ELRETH

She'd had very little sleep when she crawled out of the furs the following morning. She and Aaryn had talked deep into the night, her picking his brain on every detail he could think of. But because he hadn't been a part of the Protector training, he was as lost as her on most of that side of the equation.

What she was sure of by the time they dragged themselves to bed was that she needed underline with Tarkyn that finding that human was the number one priority. And that her own focus needed to go into understanding everything the disformed were doing around the traverse and training their people there.

She couldn't pinpoint what made her so certain, but Aaryn's awareness of all the other aspects, yet complete ignorance of the humans coming into Anima had to mean that the danger—or at least, the central risk, came from whatever the disformed were doing in their contact with the humans.

Leaving Aaryn to sleep, she rushed out of the cave before breakfast to catch Tarkyn and get him mobilized to find the human, then she hurried back to the security building where she had agreed to meet Gar, her mother, and Tarkyn again that morning.

She knew Tarkyn was going to be late because she'd told him to get a second team on patrol of the traverse. She couldn't feel secure if so many humans had already come into their land without being identified. She wanted more eyes, more noses, in the area.

He'd sighed, but agreed and trotted off to ready another team.

When she walked into the building, Aaryn was already there, sitting in a chair, staring at the floor. He startled when she came in, but they were alone. No one else had arrived yet.

She walked right to where his feet extended into the center of the circle where they'd sit in council and as he pulled them up, she stepped between his knees, then knelt, resting her arms on his long thighs and holding his eyes.

"You don't have to do this. You can rest," she said quietly. "I can explain to them all—"

"No," he shook his head, and his jaw went hard. "I need to hear all of this to, Elreth. I need to be ready to help. And probably help Gar, too. I mean, he's even more crucial now. If we don't get everything out of his head and into ours, who knows what goes to the grave with him if he falls in this?"

Elreth blinked. It hadn't occurred to her until that moment that Gar was in danger. Or her mother. Or anyone else personally. She'd been so busy thinking about how to protect their world—and therefore, all the lives of everyone—she hadn't actually let herself think about what would happen to individual people that she loved if this went badly.

Her sudden jolt of fear must have shown on her face, because Aaryn took her hands and pulled her up, to her feet, then into his lap, wrapping his long arms around her and holding her.

"We're in this together, El," he said. "You watch for the people, and I'll watch for you. Between us we'll keep everyone safe."

She nodded and clung to him tighter. She shouldn't have indulged herself, she knew. A Queen didn't sit in the council rooms cuddling. But she was already so tired, and so scared..

"Thank you," she whispered, then pulled back far enough to meet his eyes. "Thank you for sticking with me even though you're dealing with so much. And thank you for loving me when you have so many other things to think about."

"I've always loved you, El, you know that," he said with a sheepish grin. "No one else even comes close."

They both heard the unspoken then—the loss of his family, his ties to his tribe—but neither of them raised it. Instead of commenting on that, Elreth put a hand to his cheek and leaned in.

"You're mine now," she whispered. "Part of my pride—or I'm your pack. I don't know which it is. Maybe both. All I know is, neither of us has to do this alone."

Aaryn nodded and leaned in to steal a kiss.

They were still kissing, slow and soft, when the door creaked and Elreth threw herself off his lap so quickly she almost fell on her ass on the floor.

"Don't mind me," Gar snickered from the doorway. "I know how important the succession for the crown is. Don't let me intrude."

Elreth huffed out a breath and steadied herself on her feet, her hands clenched to fists at her side. But before she could tell her brother where to put his intrusion, Aaryn stood up, chuckling. "Always know how to make an entrance, brother," he said.

"All I did I was open a door," Gar said. "It was Elreth who did the fancy dismount."

Elreth closed her eyes for a moment and took control of her temper before she snapped her brother's head off. She counted to five like her father had taught her, then opened her eyes.

Which was when she saw the haggard look on her brother's face. Dark smudged bags under his eyes, red eyes, and lines on his forehead and cheeks.

He looked like he'd gotten even less sleep than Elreth.

"Are you okay, Gar?" she surprised herself by asking genuinely. "Did you sleep at all?"

"I got an hour," he said, flapping a hand like it was unimportant. "I've been trying to figure out how to show you everything as efficiently as we can. And the only thing I can figure out is that we need to do an actual training session, at the traverse, so you can see it. So whenever you want to go that far, let me know. I'll make it happen."

"How about this morning?" Elreth asked quickly.

Gar blinked. "I mean.. don't you want to see the training they do? The tracking and—"

"I think someone can take Tarkyn through that, right? I've been thinking about it all night. I'm pretty sure all the important stuff is happening around the traverse. And I think.. I think I might have to go across, so—"historical

"What?" Gar snapped.

In the same moment Aaryn growled, "Absolutely not."

Elreth glared at both of them.. "That's the beauty of being Dominant," she said with a warning growl, "is that I don't have to ask permission."