by Zoe Chant
“I stayed with my grandparents most weekends when I was young. I might not know much, but I do remember that,” she said firmly. “They welcomed me in their home.”
“Only while there was some hope you would turn out to be one of us,” Mrs. Sweets hissed. “Don’t you see, dear, you’re exactly the reason why we have this rule in the first place? If shifters mate with humans, you are the risk they’re taking. A human child.”
“That’s it? That’s all? Just that I was born human?” Lainie choked back something that was half-laugh, half-sob. She was holding onto Harrison’s hand so hard, pins and needles were starting to dance up her arm.
“Does there need to be anything else, dear?” Mrs. Sweets’ eyes swept up and down Lainie’s body. “I’m sure we can come up with something, if you insist.”
“Don’t you dare talk to Lainie like that,” Harrison growled.
“And you. Harrison Galway.” Mrs. Sweets sniffed. “We had such high hopes for you. What a pity your griffin was fated to ally you with… her.”
Lainie’s chest hurt. He didn’t choose, did he? The mate bond just happened.
But Harrison shook his head. “I choose to be with Lainie. Even without the mate bond, she’s the most wonderful woman I’ve ever met. And I think it’s disgusting, what you’ve done here. How many other families have you done this to? How many people have left Hideaway because you wouldn’t let them stay here with their mates?”
“Enough to keep Hideaway safe,” Mrs. Sweets snapped.
To everyone’s surprise, including her own, Lainie burst out laughing.
“Safe?” she exclaimed, tears running down her cheeks. “Is that what you think?”
She was aware of a dozen pairs of eyes staring at her. Even Harrison was watching her, his hazel eyes confused. She didn’t blame him. Her brain had spent the entire conversation leaping in a panic from idea to idea—and had finally landed on one that made sense. Horrible, cruel sense.
Mrs. Sweets looked smug. “Even you must see what a success our policy has been.”
You think you’ve won, Lainie thought, looking at Mrs. Sweets’ calm face. You can’t even see that in your mad rush to keep me out of Hideaway Cove, you’ve put the whole town at risk.
Lainie spread her arms wide. “Exactly what success do you think you’ve achieved here? Thanks to you, I haven’t set foot in Hideaway in fifteen years. I don’t have any connections to the place. No loyalties to the people who live here, especially now my Gran has died. Even my father never moved back here. And you never thought about what that would mean? That one day, I’d come back, and not have any reason to protect your secret?”
Mrs. Sweets’ mouth fell open slightly. Behind her, murmurs sprang up from the other onlookers. Lainie barreled on, anger pouring through her.
“Even if I hadn’t co-signed for my grandmother’s medical debts, her executor would have had to sell her entire estate to pay her creditors. You don’t have any real estate agents here, so someone would have been brought in from out of town. You wouldn’t have any way of controlling whether the land went to shifters, or humans.”
Mrs. Sweets sniffed. “We have certain unique ways of convincing people to change their minds—”
Lainie didn’t let her finish. “Really? How? Bite-marks in their tires? Strange noises in the night? Or are you talking about good old-fashioned harassment? You don’t think that would be investigated? That someone would lay a complaint? And what then?”
Someone murmured in the crowd. Lainie shot her head around and saw the pot-bellied man—Guts?—looking uncomfortable. “She’s right,” he muttered. “No law enforcement here. If anything happened, the county’d send in from the city.”
Mrs. Sweets flashed him an irritated glare. “Thank you for your input, Mr. White.” She turned back to Lainie. “I note that nothing you’ve just been describing has actually come to pass.”
“No.” Lainie grinned fiercely. “Instead, you’ve got me. And what do you think I’m going to do? Roll over and let you walk all over me? You—you idiots! Don’t you see how easy it would be for me to destroy everything you’ve made here? Harrison is the only reason I have to be loyal to Hideaway, and you’ve just told him to leave!”
The words tore out of her throat, and left nothing behind. Not victory. Not even vicious glee. Just a hollow feeling that ached under her breastbone.
