Griffin

It was probably a good thing we were only staying for the week. I loved my family, loved them dearly, but even I was starting to crave a little time alone. Even Dad was starting to look a little harried. Pop was doing his best to maintain a positive attitude, but three days into our trip, we were all on edge.

"I'm going for a run," I declared.

"I'll join you," Dad said, standing up and brushing off the back of his jeans. Not like it mattered. Everything we owned was going to be covered in dirt by the end of this, anyway.

Had I just been craving time alone? Now that he offered, and no one else jumped in, a little time with just Dad sounded perfect. I smiled and nodded, and he smiled back. Pop waved a distracted goodbye, keeping his eyes fixed on Ty and Blair, who were up a tree. He kept himself positioned underneath them, so if one of them fell, he would either catch them or they'd all pancake together. Meanwhile, Margo was... well, I wasn't sure. She disappeared sometime after breakfast, even though we weren't supposed to go off on our own.

"Meet you by the river," Dad said, and ducked out of sight.

I found my own quiet, private place to strip down and had just pulled my shirt up when something changed. It was just a vague sense at first, until my nose caught up to my instincts and I froze. Two people had just appeared, not far from where I was.

One scent I recognized: Fen, my Dad's fae friend. I hadn't seen him very often, and not in years, but werewolves had a good olfactory memory bank.

The second one was a stranger, yet I could identify this one, too. It was my mate.

My mind rushed to fill in the blanks. I knew about Fen's magic. Werewolves didn't tend to go to him unless they were desperate, because finding your mate was supposed to be a very spiritual experience. Many believed that they'd find each other when the time was right, when both parties were ready. Having Fen do it for you was robbing you of that special moment.

I didn't know what to feel or think. I had kind of liked the idea of meeting my mate sometime years and years into the future. I had wanted it to happen out of the blue when I was finally ready for it to happen. But it seemed my mate hadn't wanted to wait.

But I'm not ready.

Yeah, tell that to your dick.

Though the rest of my body had stilled to process this new turn of events, that particular piece of anatomy had sprung into action.

I hurriedly yanked my shirt back down, tugging it as hard as I could to hopefully disguise the bulge in my jeans. Dad came running into the clearing before I even looked around to see the newcomers, and his appearance thawed me.

"Fen? What are you doing here?" Dad asked.

I grimaced. I didn't want my dad involved before I had a chance to figure things out on my own.

But I finally turned to see Fen and my mate, only to realize that maybe I could use a little help understanding. The last thing I expected to see was a blindfold around my mate's eyes. It was a thick black band covering his face from above his brows to the bottom of his nose. The fabric was too thick to have a hope of seeing through. Tufts of hair stuck up around it, dark as a crow's wing.

I waited for Fen's explanation, but he seemed just as startled as Dad did. Those strange fae eyes finally settled on me. "Griffin?" he asked, as though he hadn't been the one to teleport to us.

I tried not to look at my dad, feeling like that would somehow keep him from cluing into what was happening. I could only imagine what my expression was like just then, with the confusion of emotions warring within me. But I couldn't help looking at Dad, and I caught the calculating gleam in his eyes as he appraised everyone. He was too smart not to catch on. I knew that, and I watched the dawning realization.

"You brought Griffin's soulmate," he concluded. His nose worked delicately, and he frowned. "And he's... what is he?"

"Vampire." Fen still looked shell-shocked, and I thought he was only answering on autopilot.

I let that settle into my mind, since Dad clearly had the conversation under control. I had a mate. I had a mate, and he was a vampire. The idea sent chills down my arms. Didn't they... well, didn't they drink blood? Would he want to drink mine?

I grew harder at the thought, and that was a whole new thing to process. I always knew I was sexually depraved. It was just fantastic to have that reaffirmed with my dad of all people standing next to me.

Stranger than that, and stranger than the blindfold my mate was still wearing (which also gave me some ideas, even though I really wanted to see what he looked like with it off) was the way he just stood there. Why, if he wanted to find me badly enough to go to Fen, didn't he want to see me? Or interact with me in any way? Instead, he just stood there holding onto Fen's arm.

Then he did something, and it was even worse than nothing.

"Get me out of here," he said. His voice was deep and rich, with just a hint of an accent I couldn't place. It sharpened his Ts and lengthened his vowels, especially the Os. When he spoke, it revealed white teeth that showed no hint of fangs behind lips that were red and sensual even though there was no hint of glossiness to them. Could they naturally look like that? He was short compared to Fen, but probably had a good few inches on me. Fae were notoriously tall.

I focused on the details of his appearance instead of his words. Maybe it was self-preservation. Maybe it was just that I was still in shock. But at my mate's words, Dad's arm wrapped around my shoulders in support I didn't need yet.

"I'm sorry. I'll catch up with you later, okay?" Fen said. I nodded. Why did I nod? I couldn't have explained myself if I tried. But I nodded as though giving fucking permission just seconds before Fen disappeared with my mate.

It didn't sink in right away, but when it did, the world went fuzzy and Dad's other arm came around me to help me sink slowly to the ground instead of collapsing.

"What just happened?" I asked. My voice sounded distant, which made a strange kind of sense to me. I wanted distance from whatever the hell that was.

"I'm not sure," Dad muttered. "But I'm going to find out."

