Falling in Love with the King of Beasts

CELEBRATE 500 CHAPTERS WITH ME! I can't believe it. If you'd told me we would be here back in February when I started this book, I would have laughed at you. THANK YOU for making 2021 such a joy and success. I am so deeply, personally grateful.

*****

GAHRYE

"It's not true," Gahrye whispered. But no matter how he blinked, the image wouldn't leave him of that tiny, toothless smile that looked so like his own.

Next to him, Elia's beast growled and leaned forward against the grip he had on her neck. But he didn't move. He couldn't. 

The darkness pressed in and Gahrye swallowed hard.

"It's not true," he repeated, stronger this time. "You're lying."

The voices twisted around him, still keeping their distance, but pleasure in their tones now. "Were we lying about your mate, Protector?"

"Should have listened to us, hero," another voice spat. "Our reach is far wider than you think."

"You think you walk into safety?"

"There is no safety from us. You walk into our clutches."

"But no mate!"

"Never a mate again!"

"She is ours, Protector, and if we cannot keep her, we will use ours to take her. Only after she has had the babe, of course."

"His pain…" the voice made a sickening noise, as if it sucked in something delicious. "The pain he will feel with no mother and no father—"

"No," Gahrye growled, looking around, trying desperately to find them in the dark. "No!"

Elia's beast growled louder, and hooked Garhye's leg with one paw, her claws sheathed.

Gahrye blinked and she leaned into his grip on her scruff, pulling for the portal. And Gahrye looked up and it was there. Right there. The doorway just two or three lion lengths away, it's blue glow swirling, beckoning to him. 

And Gahrye shuddered.

Was this his last chance? He had Elia here. He could make sure she went through, but he could run back, make sure Kalle was safe. Warn her. Hell… could he bring her back through, too? Would his blood Protect her—

"Yes," one of the voices hissed. "Yes. Bring her here."

"Bring her to us."

"Bring her and the offspring she carries."

"You couldn't touch her!" he screamed into the dark, his voice echoing distantly, but never quite fading. "She is mine!"

"No, Protector, nothing belongs to you. No one."

"So weak."

"So needy."

"Couldn't even protect his mate."

Their laughter crawled up Gahrye's spine. His shoulder jerked forward suddenly as Elia's beast let a growl putter in her throat and began to pull for the portal. And Gahrye's hand slipped. Only half an inch, but some of her skin pulled through his grip and he… let it. 

The beast stopped and turned, her eyes finding his in the dark as the voices' laughter echoed around them.

"Come, Protector. Show us what you can do. Prove us wrong."

"Go back to your mate and see. She lives yet. But not for long."

"The Asswipe will find her soon and he will take her, or take her from you."

"Come, Protector."

"Come. Come back."

Gahrye swallowed as Elia's beast began to make a strange, low keening in her throat.

He could put her through the Portal… let her go as she passed through—she'd be fine for a few hours. He wouldn't be more than that. He could go make sure Kalle knew she couldn't go anywhere near the Portal or Dillon—

One of the voices whispered a promise for his mate in his ear and Gahrye froze. Why were they close to him now? They hadn't been able to come close since he'd… 

He looked at his arm.

There was the tiniest trickle of red still wet at the cut, but it was beginning to close, to heal.

Everything closed in. The voices, their laughter, their promises to take Kalle, the vision of his baby. Elia's beast growled and tugged against his weakening grip. And Gahrye was frozen, unable—or unwilling—to choose. And something within him began to crumble, some strange sense of certainty was eroding like sand pouring out of a crack.

"Go back now, or she will be ours."

"It's not too late."

"We'll even let the little one live—"

It all happened so quickly, Gahrye didn't really piece it together until later.

His grip on Elia's beast loosened and he started to turn, opened his mouth to tell her to go to the Portal, began to lift his hand to point.

And then she struck.

Silently, with not even a warning growl, her head whipped to the side and she took him at the wrist, her teeth puncturing his skin.

He cried out at the same time the voices screamed and rushed away—and Elia's beast took off running, dragging him by his arm, her head turned slightly to keep hold of him, but dragging him the final feet to the Portal as he screamed at her to stop, that he had to go back.

His feet scrabbled on the dirt as he screamed for her to stop. But instead she gathered her haunches and launched them both at the Portal. 

Gahrye's head exploded in pain, the voices shrieking and screaming as he passed through the blue light and hung for that single, infinite moment in the balance between the Portal and the Human world, then suddenly gravity, and pain, and hard, wet rock under his hands and face, his knees battered and scraped, and sobs choking from his throat as he tried to push himself up onto all fours. 

His lungs didn't want to inflate. 

His head throbbed with pain. He was bleeding from a cut, and from puncture wounds on his forearm. And he was crying great, gulping sobs, trying to cry Kalle's name, pleading with the Creator to save her as he fell forward and his cheek landed on the rock.

He sucked in another breath and this one actually came, filling his nose with the scents of Anima, even in the dusty air of the cave.

And as he gave in to relief and sank to the floor of the cave, sobbing, his head echoed with the promises of the voices, with prayers that they were lying… and with despair.

He was a Protector. How had they gotten to him? How?

And would he ever be able to go back through without giving in to them?

**** Privilege Warning & Mass Release ****

1. Don't forget: DO NOT buy expensive privilege tiers this late in the month, because privilege resets on 1 October (30 September for the USA) and you would have to pay again! Wait until the monthly reset and enjoy your privilege access for the full calendar month for a single charge! (And if you buy in October you'll be entered into the draw for a limited edition paperback of Volume 1!)

2. Your Golden Ticket support has earned an additional mass release chapter! But because I've been so touched by all your support--reading, commenting, gifts, and summoning pens--I'm going to release FOUR chapters on the last day of the month to say THANK YOU! (that's 30 September on NovelFull, 29 September in the USA.) 

Thank you again for everything you do to help me and Reth & Elia continue to thrive. You are a gift to me!