“Oh, God—I’ve got to get out of here,” she muttered. “Harrison—”
“Back up the tunnel,” he said at once. “Pol and Arlo have been clearing the site—Pol, look after this, will you?” He gestured with his free hand at the piles of glittering jewels that had been lying forgotten on the beach. His other hand was still firmly grasping Lainie’s. Her anchor.
But it hadn’t been enough to stop her from putting her foot in her mouth. God, she needed air. Space. Needed time to think, without Mrs. Sweets’ eyes boring into her brain.
“Let’s go,” she said, and stalked towards the cave entrance, dragging Harrison after her.
Please understand, she begged him as she raced through the tunnel, her chest so tight it felt as if it would burst. I want everything to work out—but how can it, if everyone here hates me?
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
HARRISON
“Will any of them be able to hear us from up here?” Lainie turned to him, beseeching, her arms wrapped tightly around herself. Harrison touched her briefly on the shoulder, and then concentrated:
*Arlo? Pol? Did you hear her just then?*
*Not a peep,* came Pol’s reply. *And don’t worry, we’re making sure no one sneaks up the tunnel after you.*
“No. Shifters have better hearing than most people, but there’s enough noise from the waves and everything else to blot us out up here,” he reassured her. At her questioning look, he added, “I just checked with Pol and Arlo.”
Some of the tension drained from Lainie’s shoulders. “All right,” she said to herself. “That’s something, at least.”
Harrison held his tongue as she stalked around the ruins of her grandparents’ house. She’s not going to fall off the side of the cliff, he told himself as his muscles jumped, ready to swoop in and grab her. And look around. Someone, Pol or Arlo probably, has already been up here and started tidying up the site. They won’t have left anything dangerous around.
He waited as Lainie glared at the wreck of the house. Most of the structure had collapsed in the storm; Harrison’s professional side was horrified that the old place had been so woefully below the building code. But most of him was too busy worrying what Lainie was making of it all.
At last she made an impatient noise, and stared up at the sky. For a moment, neither of them spoke. The abandoned lighthouse stretched up beside them, washed white by the rain, and broken planks and bricks crunched under their feet.
Harrison watched Lainie carefully. He didn’t like the way she’d shut down back on the beach, her face and body shuttering like she’d closed a door on her emotions. It reminded him too much of how she’d been at the restaurant the first time he’d seen her. Defensive and uncertain, and with no one to defend her.
Lainie kicked a broken slat into a pile of rubble, looking back at Harrison out of the corner of her eye.
“You don’t need to say it,” she said, her voice tight. “I know I was being a bitch back there.”
“What? Lainie, no. You didn’t say anything out of line, not a thing.” Harrison laughed, but stopped the moment he saw Lainie’s shoulders tighten again. “Lainie, no one could blame you for what you said.”
“I hate it,” she said quietly. “I hate the way being around her makes me feel. Being here. I get so, so wound up, and scared, and then I lash out—I don’t want to be that person.” She turned to Harrison. “I don’t want to sneer and make threats to try and get the upper hand. I don’t want to be like her.”
Harrison picked his way through the rubble to her side. “You’re nothing like her,” he reassured her, rubbing her shoulders. She lean
ed against him, resting her head against his chest. “You were hurting, and scared, and she was attacking you.”
“I don’t want to sink to her level. I bet she’s scared, somewhere under that Teflon grin. This whole thing started because she thought any human who found out about Hideaway Cove would start twirling their moustache and destroy the place—and I just threatened to do that, Harrison! I’m the gold-digging monster who wants to sell off half the town to intruders!”
“No, you’re not.” Harrison tipped her chin up, smiling down into her eyes. “A real monstrous gold-digger wouldn’t be so upset about everything going her way.”
Lainie smiled back weakly. “I know,” she said, closing her eyes. “But it’s so tempting. And part of me does want to be that person. To show Mrs. Sweets and all the rest of them that I’m not some scared little girl they can bully.”
