My nerves felt jittery and frayed. The reality hit me. I was going to meet another omega. The only other omega I’d ever met in my life.
But that didn’t answer my real question--would Tholan help me or not?
Chapter 6
Noro’s heart fluttered as he approached the gryphon’s keep. It seemed like an eternity had passed since he left.
Since I discovered an omega awakened among the wolves,he thought.
He approached the long marble landing strip with caution. He’d left in a hurry, without much explanation as to why. Simply muttering the phrasemagic Keeper businesswas enough to let him off the hook at the time, and no one had come searching for him, but now his little vacation had reached a length that he thought might seem suspicious.
But Noro didn’t care. In that moment, all he cared about was Matheson--and the baby.
He landed, feeling the familiar cool marble beneath his talons. He ducked under the high archway and prowled through the halls, feeling like he had never left at all. He held his head up and exerted as much calm energy as possible. Anything to keep suspicion off him.
After all, none of his pride knew he had been working with the wolves to cover up Matheson’s existence this whole time.
His chest tightened at the thought of Matheson again. Where was he? Was he safe? Had Blaze already put his talons on him?
That particular idea made him feel sick. He needed to find Matheson as soon as possible.
As he stalked through the keep and approached the great hall, he spotted a few of his own kind perking up at his arrival. Noro kept calm.
A young gryphon bounded up to him. Noro stopped his eyes from widening. He recognized him--it was the gryphon who had abducted Matheson. Torin.
“Noro!” he called. “You’re finally back! Hey, Noro’s back!”
Other gryphons murmured in surprise as they gathered. Noro held his nerves steady, not showing any outward anger or bitterness at Torin. Noro guessed that Blaze had sent him because he was young and fast, though clearly sloppy, considering the mess he made.
But he didn’t even recognize I was there,Noro thought, thinking back to when Matheson was stolen.I was in my human form then.
Torin’s inexperience saved him. If he was older and wiser, he might have recognized the golden-haired man at the scene as one of his fellow gryphons from the pride. But Torin had been too focused on his task and too cocky to notice.
Noro thanked his luck for once.
“Hello, everyone,” Noro greeted them as they came around.
They exchanged brief, polite greetings. Noro didn’t see Blaze--he must have been in his own private room.
“How was your excursion?” a dark female gryphon asked. Noro knew her as Peregrine, one of the senior guards.
“Excellent,” Noro said. He thanked his luck, once again, that there was only one magic Keeper in the pride, and he was it--most of the other gryphons only had a cursory knowledge about magic, and not much interest in learning more.
“Did you find what you were looking for?” Peregrine asked.
“Yes,” Noro replied, thinking quickly. “I found a few books on the matter with rare information. Things I’d never dreamed of before.”
That wasn’t a lie. Before Colton brought him the book, Noro hadn’t known about clear magic at all.
“Great,” Peregrine said, nodding. “I’m glad to hear it.”
“Well, we found something even more interesting than that,” Torin butted in. His chest feathers fluffed up with pride.
Noro stopped himself from grimacing. He had a feeling he already knew what it was.
“What’s that?” he asked.
“An omega,” Torin said.
