AARYN

Every hair on his arms and neck stood up at the sheer balls Gar had. Was he trying to say this was Elreth's fault… for finding out?

But before he could confront him, Elreth stepped forward and his heart swelled at the dignity and strength she showed, stepping up to her brother without anger, but with sheer confidence and certainty.

"If you ever again imply that my discovering something that puts the entirety of Anima at risk is… an inconvenience, I will have you strung up by your balls until they drop off," she said quietly.

Gar rolled his eyes, but she wasn't finished. "How many humans are in Anima now?"

"Counting Hannah? We now have eight, I think. A couple I can't be sure. I didn't actually see them when they were here. I just know that was the plan."

Elreth's mouth dropped open. "And where are they?"

"They all headed north, looking to see if they could get beyond the desert."

Elreth dropped her face into her hands. "You're telling me you sent humans—weak, smaller humans—through the desert on the chase for some… some rumor?!"

"It isn't a rumor," Gar said through his teeth. "There are Anima out there. What I can't tell anyone is where they'll find them—assuming they're still alive."

"Assuming you aren't just lining up corpses on the desert sands!" she snapped.

Gar stepped up to her until they were toe to toe. He had several inches on her in height, and several more in width, but Aaryn would have backed her in a fight any day of the week.

Gar didn't care enough. Elreth would beat him every time.

"I told you, I won't apologize for giving people choices. No one went out with any lies in their heads. No one went out believing it was going to be easy. They left because to them, trying to find a new life was worth risking the old one."

"Except, they aren't just risking their own lives, they're risking all of ours, too."

"Don't be dramatic."

Elreth swelled and everyone in the cave shrank back. "You think this is a joke?"

"No, I think half a dozen humans free in Anima—where most cubs could beat them at a physical fight—is nothing to be worried about. It doesn't put risk on anyone."

"Except those humans know how to cross. Those humans have been shown how to evade the City—and likely things like the locations of sentries and scouts. And if those humans ever go back, or ever communicate with someone who goes back, and humanity learns about us… Gar, you've been there. Is dad lying? He says they have weapons that could wipe out our entire population in hours."

Gar's face tugged into a frown. "Not the humans we bring over."

"How do they even know about us to begin with?!"

"Would you have hidden Anima from Aaryn when you realized he was your True Mate?"

"No," she said. "But I also wouldn't have hidden him from whoever was King, or Queen—or the elders, or… whatever was needed to make sure he could come in safely, and without breaching the safety of our people! Gar, stop being stubborn! Think this through—do these humans know they're coming here before they come? How do they prepare? How many people might they have a chance to talk to—or worse, might be followed? Humans don't give up their young without a fight!"

"No one has had to fight to get out. It's only been a matter of time and planning—"

"And lying! Creator's Light, Gar, do have any clue what you're doing? The risk you're putting our entire world under?!"

"No," he said flatly. "Freedom to choose is not a risk."

"It is when you don't know who else you're inviting in—or what they might bring with them. Do we search bags? Do we even ensure none of these weapons have come with the humans who've come through already?"

Gar blinked and Elreth snorted the air from her nose. "I can't believe you. I can't…" She growled and shook her head in disbelief. "You seriously want this place pulled down, don't you? You want all of us destroyed so you and your little… whatever it is can tell yourself that you were right. That the problem was all of us. But you're wrong, Gar. This time, you're really, really wrong. Like, on a global scale."

"No one has been hurt," he said through his teeth.

"Not. Yet," she snapped back. "But no thanks to you. Now we have a crisis. An entire corner of our world that we have no control over. Information out there but we don't know what, or with whom. And I'm the one who's going to have to pick up the pieces if this goes wrong."

For the first time, Gar looked a touch uneasy, but Elreth just turned around and faced the rest of the people, all watching with their mouths slightly open.

"From this day forward, unless you have spoken directly with me, or Aaryn, no disformed crosses the traverse, period, until we know exactly where we stand and I lift the prohibition."

"WHAT?!" Several voices rose in protest, but one was louder than the others. "You can't! Not now, you can't!"

Aaryn stepped between Elreth and the male—one of the pride—who was coming at her, frantic. But she didn't move.

"You can't do this," he rasped. "I'm going through in three days. I've been waiting over a year—"

"I'm sorry," Elreth said, and her tone and scent both told Aaryn that she truly was. "I am not saying you will never be allowed to cross again. But until we have some idea who is there and who is here, what the humans know, and what risk we're facing, I can't have any more trips across."

"You can't do this!"

"Calm down, brother," Aaryn said, giving the male a significant look. "We will work to reopen it as quickly as possible." Elreth turned to look at Aaryn and opened her mouth as if she were going to ask him something. But the male wasn't finished.

"No! That's bullshit! I have waited my entire LIFE—" He leaped forward, hands clawed, reaching for Elreth.

Aaryn screamed, "EL!"

It was pure instinct for her, he knew. It happened in a blink and he knew she'd take it back immediately if she could. But startled by the male's sudden grip on her shoulder, and instinctively turning to fight, she tore into beast form and put him to the floor, her hot breath rushing out of the gaping jaws of her lioness as she pinned him to the cave floor and he screamed—not in anger, but in terror.

It was every disformed's nightmare—left in vulnerable, human flesh while a beast tore you apart. And he'd just met it at the hands of his Queen.

*****

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