Mated to the Griffin (Elemental Mates 5)

At last, he’d know the truth...

If there really was a connection to his parents. If the dragon shifter they were looking for had really known them.

But there were too many coincidences. There had to be a connection. Even if they were dead. Even if they were alive and wanted nothing to do with him.

If they found this mysterious dragon, he’d at last know the truth.

And then he could let go of this old pain and this family that hadn’t wanted him and concentrate on more important things.

Things like his own family. The home they’d build together. The children they’d raise.

Chiara’s hand against his arm finally pulled him out of his shock.

He gave her a grateful look when he felt her concern and love for him come through the bond.

He hadn’t thought that it would affect him so much.

So many years had passed. He was an adult, a powerful shifter in his own right.

But all of a sudde

n he knew that this would have been so much harder without Chiara by his side.

At least now he knew that whatever awaited them on that mountain, he had a family of his own to return to.

***

“You don’t have to come along,” Jared said for the fourth time.

This time, Chiara didn’t even bother with an answer anymore. The look she gave him told him everything he needed to know.

“I know you’re worried,” she said, “but I’m the one with the map in the first place, remember? And at least half of the new map is mine.”

He smiled a little. There was relief in the thought of having her by his side—but at the same time, his griffin hated the thought of carrying her into danger with him.

“We made it out of one mountain, we can face a second.” She pulled the golden disk up, which she was still wearing as a necklace beneath her shirt. “And there’s a reason we found this together. Even the chimera said so.”

“Yes, well, he has no idea what it’s like to have a mate. He wouldn’t understand.” Gareth was one of the rare cases of a powerful shifter who hadn’t found his mate in time, but who hadn’t lost his life or his sanity as a result.

Jared shivered instinctively as he thought of Gareth’s fate. Maybe insanity—or death—would have been better than what Gareth went through. What he was still going through.

“Are we or are we not mates?” Chiara stared at him, hands at her hips.

Her eyes were narrow with determination, gleaming fiercely. Her lips were pressed together, she’d tied about ten different charms around her wrists—just in case, she’d said—and Jared knew that there was no one else he’d rather have by his side.

“If you two lovebirds have a moment,” the chimera growled at them from his shadows.

Chiara turned and marched towards him, unfazed. Jared found himself smiling helplessly as he followed her.

For all that she’d claimed to hate the shifter world when they’d first met, he’d never seen anyone get along so well so quickly with the chimera.

“What have you got for us?” she demanded. “Really, if you’d just let me see your library—we could scan your scrolls and build a database and—”

The chimera roared. “So that humans can hack my books apart? Ginny has told me all about human technology. I know all about their magics.”

“It’s hack. Just hack. Not hack apart.”

Despite the chimera’s bluster, Chiara sounded amused, obviously enjoying herself.