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*****

~ TARKYN ~

For a moment, everything dissolved into confusion. The human woman continued to scream, demanding answers from an increasingly tense Elreth, who muttered instructions to the guards.

Tarkyn kept Harth behind him, but she clearly knew the woman, and was trying to get free to approach her. Tarkyn’s attention was consumed with keeping his mate safe as the soldiers scrambled to protect their Queen, while Gar and Behryn did their best to keep the females calm.

But the human woman wouldn’t be soothed, her dark hair whipping around her face as she looked back in the direction of the trees they’d just emerged from.

“You said he would sleep! He’s going to break! You have to take me back!”

.....

“Calm yourself or I will order you into chains!” Elreth snarled from behind the wall of soldiers. She tried to push past them, but with glances for confirmation from Tarkyn-who nodded to encourage them-the males, who were accustomed to their Queen’s hot-headed nature, shuffled to keep themselves between her and the threat. Though even Tarkyn considered the threat minimal from an unarmed human gripping her own child.

At the word “chains”, the human woman shuddered and froze. She gripped the baby to her chest, who was beginning to whimper.

The woman’s nostrils flared, and Tarkyn was suddenly filled with affirmation as he watched her shake off her panic, assess the situation and those around her, then raise her chin and stare Elreth down.

“Please. I’m asking you to return me to my mate. He’s... he’s spent too much of his life... restrained. He’s panicking. He may hurt himself or someone else. If we go back I can calm him down and... please.”

Her jaw twitched as she bowed her head to Elreth and rolled her shoulders forward in what was perhaps the most reluctant submission Tarkyn had ever witnessed.

And yet, it was a submission.

Elreth, arms folded, regarded the woman with skepticism. “How can you possibly know that he’s awake?” she asked carefully.

The woman’s throat bobbed, her eyes remaining on the ground as she clearly considered whether or not to tell the truth. But then she sucked in a breath and raised her eyes to meet Elreths.

“Our connection, our bond, allows us to speak into each other’s minds.”

Tarkyn blinked at the woman’s obvious courage-and concern-about revealing this information. But there wasn’t time to consider what it meant.

Her lips thinned and her brow furrowed. “Please, I’m not asking for myself, I’m asking for him. I don’t want to see him hurt anyone or... or be hurt. He doesn’t understand. He’s alone and panicking. Please.”

Elreth turned, her eyes flickering between Gar and Tarkyn, who both shrugged. Neither of them knew what had passed between the women before, what Elreth had intended in bringing her there to the cave.

Tarkyn cleared his throat. “I think, perhaps, it might be safer to have the prisoners contained,” he said. “If she’s right and the warrior is aggressive-”

“He’s not aggressive! He’s reacting exactly the same way you did when you woke up and didn’t know where you were! Surrounded by strangers!” Harth said, her eyes silvering with tears. “Why do you all treat people who respond the same way you do as if they’re doing something wrong?”

“Because there’s no way to know their motives,” Elreth snapped at Harth.

Tarkyn’s chest pinched-half of him wanting to shush his mate, because he would have given the same answer. The other half wanting to draw her into his chest to soothe her obvious fear and pain.

Could she hear this warrior as well? Or was she only upset because her Alpha was cornered?

Tarkyn put a hand on her arm as she tried to step around him, shaking his head. He wanted to pull her into his side, but she was watching her Alpha, looking between Elreth and the woman, waiting for the verdict with almost as much anticipation as the human woman.

“Rika?” Elreth asked, turning to look behind Gar.

Tarkyn blinked, he’d forgotten Gar’s mate was there. She was remarkably good at remaining silent and observing without interrupting. It could be unsettling when he forgot her presence.

“I’m here.” Rika’s voice was flat, wary.

“What do you think? Is our human friend here telling the truth?”

“She is,” Behryn piped up and everyone turned to stare at him. “What? I can scent her from here. She’s telling you the truth-and that’s a hive of bees we’re going to be forced to kick over.”

Elreth blew out a breath and clawed a hand through her hair. “Well then, everyone, looks like we’re headed back to the prison trees, she said tiredly. “Can someone please go warn my mate who was hunting down Jayah for me? I don’t want him coming back here and panicking himself-he can’t talk in my head,” she said dryly.

As the human woman breathed a thank you and turned on her heel, hurrying back towards the trees, but being slowed by the guards who ringed her, Tarkyn turned to Harth.

His mate frowned at her Alpha female’s back. He took her hand and began to walk, but Harth’s eyes never left the human ahead.

“What is it?” he asked.

“I just realized,” she said quietly, finally turning to look at him. “That could be me. Here. With you. Or you, among my people. We’re... that’s us, Tarkyn. We’re on either side of this... whatever it is. And no one we trust is going to trust anyone else. How the hell are we going to do this?”

Tarkyn didn’t answer. He knew his face was grim as he walked forward, squeezing her hand, praying that his knees wouldn’t give as his body groaned at the idea of walking across the Tree City again.

But he couldn’t let anyone see his weakness. For exactly the reason Harth had just identified.

It was a terrifying thought.