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Tarkyn nodded, it was the thought he’d had when Harth described her upbringing and the way the humans had treated her as an adult, too. He prayed that Elreth and the others had stayed close enough outside to be hearing this nightmare.

“My training meant that I was given what they considered special treatment-I wasn’t confined to the cages or Thana at all times. I was taken into the human world and taught to live. But I was nothing but a tool,” he snarled. “They used me-my strength, my abilities-they turned me into a weapon, then did everything they could to deceive and manipulate me so that I would serve them willingly.”

Sasha had bent her head over the baby who was now asleep, but Tarkyn could smell her tears and see the shaking of her shoulders. He ached to comfort both of them.

“Harth told me-”

“No, she didn’t. I can guarantee she didn’t tell you all of it, Tarkyn. Because she’d know it would snap you like a twig if she did. No one should have to live through that-and no one who loves them should have to imagine it.”

Sasha raised her head to look at her mate’s back, her eyes red and shining as she stared at him, worriedly.

Tarkyn’s breath got shorter. He’d known Harth was holding back, but he’d thought it was to protect herself. Was it possible she’d been trying to protect him?

.....

She needed to know he would carry her pain. Thoughts of her, joined with the rush of emotion that swirled in his stomach, brought his awareness of her to the fore, and for a moment he forgot what he was there to do, his entire consciousness consumed with her.

‘Tarkyn, what is it?’

Her voice in his head was a balm and a cry of relief. ‘I love you, Harth. I love you no matter what has happened before. And I’ll keep loving you. Let me share your burdens, beautiful. I am strong. I can help you carry them.’

He could feel her shock through the bond-even the way her skin prickled at his words. ‘I... what is going on?’ she asked faintly.

‘Your Alpha stands in defense of you and his people,’ Tarkyn said, blinking, reminding himself of the Pair in front of him. ‘And his words reminded me of your story. Please don’t feel that you have to protect me from it, Harth. Please.’

‘I... I don’t know what to say.’

‘You don’t have to say anything now. I just needed you to know. Now, keep praying. I’m trying to bring our people together so that we can all be at peace.’

She sent him a rush of love through the bond, then he turned his attention back to the wolf and his mate.

‘With all of this behind you and this hope for a peaceful life here, why did you attack when you arrived?’ Tarkyn asked, though he was certain he knew the answer, he hoped it would be a reminder to Elreth.

Zev’s eyes narrowed. “I’d just spent months-years-trying to free my people,” he seethed. “I’d let them come ahead so that my mate and I could go and pry our child from the hands of those fucking humans. We almost died in the process, but we made it. We had just taken our first steps into safety, we thought. I’d barely had a chance to even touch my son-and immediately we met that Queen.”

The wolf’s tension was rising again. Tarkyn wanted to soothe him, but he tried to imagine having been in a place where he could have lost not only his people, but also his mate and child.

It didn’t bear thinking about.

“She called my mate a bitch and came for her.”

“Because she was human,” Tarkyn reminded him. “If you’d met a human here would you have responded any differently?”

“My mate submitted to your Queen,” Zev said bitterly. “She did everything in her power to make herself smaller than she deserved to be.”

“And she was human. Would you have trusted that from a human?” Tarkyn knew he was being relentless, but they all needed to look at these moments from each other’s perspectives. He couldn’t see another way through them.

Zev took another step closer to him, his hand clenched to fists at his sides. “She had my mate thrown to the ground-while she still held my son. Would you have trusted anyone who did that to yours?” he snarled.

Tarkyn blinked. Elreth had done that?

An image of Harth holding such a precious burden, yet tossed to the ground, flashed in his head and his entire body tensed. He wanted to roar.

“I hope and pray,” Tarkyn said through his teeth, “that my soldiers were... more careful than that. But if they were not, they will meet with the discipline of our hierarchy. Children are precious to us. They are not to be used as pawns.”

Sasha scoffed and gave him a disbelieving look, but Zev spoke again before Tarkyn could ask her why.

“In the wake of that-which I might have understood because I had defended-I woke bound and tormented. I woke unable to move, my body in chains. After I’d sworn I would never let myself be bound again.” His voice was cold, emotionless, but Tarkyn had been there when he was freed. He knew that was only Zev’s control so that he wouldn’t let himself feel the fear and rage of that moment.

Tarkyn would have done the same thing.

“I acknowledged you in that moment,” Tarkyn reminded him. “When we saw you freed, we knew what you were suffering. I acknowledged you then, and I acknowledge you now.”

“Oh, good,” Zev sneered. “That makes it all better.”

Tarkyn raised a hand to soothe him. He could smell the wolf’s anger rising. Behind him, his mate looked alarmed. They must have spoken through the bond, because her eyes cut to Tarkyn and she shook her head.

“How would you feel, I wonder, if I took Harth from you?” Zev asked, his voice chillingly calm.

“None of us are humans-neither the Chimera or the Anima. And none of us should ever stoop to the cruelty that the humans put you through.”

Zev took one more step and snarled through his teeth. “Tell that to your Queen.”