Chapter Six: Magnitude
Griffins' family still sat in his family home a little shocked, George was not only shocked that his neighbour knew about Griffin and his secret, but that Griffin would go as far to kidnap Rose!
“Oh Griffin, what have you done?” His mother begins to cry placing her head in her hands slightly, whilst Maxwell stood with his hands on his lips looking beyond angry that his disgrace of a brother had taken his mate.
“I can tell you what he has done mother! He has kidnapped my mate as a revenge ploy due to being ordered to leave her alone! I swear when I get my hands on him, he will be ripped apart limb from limb with my bare hands!” Maxwell growls angry but also, trying to keep his wolf at bay who wanted nothing more than shift and find them immediately.
“I know it may seem as though he is doing this for a more sinister reason, but Maxwell, I can tell you they are nothing but friends. Rose has helped Griffin through so much, just like he has her.” George stands up in hopes of defending Griffin in some way, but he was unclear of what Maxwell had seen the night he followed his brother into his mate's window.
“Friends don’t fuck each other!” He shouts with such pure rage pulsing through his body as he recalled what he saw that night, he would have broken through the window and dealt with Griffin then, but he was very aware of how terrified that could be for his mate who knows nothing of their world. “Griffin was very aware that I was stood in that window and loved it! Which is why when I found that piece of shit, he’ll pay with his life.” Maxwell growls so loudly but meant each and every anger filled word which left his lips, George stood to the side at a loss for what he could do, Griffin had crossed such a harsh line that he feared he wouldn’t be able to protect him this time.
“If we are going to locate your mate and Griffin before her father does, we need to put all our angry emotions to the side and focus on what we know about Griffin and where he would run.” Their mother stands up looking at each of them, she was heartbroken for her son but knew she had no other choice to do what was not only right for her other son, but the entire werewolf kind as a whole. “It pains me to admit this, but we know very little about Griffin, but George, we can see how close you two have become, so we know you’ll be vital.” She says turning to look at her brother who still remained at the table, feeling as though he was at the biggest crossroads of his life.
The trip to the cabin ended up taking hours to get to, I ended up falling asleep in the oddest of positions. But when I woke back up, Griffin was looking over at me with a smile whilst pointing towards a little cabin deep in a thick wood. Sitting up straight, I rub my eyes and attempt to not only wake myself up but figure out where in the heck Griffin had taken us.
“Where are we?” I ask my voice raspy in a sense from my nap, from just the outside, it appeared that this place was in the middle of nowhere with just a single road which led up to an old looking cabin.
“The place I booked us to stay remember, I know you’ve wanted a sense of adventure and to be away from the same old place and people for some time, so I knew this place would be perfect!” Griffin smiles also taking his seatbelt off and holding up a set of keys, but I was much too disorientated to really take in what I was being told. “I picked up the keys from the woman while you were sleeping, now come on, you’ve wasted enough time sleeping!” Griffin cheers overly happy whilst throwing open his car door and stepping out, but his cheeriness did not pass on to me.
With a sigh, I reached for the door handle and pull the car door open. But when I stepped out, I couldn’t help the bad feeling which begun to grow in the pit of my stomach. With the door still in my hand I begin to look around my surroundings, I could see nothing but trees and mud, but the feeling wouldn’t budge for even a second.
“Come on Rose, what’s taking you so long?!” Griffin’s voice from the cabins front door is what snaps me out of my trance, I shake my head telling myself I was just nervous as this would be the first time, I’ve left the village without one of my parents.
“I was just taking in the scenery.” I smile closing the car door and making my way closer to the wooden cabin, it seemed old but looked after at the same time. “Tell me again how you found this place.” I say climbing the little stairs of the cabin whilst Griffin pushes the door open, his hand being placed on my back with that same smile on his lips.
“Why is it you want to know all the ins and outs, I found this place so you can relax not go over every detail, now come on.” Griffin exclaims pushing me into the cabin before I had the chance to ask any more questions, in hindsight, I should have asked much more of him whilst I had the chance.
We spent the rest of the day looking around the little cabin to find all that we needed, there was only one bedroom which meant Griffin and I had to share and a tiny kitchen that was next to the living room. Even the bathroom was outside! I didn’t want to tell Griffin how odd I thought it was because it was clear he did so much to set it all up, but I couldn’t shake the bad feeling which was deep in my gut throughout the entire day.
We were sat on the little deck outside of the cabin watching the sun go down, both holding mugs of fresh hot chocolate and enjoying the time we had together.
“I wonder what other secrets lay hidden in those woods; I mean I wouldn’t have thought a place like this would be here.” I smile looking towards Griffin, but as soon as I mentioned the surrounding woods which we were sitting in the middle of, I noticed how tense he became.
“I don’t think there’s anything else exciting in there, perhaps just miles upon miles of trees, we shouldn’t waste our time walking through trees.” He says before taking a sip from his hot chocolate so I couldn’t see what his expression was, but that comment didn’t remotely sound like something he would say.
