Chapter 32 Griffin
Griffin
Rowan stumbles off an ATV, his face pale and his hands shaky.
If it weren’t for the scent of her clinging to him, I would’ve thought he’d relapsed and taken another dose of the booster.
Not that there’s much of that to go around anymore, from what I’ve heard. Apparently, the farm is running low.
It’s why they’ve kept Mirabelle locked away doing God knows what to her.
“You fucking bastard!” Ash roars, throwing himself against the metal door of his stable, the bang echoing off the walls of the barn. His eyes are wild and crazed, the silver part of his irises pushed back by his blown pupils until they’re just a thin ring.
Rage slams against the bars of his stable too, the metal groaning under the impact.
I’d be lying if I said the scent of Mirabelle’s scent—twisted and broken, but at the same time, the sweetest thing in the universe—didn’t cause something similar to go off in my brain, but I know that yelling at the kid won’t get us any answers.
Rowan flinches, holding his hands up in surrender.
“Calm down, let me explain—“
“Explain? What the fuck is there to explain? I can scent her all over you!” He scoffs, glaring daggers at him. “You’re just like your fucking brother, you were just waiting for the perfect opportunity for you to fucking pounce on her, weren’t you? After making her feel all safe with you?”
Rowan’s jaw grinds at Ash’s words.
“I didn’t—I didn’t take advantage of her,” he bites out.
“Oh, really? Like I’ll fucking believe that when I can fucking smell her slick all over you.”
“She—she needed help. She was in pain. You didn’t see her—see the shape she was in. It was horrible, I—“
“Yeah, none of us have seen her ‘cause you’ve kept us locked in here! Away from her!”
Ash’s words are punctuated by Rage slamming against the door of his stable, the scent of Mirabelle probably driving him insane.
He’s been slipping further and further into his ferality each day that passes without her.
We’re getting nowhere with Ash continuing to interrogate Rowan. Except he’s asking all the wrong questions. He should ask how Mirabelle is doing. What’s going on? When can we see her next?
“So what’re you here to do?” Ash scoffs. “Rub it in?”
Okay, that’s better, at least. Though, in my opinion that parting shot was unnecessary.
My gaze darts to the transport cage attached to the back of the ATV.
“You’re bringing one of us to help her,” I say, my voice low.
Rowan’s gaze darts to me, and his shoulders deflate ever so slightly when he realizes I’m not yelling at him.
The kid’s got it rough. He probably feels like he’s being attacked on all sides. His family’s a piece of work, and now he’s in charge of taking care of us while being the youngest.
I think Ash is blinded by the stress of not knowing what in the world was happening to Mirabelle over the past few weeks. Plus, the withdrawals that’re starting from the lowered enhancement drug doses we’re being given.
Though, to be fair, Ash has never really been fond of the kid.
“I am,” Rowan nods to me. “You.”
The single syllable makes my blood roar in my ears.
Me.
I get to go see Mirabelle.
Not just see Mirabelle, it seems. Helping her.
Through her fucking heat.
By fucking her.
By knotting her.
Well, damn.
Rage and Ash growl at Rowan’s words, banging against the doors to their stables again.
“Shut up!” Rowan snaps, whirling around to face them. “I could only pick one of you.”
“So you picked him?” Ash snarls.
“Can you fucking blame me?” Rowan yells back, his hands balling into fists by his sides.
“Seriously. Look at yourself right now. I had to pick the one of you least likely to make things worse for us all. The goal here is to help Mirabelle survive this insane heat she’s been put through against her will. ”
Ash opens his mouth like he’s going to protest again, the vein in his temple throbbing visibly.
“I don’t want to hear it!” Rowan snaps, surprisingly authoritative for a beta kid.
Especially towards a pissed off alpha. His shoulders deflate, and he scrubs a hand down his face.
“For what it’s worth, according to the doc, Mirabelle asked for all of us to help her through her heat.
I even asked my dad for all three of you, but he insisted I could only bring one of you to make sure I can keep things under control. ”
“I assume by all of us, that includes you, right?” I ask Rowan, nodding down to his hand where Mirabelle’s slick scent is the most concentrated.
I know the answer to the question, but now that the energy has toned down ever so slightly, I think it’s a good thing to recap to Ash and Rage, since they seem a little more willing to listen, after hearing Mirabelle wanted us all.
“Yeah,” Rowan shrugs. “This is fucked. Trust me, I know how fucked it is. I’ve—I’ve seen her—“
Rowan shakes his head, taking a shaky breath to collect himself.
“I know Mirabelle would never want to pick favorites. Which is why we can’t let this be her picking favorites. This is me being the bad guy and picking the person who works in this fucked-up situation we’re in, okay?”
