Christmas Griffin - Zoe Chant Page 0,68

but maybe there was something of their mother’s cat in them after all. They were ashen-faced and creeping with guilt.

Sara reached out towards Delphine. “I’m sad because I wish you’d told me earlier. You’re my daughter, Delphy. I’m meant to protect you, not the other way around. You never needed to lie to me. I will love you no matter what, just like your father would have.”

“But you wouldn’t have! When I told you, you were both so—so proud of me.” Delphine’s body was shaken by a sob that left her clinging to Hardwick. He held her up, ice gripping his spine. “You were so relieved.”

Grief passed over her mother’s face. “When Dominic was in the hospital.”

“But it started so long before that. When you got sick. Brutus had already fledged, do you remember? He was so early. We went to his First Flight. And everyone was saying I would be next, that I couldn’t let any of the other younger cousins beat me at it again. But then you got sick, and I wasn’t next, and the twins were just walking and it was all Dad could do to keep us all together, and I couldn’t—I couldn’t have been another problem on top of that.”

“Delphy, you wouldn’t have been a problem.”

“Yes, I would have been. And I had to not be a problem. I helped with the twins. I kept out of the way at family things—and we didn’t go to many, anyway, not while you were sick.” Delphine’s face twisted. “I heard what Grandfather and Grandmother used to say about you. That you weren’t strong enough to be married into the Belgrave family. But then you got better.”

“And then your father died.” Sara caught Hardwick’s expression of mingled horror and confusion. She steadied herself and explained: “My husband was killed in a traffic accident when Delphine was young. He—a truck came off the road and he pushed me out of the way rather than save himself.”

That was what the older Belgraves had been talking about, Hardwick realized. A Belgrave sacrificing himself for family.

And they hadn’t thought Sara was worth the sacrifice.

“The doctors kept him stable long enough for the children to say goodbye, but he was too injured for even his shifter healing to save him.” The sadness in Sara’s eyes was years old.

“He told me—” Delphine’s voice choked to a stop. He focused on the mate bond and tried to send her reassurance, strength, but it was as slippery as ever and danced out of his reach. Delphine took a shaking breath. “He told me not to let anyone ever tell me there was anything wrong with me. But there was. I couldn’t tell him that, so I said—I lied—I told him my lioness had come in. That I was normal. That I was a real Belgrave. And he was relieved, Mum. You both were. You’d been so worried and you were relieved I was normal.”

“Oh, sweetheart. We knew there are no guarantees when two shifters of different types have a child. The same as there are no guarantees when a shifter and a human do.”

“I’d argue there aren’t any guarantees what you’re going to get when two shifters with the same animal get together, either,” Hardwick added in a low voice. “My folks sure didn’t know what they were getting with me.” A griffin shifter, the same as they were—but with a griffin who didn’t speak, and who couldn’t be around lies without getting a migraine.

Sara gave him a sympathetic look. “We knew Dominic’s parents would make things difficult if we had a child who wasn’t a winged lion shifter. We were worried because we didn’t want you to face that, not because we would love you any less.”

“We’re not like the rest of them! We don’t care, Delphy. We only care that you’re okay. And I—” Anders’ face was practically gray. “I’m sorry I told everyone your secret. I promised you I wouldn’t and then the first thing I did was break that promise. I was just so mad. All the things he was saying, about Dad and Mum and you had to just sit there and listen to him.”

“It’s okay, Anders. And you too, Vance, I know if Anders hadn’t said it you would have been right on his tail.” Delphine took a deep breath. “It—it needed to come out, I think. And I never would have let it happen by myself.” Her lips curved in a sad smile. “Now everyone knows I’m not