“But I thought you were Mr adventure; wouldn’t you want to take a walk through just in case there was a magical hidden waterfall of some sort?” I ask with a little laugh hoping he would join in with my joke, but the tension I saw grew inside of him quickly turned to anger.
“I told you we’re not taking a walk through there and that’s the end of it!” He shouts causing me to jump slightly and stare at him in disbelief, once he saw me jump from surprise he sighs. “I’m sorry Rose, it’s just I want this trip to be special and have planned it all. I guess with my family showing up out of the blue and telling me what I should or should not do it’s starting to get to me, I shouldn’t have taken it out on you.” He says looking at me with such sorrow in his expression, but I only smile reaching over to take his hand in mine.
“You don’t need to apologise Griffin, I know the kind of pressure that you’re under, but please remember, you don’t have to do anything you don’t want to. Your family can tell you all they want from you but if you don’t want to do it, there is nothing forcing you. You are the person pulling the strings to your own life, don’t let some other people who probably don’t even care about your wellbeing to be the puppeteers of your life.” I smile hoping to make him see that even if his family are trying to make him do things their way, at the end of the day, it’s his decision to make and only his.
“But that’s the thing Rose, for years I wasn’t the person pulling the strings to my life and when I finally broke free, I made some horrible decisions that I payed some of the price for but there is still more to come not only for me but for so many others. I was just so sick and tired of all the decisions being made for me that it was like an impulsive thought that I couldn’t help but act upon.” He explains telling me more about his life before we met than I ever have, so I sat beside him silently on that step and listened. “It has been years since I made the decisions I did and I’ve changed so much, I guess whilst I was away from that life and it wasn’t all shoved in my face and I could be a different person, I had hoped the issue had all gone away and everybody had forgotten about it, but it seems in my absence, it’s only gotten worse.” He sighs putting his head in his hands, I reach forward placing my hands on his shoulders, but I was extremely limited on what I could do, I had no idea what decisions he had made.
“I’m sure whatever happened and whatever you chose to do all of those years ago is going to be okay, it may be hard at first but if it’s what you believe should be done to fix it, do it and it’ll all be okay.” I say hoping I was using the right words, but when he lifts his face up with faint tears rolling down his cheeks, I knew there was much I didn’t know about this situation.
“That’s the thing Rose, I don’t think there is a safe way out of this and if there is, I’m going to hated and punished for the decisions I made. I know for you, you have only seen the better guy that I had turned into once I met you, but you have to understand how much of a different person I was back then. If I had the same attitude I have now, there would be no chance that I would do anything that I did but didn’t and can’t.” He says looking me in the eyes with such worry that I was lost for a moment, I have seen Griffin nervous and scared on numerous occasions, but never like this.
“That’s the thing Griffin, you can’t change the past, it’s gone and buried and there is nothing you can do to change that. But you can change your future and the decisions you are going to make now; those are the ones that count. I can’t say what you did was right or wrong because I don’t know what you did, but I know there is always a way out of every situation, even if at the time we don’t see one, things have a funny way of working themselves out when we need them to.” I smile my hand still rested on his shoulder, where he cracks the first smile since this conversation and takes my hand to place a kiss on my knuckles.
“I wish I had the same outlook on life as you do, I don’t want to tell you what I did because I know you won’t understand it but also, I don’t want you to look at me differently because of the stupid decisions that I made.” He says still holding my hand so tightly, but shaking his head he sits up straight snd places my cup on the ground so he could hold both of my hands. “You have to promise me Rose, no matter what you may see or hear about me or what I have done in my past or the things I will need to do to not only keep myself safe but also the people I care about, you will always think of me as the person you see before you now. Please remember that when those decisions were made, I didn’t have much other choice but to make them, please.” He begs me but stares in my eyes, I couldn’t deny that now he had said it like that, I was not only intrigued but also, a little scared at the magnitude of what he could have done, but I also knew it was Griffin who I was looking at.
“You’ll always be the bestest friend I could have ever asked for, the person who has helped me through some of the times that alone, would have probably broken me down. There is nothing you can say or anyone else for that matter that will make me see you any differently, the Griffin that I know is who you really are deep down inside of you, and I won’t look at you any other way.” I smile meaning every word that I said, he looks at me with tears in his eyes where I smile looking at the sky now that the sun had fully set. “Now I don’t know if you remember, but when you gave me the tour of the cabin and I saw the tiny kitchen, you said you’d still make me the best meal that I’ve ever had, us sitting out here in the cold isn’t making it.” I say to lighten the mood with a smile, that same Griffin smile that I know soon fills his face and he stands pulling me up to stand with him.
“Well, it would be rude to leave you waiting any longer.” He smiled picking up our cups and leading me into the warm cabin.