Christmas Griffin - Zoe Chant Page 0,62
it. It hurt all the same. Worse than before, as though the few minutes they’d spent together when she wasn’t lying about herself had weakened his defenses. Even the background conversation thudded more heavily against his mind.
“—of course, we’re so excited—”
The same as the night before. Worse than the night before.
“—invited all the best shifter families to her First Flight, our darling Livia simply wouldn’t have it any other way—”
“—really, it was a blessing in disguise. I’m afraid that the Eastern dragons simply aren’t all they’re cracked up to be—”
Lie upon lie. Shifters who claimed that family was the most important thing, then spent all the time they had together faking it. Most of them hated being here. The sheer volume of lies about how happy they were that the family was all together was proof of that. Cousin Livia wasn’t interested in the ‘best shifter families,’ whoever they were. And Hardwick wouldn’t have been surprised if the Eastern dragons had seen right through Grizelda Belgrave’s bullshit and decided to have none of it.
These were the people Delphine was so desperate to keep on board?
He forced himself to focus on what she was saying, and not let himself be drawn into the lesser blows to the skull from the rest of the table.
“...So, he did know about my lioness,” Delphine said, glancing at Hardwick with a barely-there I’m-sorry look before smiling peacefully at her grandmother. “I was so happy to be able to tell him before he passed.”
“We know.” Mrs. Belgrave’s smile out-beatified Delphine’s like the sun outshines a lightning bug. “But it is good to hear you tell the story, dear. Goodness knows it’s the one bright point in that whole sad affair.”
“And the boys,” her husband added. It sounded like an old bit of patter.
“And the boys, of course. Belgraves through and through.”
Hardwick took that as his cue to check what the boys were up to. He’d hoped to find them deep in another trivial argument, like the day before, or—damn. His brain put two and two together. The night before, in the lead-up to his breakdown, the twins had been causing a ruckus. Hardwick had put it down to teenage dumbassery, but they’d only started throwing candles when the all-knowing Grizelda had started talking about...
Shit.
He glared at them both and sent them a silent warning. They glared back. Not a good sign, he thought, even as he begrudgingly respected them for daring it.
After all, though, who was he? Some interloper who barely knew the first thing about the Belgrave family history. Who, to their eyes, must be encouraging their sister to keep hiding behind her pretense at being something she wasn’t. A pretense that clearly made her miserable. They had to have seen how unhappy she was, back in the hotel room.
Just like it was obvious to anyone with half a brain that she was tense now, too. And the twins, candle-tossing or not, had at least half a brain between them.
How long until their Belgrave family-above-all instincts won out and they tried to protect her from her grandparents’ assumptions about who she was?
Hardwick’s griffin clacked its beak nervously. He realized at the same moment that his head was aching less. He’d managed to tune out the rest of the table—as a result of his focus on Delphine?
But that wasn’t why his griffin was nervous. Mr. and Mrs. Belgrave weren’t lying. They really believed that Delphine’s lioness emerging had helped her and the rest of the family deal with the pain of losing their son. That it balanced the scales, somehow.
Even more unsettled, his griffin wrapped itself around the bright glow of the mate bond, whipping its tail.
“So.” Mr. Belgrave turned back to Hardwick. “Now that you understand what I’m asking, what do you say? What is a griffin’s why?”
And Hardwick, bristling, went as much on the offense as he could manage without betraying his mate.
“Funny thing, you asking me about my why. I was going to say the concept had never occurred to me, but I realize it has. I’ve been living it for years without ever putting it into words.” He thought about the last ten years: the decisions he’d made. The wins. All the work he’d achieved. “I’m all about helping people. My gift, as you put it, lets me do that. I use it to keep people safe.”
“So that’s what griffins are about, is it?”
“It’s what this griffin is about.”
Mrs. Belgrave gave a tinkling laugh.
The doors to the dining room opened, and several