by Chant, Zoe
She clamped one hand over her shoulder, trying to staunch the bleeding, and watched the fight with her heart in her mouth.
Nevin crashed into the tangle that was Flynn and Victor, and for a second all Lila could see was an explosion of blood and fur.
The fear that had been nowhere to be found when Victor was threatening her rose to the surface now. What if Flynn couldn't—what if the lions—
There was a guttural roar, and Flynn surged up out of the mass of lion's bodies, his wings spreading to catch the still indoor air and lift him up onto his hind legs. Papers flew off of Victor's desk as he reared and came down hard, claws and teeth sinking into Nevin's side. Nevin shrieked, a chilling sound out of an animal's mouth.
Victor threw his head back and roared, overwhelming the rest of the noise. It was loud enough that Lila flinched away, wishing she could take her hand away from her shoulder to block her ears. It seemed to reverberate through the entire building.
Calling for reinforcements, she thought suddenly, and bit her lip, looking at the door. Then at her pocket. Should she call for help? Could the police even help?
Even if they couldn't, she couldn't do nothing. She let go of her arm with her blood-slicked hand and pulled out her phone. Not her phone. Nevin had her phone. This was Flynn's phone, and she had to be careful not to get it too wet with her bloody fingers. Could she use the fingers from her bitten arm? She could, although it hurt to move it at all. She gritted her teeth and dialed nine-one-one.
“Hello?” she said to the voice on the phone. “I need an ambulance and—and police—there's a fight happening—”
She gave the address, although she could barely hear herself over the growls and roars, much less the person on the other end. What could they think was happening? She thought, half-hysterically, that they must be wondering if there'd been an escape from the zoo.
She hung up and forced herself to look back at the fight.
Then her hand flew to her mouth. She barely noticed the coppery taste of blood over the sight of Victor lunging forward and closing his teeth on Flynn's delicate wing joint.
The snap sounded clearly through the room.
Lila shuddered. But Flynn didn't make a sound. Not a wounded roar, not a cry, nothing. His wing hanging uselessly by his side, he drew back and struck, snapping at Victor's vulnerable underbelly.
Victor howled in pain. It was one of the most satisfying sounds Lila had ever heard.
Nevin was behind Flynn, though, and clawed at his flank, reaching for the injured wing, but not getting it as Flynn spun around—again, behaving as though he wasn’t hurt at all. Quick as lightning, he closed his beak around Nevin’s throat.
Nevin froze. Lila saw his eyes dart to Victor, but Victor was curled around his belly, panting shallowly.
Flynn tightened his jaw a little. A little more.
Nevin closed his eyes. A second later, his form shimmered, and shifted, and he was standing there as a man.
Flynn opened his beak. Then he ducked his head, pressed it against Nevin’s chest, and shoved.
Nevin stumbled backwards, tripping and catching himself, until his back hit the door. Flynn stared at him with beady eyes until, getting the hint, Nevin’s hand fumbled with the knob and he disappeared into the hall.
Then Flynn turned to Victor, who was slowly standing up. Flynn stepped forward, and Victor cringed, backing up until he was pressed against the wall.
As Lila watched, that wicked beak pulled back. Flynn’s eagle eyes were fixed on Victor’s throat.
Lila knew in her heart that it wasn’t going to be a warning strike this time.
“Flynn!” Lila called. She made her voice as strong and sharp as she could. She was starting to feel a little woozy.
Flynn hesitated.
“Don’t kill him,” she said. “I don’t want him dead. I want him standing trial for what he did.”
And she wanted Flynn to be walking the streets, rather than having to go on trial for murder himself. As much as Victor deserved it.
Flynn hissed in anger, but he eased back. Then looked towards the door.
Lila looked, too. Why hadn’t Victor’s roar brought more lions? Why hadn’t Nevin sent in reinforcements?
Then there was the sound of another window shattering.
Oh. Flynn wasn’t alone. Of course. There was a whole community of shifters on his side.
On their side.
Lila could feel blood running down her arm. She was suddenly very light-headed.
“Flynn,” she said. “I think I—need to sit down.”
Flynn whirled to look at her, holding Victor now in one eagle’s talon. Then he tossed Victor across the room.
His lion form hit the wall with a crack, then fell to the floor. As Lila watched, he shivered, blurred, and shifted back to human, unconscious.
Flynn shifted, too. The broken wing disappeared, and she frowned at his human form, trying to figure out where the injury had gone. One arm looked hurt, maybe?
Then he was at her side, easing her gently to the floor. “We’re calling an ambulance,” he said grimly. “Where’s your phone?”
“I called. While you were fighting. On your phone. I got it bloody, sorry.” She gestured vaguely to her pocket. “I think it’s—still recording.”
Flynn pulled it out and checked it. “Still recording,” he said. “For almost two hours now. We’ll have to check the quality, but I think you did it, love.”
The love warmed her all the way to her fingers.
Just then, Malachi came running into the room—in human form. His dragon form wouldn’t have fit, Lila thought a little dizzily.
He took in the situation with a glance. “She okay?”
