Page 131 of Griffin Food

I come to dread the sound of the door opening—the sight of one of my mates beaten and battered from the fight, worn down. I come to dread the sound of Rafe moaning, for it often signals another bout of rapid change.

I lift my head from the passage and go over to where he lies. He has already changed. It is hard to look upon him and reconcile just how much. Terrifying. Especially his face. The broader line of his brow, the deeper set of his jaw… I just want him to open his eyes, for it to be my Rafe inside the new wrapper.

Yet the hollow aspect to his cheeks, the unnatural pallor, tells a story of the toll.

Will the next transition be one too many?

The door opens.

I steel myself, pushing the hair back from Rafe’s forehead, kissing his brow.

It is not Atlas, weary from battle, nor Darrion, nor Fenix, nor even Lark, but Master Lychen’s two young apprentices, Lunde and Thomas, their arms weighted down with books. They are both exceptionally bright, and I’m grateful for their help.

“We found these in the old store at the back of the library!” Thomas announces.

He drops the stack on the table—several thick tomes, but also a collection of smaller, leather-bound books. Lunde adds to the pile.

I rise from where I kneel and go over to join them, as do Master Pugstone and Master Lychen.

The Question of Late Alpha Emergence.

Master Lychen immediately snags that book before I even get a look in. “Excellent,” he says, already flicking through the pages.

Late emergence in wolf shifters.

A possible correlation… Before I can reach for it, Master Pugstone commandeers it and strides off to his favorite study chair by the window.

Lunde, Thomas, and I search through the remainder of the pile.

The Sundial Doctrine of Threshold Transformations catches my eye. I run my fingers over the thick lettering and then open the book.

Sounds a little vague.

I have scoured everything we already have many times over to no avail. The others have already taken the promising new ones.

My hands shake.

I am tired.

I don’t want to lose him.

But how many times can he go through this?

Rafe remains seemingly at rest. Only he has not once woken, and I know this is not over yet.

I take the book back to my nest, which is more of a book repository by this stage. Here, with Rafe in my line of sight, I open to the first page.

It's an illustration of a cavernous chamber beneath a domed glass roof. On the far center, a sundial vast enough to fill a courtyard. My brows pull together. It looks familiar, although I have visited no such room. I flip the pages…

The Sundial Chamber amplifies what lies dormant. It does not create power; it reveals it. In rare instances, the surge will extend beyond the bond.

Oh, this was not what I thought. This is a record of the resonant bonding Master Pugstone mentioned in the wake of my mating with Darrion and Fenix in the cell.

I was not entirely present of mind at the time, and given what has happened since, had not given the matter much thought. But this is the same room as the picture Master Pugstone showed us… minus the intimate scene.

There has been neither time nor inclination toward intimacy when the situation remains so grave. But as Master Pugstone mentioned, it was likely, in part, responsible for Rafe’s transition.

I glance from the book to Rafe and back again, and read a little more.