He cuts his gaze to Ash, who, despite his glares, has kept his mouth shut.
“When we get Mirabelle out of this fucked up heat—and we will, we have to—I can’t have you holding grudges against Mirabelle.” Rowan cuts his gaze to Rage, whose chest is heaving as he paces back and forth in front of his stable door. “That goes for you too, big guy.”
Rage is so lost that he doesn’t show any sign that he’s heard Rowan.
Hopefully, when this is all over and we get to spend time with Mirabelle again, we’ll all find some sort of equilibrium again.
Mirabelle is the glue holding our ragtag group of insane people with far too many issues together.
And it’s my job to save her.
Rowan hauls open the stable door, gesturing for me to get inside the transport cage.
I meet Ash’s gaze as we leave.
“You better not let her fucking die or I swear to God, I will rip your spine from your throat and fuck you up the ass with it,” Ash growls.
“Creative,” I huff, before giving him a serious nod. “She won’t die. I’ll make sure of it.”
I have no clue what condition she’ll be in, but I choose to believe my own words.
I remain crouched in the transport cage as Rowan drives me to a part of the farm I haven’t been to before. He maneuvers the ATV through rows of trailers before stopping in front of the one I assume is his.
“Don’t take offense to this,” Rowan says, stopping in front of the cage door, his gaze darting all over the place. He looks like he’s about to pass out from how much he’s hyperventilating. “But please don’t cause trouble. I—I don’t want to use it, but I have the remote on standby in case—“
“Hey, breathe, kid,” I say, interrupting him.
His gaze cuts to me, his eyes widening.
I offer him a reassuring nod when he inhales a shaky breath.
“I know what I’m here for. Not gonna cause trouble. I just want to make sure Mirabelle’s okay.”
“Good. Okay. Good,” Rowan nods, his hands shaky as he unlocks the cage door. “Sorry, I’m a fucking mess.”
“You’ve got it rough, kid,” I say, straightening. “Your family’s a piece of work. You’re just trying your best. I get it. I know Ash gives you a lot of shit for it, but I think that’s just ‘cause he’s scared about how much he cares.”
I’ve spent enough time with the other two alphas to pick apart their brains a little. They’ve both spent so much time here being treated as nothing but animals. That kinda shit does stuff to your head.
But living here with the Satan spawn that run this place and calling them family?
Shit’s been rough for Rowan too.
If anyone would know, it would be me. I guess I feel a bit protective of the kid. We’ve both got shitty-ass families.
He pushes open the door to his trailer, and I have to stifle a groan.
Even though I thought the sweet perfume clinging to Rowan’s skin was intense when he first showed up at the stables, it’s nothing compared to the thick fog that is Mirabelle’s scent.
“Rowan?” She whimpers from further in the trailer.
“I’m here, Sugar,” Rowan calls, kicking off his shoes and gesturing for me to follow.
He doesn’t have to tell me twice.
I’m surprised. He’s set up his bedroom into a pretty decent nest. I know the kid probably had nothing more than a basic comforter before she got here, which means he got all the new soft blankets and pillows just for her.
The hanging lights on the wall cast a dim glow through the room, illuminating Mirabelle’s sweat-slicked body.
The sight makes me stop in the doorway. I don’t dare take a single step further.
My pulse roars in my ears when I see the bruises dotted on her arms and the mottled rings of deep purple and blue around her wrists and ankles.
“It hurts,” she whimpers, rolling over and curling up onto her side, reaching desperately towards Rowan. Her eyes are glazed as she blinks up at him. “Help.”
“I know it hurts. I brought help, Sugar, see?” Rowan says, gesturing over at me, looming in the doorway like a fucking creep.
It takes all of my self-control not to throw myself into her makeshift nest and knot her until the only thing leaving those pretty lips of hers isn’t whimpers of pain but cries of pleasure.
I need to pull myself together. I may teeter on the edge of being made into a feral alpha from the drugs that’ve been forcibly pumped into my system, but I won’t touch her without her permission.
My control, that tighter hold I have on it compared to Rage and Ash, was why Rowan chose me.
But still. It’s the hardest thing in the fucking world.
Well, maybe second to my throbbing cock.
I haven’t seen Mirabelle naked before. Supposedly, she was stripped naked when she was first “introduced” to Ash and Rage, but I didn’t get that privilege.
The sight of her pale, freckled, sweat-slicked skin calls to me. She’s thinner than when I last saw her a couple of weeks ago. The soft curves that were filling out, thanks to Rowan’s help have all but disappeared, reminding me of when we first met.