Torin left, leaving Bastian and I alone.
“Oh, it feels weird to talk to you like this,” Bastian said. “Give me just a second…”
He shifted, his form suddenly changing from a four-legged and winged beast to a young man just a bit taller than me. He had blue-black hair and brown eyes, and the same hawkish nose that Noro did. Since I’d only seen Noro and Bastian in human forms, I wondered if all gryphons had the same nose type.
“There we go,” he said with a smile. His eyes lit up as they travelled to my belly. “Oh. King Blaze said you were pregnant. Is that really true?”
“Yeah.”
Bastian bit his lip. “Could I…?”
A little baffled, I realized he wanted to touch my belly. “Um, sure, but there isn’t really much there yet. I’ve only been pregnant for about a month.”
Bastian edged closer and gently put his palms on my skin, like he was touching a fragile doll.
“Oh, wow. So incredible,” he murmured.
I blushed and pulled away. He seemed nice but he was still a stranger, and technically one of my captors.
“I’m sorry,” Bastian said, noticing I was uncomfortable. “It’s just… I’ve always wanted to bear a child.”
“You have?” I asked, my brows raising.
Bastian clasped his hands together and nodded vigorously. “Oh, yes! Ever since I was young, I liked playing royal castle with the other gryphons, and I was always the omega caretaker.” He chuckled, then sighed heavily. “That was a long time ago, of course. And I obviously didn’t grow up to be an omega. I’m from the last round of clutches, and none of the gryphons my age did...”
“The last round?”
“Blaze had the remaining omegas bred until they couldn’t anymore,” Bastian said sadly.
I grimaced, understanding the hidden meaning behind his words--that Blaze had essentially bred them to death.
Which is exactly the plan he had for me as well.
But I was surprised to hear Bastian’s story. Being an omega always seemed like both a curse and a blessing to me--and if I was being honest, most of the time it was just a curse.
“I mean, being an omega is the reason I was captured,” I said.
Bastian’s eyes lost some of their sparkle and I felt a bit guilty immediately after I said it. It wasn’t his fault I was abducted, and he was the only person I’d met here who was genuinely kind to me.
“Sorry,” I said. “There’s good parts to it, too. Like being able to get pregnant, I guess.”
He smiled widely. “Yes! And that’s the most incredible thing in the world.”
I blushed. It was strange that this trait I took for granted was something others wanted so desperately to have.
“I’d give it to you, if I could,” I told Bastian with a grin. “After my baby’s born, I mean.”
He chuckled bittersweetly. “If only.”
“Is it true about female gryphons all being alphas?”
“Yes. In our species, only a male omega can bear children, and our last one is too old to conceive anymore. That’s why we’re in so much trouble.” He glanced down sadly. “And why you were brought here. I’m sorry, Matheson. Even though it’s such a high honor, I know that this probably isn’t what you wanted.”
“It’s not your fault, Bastian,” I told him. I did appreciate his words, though--he was the first person I’d met here that apologized for my abduction, even though he had nothing to do with it.
Not for the first time, I thought bitterly about the prophecy. It was supposed to fix everything, wasn’t it? I’d done what it had asked--found love, learned magic, gotten pregnant with the child of my three mates… I certainly hadn’t set the shifters free. What was still missing?
“Tell me,” Bastian began with a knitted brow. “Was Torin gentle with you? He didn’t cut you up by accident, did he?”
