SURPRISE! 2 chapters tonight, just because you're awesome! Look for another one in half an hour!

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ELRETH

While he gaped at her, she filled him in on all of it—the fight with their father, the conversation with him afterward, how he'd planned the whole thing just to bait her. How angry Aaryn was.

Everything.

Right up to her choosing Cohorts and Aaryn denying her.

"What the—holy shit! Are you serious?" Gar rasped. Elreth nodded, her head still on his shoulder. "Why the fuck would he do that?"

She took a deep breath and he caught the hitch in it and turned to look her in the eyes, his softer than usual. It reminded her of the way he used to be, the way he used to look before he got so angry. "What is it?" he asked her quietly. "What's going on with the Silver Fox?"

It was Gar's nickname for Aaryn—based on a Silent One, an animal, in the human world. She didn't really understand, but Aaryn seemed to think it was funny.

"He, um… it turns out he said no because if he became a Cohort we couldn't ever… mate," she said with a gulp.

Gar stared for a second, then he pushed up on his elbow, dumping her head down on the pillow. "He admitted that?! To you?!"

"You knew too?!" she wailed.

"Fuck, Elreth, everybody knows."

"I didn't! Why didn't anyone tell me?"

Gar snorted and laid back down, his arms bent up under his head. "Because, you know, you're so easy to talk to about things you don't want to hear," he rumbled.

Elreth rolled her eyes.

"So, did you let him down easily?" he asked a minute later when she hadn't said anything.

Elreth bit her lip. "I… I didn't let him down," she said carefully.

He was up on his elbow again in a flash, staring at her. "You're shitting me."

"Would you stop swearing?"

"Tell me what the fuck you did with Aaryn—are you guys going to walk the flames and smoke?"

Gar liked Aaryn a lot more than he liked their father. Elreth grabbed the pillow he'd hit her with and put it over her face. "I kissed him, and gave him the signals, and he said no," she whispered into it.

"You did WHAT?"

"Would you keep your voice down? Mom and Dad will hear you!"

"El!" he yanked the pillow off her face and leaned over her, holding her wrist when she tried to whack him. "Seriously. Did you say you gave him the signals? And he said NO?"

She nodded, and the shock on his face, the pure disbelief, struck a chord in her that brought the tears she'd been fighting all night.

Her chin trembled, and Gar's eyes went wide. "Oh, no. Don't do that here. If you're going to get weepy, go talk to Mom."

"Don't be an asshat, Gar," she sniffed. "I'm just.. I barely slept. And I'm so confused! He was the one who kissed me! And Dad says because I tried to control things that's what put him off. He got some stupid idea in his head that I didn't want him, I just wanted to mate—"

"You talked to DAD about this?"

"I didn't have any choice. He caught me coming back to the cave."

"The cave? You're in the cave already?"

"They moved like three hours later, Gar. I'm serious. Like, if I didn't know better, I'd think he's been trying to convince me to do this because he was just worn out and wanted to be done."

"What the hell happened? I was gone less than a week!"

"I told you. You missed big stuff!"

"Yeah, but you were always going to take the crown. This Aaryn thing… like… that's big."

Elreth groaned. "Please stop teasing me."

"I'm not. That's huge. Poor Aaryn."

"Poor Aaryn?!"

"Yeah. He should go to the human world because the women there love anima because of how strong we are. He wouldn't need you then…"

She knew he was teasing, but it still cut her deep.

"Maybe you should go to the human world too, El, and get this all out of your system?" Then he cut her a look and his lips pressed together. "Well, it probably wouldn't work for you."

"What? Why not?"

"You'd scare the shit out of them. They wouldn't know what to do with you."

She whacked him with the pillow and he laughed and let himself fall back onto his pillow. But when she sighed he pulled her into his side.

"You'll get through this, El," he said quietly. "You always do."

Elreth sighed.