Falling in Love with the King of Beasts

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*****

RETH - Anima

The autumn afternoon light was fading before he and Behryn got through the enemy lines. By the Creator's own grace, they'd avoided no less than three wolf fists—in one case they'd been forced to climb trees and wait two hours until the wolves moved on, eerily silently.

They'd been blessed with rain halfway through the day that had suffocated their scents somewhat. But by the time they finally broke through the lines and into the Tree City territory near Aymora's cave, Reth used the last of his strength to once again wrestle control back from his beast, then staggered and fell face first into the mud.

After the fight with the wolves and all the fleeing, Behryn wasn't in much better shape, but he managed to get Reth to his feet. Together they made a sad and sorry sight when they finally stumbled up the path towards her cave, praying she would be there.

But they met four guards before they'd even reached the cave, soldiers who immediately propped both men up and helped them to the cave, while sending one young one back as a messenger to tell the elders that Reth was safe and had returned.

"What's happened while I've been gone?" Reth growled to one of them as they supported him up the somewhat steep climb to Aymora's cave mouth. "Why are you here instead of out on patrol? There are wolves everywhere!"

"There have been attacks, Sire," the man, an Equine, said with a glance back at Behryn who was being helped by two more behind them. "Skirmishes mainly but they're coming faster. We think they're just trying to see where we have defenses—seeing how strong we are. But it keeps happening with no warning. Our scouts aren't finding them and—"

"Thank you, but we'll discuss it when the King has had medical attention and food," Behryn huffed from behind them.

"You do not make orders for me, Behryn," Reth growled, wincing when his foot landed on a rock on the path and rolled off.

"As your Second, I will if you die," Behryn said starkly. "Whatever is happening, the guards have managed it so far, they can for another half an hour until we've seen Aymora and you've had food."

The guards on either side of him looked back and forth nervously over their shoulders—listening to their King, but also to their Captain who could make their lives hell.

"You're being as nervous as a female with her first cub," Reth snorted, but remained silent after that. He wouldn't force the men to resist their commanding officer. But he would have words with Behryn later about pecking like a mother hen.

He was weak, not dying.

Behryn was smart enough to know the difference. If he didn't shut up, Elia was going to hear his fussing and then he'd never hear the end of it. He would send someone back to the cave to get Elia and bring her…

Reth blinked and his breath caught, a groan of pain rumbling in his chest that made the soldiers look at him nervously again. "I'm fine," he breathed. "I just… it's just been a long day."

But breathing hurt suddenly. Existing hurt. With every heartbeat.

As if a piece of his heart had been torn from him, and he was bleeding again.

*****

There was a flurry of activity in the cave when they made it inside. Aymora hissing and grumbling over both of them, snapping orders to two of her assistants. There were too many bodies in the space, but everyone had a reason to be there. And Reth was too tired to argue about it when she stripped him down and said she needed to check him for bleeding.

"When did this occur?" she growled, holding his arm that Lucine had mangled.

"This morning. I'm not sure—"

"Mid-morning," Behryn said through his teeth from his seat over by the wall. "Well before high noon."

Aymora paled. "Why isn't it more healed—" she cut herself off, her head snapping up so she could meet Reth's eyes. "You almost bled out? What the hell happened?"

He couldn't break the gaze because she'd never let him forget it. But there were too many people here. He beckoned her forward and murmured in her ear as low as he could, "I bled for Elia to heal her—"

"YOU DID WHAT?!" Aymora roared. The entire cave went silent and still.

Without breaking eye-contact, Reth growled for any who weren't attending wounds to leave and wait outside. They watched Aymora and him curiously, but did as he said, until it was only he and Behryn, Aymora and her two assistants.

Aymora stood in front of him, her fists on her hips and snarled through her teeth. "Reth, what the hell did you do?"

"Are these helpers vowed?"

"Yes. Now tell me—"

"Lucine had her. She'd almost severed the arm and Elia was bleeding out—"

"SO WERE YOU!"

Reth glared. "She was about to lose the arm, and very soon after, her life. There was no other choice. I am stronger. And as you can see, I'm still here. And now so is my mate."

"We'd already shared blood with her, Reth."

"Its effects had worn off. It healed her, Aymora. When I threw her into the traverse she was using the arm normally."

Aymora blinked. "That's impossible. It can't have been as dire as you—"

"It was hanging. I could see the bones. Hear me, Aymora: Bones. Multiple. In the shoulder joint. The muscle was gone. There was no tying it off."

Aymora swallowed. "That's impossible."

"Apparently not. I did it to save her life, but… she healed. In front of my eyes."

The fire flared in Aymora's gaze again. "And almost cost you yours!"

"I would have given it willingly."

"You have got to stop believing you are the only one who can help her! The only one who can save any of us. Reth, if you die none of us are better off, can't you see that?!"

"There was no. Other. Choice," he growled.

They stared at each other and he watched his dear friend submit—reluctantly. Her face crumpled. "You will kill the heart of this entire nation if you die, Reth," she murmured.

"This nation is already torn in two because of my decisions!" he muttered. "But I am here, and I will fight. Now stop treating me like a child. You were not there. I made the decision I made. Tell me what to do to help my body heal and I will do it."

Most of Aymora's anger had faded to be replaced with grief and fear. But some of it flared back at his resistance. But she didn't fight back.

She took his forearm in both her hands and, supporting the weight of it on one palm, she pointed with the other. "You're going to scar," she said indicating three different places that the skin hadn't yet closed—which made Reth's stomach sink. Not the scarring, but seeing that his body was so spent that he wasn't even healing properly.

"I don't think you'll lose mobility, it looks like she mostly missed the joint. But this arm will always be weaker than the other because those tendons have been damaged. And… and you've bled so badly, your body isn't renewing.

"What does that mean?"

"It means you're healing like a human, though faster," Aymora said grudgingly. "Your body is sealing itself and reconnecting. But it isn't replacing the damage with new flesh. Reth… I usually only see this in the elderly. Decades older than you. You… you underestimate the depth of the risk you took today."

Reth's teeth clenched. "And yet, here I am."

"By the Creator's grace," she whispered.

Reth nodded slowly.

They were quiet for a moment, then Aymora put her hand over his and whispered. "My daughter… you put her in the traverse?"

He nodded, but he couldn't hold Aymora's eyes while he spoke of it. "Just as the wolves attacked. I… I threw her into it and fought to keep them away. I don't… I do not know if they discovered it later or… or if they already knew."

"Lucine?"

"Dead. I severed her spine. She gave me this before she died," he said nodding towards his arm.

Grief overwhelmed him in that moment.

His mate was gone and he did not know whether she was safe.

The female he'd known had tried to kill first his mate, then him. And he'd killed her instead.

He didn't regret it. But it felt wrong to have been so intimate—to hold the memories in his mind both of her under his hands at her most alive, and of dealing the blow that stole life from her completely.

When Aymora dropped his arm to put her hand on his shoulder, he put his face in his hands and sighed. "We need to understand what's been happened here while we've been gone," he said without looking up.

Aymora growled in her throat. "You are eating first. And sleeping for an hour. Then—"

"No, I need—"

"You need to survive, Reth. You cannot run from this loss by never giving yourself what you need. You will only steal yourself from your mate if you do that.

He looked up at her again and they stared each other down.

But it was the mental image of Elia's face if he was killed that made him concede.

Aymora was right.

With Elia gone, the best thing he could do was survive, and defeat the wolves, and bring her back.

If only he knew how.