Chapter 574 Chapter 574
Shaelan came out of the other room and into the kitchen. Blaise stood up and tried to gauge if the expression was good or bad.
“He’s going to heal fast, but not like if he could shift.” She walked over to the sink, turned on the tap, and began washing her hands, “the trick is going to be to keep his animal from getting too close and popping those stitches.”
Blaise went around the table and leaned on the counter, “he can’t communicate with him very well and when his bear is close, he bulks up a lot.”
Drying her hands, Shaelan folded the towel neatly and hung it over the edge of the sink again, “I guess we’ll have to keep him distracted.”
Blaise nodded, “he’s got a lot of information to go through.”
Noah came in the door and stomped the snow from his boots, he didn’t take them off. “How is he?”
Shaelan offered him a nice smile, “he’ll be fine.”
Noah nodded his head slowly, and then looked at Blaise, “we were going to put him in the bunkhouse, but if he’s injured, maybe he should stay in here.”
Shaelan nodded, “Beth has already said he can use the room downstairs,” she glanced at Blaise, “you can have Kelsey’s old room, Calum and I will be staying over at Noah’s.”
Blaise nodded, she didn’t care where she slept, just that she got what she was here to do done, so she could go home or better yet, back out on ops.
Noah looked at her again, “Emersyn is hoping you’ll come over for a visit while you’re here.”
Blaise grinned, “I can do that.” She waved her hand around, “there’s plenty of large males around to keep a watch.” Anything to get out of here. By the time they’d got here, it had taken three of them to get Griffin into the house. Since that moment, she’d paced, sat, and worried, and then paced some more. A little distance was a very welcomed thing right now.
~
“I didn’t want a mate—I mean, I’m a mixed breed, who wants that? And then I find him and he’s a half-breed,” Blaise laughed because it was either that or cry, “fate had herself a jolly chuckle with this match. More of a mismatch.” She sobered, “He stuck up for me when people were staring and whispering,” she motioned to the darker side of her face like it wasn’t obvious, and Emersyn had never seen it, “then he goes and does this heroic shit, and gets himself shot. What do I do with that?”
“I saw him a few times.”
Blaise frowned.
“Griffin, I didn’t know who he was, just thought he was another there against their will.” Emersyn looked at her hands as she clasped them together, “he wasn’t like the others.”
“What others?”
“The ones that enjoyed imprisoning women to those houses, even though they were shifters too.” She folded her arms over her chest, “he always looked sad, a little lost in all of it.”
“He was a pet to his father.” Blaise sat down and leaned onto her knees, “he spent time in the camp too.”
“I think he’s always been alone.” Emersyn took a deep, ragged breath and raised her chin, “the rest of us had each other, even if it was only for short times, we were in the same house, I think Griffin was always alone. No real family or the love of a family. No friends because he was related to the ones holding all of us.” She glanced out the window, checking on the kids, “and the one-forms treated him worse because he wasn’t pure.” She turned back to her, “you could see it when they looked at him. He was beneath them, maybe even more than the shifters they held.”
Blaise hadn’t thought of what it would mean, not in detail. He had a private apartment prison and wasn’t forced to wear a collar, but the way Emersyn was describing it, she was sure she was right. He’d been alone for his entire life, with no allies, no friends, just him. She blew out a breath, “I don’t know what’s going to happen.”
“With the mission to save everyone taken?”
Blaise jerked her head roughly, “that too, but no, I meant with Griffin, I don’t know if he’s going to be in a glorified cell and under guard for the rest of his life or what.”
Emersyn gave her a compassionate look, “I think only time will answer that. Noah said he wasn’t safe until his brother was stopped or dead.”
“Yeah, he’s not safe. That Aiden jerk wants him back in a bad way.” She was on her feet again, she couldn’t just lounge and think of all of this, she needed action, something to do.
“You don’t think Aiden will cut his losses and move on?”
Blaise shook her head, “I don’t think he’ll ever stop looking for him. He’s a real special edition that one, there’s so much wrong with that guy.”
Emersyn gave her a soft smile, “then it’s good that Griffin is helping.”
She couldn’t argue that, “with the information he’s already given us, we can shut down transport, border points, and companies that help, not to mention we know what Tomas’ top people look like now.”
“That’s wonderful. So many lives will be saved too when he’s stopped.”