He didn't leave me, though I could feel how his muscles tensed with the need for action. He wanted answers. Dad wasn't the kind of person who could bear a mystery, and he especially couldn't handle it when one of us was hurting.

Which... was I? Hurting? I still felt strangely numb.

I should hurt. I knew that. My mate came and left without saying a word to me. Dad clutched me even harder against him, so hard it almost ached. I pressed my face against his chest, and the familiar, safe scent of him kept me calm while my mind replayed what had just happened over and over, trying and failing to understand it.

Thinking was getting me nowhere, and staying crouched on the forest floor with my dad wrapped protectively around me was only making me feel worse. Smaller. So I gently pushed him away enough for me to stand up. He watched me, his eyes all concern, and I tried to smile at him. It only made him look more worried.

"Why don't we walk?" he said, glancing toward our camp. Pop had to know something was up. We were close enough that he would have smelled Fen and my mate. It was safe to assume Dad had already filled him in through their mind link.

"Okay," I agreed, since moving seemed better than standing here. Besides, I wasn't ready to confront Pop or my siblings.

We walked along the river in silence. I still wasn't sure what to say or think, and it seemed like Dad didn't want to start a conversation before I was ready. We walked for while, just following the river, until some eddies caught my attention. I paused to watch the swirl of water against the current. There were a few small leaves caught up in them, spiraling too, and I thought I was a lot like those leaves right now. Events were pulling me places I never meant to go, and I was too turned around to know what to think or where to go from here.

We sat down, watching the flow of the water, and it calmed me enough to start to sort out my feelings. I still didn't really feel hurt. Mostly I was just...

Unsurprised. It made a horrible kind of sense, that my mate would show up and leave without taking the time to get to know me. It wasn't the first time something like that had happened. It probably wouldn't be the last.

"Dad?"

"Yeah?"

"Why did you adopt me? Really?"

It was something we had talked about before, but what they gave me was the kid's answer. Simplified into something a child could understand and process, and probably missing a lot of the story.

Dad was surprised, I could tell. There was a sharp intake of breath and he shifted like he was going to embrace me before catching himself. I wished he would.

"I loved you," was his answer. I stared at him flatly, since obviously that wasn't the kind of answer I'd been looking for. He sighed and rubbed at his forehead before continuing. "You know the story. I was helping out at the daycare while your pack stayed with us for a while. We connected right away, and I came to love you. So I brought Felix to meet you, and he agreed you should stay with us."

Now Dad did hug me, pulling me tightly against him in a way I savored. "I love you so much, kid," he said.

"Love you too."

"Tell me what you're thinking," he said softly once his grip on me eased a little.

Nowhere was safer than in his arms, my face pressed against his chest. Nothing could feel more secure. It's the only reason I was able to answer. "There are people who are supposed to want me, and those people never do. My birth parents, my mate. I don't know what it is."

I peeked up at him and saw his eyes full of tears. I quickly turned away to stare out at the river again. "I'm so sorry," Dad said, and the pain in his voice made me feel bad for saying anything.

"It's okay," I said, because somehow, it was. Dad and Pop made it okay.

"Your mate will come around," Dad said. I frowned up at him and was surprised by his hard expression. Dad had always been the softer parent, full of nurturing and reassurance. But he had never reassured me with sweet lies. He never said something just because I wanted to hear it, and I didn't want him to start now of all times. The future was uncertain, and he raised us to understand that.

"You don't know that," I said.

"I do," he said, and that hardness had leeched into his tone. "I do know it, because I know how futile it is to try fighting against a mate bond."

That was disturbing on several levels. First, because it hinted at things in my parents' relationship that I really, really didn't want to know about. Had Dad not wanted to get together with Pop in the beginning? Why? They were perfect for each other.

Their relationship having a rocky start wasn't something I wanted to think about, so I focused on the other disturbing implication. "I don't want him to come around just because a bond makes him."

"He won't. The bond doesn't make you right for each other. Who you are as people does that. The bond is the result, not the cause," Dad said. There wasn't a hint of doubt in his tone. I would have felt better, if it weren't for one crucial thing.

"Yeah, but can vampires feel mate bonds?" I asked. We could be perfectly compatible and it wouldn't matter if he avoided me. Without a bond to draw him in, I might never see him again.

But then why did he come in the first place?

"I'm not sure. I'll call Glenna later. She might know." Glenna and Safiya, Dad's witch friends, were his answer for just about any supernatural question he wasn't sure of. Since they ran a magic shop, they were exposed to magical beings of all types and had picked up a lot of information about them over the years.

I sighed, and decided to try focusing on something else. Though, the clearer my mind got, the more I felt an insistent pull in my chest, an ache that radiated through my whole body. No, not an ache; it was a need.

I needed to find my mate.

Earlier today, I had been fine. Not everything in my life was great, but it was good enough. I might have been lonely sometimes, sure, and I might have felt out of place. I might not have been quite ready to break out on my own, but I was prepared to work on it. I was whole, and I was okay.

And now, since he decided to flit into my life and back out of it, I could no longer say that. There was a very real part of myself that was not okay without him, without this perfect stranger whose face I had never even seen, whose voice I had only ever heard asking someone to take him away from me.

Was I hurt?

No.

No, I was angry. How dare he? How dare he come into my life, damage me, and leave? How dare he make me need him if he wasn't prepared to stay? At the very least, he owed me an explanation. Not Fen, but him. And I would get one.