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– Behryn is BEAR-in

******

~ TARKYN ~

This late in the season, the heat had dried the grass of the Royal Meadow to a dull straw, but some flowers pressed through, their colored petals waving in the breeze of the soldier’s passage.

Before them, on the meadow’s other side, a mountain rose high above the tree canopy, almost into the clouds and at its base, a wide cave mouth loomed dark in contrast to the bright sunlight of the meadow.

To their right as they took the trail across the meadow to the cave, two of the Great Trees had been converted to homes. The Queen’s brother and his mate lived in one, while the Queen’s surrogate father, Behryn-her true father’s oldest and dearest friend-and his mate inhabited the other.

.....

Tarkyn pointed out the doors and windows carved into the trees and explained to Harth that the Trees’ massive root-structures allowed them life, even when the Anima had hollowed their base to make homes.

Harth’s eyes widened, but the soldiers had picked up their pace, and they were approaching the cave.

“Stay submitted, and let me do the talking,” Tarkyn muttered to Harth. “The Queen is fierce, but fair. She’ll listen to me. But do not challenge her. She will not take kindly to it, especially under these circumstances.”

Tarkyn wished he felt stronger himself. Elreth, the Queen of the Anima and their first female Dominant, Alpha of All, had a habit of throwing her alpha power in the path of even the most subtle opposition. Her mate and brother teased her about her Alpha Male Energy.

She did not enjoy it.

But she was her father’s fierce and passionate daughter. Just like the former King who had raised her, Elreth would not entertain any threat to her people. So before Tarkyn demanded his mate’s acceptance, he needed more information about what the Queen and King had discovered about her people, and how so many of them had remained in Anima undetected.

Because Harth would be accepted. Tarkyn would make certain of it.

As they stepped into the shadow of the cave mouth, Harth leaned against him, just slightly, and his heart squeezed as her eyes went wide, following the ceiling of the cave mouth that curled to the right where the massive, wooden door, still retaining its bark and carved to look as if it had grown into the wall, stood half-open to the long royal cave. A giant living room with multiple seating areas opened before them, then the cave turned to their left into the dining area and kitchen, while Tarkyn knew another tunnel led to the Royal’s bed chambers.

Two soldiers led Tarkyn and Harth into the cave, while two followed behind.

But Tarkyn could tell the moment they stepped inside that the Queen and King weren’t there. The cave was silent and cold, and no fresh scent, as if it had been uninhabited for days, not mere hours.

Tarkyn gritted his teeth in frustration. “You didn’t send someone to check where she was?” he growled at Dhartanyn.

The soldier gave him a flat look. “Our orders were to keep any invaders away from the people, and away from seeing the City-and we weren’t to leave our posts until they were detained safely. We haven’t run into anyone we could use to scout.”

“These precautions are ridiculous. I am your Captain, surely I count as a fourth guard while someone else finds the Queen?”

“I’m not so sure, Tarkyn-Sir. I mean... you don’t believe she’s an invader.”

“Because I know her-she’s my mate!”

Dhartanyn’s face was stern. “That doesn’t mean she is a friend to the rest of us.”

“You think the Creator would give me a mate who had malicious intent for the Anima?!” Tarkyn snarled. All four soldiers tensed, but none of them moved. Tarkyn ran a hand through his hair and sighed, chastising himself.

He was tired and venting his frustration on his men. It wasn’t good. But he was beyond caring. He needed to rest, but couldn’t show his weakness. And there was a strange tang entering his mate’s sense that stung in his nose and made him want to press her to his back and search for the enemy.

He looked at her from the side, tried to catch her eye, but Harth was scanning the cave, her gaze sweeping high and low as if the place itself threatened her.

He shifted his weight so his arm rested alongside hers, but she didn’t seem to notice.

“Sir, you weren’t there. You don’t understand. The male the Queen found... his fighting skills... they were... impressive.”

Tarkyn blinked and made himself focus. “Who did he fight?”

“Jham, Dryar, and Nhox.”

Tarkyn almost swallowed his tongue. “The male overcome Nhox?”

“Nhox was the last to engage and shifted the conflict in their favor, but it was his advice to the Queen that these intruders be carefully controlled. If they were to attack in numbers-”

“They aren’t going to attack at all, unless you attack them!” Harth burst out. “Whoever fought probably thought you were going to kill him and was fighting for his life.”

“He was protective of his mate and pup,” Dhartanyn said carefully. “But-”

“Wait-pup?” Harth rushed in. “Did you say pup?”

Tarkyn took Harth’s elbow, she really needed to be more careful with the guards. But Dhart’s eyes narrowed. “Yes, I did. Why?”

Harth blinked and her scent became... wary. Tarkyn’s hackles rose. His first instinct as Captain would have been to insist that she tell what she knew-but something within him, the protective part of his nature, wanted to hold his mate aside. If she feared, she likely had reason to.

“I...” she swallowed, looking back and forth between Tarkyn and the soldiers. “It’s only that there are very few Chimera with young. Very few. So it means, I probably know who they are.”

Every male in the cave tensed.

Tarkyn sucked in a breath. “Harth, please... if you know who the prisoners are, tell us. We can take that information to the Queen as proof that you mean no harm to the Anima.”

“I do mean no harm to you,” she said, bluntly.

“I know, but-”

“But from the way you all speak, how can I be sure you mean no harm to my... my people?”

They stared at her and Tarkyn’s heart sank because the truth was... they likely did. And she knew that.

“Harth...” he pleaded with his eyes. He had to find a way to bring her to Elreth without the Queen marking her an invader. “Please-”

“Please don’t say another word,” a deep voice growled from behind him. Tarkyn turned, uncertain whether to be relieved, or horrified that Gar, the Queen’s brother and War Chief had arrived.

He was a massive male, bronze-skinned and dark haired like his father. Still only twenty, he’d more than match his father in size and power. He was a tribe Alpha, and War Chief and, in Tarkyn’s opinion, a fucking fantastic male. But while Gar had proven his worth time and again, he was also an emotional male, ruled by his senses. His eyes were keen and turned warm at the slightest humor, or cold as ice at the sight of an enemy.

And right now, Gar’s eyes were fixed on Tarkyn’s mate, narrowed and arctic.

The growl puttered in Tarkyn’s throat before he could catch it, the instinct of such a powerful male’s attention centered on his mate with lethal intent. The soldiers shrank back as Tarkyn’s back rippled towards the shift and he snarled, sinking low in his stance to balance his center of gravity and face the threat.

But instead of meeting his aggression in kind, Gar’s head snapped back and his brows rose in surprise. “Tarkyn, I’m glad to see you safe, brother, but why would you stand in defense of an enemy? She is clearly a wolf, but not one of ours. That marks her one of these Chimera, and-”

“And she’s my mate!”

Gar stared at him for a moment in stunned disbelief, then threw back his head and boomed laughter that echoed through the cave.