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Chapter 499: Beast in the Traverse - Part 1

GAHRYE

Gahrye gripped his fingers deep in the scruff of Elia\'s beast\'s neck as the cold, dank scent of the Traverse hit him.

Her lion growled and began to tremble. She\'d stopped as soon as they entered, which was good. Gahrye needed a moment to open his skin and get the blood flowing before they stepped forward.

In the distance he could see the light of the other end glowing. He didn\'t remember seeing it so clearly last time. Perhaps with each crossing it became clearer?

"You must stay close to me, Elia. I have to be touching you, I think. Unless… unless I\'m touching you I don\'t know what they can do. So just… don\'t run, okay?"

The beast held her low, rolling growl and didn\'t look at him. Laying the blade to the inside of his forearm, praying that it would work as it had when he\'d gone through alone, he waited for the bite of the cold metal, then until the blood began to drip before he stepped forward, holding to the loose skin at the back of the lioness\'s neck.

An echo of hissing voices and fury began, far away this time, as if they\'d seen him coming and were hanging back, but they couldn\'t resist letting him know they were there.

Gahrye swallowed and took another step.

Elia\'s beast darted forward as he began to move, and adrenalin rushed his system in a panic that she would run off. But she felt his grip on her scruff and hesitated, her growl intensifying.

For the first minute they walked unhindered, Gahrye\'s eyes fixed on the portal at the other end, the lioness swinging her massive head side to side, her growl rising every time one of the voices got louder. But when they didn\'t approach, Gahrye\'s breath came easier. It was working. It was working!

Gahrye\'s heart thudded so hard he could feel it in his skin. But they were well onto the path, the yawning chasms either side of them, before the voices approached. He didn\'t know what had held them back—perhaps the beast?—but suddenly, with a rush like a stiff wind, they began to circle. Unlike when he\'d come through alone, they seemed to want to rush Elia\'s beast, always keeping their distance from his blood, but whipping close in the air around them until one came so close, the beast\'s fur ruffled and she snarled, sinking back on her haunches.

Gahrye wasn\'t sure if she was about to launch herself forward, or was balking about moving any further. But before he could offer her any encouragement, they started speaking.

And this time they weren\'t just furious.

"Should have listened, Protector. Should have heard us. You lost your chance. Your mate will be ours, in our hands, left alone and weak."

"Stupid, stupid hero."

"She cries for you, Protector, and doesn\'t watch her back."

"The Ancestors will have her because you refused us."

"Go safely, Protector. Enjoy your life. We will take your mate and enjoy her, over and over. She belongs to us, now."

"I will open her skin."

"I will eat her entrails."

"I will drink her screams."

"No," Gahrye muttered. Elia\'s beast snarled again, her head whipping to the side to nudge his bleeding arm that gripped her and he realized he\'d held the skin of her scruff so hard his nails were beginning to break the skin.

But even though he loosened his grip slightly, blinking, trying to clear his mind, he couldn\'t stop hearing the voices.

"Selfish, selfish male."

"Left your mate to the horror of us even after we warned you."

Gahrye shook his head. His hands trembled, but he forced himself to keep walking. They were liars. They couldn\'t do that! Kalle wouldn\'t enter the Portal. She knew she couldn\'t, after seeing Shaw. And she\'d promised—

"The fat one was not the only one in our grip, stupid."

"The asswipe believes himself in love with your mate."

"The asswipe would give anything to have her again."

"The asswipe offers himself to whatever power would strengthen him."

How did they know about that? How did they know that word? Were they in his head?

"He will be our gateway. We will take her and she will break your bond, taking him."

"She will gasp her pleasure in his arms, as she has before."

"She will forget you, Protector. And if she does not, we will use him to kill her."

"No!" Gahrye hissed.

The beast was beginning to tremble, her ears flicking back and forth as she tucked her hind end, her paces quickening. She made a strange, low resonance in her chest and dropped her head.

She wanted to run. She could see the Portal, and she wanted to run.

But Gahrye was sickened, compelled to hear the threats, imagining how that weak, peacock of a male might reach Kalle in her vulnerable state. Searching his mind for how he might stop it from happening.

Elia\'s beast groaned and darted forward a step, stopping when she felt the pull of Gahrye\'s grip on her. But she turned quickly, as if she shied, her great paws scattering dust and small gravel from the path and she eyed the darkness alongside.

"Don\'t!" Gahrye warned her, swallowing hard and forcing himself to focus. "We can\'t go off the path. Just keep walking. Stay close to me and keep walking. They can\'t touch you when I\'m with you."

"Perhaps not, Protector. But we can touch minds."

"We can call hearts."

"We can take. We will take. Everything from you we will take."

The lioness picked up her pace and Gahrye hurried alongside her. The Portal was getting closer, but still seemed so far away, glowing blue as if it called him—called both of them.

Then the voices moved again, circling around in front of them and the lioness sank down again, hissing her displeasure.

"Please, Elia," Gahrye muttered desperately. "We have to keep going. Straight. Head for the light. Don\'t listen, don\'t… don\'t feel them. Just… keep walking."

"Protector protects the lion, but who protects the Protector?"

"Who watches over the Protector\'s mate?"

"Who watches over the Protector\'s offspring?"

Gahrye shuddered to a halt. Elia\'s beast trembled and growled, crouching low.

"Wh… what did you say?"

"He doesn\'t know."

"He doesn\'t know!"

Gahrye blinked. "You… You are liars—"

"We showed you the mate, did we not, Protector? You know our truth."

"We know all truths."

"All possible truths."

"We showed you the mate. Now we show you the offspring."

Gahrye screamed. It was as if someone had lashed him with a whip that landed inside his skull and placed a memory there.

The voices hissed and snarled, apparently pained by being so close to him. But Gahrye, trembling from the rippling pain that had rocked through his head and still hadn\'t passed, stood in place, his breath tearing in and out of his throat. And, just as they\'d done with Kalle, Gahrye saw the image as if it was a memory of something that had already occurred. He saw the little one.

In his mind\'s eye his large, long arms cradled a tiny, warm body. A human male, by it scent. But it was wrapped in a soft wool blanket and he couldn\'t see its face.

Cooing, Gahrye peeled back the layers. "Where\'s my little man?" he whispered in a voice so full of joy and love, it ached in his gut.

And when the blanket was teased back, wide, round eyes the same color as his mother\'s stared up at him from over perfect, round, red cheeks. "Already awake?" he whispered, and smiled.

And he was rewarded with a thick, wet smile hidden behind a tiny fist shoved into his mouth, as the little male blinked up at Gahrye. And he smiled because he saw his father.

******

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