Falling in Love with the King of Beasts

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GAHRYE

An hour later, both exhausted, but unwilling to sleep, they lay curled up together under the covers. They faced each other, Garhye wrapping his body around her, his chin on her hair, holding her to him while she curled up like a child as they whispered, trying to work out everything they were learning.

"So, someone changed the histories," Kalle said, pulling her head up to meet his eyes fiercely, the Guardian and researcher within her bristling against the fact in a way that made Gahrye smile. "They intentionally went through our information, our books, our texts and changed things, eradicating the Protectors, calling them disformed, turning the people against them… but why?"

"Well, they can get the Royals safely back and forth between Anima and the human world. There must be something in that that whoever these people are, they didn't want happening."

"Yes, but I mean, think about it, Gahrye, that means there was a shift in the Anima themselves at some point, as well. I mean, Protectors didn't just disappear. You've always been there. But they started calling you something else. They turned people against you. How does that happen when people are still alive and can remember things? Wouldn't they just go, no, those people are good and they serve a purpose?"

Gahrye stroked his hand slowly up and down her back, thinking through what she was saying. Because she was right. The question wasn't just how, but why? What was it about the Protectors that warranted such a massive undertaking? Because Anima memories were strong—attached to scent and other heightened sensations. The oral history alone, let alone the written texts… how had they done it? And why?

"I think…" he said, hesitant to give voice to the idea that had come the moment she'd called him a Protector. "I think I need to do a… what did you call it, a dry run? I need to try going through the traverse alone and safely first."

"Oh, Gahrye, it's so hard because I know you're right and I'm so sure you can… but I'm terrified too. I'm so scared you're going to try it and… something will happen and… I just… I need you to come back."

She pulled him closer and he hugged her, kissing her hair. "I know, me too. But… I think we can be sure there's something here that I can do. I just don't want to try it the first time with someone else. I mean, if I make a mistake or… something."

Kalle pulled him in even tighter and he sighed before he continued. "I just need to make sure I don't put anyone else at risk. Then I can see if the wolves have the territory or find out what's going on, and come back for Elia. I mean, be ready to take her through when she comes back."

"You can't take her through in her beast form?"

"I wouldn't know how," he said honestly. "And even if I could tempt her through and keep her on the path—there's no guarantees there—I don't know what affect it would have on her to be in that form when she crossed. We were warned so distinctly not to try anything we hadn't been given specific instructions to do. I think… I think I just need to try it and we can go from there."

He didn't say the obvious: That even if he was a Protector, that didn't mean he'd get through safely. The histories were clear that even Protectors had to prepare themselves for the traverse, ensuring they crossed with clear minds and hearts.

"But what is it about you that makes you different? I mean, obviously, whatever it is, it stops you from shifting into beast form too, right? But why? Whoever made you or, or whatever, they had to have a reason for that. Or maybe the not shifting is just a bi-product of whatever it is you can do that keeps people safe in there? But what is it you do? If other people can't cross together, how come you can? And can you just do it? Or do you have to do something specific? There has to be something you can do or… something."

Her reference to being different reminded Gahrye of his conversation with Shaw that afternoon, and the memory he'd had—and instinctively hidden from Shaw—flashed through his head again….

The voices had tried to tempt him with status and accolades, and when that didn't work, they'd shown him Kalle. He'd been enthralled. From nowhere he'd known her—known the smell of her skin and the dips and curves of her, the way her spine curled when she leaned into him. He knew the sound of the sigh that meant do that again, and the one that meant she was ready.

All the things he'd now seen and experience, they were alive in his head that day as if they had already occurred. Desperate because the images pulled at him so, he pushed harder, harder towards the light that now glimmered faintly at the other end of the path. He knew if he let himself see this female, if he let himself think about her, he would give in and go and he would never fulfill his vow, he would leave Elia without a guide, and…

With a harsh, guttural cry, he pushed himself forward, pulling at his own body as if he was in chest-deep mud and it sucked at him, his mind torn between the scene playing for him, and the light ahead where he had to go. He had to. He knew he had to—

"Mine," she whispered in his mind, her lips at his neck, her tongue tasting his skin. "No one else can have you." And he knew.

He knew.

She spoke those words to no one else. Before or after. She would never choose another.

He was hers in truth, though others might not know it.

Blind to anything but what he was seeing in his mind, Gahrye stumbled, his knees barking on the dirt of the path and a jagged stone that sliced through his leathers and into his skin and he bled.