“She will be. Ambulance is on its way.” Flynn’s hand clamped down on the place where her shoulder was bleeding, and Lila heard herself make an unhappy noise.
“I’m sorry, sweetheart, I know it hurts, I just want to slow the bleeding down a little,” he said softly. “You’re not in danger yet, but if this was left untreated too long, you would be.”
Lila nodded, biting her lip. It hurt, but for some reason, with Flynn’s hands on her, it seemed like it was lessening. Or maybe she just was stronger in the face of the sharp pain—it didn’t seem to matter quite as much while he was touching her.
Flynn nodded towards his phone, forgotten on the chair. “Malachi, that phone has a recording of the conversation Lila had with Victor in here. It was incriminating?” he asked her. “I was on the roof, I didn’t catch much.”
She was able to muster up a smile. “Oh, yes,” she said. “Send it to Elizabeth, I think she’ll be very happy with what’s on there.”
Malachi picked up the phone with an answering smile. “I’ll do that. And I’m going to make sure she’s attending to every detail of this case, Lila. Don’t worry about Victor coming after you again. If I have to look over her shoulder the entire time, I’ll see that he goes to prison.”
“You won’t need to,” Lila said. “Elizabeth knows what she’s doing. And she’s got a lot of motivation to put Victor away.” She didn’t know if Elizabeth wanted it known that she was pregnant or not, so she decided not to mention it just yet.
“I’ll be right there with her, then,” Malachi said firmly.
The sound of sirens began in the distance, faintly but getting louder.
“You can relax now, Lila,” Flynn said in her ear. “You were so brave. God. So brave. Thank you for not getting killed, I couldn’t have handled it.”
She laughed a little and leaned into him. “I knew you were there. The entire time. I could feel you there. It wasn’t scary with you there.”
He kissed the top of her head, and they waited for the ambulance together.
Epilogue: Flynn
Flynn stepped through the front door with a long sigh. It had been an unusually busy shift, starting at five AM and going through a whole series of small-town mishaps. Lost hiker, teenager shoplifting, neighbor dispute, and then Malachi
had wanted to work through the whole case against Victor in minute detail.
Which Flynn had been more than happy to do—he wanted that asshole to go down hard. But he hadn’t had a break all shift.
They’d also talked about the problem of the red dragons. So far, they hadn’t seen hide nor scale of them around the town. Flynn had put forth the possibility that maybe with Victor’s defeat, they’d decided that Oak Ridge was too much trouble to invade.
Malachi had given him a long look and said, “I never thought I’d see the day when you turned into an optimist.”
So they’d spent another hour talking about strategy and defense. It had been a long day.
Just coming in the door, though, he could feel the tension unwinding in his shoulders, the incipient headache that had been building behind his eyes beginning to disappear. Even the scent of the house was relaxing—it smelled like home, like the organic cleaning products Lila liked to buy and the lingering smell of the chicken soup she must have had for lunch.
“Honey?” he called, taking off his jacket.
She appeared on the stairs, finger to her lips. “I’m hoping he’ll sleep another hour,” she said in a whisper.
Grant had been taking the shortest naps on the planet the last few days, which had resulted in an extremely cranky baby. Flynn immediately lowered his voice. “He went down okay?”
She nodded. “It was kind of a nightmare of a morning, but he dropped off quick when I finally got him to be okay with being in the crib. Now we’ve just got to see if he stays that way.”
“So what you’re saying,” Flynn said, unbuttoning his uniform shirt, “is that Sophia’s at school, Grant is asleep, and I’m home from work with nothing else to do?”
Her lips started to curve into a smile. Flynn could see the same thing happening to her that had happened to him when he came in the door: shoulders relaxing, tension lines on her forehead starting to smooth out. He was so incredibly happy that he could do this for her, be this for her—when she saw him, she was happy.
And, right now, turned on. He dropped his shirt behind him as he started up the stairs, putting a little bit of a prowl into his walk. A pink flush started high on her cheeks and spread down, her lips parting as she watched him come towards her.
He caught her up in his arms, delighting in the feel of her curves pressed up against him, sliding his hands down her back to feel her up just a little. She squirmed and gasped, and he leaned down to taste her mouth.
She opened up for him immediately, letting his tongue explore. He was getting hard already, feeling her body rise for him, her nipples stiff under her soft T-shirt, her breath catching, a shiver running through her at the touch of his hands.
“Bedroom,” he said into her mouth, and she nodded, tugging him along with her down the hall.
They fell half-dressed onto the bed—their bed, now, the bed Flynn had slept in every night for weeks now, Lila at his side. It smelled like both of them, which only ratcheted his arousal up further. He attacked the button of her jeans, working them down her hips and pressing his mouth to the curls between her legs as they were revealed.
She made a sound that he was starting to recognize, and loved: surprised by her own pleasure. He separated her folds with his fingers, sliding against the wetness that was already there, and buried his face in her.
He had to hold her hips for her as he licked down against her clit, sucking softly as he went, so that she’d stay still enough for him to take his time. He loved doing this, the smoky taste of her in his mouth, the way he could drive her absolutely wild. It thrilled him to hear her noises, to feel a gush of wetness against his fingers when he traced them around her entrance.
