“Let’s go,” Torin said gruffly.
I couldn’t believe this was happening. I stared as the guards manhandled Noro, cowing him into submission. He looked at me, his gaze sympathetic and apologetic. He wasn’t fighting back, but then again, how could he? He was a single gryphon, surrounded by warriors of his own kind--warriors who had been poisoned by Neil’s words, and ordered by the king to contain him.
I clutched Bastian, the only person I had left, but it was a small comfort as Blaze stormed up to me.
“Don’t touch me,” I barked.
Blaze narrowed his eyes, angry that I’d somehow slipped out of his spell. “My bedroom. Now.”
“Fuck off!”
Bastian huddled closer to me, fear coming off him in waves. “M-maybe we can talk about this somehow, or--”
Blaze swatted Bastian out of the way--a huge gryphon’s paw against a thin beta--and he sprawled away like a ragdoll. He groaned. From the corner of my eye I saw some of the others helping him up.
Rage filled me to the brim and I almost threw myself at Blaze in anger. “What is wrong with you?”
“Bedroom,” Blaze repeated again, quietly. “Now.”
I stared at him, dread pooling in my guts as I realized there was no other way out of this. Noro had been locked up. Bastian was no match for Blaze even if hedidwant to stop him.
And Ramsay, Eric and Colton weren’t here to save me.
Hopelessness swallowed me up.
I followed Blaze.
Chapter 17
“Tell me what happened to you.”
Blaze shut the door heavily behind him, and I was back in the one place I never wanted to return to his bedroom; the place where he’d brainwashed me the first time.
I kept my mouth shut. I wouldn’t let Blaze influence me again.
“Tell me,” he repeated sternly. He kept his gryphon form, pacing in a circle and trying to intimidate me like he was a big cat and I was a tiny mouse.
“No.”
“Tell me!” he roared.
I gritted my teeth. “Where’s Noro? What are you doing with him?”
“So it’s true. You and Noro hadrelations,” he spat the word. “Otherwise why would you care so much about where he is and what I do with him? He should be nothing to you.”
My anger boiled over. “Well, he’s not, okay?”
Blaze’s hot breath filled the air as he snorted with rage. “If what the wolf said is true, Noro has been lying to me all this time. He’s the one who broke the spell, isn’t he?”
“So you admit to putting a spell on me,” I growled, my hands curling into fists. Not that they would be any help against a gryphon.
Blaze lashed his tail. “Yes, I did. It was for your own good. With that spell, you would’ve learned to love living here. It could have been your home. But instead you two acted against me.” He got in my face. “And maybe now I don’t feel so generous anymore.”
Even though I didn’t want to let Blaze intimidate me, it was hard. He was huge and physically powerful. He could fly and shred me with his claws. He was a strong mage.
I was just a pregnant wolf shifter with healing magic. I backed away from him, putting my hands on my swollen belly. His eyes flicked down to it.
“Explain what happened,” he muttered. “Is this some wolf magic?”