“What do you want? The real you, not the moustache-twirling gold-digger.” Despite the joke, Harrison felt as though he was walking on a knife-edge.
Lainie rubbed her face. She turned around and placed her hands on Harrison’s chest. “Truthfully? It would be so easy, now, to leave this place behind. If those jewels are real—well, I don’t know what they’re worth, but it must be close to what I need. I could pay off all my debts, leave Hideaway, and never think about this place again.”
She sighed. “I could…if it wasn’t for you.”
Harrison frowned. “Why not? It sounds like the perfect solution.” He gulped back the heavy feeling that settled in his heart. Leave Hideaway? Leave the only place that had felt like home to him since he lost his parents? “I could come with you.”
Lainie shook her head. “No. If this thing we have is going to go anywhere, it can’t start with me forcing you to choose between this town and me.”
“You wouldn’t be forcing me to do anything,” Harrison insisted. “I want to be with you, Lainie. More than anything else in the world.”
Lainie tapped him on the chest and smiled. “You know, you’re not any good at hiding your emotions. I don’t know if it’s this magical bond, or what, but it’s like I can tell exactly what you’re feeling.”
Harrison’s griffin stirred with wonder inside him. This was what it meant, to have a mate who loved you. They understood you completely, loved you and accepted you for who you were.
Lainie’s face grew serious. “Harrison, my parents broke up less than a year after my mother and I were kicked out of Hideaway Cove. This whole mate-bond thing is like something from a fairytale, but… Their marriage broke up because Dad had to choose between his parents, and us. Between his shifter community, and his human family. And in the end, he chose neither of them. He just…disappeared. I have no idea where he is, but I know wherever it is, it isn’t his home. I don’t want you to lose your home, too. I don’t want to start our relationship with that sort of sacrifice.”
“Our relationship?” Warmth filled Harrison, warmer and more comforting than the sun.
Lainie laughed awkwardly. “I mean, it sounds silly to be making decisions based on a potential relationship so early, but… it feels right. And there’s so little in my life that does feel right, I don’t want to muck it up.” She shrugged. “So…that’s it, I guess. Stay here with you, and deal with Mrs. Sweets and the rest of the town hating me. Or leave, and drag you with me.”
“There is another option,” Harrison said, tipping her head back and planting a tender kiss on her forehead. “Why do you think I told Pol to bring everyone together this morning?”
“To look for—no, that’s not right. You asked him before we found the ring, didn’t you?”
“Because I wanted to talk to them.” Harrison smoothed Lainie’s hair down and rested his hand on her back of her neck. “When I first came to Hideaway Cove, I thought I’d found paradise. Now I know that this place isn’t the sanctuary I thought it was. We shouldn’t be breaking families apart. And I won’t sit back and let it happen.” He took a deep breath. “Lainie, I love you. I love you so much I feel like my heart could explode. I won’t ask you yet if you love me too, but… Do you trust me?”
“I—” Lainie paused, and an expression of wonder crossed her face. “Yes. Yes, I do trust you, Harrison.”
“Then come down with me now. It’s my duty to protect you, Lainie. And that’s what I’m going to do.”
He looked into Lainie’s eyes and felt the fire grow within him. This is for you. All for you, my love. Anything for you. He stretched, and felt his wings crackle out of his shoulder-blades, and the strange feeling of vertigo as he fell onto all four legs.
The first thing he felt after he finished shifting was Lainie’s touch. She rested her hand on his feathered head, and the feeling of it lit a bonfire of fierce, proud joy within him.
“I don’t think I’m ever going to get used to that,” she admitted, eyes wide. Harrison preened, and then thought:
Shit. I should have explained to her before I shifted.
Hmm.
Harrison turned side-on to Lainie, twisting his head over his massive winged shoulders and tapping his beak on his back. Then he tilted his head at her.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
LAINIE
Harrison motioned to his back again and then looked at Lainie, making a small, inquisitive trilling noise. Lainie’s heart jumped.
