ELRETH

"What the hell was that?" she asked several minutes later when they were walking along the trail back to the Tree City alone. "What are you even doing here? I thought you had to stay with your mom?"

"She woke up long enough to tell me to go and… I had already been thinking that I can't handle this the way I handled it last time because it didn't work. So I was going to go looking for you anyway and…" Aaryn stalked along next to her, his arm tense and rippling with the tension in him. "What were you doing sparring with Tarkyn?"

"I originally sparred with the soldiers—letting them see if they could touch me—but they couldn't do it, so Tarkyn was showing them—you know what? It doesn't matter. I'm an adult, Aaryn. I'm the Queen. And I'm a trained fighter. It's right for me to be sparring. I haven't done enough of it lately. And it was fun! I know you've had a rough day and things are tense. I get it. I'm wound up too. But you can't come running in any time a male lays a hand on me. We'll never get anything done. I can take care of myself and you know it."

"It wasn't the sparring that bothered me."

Elreth snorted. "You could have fooled me."

"Tarkyn has feelings for you, Elreth."

Elreth stopped midstride and turned to face him, knowing shock and amusement were written all over her face. She tried to stifle the laughter, but she wasn't entirely successful.

"Aaryn, I know it's been a hard day, but… Tarkyn is old enough to be my father."

"Barely. There's plenty of Anima who take mates seventeen years apart."

"Plenty?"

"Well, okay, a few. But that's not the point. He's always had a soft spot for you Elreth, and over the past couple years… I don't mind telling you, I think he was happy that you never took an interest in me before."

"Tarkyn has never shown even the slightest interest in me, Aaryn."

Her mate's hands clenched to fists at his sides and his shoulders tensed. She wasn't sure whether to slap him or kiss him.

"Remember your birthday last year, when he showed up with that potted flower?"

"The one I killed two weeks later? Yeah, I remember."

"He had to climb two hours to get that. That's why it died. It's a mountain flower. But he got up there and got it and brought it down for you. Remember how your dad was kind of weird about it?"

Elreth rolled her eyes. "He's always said my eyes are exactly the same color blue—"

"Exactly my point! He's right!"

"So?!"

"So name me another male who would notice that?"

"Well, you apparently!"

Aaryn stared at her, nodding.

Elreth blinked. "Oh." For a moment she scanned back… was it possible? She'd definitely missed Aaryn's interest, so she wouldn't deny she was kind of clueless about these things. But Tarkyn? No. It couldn't be. "I think… I think maybe you're reading too much into this, Aaryn. He's been a friend of my parents since before I was born."

"And never mated."

"He's been kind of busy keeping my mother alive."

"And watching out for you, too. Remember when we went on that camping trip and he showed up?"

"He was patrolling!"

"I asked around—he's never had that stretch before. He requested it for that shift. After he knew we were going out there."

Elreth shook her head. "I would gamble my father put him up to it—he was really nervous about me taking that trip with you guys."

"Your father isn't stupid, El. He would have sent someone who wasn't likely to sit down and talk with you next to the fire for two hours."

"It was his break time!"

"And he could have spent it anywhere, but he chose to spend it with you and that fire, even after the rest of us went hunting."

She hesitated again. It was odd when she looked at it that way. But… it was Tarkyn!

Tarkyn who'd winked at her that morning in security council.

Tarkyn who'd always spent time at the cave even when he didn't have to be there for work.

Tarkyn who had a strange look on his face today when she said she'd taken a mate—and when Aaryn showed up today at the training grounds…

Creator's Mane… he couldn't be right, could he?

Elreth groaned. "Look, I hope you're wrong, okay, because that would be weird. But even if you're right, it doesn't matter. Because I have found my mate! And nothing is going to change that Aaryn."

She stared at him, watched his expression slowly shift from angry, to disturbed, to… soft. Elreth stepped into him then, rubbing her hands up his arms that felt like steel bars under her palms.

"Aaryn, when I said it was only you, I meant it. Not because I don't care about other people, or… or anything. It's only you because it's you. You don't ever have anything to worry about, whether Tarkyn has feelings for me or not.

He blinked. Then his face cleared and his eyes went dark. Before she could think he had cupped her jaw and pulled her into a searing kiss, his lips seeking, demanding, insistent, but still gentle.

She was startled—but completely game. Smiling into the kiss, she fisted his shirt and pulled him closer, that fire in her belly roaring suddenly high, as if it had been sitting there, banked this whole time, just waiting for him to throw fuel on it.

"I'm sorry, El," he whispered between kisses. "I'm still learning how this works."

"Me too," she gasped against his lips, cupping the back of his neck and pulling him in. "Me too."

"Promise me something though," he said as he kissed his way down her neck and his fingers began to play with her buttons.

"Anything."

"Anytime you feel like driving me crazy, you dominate every male in sight. It's hot as fuck."

She snorted.

"I wasn't joking."

"You don't need to be… jealous, Aaryn," she sighed, dropping her head back so he could kiss his way to her throat. "You're the only one I love."

"I know..." he said softly, licking her collarbone. "I know."

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