Chapter 14 #2
“Enjoy your life, boys,” I tell them and paste on another fake-ass smile. “Because I sure as hell am going to enjoy mine.”
I wave them off before turning around and walking away, needing to be as far away from them as possible. I keep my head up and tell myself I deserve a kick to the teeth if I dare turn around.
Less than ten seconds into my dramatic exit, I’m thrown over someone’s shoulder and carried in the opposite direction.
I blink away the dizziness only to find Knox’s ass in my face. “Put me down. Now.”
“No,” he says and keeps walking, his grip on my legs tightening.
“I swear to god, if you don’t—”
He comes to a sudden stop, and a low growl sounds out followed by another. I push up against his back and twist my body to see what it is, only to smile when I spot two large familiar Griffins blocking their path.
My little visits to the forest haven’t completely gone to waste.
I’ve learned the Griffins are extremely protective of me, connecting with me and listening to whatever I tell them.
There’s some strange connection between me and them.
They know what I need or want without my having to voice it.
I still don’t understand it, but I’ll take advantage of it for now.
“Put me down or I’ll tell them to eat you,” I warn Knox, but he starts walking again laughing at my threat. Dick.
“You’d miss me too much,” he says.
“Right now, I couldn’t give a shit about any of you,” I tell him, completely lying to him and myself. But he obviously hears something in my tone and stills before slowly dropping me, placing me on my feet before frowning at me.
“You don’t mean that,” he says but I ignore his puppy dog look and fix my dress before shoving him away.
The Griffins instantly stalk up beside me, acting like bodyguards, and Knox’s smirk reappears. “Nice pets.”
They both growl at him and he raises his hands and backs up a couple of steps, though there’s not an ounce of fear on his face.
“We would have come to you sooner,” Cyrus admits making me pause. He shares a hesitant look between the guys. “But we needed time to—”
“It’s taken you over five weeks to reach out and properly talk to me? All while completely ignoring me,” I say while glancing between them all.
Shock flashes across each of their faces.
“We didn’t— Theon starts but I cut him off.
“If the switch freaks you out so much, then I guess we have nothing more to say.” I turn to leave when Cyrus calls out.
“It was never the switch,” he says making me pause and I take a deep breath, steeling myself before turning back around to them.
“At first, we just needed time to wrap our heads around everything you told us,” he says, his eyes pleading with me to believe him. “But then—”
“I’m glad you had each other to talk to, really, I am. But I had no one to talk to about any of this. And the four people I did want to talk to discarded me like yesterday’s trash.”
Shock, guilt, sadness, and remorse flash across their faces.
“Sena, please. Listen—” Theon takes a step toward me but pauses when I give him a hard look.
“Do you know what I found out this week in class?” I tell them, not waiting for any of them to respond. “I found out exactly how the royal family was killed.” Their eyes go wide and fear and worry slash across their faces.
I swallow hard. “Massacred, in fact.”
Each of them visibly flinches. Not that it should come as much of a shock to any of them. They grew up learning all about the history of their royals and the war.
What was a shock, was learning that they obviously knew about this and still left me to find out by myself.
“I never had anyone growing up,” I admit, feeling weak and vulnerable for even saying it out loud. “And you’ve all just proved to me that I still don’t and never will.”
Cyrus tries to move closer but the Griffin to my right snarls at him. “Sena… that’s not… you have to—”
“You know what I also don’t understand? I don’t understand how not one of you came to talk to me or even thought to ask me if I was okay with all of this.”
I blink back the burn of tears and swallow the knot of emotion in my throat. “Or fuck, even ask how I was dealing with it all.” I chuckle without an ounce of humor. “I didn’t ask to be switched and I sure as hell didn’t ask to be a damn royal.”
Knox’s eyes soften. “Baby…”
I shake my head. “None of you really care. That much is obvious, because if you did you all wouldn’t have completely blocked me out. Even if you were annoyed with me or pissed off about keeping this from you, you wouldn’t have discarded me so easily.”
Malakai clenches his fits by his side. “We never meant to—”
I start to turn but hear them all move toward me. “If they follow me, fucking eat them,” I tell the Griffins, and they whirl on the four guys, forcing them a step back.
I get moving, walking with no place in mind. I need to be anywhere that’s far away from them right now. I’m a few feet away when I hear a heavy sigh.
“We fucked up,” Malakai says.
Yeah, you did. Big time.