ELRETH

Every hair on her body stood up as her brother did everything but challenge her outright. While the rest of the disformed submitted, showing respect, he faced her, arms folded, and poked her with the disillusionment of the very people she was trying to help.

Only years of warnings from her father about catching herself before she lost her temper—and her recent regrets around things she said to the elders—held her back from unleashing on her brother until he was kneeling before her.

But that hesitation, that half-breath of quiet, was suddenly filled by her mate.

Aaryn stepped between them, facing Gar. "Stand. Down," he growled.

Gar just raised an eyebrow. "I know she's your mate, but she's my sister. I don't stand down for her unless she deserves it."

"She deserves it by virtue of her dominance and her position in the hierarchy—stop pulling this shit, Gar. I thought we were on the same page here?"

"No, you thought I was on your page," Gar snarled and stepped up to Aaryn. "But then you yank me out of training like I'm some kind of messenger boy, and I turn up here to find you accusing me of lying to them—" he threw a pointed finger out towards the gathered disformed—when all I'm guilty of is helping people get stronger, and giving them options."

"It is part of the vow that we do not, under any circumstances, bring humans into Anima!"

"And we never deny True Mates! Why make out like there's any kind of choice there—what is Marryk supposed to do?"

"STAY IN THE HUMAN WORLD WITH HIS MATE TO KEEP THE REST OF US SAFE!" Aaryn screamed, his face going red with rage.

Gar's eyes narrowed. "So quick to separate families. So quick to decide that we should all just give up everything we know—"

"What do you think they'd be doing out in the desert!?"

"Building a life!"

"Then let them build on in the human world. This is the first vow, Gar. This is your domain. You are supposed to be making sure this doesn't happen, and yet, here we are, and you want to play the victim, right now?"

"No, but I also won't play the villain," Elreth's brother growled. "I'm not your scapegoat because you hid this from your Mate. I'm the one who trained them. And sure, I encouraged them to find their females if they could. Why not? Not everyone has a mate in high places."

Elreth sucked in an angry breath. "That's enough, Gar, this has nothing to do with our Mating."

Gar snorted. "It has everything to do with your mating—because until you mated her, you were a part of this. A part of us! You kept our secrets. Now you storm in here demanding answers and wonder why no one told you?"

"I kept the secrets of those who owned them, but I did not hide this from the Crown," Aaryn snapped.

"No, you just turned a blind eye so you could stay innocent of it all, but let us keep going anyway. Well, I might be 'breaching the safety of the kingdom' but at least I don't pretend that I'm doing everyone a favor while I kiss my mate's ass!"

Elreth gasped as Aaryn exploded in a tornado of snarls, limbs, and teeth.

Gar, taken by surprise, didn't brace correctly, and Aaryn had him stumbling back, through a few of the gathered disformed until he came up hard against the wall of the cave, Aaryn snarling in his face.

"Congratulations, Gar. You did it. You got me to snap. Now what?" Aaryn hissed in his face. "Are you ready to address this like an adult, or do we throw years of work down the drain because you're jealous?"

"Jealous?!" Elreth gulped.

Aaryn nodded sharply, but didn't take his eyes off Gar's. "Your brother wants to mock me for kissing my Mate's ass, but he yearns to have an ass to kiss of his own—and sometimes it comes out in completely juvenile expressions of—"

"Okay, enough is enough," Elreth said, putting up both of her hands. "This isn't getting us anywhere. Aaryn, let him go, he's not going to fight you because he risks losing, so he'll just put his hands up and let you win so he can always say he didn't try.

"Gar, stop acting like a prick and tell me what's going on with this plan to bring humans back—and where is they think they're going? Who are they trying to join?"

With a snarl, Aaryn pushed away from Gar and walked past Elreth to pace the floor beyond where the disformed were gathered, gaping, as their leaders argued amongst themselves. Elreth's teeth were on edge. This kind of backbiting was fine in privacy—sometimes it was needed. But in front of an audience it just showed weakness.

"Gar?" she asked when her brother didn't answer, just glared at Aaryn's back. She put her hands on her hips. "Are you here to help the disformed, are you here to bait me? Because if you're here to help, I need you right now. I need to know what's going on, and why it's been hidden."

Gar took a deep breath then ran a hand through his hair and shook his head. "There was no plan. This wasn't a conspiracy," he grumbled eventually. "My entire point has been to look for those who were ready to snap. Who needed a purpose. The ones with integrity, those are the ones we train." He lifted his eyes to meet Elreth's. "They vow, before we teach them, that they will not bring anyone from the human world into Anima, and that they will not take anyone from Anima across who has not been approved by the Alpha, or the crown."

"And yet?" she asked.

"A couple years ago we had one of the males find his true mate—but she was supposed to be Mating—marrying, another male. He brought her back. I ripped him a new asshole for it, but I understood the instinct. And once she was here it wasn't like we could send her back, was it? So, I gave him a choice. He could take some supplies and head out beyond the WildWood territory and try to find the banished ones that we knew were out there, and maybe make a home with them. Or we could throw the entire tribe into peril, and tell my father what had happened."

Elreth narrowed her eyes. "Why the hell would you think banishing someone was better than telling Dad? He had no prejudice against the disformed."

Someone in the group snorted and Elreth made a mental note to track down who it was later and tell them the truth about her father. But this wasn't the time.

Gar rolled his eyes, "I didn't banish him—he had to leave the WildWood to keep himself and his mate safe. For fuck's sake, it took them ten years to get used to Mom, and she was Queen. Imagine what they'd do to a human in the tribes?

"Anyway, it was never intended to be a thing. A couple people heard about it at the time. But we kept it quiet. And usually there's no problem. But here and there…" Gar shrugged and looked uncomfortable. "I'm never going to stop someone who needs a change, or needs to take control of their life. So instead, I made sure the rest of us were safe, and sent them out. And so far, it hasn't been a problem. It wouldn't have been a problem this time except you two were out there making it like rabbits. If you hadn't known, this wouldn't be an issue."

Elreth gaped, but Gar just stared her down.

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