Chapter 23: Griffin

23

GRIFFIN

A soft knock at the door wakes me.

"Kali?" I jump from the bed, heart pounding. Instantly, my brain is hopeful that she's here somehow, having just left a dream where she was sleeping peacefully beside me.

As the depressing reality sinks in that I'm alone in Maisy's guesthouse, without Kali and with no idea where she is or if she's even still alive, I shake my arms out and suck in a deep breath. I can't let those thoughts get to me, or I'll fall apart. Then I'm no good to her.

With a calming breath, I cross to the door. I can tell it's Maisy from the smell of baking floating with her. The scent of sugar and vanilla is so embedded in her apron, it'll never come out.

Pulling open the door, I smile, welcoming a distraction right about now. Maisy helped Kali. She probably saved her life, and I'll be forever in her debt.

"Sorry for disturbing you. I know you were out looking for Kali till all hours, and you probably need to sleep, but you have a visitor," she says apologetically. "It's Ben."

My tentative smile falters. I've avoided him on purpose. I don't know what, if anything, Kali told them about me. Or Jack, for that matter. He saw us having an argument the night she was injured. Who knows what Ben would make of that.

Nodding, I disappear back inside and pull on some clothes. Ducking my head down to sniff my armpits, I frown. I need a shower, but it'll have to wait.

"Hope I didn't wake you up," Ben says, waiting at the bottom of the stairs, hand outstretched in greeting. The sun has barely peeked its head above the horizon. He knows well that he's woken me, but that's okay. I'm amazed I slept at all.

"No. I was just about to have a wash." Right as I say the words, I spot a smear of dirt on the back of my hand, and I focus on picking it off while we stand there awkwardly for a minute.

"Do you have news about Kali?" I ask, bracing myself for bad news.

Did Henry tell him I'm Kali's mate, and he should come here in person to break the news?

Maisy pretends not to listen, but suddenly, now is the time to start tidying up the coat rack and hall table.

Ben shakes his head, and I don't know how to feel. Happy there's no bad news, I'm still gutted that she hasn't appeared, safe and well.

"Can we talk outside for a minute?" Ben's expression is serious, and I swallow hard, wondering if now is the time I get my ass kicked.

Ben doesn't seem like a man who's just here to talk about search tactics. His body language is tense, and his jaw is clenched tightly as he pushes the front door open and then steps out onto the covered porch.

The silence is oppressive as I step out behind him, and I prepare myself for what's going to come next.

Hands thrust deep into his pockets, Ben turns, studying me carefully. "You seem to know this area pretty well already. Henry tells me you weren't due to start until Monday."

I don't reply, not sure whether that's an accusation or merely an observation.

"You knew John?" he asks, mouth turned down as he stares out into the woods on the far side of the road.

"I did. He was the one who convinced me to join the rangers. Brought me up here to hike lots of times. I thought I was coming out here to shadow him for a while, not replace him. I'm so sorry."

Ben nods, and I can see the pieces of the puzzle sliding into place in his mind as I fill in some of the blanks for him. Scrubbing a hand over his stubbled jaw, he narrows his eyes. "You were friends. I saw lots of notes in his journal about you coming. He seemed excited to get you here."

Hopefully John liking me extends me some grace around here.

"He was a good man. He helped me a lot," is all I reply, because I don't know what else to say.

John was excited to get me here, not necessarily because we were best friends, but because he felt like until I got here, I was a danger to myself and others. Now I understand why he was so eager. He knew I'd meet more of my kind and learn all about who and what I am.

"We appreciate you helping us look for Kali," Ben says. "These last few months have been… a lot. And Kali… she's had a hard life already. She doesn't deserve any of this."

Ben's brown eyes lock with mine, and I force myself to stay calm. He's not fishing, and he's not suggesting it's my fault. Ben's just a concerned relative who's tired and worried.

Guilt gnaws at my insides. I could tell him that Kali is my mate, and that I believe she's alive, but I have no proof. And she didn't want me near her, so she might not appreciate coming back to half the town expecting us to live happily ever after.

"Anyway, I wanted to stop by and say the ranger cabin is ready. Holly moved the last of John's personal belongings out. There was some damage from the storm, but it's going to be fixed over the next few days." Extending a hand, he drops a set of keys into mine. "It's all yours."

I look at the keychain as I wrap my fingers around them. A soaring mountain top is surrounded by dense forest, and the ranger logo is stamped on the front. Tucking them away in my pocket, I wait, because Ben didn't come all the way down here just to give me some keys and to thank me for joining the search.

"Officer Kenny said he saw you at her cabin. That you were acting shifty and were overly interested in her bedroom."

Here we go.

"And Henry just got a call from the local PD in your hometown, asking if it was true you'd moved up here to start a new job. They mentioned something about an assault they want to speak to you about. Any idea what that could be about?"

Shit. That's the last thing I need cropping up right now. I decide changing the subject is the best way to distract Ben from this line of questioning.

"Some guy called Jed was out at the cabin giving Kali shit the other night."

Ben reels back, shocked; his features quickly darken as his eyes turn pitch black. Friendly, easy-going Ben is gone. This version looks like he's ready to kill.

"I went to Zora to have a chat with him. Couldn't find him, and Joy at the diner swore he was there when Kali went missing, for whatever that's worth. But could this curse nonsense be the reason someone would want her?"

Ben doesn't answer my question. Instead, he concentrates on his breathing until the madness has faded from his eyes.

"I can't believe he had the nerve to come to Sutton. He must have known that we were distracted," he muses. "Did he hurt her?"

It's obvious Ben cares for Kali deeply. He looks upset that he didn't know.

"No, he was giving her some shit, but that's all. But this prophecy thing. Do people really take this seriously? Would anyone be stupid enough to act on it?"

Ben leans back against the railing and folds his arms across his broad chest, shaking his head slowly. "I never thought so. John was getting worried about it the older Kali got. Said when she was getting close to her first heat, people would start getting antsy. But other than some half-hearted attempts at dating humans, Kali mostly kept to herself. Never gave anyone a reason to think she was about to settle down and start a family."

I can barely swallow around the lump of panic forming in my throat.

"You'll have to forgive me, I found out about this later in life." I purposely gloss over that later in life was exactly two days ago. "You mean heat as in… fertility?"

Ben tilts his head, looking up from under his dark, wavy hair, and twists his lips into a wry smirk.

"You're a bit old to be learning about the birds and the bees from me, but yes, that's what I mean. They don't have a problem with Kali, per se, because the prophecy isn't about her. They have a problem with her having kids."

Focusing on keeping my breath steady and my emotions shoved way down inside me, I ask the question I'm not sure I'm ready to hear the answer to. "And what brings on the heat? Age?"

Please say her age.

My beast's silence tells me he already knows the answer, and it's not that. I felt his primal desire to see her belly round with pups. He wanted to fill her with his seed and…

"Nope." Ben pushes off the railing and clamps a hand on my shoulder. "Finding a mate. Once her beast picks the one, her body gets ready for making babies. It's only a matter of time."

Shit. And like a fool, I was up there claiming her as mine to all the hateful, small-minded idiots in her hometown.

Groaning, I drag my palms down my face. I have to tell him. I can't keep us being mates a secret from Ben if it could impact Kali's safety.

"We might have a problem then. Because… I'm pretty sure Jed and his buddies know she's mine."