Wow, she thought. Does he really mean…?
She reached out and touched Harrison’s back, where his feathers faded into thick fur. She could feel his muscles moving under them, strong and firm.
“Do you want me to…ride you?” she asked, stumbling over the words. Harrison nodded his huge feathered head.
Lainie gulped and slid her hand further across the griffin’s broad back, resting it at the base of one of Harrison’s wings. If she sat up there, behind his wings…
Her mind was still blanking at the thought of Harrison flying. Now it stuttered to a halt on an unpleasant thought.
He’s going to fly with me on top of him? All that extra weight?
Lainie’s free hand drifted unconsciously to her hips. Harrison likes your curves, she told herself, but the brittle, scared part of her added: That doesn’t make you any lighter.
Harrison turned to look at her over his shoulder. Probably wondering what’s taking you so long, she thought. She gave him a tight smile.
“Um,” she said out loud. “Are you sure about this?”
Harrison nodded. She couldn’t see any expression on his hawk-like face, but she felt reassurance pouring off him.
“All right,” she said, hearing the doubt in her own voice. She looked down and something caught her eye. “Oh, we’d better take these down, right?” she said, bundling Harrison’s pants into her arms. Not that the folks on the beach seemed bothered about chilling in the altogether.
Harrison’s griffin form really was massive. His shoulder was level with her chest when he was standing, but he knelt down now, folding his claws neatly in front of himself. This brought his back closer to waist-height. Lainie took a deep breath, wedged the rolled-up pants under one elbow, and reached out.
Before she could change her mind, she grabbed the base of Harrison’s wing and swung one leg over his back. He wriggled underneath her and suddenly she was sitting astride him, gripping onto handfuls of feathers.
“Oh my goodness. Oh. Wow.”
Lainie had never been horse-riding. It had been years since she got on a bike. And neither of those compared even remotely to this.
Harrison glanced back over his shoulder again. Ready? he seemed to be asking.
Lainie fixed her grip on Harrison’s back. “Ready,” she said.
Harrison crouched, his muscles bunching, and then launched himself into the air. Lainie whooped, the wind whipping her hair back. Massive brown-and-cream-banded wings spread out to either side of her, blocking her view of the rubble—and then they were airborne, soaring out over the edge of the cliff.
Lainie dug her fingers into Harrison’s thickly feathered shoulders. She
was flying. She was flying, riding on the back of a mythical creature. A mythical creature that wanted to be her boyfriend.
She wasn’t sure which of those statements was the most impossible.
Today is a day for the impossible, she thought suddenly, glee bubbling up inside her. Impossible griffins. Impossible treasure. Impossible possibility that all of this might turn out all right…
Harrison glided out over the water, and Lainie narrowed her eyes to see through the glare of sunlight glittering on the waves. Another soaring turn, and she saw the lighthouse, still holding on to the top of the hill even when the rest of the house had crumbled.
Harrison was holding his wings out stiffly, drifting with the air currents. He swung around again, and this time Lainie caught a glimpse of the small beach at the base of the cliff. From up here, the people standing on the beach were as small as peg dolls. She could just make out Mrs. Sweets in her distinctive lavender twinset. And a few other figures wearing nothing at all.
They must be the shifters who were helping search for the treasure. I don’t even know most of their names. I can’t just refer to them as… my naked, mystery helpers? A giggle escaped her lips and was whipped away by the wind.
She didn’t even know these people, but after Harrison had called them together, they hadn’t hesitated to help her.
Harrison wheeled back out over the waves. Lainie leaned forward until she could rest her cheek against his neck. His feathers tickled her nose.
From here, she could just see the beach again. What would happen when they landed? She was still sure something was going to go wrong. Or everything. Would she lose everything she’d found in the last two days?
Even the shifters who’d helped her find the jewels—they’d agreed to help before they heard what Mrs. Sweets said about her. Now that they knew she’d already been thrown out of Hideaway Cove once, would they still welcome her…or reject her?