It matters not. You know what she meant.
The griffin went off to wherever the hell it went off to when it was feeling particularly smug and wanted to revel uninterrupted in its own sense of superiority, and Rhys suppressed a sigh.
Yes, it had been nice. Very nice. More to the point, it had been a massive frigging relief to get that particular secret off his chest. He’d never really understood it when people talked about literally feeling lighter once they’d rid themselves of their emotional baggage, but he thought he finally got it.
One secret down, about five hundred to go.
Maybe he might as well tell Maisie that they were mates while they were here. She’d taken everything remarkably well, all things considered –Our mate is resilient!he could almost hear his griffin squawk – and perhaps it would be best to just get it over and done with so that it wasn’t hanging over their heads.
I mean, really, what’s the perfect time to tell someone they’re your mate? Should I spring it on her while she’s watching TV? Get down on one knee at a restaurant? Schedule a Zoom meeting?
He almost wished that he’d paid more attention to when all his teammates had been talking about when they’d met their mates so that he could get some pointers for what to do now. Not that he wasn’t happy for them – of course he was happy! – but they all tended to be soenthusiasticthat he’d just kind of tuned it out after a while.
Now, he realized, maybe he should havelisteneda little when Hector had been telling the story of how he’d met Myrtle for what had to have been the seven hundredth time, or Callan had been waxing lyrical about Ella and how incredible she was, or when Euan – of all people – had been head over heels for Delilah, or Trent had been going on and on andonabout Zina.
Well,Rhys thought, trying not to pull a sour face,I’ve made my bed, and now it’s time to lie in it.
Best to do it now, while they were on a roll. It was just the kind of thing that he could imagine putting off and putting off, until it became a whole bigthing, and that would just make things worse.
Rhys squared his shoulders and took a deep breath. “Maisie, I –”
“Ugh. Sorry.” Maisie sat down suddenly on the sofa, raising a hand to her head, and Rhys felt a sudden surge of protectiveness sweep over him as he realized that her hand was shaking slightly. “Hang on a sec.”
“Are you okay?” he asked, alarm rippling through him. Was something wrong with Maisie?! Was all of this just a bit too much for her after all?
Hold her!his griffin screeched.Comfort her! Put your arms around your mate and tell her nothing will ever happen to her, so long as we are by her side!
He wanted to, he really did – and in fact his arms had jerked up from his sides before he could stop them – but considering he hadn’t had the chance to explain a thing yet, he just wasn’t sure how Maisie would take it.
Not that this seemed to mean much to his griffin, which was still raging and snorting, insisting that he sweep Maisie up in his arms and take her somewhere safe right this instant.
She’s human,Rhys tried desperately to explain to it.She won’t understand! And anyway, we don’t even know what’s wrong!
Irrelevant!his griffin screeched.Throw her over your shoulder and assure her nothing will harm her ever again! She will be reassured! She will know we will protect her forever!
Rhys was pretty sure throwing Maisie over his shoulder would have pretty much the exact opposite effect, but it still took all his effort to regain control of his own body as the griffin rampaged through him.
“Ugh,” Maisie said again, still looking down at the floor through her fingers. “I think everything’s just hitting me all at once, now that we’re safe – or, at least, Ihopewe’re safe.” She peered up at him and gave a little nervous laugh. “And I just realized that I haven’t had anything to eat or drink since… well, since breakfast. Maybe I need a little something in my stomach. It’s been kind of a… well, a day.”
As if on cue, her stomach gurgled… and Rhys realized that he was starving as well.
His griffin reared up.Who cares how you feel? Feed your mate! How could you have neglected her in this way?
The griffin provided him with a handy mental image of a bird feeding worms to its young, and Rhys wished that he could reach inside his head and slap it.
It had a point, though. Not about the worms, but about food in general.
He glanced around the disaster of a room, at the sea of half-finished meals and open snack packets, and winced.
Water, water, everywhere…
“You wait right here,” he said. “I’ll go get the others and see if there’s something edible in the house. If not, I’ll head out and get you something.”
Yes!his griffin cried, agreeing with him for once.Provide for your mate!
Again, it provided him with a useful mental image of soaring over some random forest, picking up an entire feral hog in its talons, and then flying back and depositing it in front of Maisie, before preening in a ridiculously self-aggrandizing way.
Maisie nodded. “Yeah. That’d be good.” She glanced around. “If it could be something that hasn’t touched even one single surface in this house, that would be even better.”
