ELRETH

"I had to watch… I had to watch them decide to leave when it got out of control. They looked at each other, then at me. One of them told me sorry, then they ran for the door, but when they opened it…"

Elreth closed her eyes and swallowed hard. When she opened them, she could see Aaryn staring at the male, his face pained.

They both remembered that fire. She had been fourteen, and he'd been eighteen when it happened. They hadn't known why—fire in the Tree City was rare without a lightning strike.

"I was stuck and I thought I was going to die," Khedyn said, his voice hoarse. "And I thought my friends had left me to die. And when I realized there was nothing I could do—the windows in the upper part of the house were too high, I would have died from the fall. But if I'd had wings I could have flown out easily—it made me so angry, so filled with rage, I laid down on the landing of the stairs and waited for the fire to reach me because nothing seemed fair and I didn't know why the Creator had done this to me before I was even born. I mean, he had to hate me right?"

Elreth put a hand to her chest. "No, Khedyn—"

The male shook his head and raised his hands to her. "No, no, I don't think that anymore. But back then… back then I did. It was the Outsiders who showed me… but that's jumping ahead. Look, I got burned. That's where my scars come from. My parents arrived home just in time. They broke through a window at the top and got me out and they saved me, and they felt terrible and that was the day I realized they loved me, at least a little bit. My mom cried because I was hurt.

"The Outsiders got to me a few weeks later when I turned thirteen, after I was healing. And they helped me. Even more than my parents or my tribe. They… they showed me that I wasn't alone after all. That even though my own tribe rejected me, they didn't. They showed me what it meant to belong. First, just by being my friend. Then, when I got older, they brought me into the cave.

"Aaryn wasn't Alpha then, but he still helped me. Talked to me a lot and introduced me to other Avaline disformed—I hadn't even known there were any! It seemed like I'd been hidden away by my parents, or something, I don't know. I was just so out of touch. It took me years to figure out that there wasn't anything wrong with me, I was just different."

The male rolled his shoulders back and held her gaze, determined, despite the redness in his eyes. "I am Anima," he said firmly. "I am just as Anima as you."

"I know," Elreth murmured, nodding. "I know."

"So, hear me please, Sire. We need our people. We need each other. Because for every Anima who treats us as if there is nothing wrong, another treats us as if we are all that is wrong in the world. It is impossible to grow up with a healthy mind when you spend every day waiting for someone to hurt you—with words, or their actions. It is impossible to see yourself clearly when you grow up being pitied, or hidden, or harmed.

"We need a people, and we need a purpose. We need to prove ourselves to those that think we are inadequate. Our young need the chance to learn that we can be loved, and all of us need to prove that we can be valued by the Anima as a whole."

"You have nothing to prove to me," Elreth said fiercely, looking back and forth between Aaryn and Khedyn, then letting her eyes land on those behind them as well. "The Creator gave me a True Mate who is disformed and who I know to be a better Anima than I will ever be."

Aaryn blinked and his jaw went slack, but Elreth plowed on. "Please don't ever question the value that you hold to me—and to many other Anima. My goal as your Dominant is to ensure that you and your offspring all have the opportunity to see your own worth, and to be valued by the Anima. The only question is how do we best go about making that happen with the least amount of conflict to you. And that's why we're here. So, I can better understand what you face, then help you find your way through so this is not a story that we see repeated in the next generation."

There were murmurs of approval, and some whispers of conversation, but no one interrupted.

Khedyn looked at Aaryn and something passed between them. But Aaryn shook his head. The Avaline looked down. "Thank you, Sire. I hope… I hope you will seriously consider our needs. I do not wish to see another young disformed walk the very lonely path that I was forced to take."

"Neither do I," she reassured him as best she could. "And I promise, I will keep listening, hearing all of your stories. We will find a solution to this."

Aaryn clapped the male on the back and he stood, bowing his head to Elreth, then trading seats with one of the other three who had been lined at the front to address her directly.

But in truth, Elreth thought, they didn't need more stories. They needed solutions. They needed to determine how best to bring the disformed into their own strength so they could thrive.

She suspected she knew what Aaryn would propose at the end of this, but she respected that the disformed had gathered to be heard, so she would listen.

But her mind turned the problem over and over.

Because she'd just reassured the Elders that she wasn't looking for any other traditions to break. But creating an entirely new tribe out of the old was… about as radical a thing as she could do.

She risked outright mutiny from the bigots. And while she refused to cater to them, her father's lessons about war and the manipulation of people, kept coming back to her.

She was going to solve this. She was.

But she was going to have to step very, very carefully to do it.

Thank the Creator she had Aaryn nearby.