Page 138 of Griffin Food

He has changed yet again. Even in repose, I can tell he’s a big bastard now.

But it’s time for him to come back to us…

I become aware that the three of us have stopped, that the wing leaders are fanning out around the room. Above us, the vast glass dome bathes the room in light. On the opposite side, the sundial casts a single long shadow all the way to a central silk-covered raised platform beyond Violet and Atlas.

From behind comes a soft thud as the main doors shut.

Then silence.

I step forward, Lark and Fenix flank me until I stand before my Griffin King and Queen. It is the most natural thing in the world to drop to one knee and bow my head.

Fenix follows.

Then Lark.

Atlas releases her hand and joins us where he too bows. “Do you accept me, Atlas Aldric, Griffin Pride Leader, as your king and mate?”

“I do.” Her voice is soft yet carries.

I swallow past the sudden tightness in my throat. “Do you accept me, Darrion Darkan, Pride Second, as your mate and consort?”

“I do.”

“Do you accept me, Fenix Galeor, Pride Third as your mate and consort?”

“I do.”

“Do you accept me, Lark Bo Varden, Guardian and direwolf shifter, as your mate and consort?”

“I do.”

We rise as one. My heart is thudding in my chest. I swear I can almost taste her essence in the air.

And then a great whirring noise begins, followed by a mechanical clack-clack-clack. We look up where the domed ceiling splits in two, folding slowly open—I did not realize it opened. It should be cold, but the glass walls beneath create shelter from the wind.

A hum begins, carried on the light breeze, growing louder.

Griffins.

Not our griffins, who are locked inside us, but the sleeping griffins, roused. They circle overhead and then, one by one, settle on perches on the open roof edge, and which clearly were built there with intention.

This was assuredly not in the book…

One. Two. Three… more and more, they cluster, filling the circle, creating a low resonant hum.

My wings flare into being. The robe I had worn shreds instantly, disappearing into the ether. A strange, alien sensation manifests at the base of my spine.

“What the hell?” Fenix mutters beside me.

I lift one wing and peer behind, grinning when I spot my lashing tail.

“I had heard this could happen with the bonding,” Atlas says mildly.

He looks at something over my shoulder and does a double take.

Belatedly Aware of a presence looming to my left, I turn slowly, steeling myself, and look up at the vast shaggy beast that is neither wolf nor man but something in between.

I arch one brow. “Well played, mutt.”