Blaise bit her lip, so she wouldn’t start blurting out information she knew wasn’t supposed to leave the teams. How much did Noah tell his mate? He didn’t seem like a chatty type. Did the others tell their mates? The level of sharing between mates was even beyond her understanding right now.
“I think it’s a good thing that Griffin is helping and that he has you to keep him safe and,” she shrugged, “explain the way clan life works.” She chuckled, “I’m still trying to figure that out, and Noah doesn’t know much more than I do there.”
“But you guys are doing okay?”
Emersyn nodded, her expression was pure joy, which was good to see. “Yes. I miss him when he’s away, but it’s good he still goes. We can’t jump into this after what we’ve been through, but yes, it’s good, and we’re very happy.”
Someone cleared their throat from the doorway.
Blaise turned to see Noah standing there, “I didn’t mean to interrupt.”
“No biggie, it’s your place.” Blaise nodded, “we were just catching up.” She turned to see the look Emersyn had on her face as she looked at him, it was happiness, not fake or anything in between.
“The kids never seem to get cold,” he motioned to the window.
Emersyn got up and glanced outside, “I can only stay out for a few minutes at a time,” she huffed out a breath, “Shaelan says that will get better as my health does.”
Noah met her halfway across the room, leaned down, and kissed her mouth. He touched her cheek and just looked down at her for what felt like hours.
Blaise felt like she was intruding on something so deeply intimate that it felt wrong. “I should, uh, get back to Ed’s and see how Griffin is making out.”
Noah turned and looked at her, “he’s annoyed and frustrated but really smart.” He gave her a lopsided grin, “he’s figured out another piece of the code that Lindon used, so now we’re waiting on Illias and some of those brainy ones at HQ to finish the list.”
“List?” Blaise felt her heart speed up.
He nodded, “some ports and drop-off points.” His expression was grim, “he figured out the system, and they’re running it through databases or whatever they do to give us the names of the places.”
Blaise’s heart kicked up speed, “so we’ll be able to go shut them down?”
Noah shrugged, “I don’t know, Devin is talking to his father, who’s talking to other people, and then at some point they’ll give us a location and we do our thing.”
Blaise grinned, “that works for me.” She jerked her chin toward the door, “how’s his shoulder doing?”
“He’s healing fast.” Noah went over to the counter to the coffee maker, “his bear may never come out, but it’s there.” He glanced over his shoulder, “his scent is definitely a big scary bear.”
Blaise rolled her eyes, “he does that puffed-out half-shift thing you do too,” she couldn’t feel bad about that, it had gotten them out of the metal box. “Any tips on how he can control it more?” She bit her lip, “like whenever he’s angry or emotional, it happens.”
Noah put his hands on his hips and looked at the floor for a minute, “I don’t,” he looked up at her, “I don’t have answers for that. I can communicate with my cat, but if he can’t get through to his animal, I don’t know.”
“You should talk to Shaelan,” Emersyn went over and nudged Noah out of the way and put a filter in the coffee maker, “she could ask the medical people, they might know.” She glanced at her, “I’m sure it’s not the first time someone can’t communicate with their animal,” she offered a small smile, “just as I’m sure there have been cases where they can’t shift.”
Blaise nodded, “that’s a good idea.” She glanced around, still feeling awkward with the looks they were giving each other. She wasn’t bitter, they both deserved it, she just wasn’t a cozy homey kind of gal. “I’m going to head back over now.” She turned to go.
“Blaise,” stopping she looked back at Noah, “I keep wanting to ask someone, but don’t know how to go about it.”
She frowned.
“Asking about what’s going to happen to Griffin now.” He waved his hand around, “he might have a clan that was his mothers’ but they’re not his, so where does that leave him?”
She gnawed on her lip for a moment, “yeah, I’ve wondered too.” She nodded slowly, “I can ask Kenzo and see if he can get some answers.”
“Okay,” he motioned to her, “I just thought you should know what’s going on with him being your mate.”
Blaise opened her mouth and then shut it, unsure of what to say.
He shrugged, “Just give it time.” He shrugged and then glanced lovingly at Emersyn, “it has a way of figuring itself out.” He turned back to her and smirked, “and whatever you do, do not ask Blair for advice. His sucks.”
Blaise could only nod. She needed to get out of there. Now. This talk just made her feel way too much and then nothing at the same time. “Got it.” She nodded her head once to Emersyn and then turned to go find the door asap.