Taming the Queen of Beasts

AARYN

Aaryn hovered at Elreth's shoulder as she walked out. She was steady, but he could smell her uneasiness and as they passed out of the sight of the people he took her hand, twining their fingers.

She gave him a grateful glance and rubbed his arm. She looked like she was about to say something when Tarkyn appeared in front of her, his face serious.

"What is it?" Elreth asked him and he felt the jolt of nerves in her.

Tarkyn shook his head. "I just want to be close by for a time to make sure… I'm not certain what kind of response we're going to have to this."

Elreth nodded. "Me either. Thanks. But I doubt they're coming for me. I'd be more concerned that any of the critics might target the disformed. Can we get some patrols in the City for the next couple days? Keep it subtle—just have guards around, available. Tell them to keep an eye out for any tensions or violence. Keep them moving and put the signals in place in case there's any kind of… group activity," she said with her teeth set.

Aaryn squeezed her hand.

Tarkyn nodded. "I've already got guards circulating. I don't like not knowing which way this is going to lean."

Elreth sighed. "Me either. We still don't have a reader of the winds, right?"

Aaryn and Tarkyn both shook their heads.

Elreth growled. "I can see why my parents were so thankful for theirs. I just couldn't read them out there. It's as if they don't know how they feel about it—or maybe there's just such a mix our instincts sense them all?"

Tarkyn nodded again. "I think things are undetermined for the people right now. Just… listen to your gut, Elreth. I don't think anyone's coming for you either, but it would be the first time I've been unpleasantly surprised. You need to keep yourself safe—you can't protect anyone else if you're hurt."

"I know," she said and reached for his arm. "Thank you."

A flash of jealousy speared through Aaryn and his grip on her hand tightened, but he reminded himself that the male knew his boundaries now. And sure enough, Tarkyn only nodded to accept her gratitude, then stepped out of her grip and turned to instruction a couple of guards that were hanging back behind him.

As they walked on, heading for the exit at the back, Elreth waited until the others were all busy then turned to him. "What was that?" she murmured, her face expressionless.

"I don't like seeing other males touch you."

"He didn't touch me. I touched him."

Aaryn made himself turn to meet her eyes then. "So, maybe I don't like it when you touch other males."

"Tarkyn's like family, Aaryn. I'm not going to—"

"You'll barely touch me in front others, Elreth. Why is he so special?"

Elreth blinked. They had reached the door out into the WildWood and she pushed it open, letting go of his hands to do so, walking through into the darkness outside first, then holding the door for him. Tarkyn was back in the darkness of the backstage, but two of the guards he'd obviously assigned to them shuffled through in their wake. Elreth eyed them, then looked at Aaryn. "Can we talk about this later?"

"Sure." But his chest tightened.

He knew what she would say—that her touches for Tarkyn were like touches for her father. That she touched females too. That she was naturally affectionate and wanted to comfort others…

He knew all that. And he did the same. So why did this bother him?

Because he knew the male had feelings for her. And he was strong and capable and… Aaryn rolled his eyes at himself as they started down trail.

The truth was, he just wanted to hold her close to himself and not let anyone touch her, or her touch anyone else. But he saw the urge for what it was: An unhealthy, selfish compulsion.

Truly what he wanted was for her to be more affectionate with him than she was with others.

"El," he started quietly, praying the guards behind them were too busy to really pay attention to the ball-less admission he was about to make. But even as Elreth turned to face him, there was a snap of the twig off the path, in the dark between the trees, and they both jerked to face it, the guards whipping through to stand between them… then everyone relaxing when Gar stepped out of the trees looking confused at the two guards in fighting stance ahead of him.

"Stand down," he said with a chuckle. "I'm not going to kill my sister, I promise."

Elreth snorted, but she hadn't taken Aaryn's hand again and she folded her arms across her chest. "What's going on, Gar?"

"The disformed," he said, his eyes alight. "They're… buzzing."

"What happened?"

"Little that's bad," he said. "There's a lot of support coming, actually. A lot of families and tribes who've been… observers, now stepping up and offering support that's been too long coming."

Gar glanced at Aaryn and they shared a dry, humorless moment. Gar had been telling Aaryn for years that he believed most of the Anima didn't hold animosity towards the disformed. But they didn't have enough spine to stand up for them either. He'd always claimed when the shift happened, Aaryn was going to see a lot of the population simply accepting them and moving on.

Aaryn had fought the idea… but Gar's expression was a combination of "I told you so," and the uncomfortable acknowledgment of what that meant… that most of the Anima had stood by while a portion of their society was oppressed. And they'd done nothing. And now they wanted to just… pretend that hadn't happened.

Aaryn rolled his eyes, but his anger was sharp and fierce. He was going to have to watch himself in his responses to this as they brought the disformed together before the tribes. He couldn't afford to create conflicts as they found their place.

But he was going to have some words to say. Some very intentional words.

"That's good, right?" Elreth said, looking back and forth between them, sensing that they were communicating more than they let on. "So, why do you look… tense?"

Gar went very still as if he'd just been smacked and was waiting for the pain. "Because I just got word that two of our trackers are on the trail of that human again. She's back. And this time she's got friends with her."

Aaryn's stomach went cold.

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