“Fuck, what happened?” Torin demanded. He remembered that Blaze had struck out at Bastian too, who was just at the wrong place at the wrong time. His irritation at his king flared again. Did Blaze hurt Bastian more than he realized?
“I was trying to go down, to save my brother,” Bastian replied in between breaths. “But… I don’t know, I suddenly felt sick.”
“You have a fever,” Torin agreed. He reached up to touch Bastian’s forehead. It burned beneath his palm and was slightly clammy from sweat.
But that wasn’t all. He couldn’t put his finger on it, but something about Bastian’s state seemed odd. Torin had been sick plenty of times, seen other sick too, but not quite like whatever was happening to Bastian. He seemed almosttoohot, like he should have been severely ill, but wasn’t.
Bastian must have had the same realization because he gasped. “Oh. Oh, he told me… He said…”
“What?” Torin asked. He didn’t know what Bastian was mumbling about. Maybe the guy was really off his rocker. His skyrocketed temperature must’ve been frying his brain.
He tried to lift Bastian up. “Hang on, let’s go outside. It’s cooler out there.”
But Bastian grabbed him. “No, please. I don’t want to go out there. Let me stay here.”
Torin frowned, looking around. It was just a spare room with a dusty old bed, probably a resting area for prison guards back in the day. But he couldn’t say no to the desperate look on Bastian’s face.
“Fine.” Torin sighed and carried him to the bed.
But as soon as he placed Bastian down, something struck him to his core.
Bastian’s scent had changed.
An intensely arousing shock hit Torin, sinking straight into his balls.
Bastian’s pupils were wide as he stared up at Torin. He clutched the alpha’s arms, digging into them like he would die if Torin let go.
Time around them seemed to slow, like they were the only two people in the entire world.
When Bastian spoke, it was soft and pleading, sending a shiver down Torin’s spine.
“Fuck me,” he whispered. “Please.”
* * *
Eric’s heartfelt like it was going to shatter his ribs.
Though all his time as pack leader had given him strength and experience, nothing had prepared him for the feeling of standing before a gryphon’s keep with only a band of wolf shifters and some humans at his side.
“It’s time,” he muttered.
Flanking him on either side, Colton and Ramsay nodded. Their gazes burned with determination that Eric knew was mirrored in his own eyes. All three of them had only a single goal in mind--saving Matheson and their baby.
And if I die trying,Eric thought bitterly,then so be it.
An older woman’s voice piped up behind him. “Where is the gryphon? The one onourside?”
Eric turned to the Madame, who had her firearm slung over her shoulder. She looked just as ready to bust Matheson out of this place as everyone else.
“I don’t know,” Eric admitted.
He knew they had the element of surprise as their advantage. Noro was supposed to be an advantage, too, but he hadn’t showed up yet.
Ramsay was restless beside him, shuffling his feet with a low huff. “I figured he of all people would be on time for this sort of thing.”
Colton never tore his gaze from the keep itself, staring up at it with a slight frown. No doubt his imagination was running wild with all the dangers within. “What if he doesn’t show up?”
“Then I’m not going to sit around waiting for a signal from him,” Eric said simply. With every passing moment, his nerves got more frayed. “We only wait a bit longer. Then we go.”
