ELRETH

Elreth wasn't sure why she was surprised that all of the Anima were at the circle before she got there. She wasn't sure why she'd expected to wait. But of course not. Already emotional from her father's intrusion before they left the cave, she was shaky and near tears...

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He'd shown up at the last minute, just as she and her mother were hugging, and he'd stared down at the two of them looking like he might cry.

"My precious girls," he murmured.

Her mother's eyes welled, and Elreth was clearing her throat. Then her father stepped forward and her mother stepped away and Elreth frowned. But Dad took something from her mother's hand, then turned to her and she was suddenly locked in his love.

He took her right hand and pulled it closer to him, staring down at their clasped hands as he took a deep breath. "I'm giving you away tonight," he said gruffly. "Giving you to another male to protect and watch over you, and that's hard, El. You won't realize it until you have your own, but that's really hard. But he's the right one. I know he is. I've watched him love you for your good instead of his own. And anyone can see the Creator made you for each other. So even though this is hard, and even though I might fight it, I want you to know that I know it's right. When the time comes... I want you to use this."

Then he shook out the scarf her mother had given her, and Elreth's breath caught. She'd forgotten. How had she forgotten?

As her tears broke and she worried they might cut through the paint on her face, her father gently wrapped the scarf around and around her wrist, then tied the tiny corners in a knot under her wrist. "Don't give yourself until you know... he said, his voice hoarse and cracking. "But don't wait once you do. You have my blessing, beautiful girl. He's a good male."

Then he looked up into her eyes, and Elreth wailed and fell into his chest, and they clung together for several minutes...

Elreth blinked back to the present, her tears welling again at the memory. She took a deep breath and stepped out of the trees and into the circle, her nerves jangling as they walked into the clearing, but she couldn't see Aaryn right away.

Instead, she was forced to stand there, between her parents, with Gar beside her father, while speeches were given by the elders about the beauty of a union chosen by the Creator, and how the tribes reflected Creation.

She had to stifle a yawn more than once. She kept searching the crowd for him, terrified when she couldn't find him. But she suspected this was intentional. That he was being kept from seeing her also.

But then, finally, there was a lull. And apart from some whispered jokes about first-time matings, and clusters of laughter around them in the crowd, everything was near-silent except for the crackles of the flames on the large fire in the center of the clearing, and the shuffling of feet, and occasional cry of a babe.

Elreth marked the security that Tarkyn had indeed placed in and around the crowd, though Elreth hoped it wouldn't be needed. Then she started to turn, to ask her father what was next, when the skin on the back of her neck prickled and as she turned around she found Aaryn, just feet away, stalking towards her from the dark, his chin down, shoulders back and solid, his pace the confident stride of an Alpha, ready to take control.

He was coming for her, the shadows of the flames flickering across his skin and deepening the lines that marked his muscles. The look in his bright, light blue eyes behind those strands of silver-white hair spoke of nothing more than his love and desire for her.

She literally stopped breathing.

Her parents must have faded into the crowd, because when he reached her, there was no one else nearby.

"Hi," he breathed. "That dress… You're so beautiful, Elreth."

"And you're so handsome!" she whispered back.

He took her hands and they stared at each other for a moment, until a drum began to beat and they both turned their heads toward the fire.

The crowd was getting to their feet, voices and hubbub rising, children being ushered to the edge of the clearing so they would stay clear of the smoke. And then Huncer walked forward with a huge basket of herbs.

She winked at Elreth as she passed, then tossed the basket to the top of the flames.

Smoke began to curl from the basket and the herbs within it immediately. Long, gray fingers of lightly scented smoke, curling and twisting in tendrils that drifted into Elreth's hair, and across the air between she and Aaryn.

The drum beat again, then again, slowly picking up time as the crowd began to move, and Elreth turned to Aaryn, a wide smile on her face.

He beamed back at her. "May I have this dance?" he asked, his voice honeyed gravel.

"Always," she whispered back, smiling wider when he pulled her into his chest.

She took a deep breath and her skin began to tingle. She blinked several times as the entire world seemed to get brighter—as if the light of the flames were able to glow and touch everything. And it all took on a slightly dream-like quality, as if she did not live it, but lived within the one who lived it, held apart, buffered from the dark.

She let go of her breath and it rushed out of her. Aaryn's fluttered in her hair as she began to sway, and his hand traced down her side, seeking to sway with her.

There was a song in the air that she couldn't quite hear, as if it echoed on the edge of the world. Yet the beat of it, the rise and fall of the melody moved her limbs, pumped her heart, and throbbed in her skin.

Aaryn's smile faded until his expression was only quiet intensity, his eyes fixed on hers, his hands stroking, leading, tugging her into the dance, his body rippling against hers.

Her breath came faster, shallow and quick. She put a hand to his firm chest and he trailed his fingers up her bare back so that she shivered and closed her eyes.

Then they swayed together and the world spun around them, but she didn't open her eyes, didn't see it.

Aaryn's breathing quickened, too. When she lifted one hand to his shoulder and he trailed his fingers down her arm, it felt as if her skin rose to meet his touch. To wallow in it.

She completely forgotten the crowd, the rite, everything. All she was aware of was the bubble immediately around her that included her own body, and her mate's—as he took her hand and placed his other palm to her back, and began to lead her in the dance, swooping, turning, stopping only to sway together, then swooping off again. He turned her at one point and ended at her back, his hands trailing up her sides, their bodies swaying together.

That gorgeous, resonant call echoed in his chest, and she called back, dropping her head back against his chest as his lips found the side of her neck and she almost cried out with the rush of prickling skin and sheer desire that his touch rose in her.

Then, as the crowd closed in around them, Aaryn whispered in her ear. "You are my north, Elreth. No matter where I am, no matter what stands in the way, I am always coming for you."

"And you're mine," she whispered back. "Always. Only mine, Aaryn."

He shuddered and sucked on her neck. But she only buried her fingers in his hair and groaned.

She was lost in the warmth of the fire, the firm smoothness of her mate's body at her back, and pumping beat of her own heart that seemed to align with the drums until everything in her pulsed, ready and waiting.

She opened her mouth to tell him that she loved him, but his touch trailed down her side, down her arm, then he was gone. His absence leaving her back cold and her skin dull.

She opened her eyes and turned, looking for him… and found only a wall of males, each with their eyes on her, each reaching, smiling, calling.

All of them determined to keep her from her mate.

Elreth set her teeth and dived in.

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