and then he went into the kitchen to get me a glass of water. He set it on a coaster on the living room coffee table and we settled on the couch, angled to face each other. Watching Wulfric move comfortably and confidently in this space did a lot to steady my nerves, and I was able to meet his gaze when he studied me.

"I am deeply sorry for... everything," Wulfric said, sounding painfully hesitant.

"It's okay. You didn't know." And, thank goodness, I really meant it.

"I should have," Wulfric argued softly. I was confused until he explained, "I should have demanded answers from my father centuries ago."

"Would he have given you the truth?" I countered, already knowing the answer. His father had already revealed himself to be a liar. Whatever Wulfric thought he should have done differently, I didn't see it changing the outcome.

Wulfric shook his head sadly. "No. But I should have tried."

I wasn't going to get through to him on this, not right now. His clenched fists and hard eyes told me everything I needed to know about that. Guilt wasn't simple to shake off, and Wulfric was going to have to come to terms with a lot of things before he could let go of his. Instead, I focused on something else.

"So, what now? Where is your father?"

"Gone," Wulfric said, and I waited for him to elaborate for a few beats before I realized that was all he was planning to say.

"Gone... where?"

"Roderick says he knows of a prison for the supernatural. My father will be incarcerated."

"Forever?"

Wulfric shrugged. "It doesn't matter."

How could it possibly not matter? After all the lives that man was responsible for (Wulfric might not know where to lay the blame, but I sure did), how could anyone believe it didn't matter how long this man was locked away?

"As far as Edmund and I are concerned, our father is dead. If he is ever set free, we will not know about it and he will not come find us. He will serve out a sentence for his crimes that is determined by a court of impartial people, and the length of time he's locked away will not impact my life whatsoever. So, it doesn't matter."

That still seemed like an odd way of thinking about it, but how Wulfric felt now and how he might feel later were two very different things. Maybe separation was just what he needed now.

"Okay," I agreed. "But what now?"

Wulfric turned his head away and I watched his hand clench and unclench. He didn't reply right away. "Tomorrow, Roderick will break the curse," Wulfric said.

That was enough to send my heart into overdrive. But that wasn't even the most impactful thing Wulfric had to tell me. What came next was so much more.

"And I'm going to become human today," he said.

I stared at him, heart pounding and mind racing with all the things this would mean for our lives. We could grow old together. We could cook and eat and drink together, and I didn't have to think about becoming a vampire, myself. We could go out into the world without the sunlight limiting us. It was everything I had been wanting since meeting Wulfric. Except...

Except for the sadness in his eyes. I could tell he was miserable even though his face was still turned toward the window and I could only see a profile view. I didn't think Wulfric was breathing, and I wondered if it was on purpose. Maybe it was his way of reassuring himself that he wasn't human just yet.

And just like that, my excitement evaporated into nothing. Because this wasn't really the outcome I wanted, not if it made Wulfric so unhappy. I wasn't going to argue, because of course I understood that this was for the best... but I never wanted it to happen this way.

I finally closed the distance between us and hugged Wulfric tightly. "It's okay," I whispered, even though the words tasted like a lie.

"I just need a few minutes," he said. At first, I thought he meant a few minutes alone. I would have understood, even though it hurt to think of pulling away from him when he was hurting. "I'll do it in a few minutes," Wulfric added in a whisper, and I didn't think he was talking to me anymore.

"You don't have to," I tried, though what did I know? Maybe getting it over with was what he needed. The proverbial ripping off of the band-aid.

"Just a few more minutes," Wulfric said again, and my heart broke.