“Come up here,” she commanded, her voice nearly airless. “Flynn. Come here—”
“Here,” he said, pulling his mouth away reluctantly and coming up to kiss her. He left his hand where it was and slid his fingers inside, testing.
She shoved her hips forward, and he bit her lip, his own hips wanting to move. “Ready?” he asked her.
“You don’t need to ask,” she said, which was true, but he liked he hear her say she wanted him. “Inside me,” she commanded.
He smiled against her mouth and moved between her legs, holding back for a long second, teasing himself as much as her.
“Flynn, I swear to God, if you don’t—”
Her voice broke off into a long moan as he slid inside her in one long stroke. “Quiet,” he reminded her, and she hauled him down into a fierce kiss as she pushed them into a rhythm.
As always, he wondered how he could’ve thought that eating her out was his favorite thing to do, when this was so much better—being with her, every movement together, inside her body, feeling her hot, silken inner walls clenching around him. Their mate-bond always seemed at its closest in these moments, charged with desire, their souls melding together even as their bodies did.
They were too hot for it to last—Flynn could feel his orgasm rising in him, coming closer with every sound Lila made, every time she bit her lip and tipped her head back, the way her chest heaved with every breath. He got a hand down between them to rub her clit hard and fast, and had to close his eyes, leaning down to catch her noises in a kiss, to stave off his own climax.
Fortunately, it was only a couple of minutes before he felt her muscles start to spasm, her noises muffled against his mouth as her orgasm hit her. He closed his eyes and let go, and they shuddered and came together.
“Wow,” she said, after they’d both caught their breath.
He pulled back and looked at her. “Did I do something extra-good this time?”
She shook her head, laughing a little. “No, that’s what’s so wow about it. It’s always wow. You think we’re going to be blowing our minds just as hard in thirty years?”
“In thirty years, there won’t be any kids in the house anymore,” he pointed out. “We can take hours and hours to blow our minds, anytime we want.”
Her eyebrows rose, and her eyes glazed over a little, thinking about it. “Wow,” she said finally. “We are going to be the most satisfied sixty-year-olds the world has ever seen.”
“Count on it,” he said, and kissed her deeply.
***
Eventually, of course, they had to get out of bed, even though Grant had slept through everything without so much as a peep, because Sophia was coming home from school.
It was Lachlan’s day for the carpool, so they were at least able to take some time to clean up and make a snack for them and Sophia before the door burst open and Sophia came inside like a diva making an entrance. “Hello!” she announced.
“Hey, princess, how was school?” Flynn caught her up and gave her a million little kisses, until she was squirming and giggling.
“Wait, don’t crumple my picture!” she shouted finally, and Flynn had to set her down and look at the picture she had clutched in one hand.
“What did you draw?” he asked, reaching for it.
She handed it over happily, and came up to explain it. “See, there’s Mommy, and there’s you, and there’s Grant, and there’s me!” She pointed at each figure in turn. “We drew our families.”
Flynn stared down at the sheet of paper, feeling a sudden heat behind his eyes, a tightness in his throat. “Wow,” he managed.
“What’s up, honey?” Lila appeared behind him, a concerned hand on his shoulder. “Something happen at school?”
She must have felt his sudden change of mood. He turned to show her the picture. “Sophia drew her family,” he told her, roughly. “See, there’s Sophia and Grant, and you, and—me.”
“Oh,” Lila said softly, looking down at the crayon figures. “Honey, I think that’s the best family portrait I’ve ever seen. How about I put it up on the fridge?”
“Yeah!” Sophia ran over to scrutinize the fridge, which was already covered in little-kid drawings and alphabet magnets, and figure out what the appropriate place of honor would be for her family portrait.
“Of course you are,” Lila said, her eyes soft. “You’re her family. You’re our family. And we’re yours.”
“I love you,” he said, and pulled her close.
“I love you, too,” she said, and kissed him, just as the baby woke up.
Flynn leaned back and smiled. “I’ll get him.”
The smiled stayed with him as he jogged up the stairs to get his baby. Nothing had ever made him smile like taking care of his family did.
The End
A note from Zoe Chant
Thank you for reading The Golden Griffin’s Baby! I hope you enjoyed it. This book is the third in a series set in Oak Ridge, where plenty of lonely single parents (and their kids!) find love, family, and a little magic. Check out Ronan and Katie’s book, The Red Dragon’s Baby, and Lachlan and Cam’s book, The Midnight Dragon’s Mate, if you missed them!
Elizabeth and Malachi’s book will be next, and I can’t wait to share it with you all!
Please review The Golden Griffin’s Baby, even if it’s only a line or two. I love to hear what my readers think.
If you’d like to be emailed when I release my next book, please click here to be added to my mailing list. You can also visit my webpage, or follow me on Facebook or Twitter.
Page down to read a special sneak preview of The Red Dragon’s Baby.
The cover of The Golden Griffin’s Baby was designed by Belle Arden.
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