ELRETH

Elreth pulled her head back. "What is it?"

"You are already almost exactly like your father, Elreth," Lhern chuckled.

"What?"

What followed was a good-natured story about her father and his temper in the first years of his rule—especially, they said, around the issue of mates and the pressure he was under to take one immediately.

At one point, Huncer was almost in tears with laughter. "…he threw all of us, the entire women's council, out of his cave. All we were doing was trying to show him a list of females that might be a good fit!"

Elreth laughed herself. "Are you serious?"

"Why do you think the people ended up calling the Rite of Survival. At the rate he was going he would have remained unmated past the age of fertility."

"You are doing fine, Elreth," Lhern reassured her with a fatherly smile. "What you need to focus on is not changing things just for the sake of change. Keep what is valuable, what already works. The foundation of your rule breaks tradition, but in a way that I believe we may see gain. Hold to as many of the old ways as you can so that the people will not become frightened that they have lost their Kingdom. The rest will resolve with time."

Elreth acknowledged the wisdom of that advice and thanked them all, then excused herself. They parted with smiles, and her heart was lighter than it had been since she took dominance.

As she left the building, she turned not for the cave, but to look for Aaryn. She would see if he was with his mother, or the disformed, and fill him in. He would want to know what they'd decided, and she was certain he would approve.

And as she walked, smiling, to find her mate, she also resolved to tease her father mercilessly about kicking the women's council out of his cave next time he tried to tell her she was emotional!

*****

AARYN

He left the gathering of the disformed only after spending a good hour talking with many of them. At one point they had almost lined up to ask him questions. But when he finally left the cave and headed back to his tree—he needed to see if his mother was okay—his heart was hesitant, but hopeful.

They were about to see history made for the disformed. The goal he'd had since he was a teen and had heard Elreth passionately argue with her father about how to move the people into greater unity was about to happen.

And he was going to be at the center of it.

He wasn't sure whether to be proud, or terrified. In the end, his chest tightened with both.

Then his mind flashed on that moment in the bathing pools with Elreth—her splayed out on the rocks before him, back arched, and crying his name—and he picked up his pace. If he found his mother in any kind of stable state, he would go find Elreth. They might not be able to return to the pools, but just being close to her would let him breathe easier.

Despite the True Mate's bond, there was a niggle of doubt with him. Not that she loved him—he knew that for truth. He'd scented it on her. But the pressure that would be placed on her because of him… the pressure on her rule for the stances she was about to take… he culdn't help wondering just how much the bond could take. Or, perhaps more likely, how much the people would accept.

He refused to be the reason she lost the throne. She was exactly what the people needed, whether they realized it or not. And he would do everything in his power to make sure that she held the seat.

That thought made him swallow.

What if what she needed to hold the seat was to keep distance from him?

He shook his head. No. Elreth, would never accept it. And neither would he. So there was one thing he would not do to help her sustain her rule.

He would not, under any circumstances, give her up.

They would fight. Or she would, with him at her back.

They were just going to have make sure that they won.

He nodded to himself and settled with the conviction. There just wasn't any other way forward for them. They were intended by the Creator. He had to trust that, no matter what challenges they face, the Creator would guide them to success.

Aaryn sighed as he turned onto the path that would take him to his home tree, and his mother, and his stomach clenched. He didn't know what he was going to walk into there and it made him nervous. And that made him angry. He hadn't felt this kind of tension about going home since he'd been little more than a pup. It made his hackles rise in frustration at himself. He was bigger than this, stronger than this. Elreth was in it with him, and he'd get the help of the wise-women if his mother wasn't out of bed yet.

He wasn't ten anymore. He could handle this.

Ignoring the questions that niggled at the back of his mind, he was staring at the dirt of the trail and trying to calm the fluttering in his stomach when he heard his name called softly from up ahead in the most beautiful voice in all creation.

He snapped his head up, and his heart fluttering for an entirely different reason when he saw her, trotting toward him on the trail, her red braid bouncing on her shoulder.

She threw her arms around his neck when she reached him, pressing herself against him.

He thought they should be more careful and looked around the trail even as he wrapped his arms around her. But having her there, her smell, her warmth… he couldn't resist.

It wasn't like he'd never hugged Elreth over the years, right?

"Are you okay? How did it go with the Elders?" he whispered.

"I'm fine now," she said. "And it went really great with the elders. I just… I just needed to see you."

He squeezed her tighter and nodded into her shoulder. "Me too, El. Me too."