Falling in Love with the King of Beasts

NOTE: Because BEAST will be ending during the month of December, it won't be considered "completed" until the end of December. If you can't afford the privilege in December, that's totally fine! It's an expensive month for everyone. Look forward to January when the book will be completed and the last chapters will be released over the first 10-12 days for non-privilege readers!

*****

GAHRYE

Gahrye had been given a small but comfortable tree to use as his own until his new home was built within one of the Great Trees. It was strange… it was a perfectly comfortable house, and newer than his former home. But something felt wrong. It had taken him a couple of days to realize he kept looking for Kalle.

He could not call a place home until she was in it.

His stomach ached when he figured it out. And his enthusiasm for the new, Great Tree house suddenly waned. Was there any point if she would never be here to do it? He'd told the craftsmen that he would choose a tree soon, that they could wait to hear from him. They'd been confused, but shrugged and gone back to their business.

Now Gahrye slept—or tried to—in the narrow bed in one of the two bedrooms of the small home he'd been assigned. But his sleep was often fitful, and sometimes broken by dreams.

Nightmares.

That night he'd slumped into the furs after spending a late evening with the Outsiders, adding new furnishings to the cave and discussing how they could make their training more formal. More organized. Because he could see that it was needed, and he wasn't sure how long he was going to continue in Anima to be able to fulfill the goal. So he needed to bring people on board with him.

It was easy to get enthusiasm for training to be the Queen's eyes and ears. Easy to gain agreement from disformed who wanted to share in the honor he'd received. But that didn't mean they were the right ones.

They needed to be tested. Their character molded.

He wished Kalle was there with him to figure it all out.

A thought which always led to concerns for his mate—was she safe? Was she happy? Was she staying out of the hands of that asswipe Dillon?

Was she pregnant?

His body shivered at the mix of joy and abject terror that accompanied that thought.

He had to get back to her. To find out what was true, and what wasn't. Find out what the voices had twisted this time in an effort to derail him.

If he was sure of one thing it was that he would not be tempted to listen to them again. The next time he crossed he would hear nothing that they said. He would walk quickly, single-mindedly. He would make the traverse and fall into her arms and whatever they had to face, they would face it. As long as they were together.

He'd gone to sleep worrying about her, and so, inevitably, she invaded his dreams.

First he dreamed that he crossed, only to find her in their bed, in the arms of the asswipe.

Gahrye had torn him from the bed and beat him senseless, but Kalle had screamed the whole time that he had to stop. That he was her husband…

When Gahrye stopped punching the now-unconscious Dillon, Kalle stood in front of him, naked, her belly swelling, but her face twisted in anger.

"You left and you didn't come back. You are not my mate! Leave him alone!"

He'd tried to explain, tried to plead with her to understand, but she'd pushed him away and reached for Dillon instead.

He'd woken up in a cold sweat from that one.

It was still early, the walls of the tree shifting from deepest black, to darkest gray with the low light that seeped from behind the curtains from a sun that was barely beginning to rise. He'd only been asleep a handful of hours, but he was so wide awake, he knew he wouldn't sleep again that day.

Images of Kalle—naked and angry—haunted him when he tried to close his eyes, so he opened them and accepted that it was time for his day to begin. But even as he dressed and made some breakfast, he couldn't shake the weight in his stomach.

The fear that the dream might have some truth to it.

He had to get over there to find out.

He was fed and out into the Tree City before the light even turned pink in the sky. He'd arranged to meet Suhle again that day, and he'd been arguing with himself about whether it was too soon to show her how to cross the traverse safely. But the dream only made him more resolved. He would attempt the crossing himself within a day or two. If anything happened to him, someone else needed to know the secret. To carry on the training.

Suhle was perfect. Obviously the right kind of disformed.

He would tell Elia that she knew how to cross—though not why he'd been charged with this knowledge. Just in case.

Just in case.

*****

ELIA

The second dream was even worse.

She woke in the furs and Reth was gone. And she waited, but even Aymora didn't come. She wasn't supposed to get up, but eventually she didn't have a choice. Hunger and thirst forced her out into the cave. But even as she sucked down a mug of water and some dried meat, she could see that the cave was empty, and undisturbed. There was dust on every surface and no sound, anywhere.

Chilled by fear, Elia put a hand to her belly and prayed for the safety of Elreth before she bundled herself in furs and started out of the cave, calling for Reth, for Aymora, for Gahrye… for anyone?

She got all the way to the market and, before she'd even broken through the trees, she could see shadows moving within it and hurried forward.

But when she met the trail that led to the entrance, there was an army there.

A human army.

Men in green fatigues, with guns and helmets.

When the commander positioned at the back of them saw her emerge from the trees, he shushed her, gesturing for her to stop running, to crouch, to hide behind the army.

"You can't get through. They're killing the Anima and I don't want them to mistake you for one of them!" he whispered.

As her rage erupted and she was about to leap into her beast to eat this infuriating man who could not be right, in the way of dreams, she was suddenly on the other side of the army, their guns trained on her.

And one male at the front, his free eye squeezed shut, the other looking through the scope on his gun, muttered, "Get out of the way, we have to see if any of them are still alive."

And she turned to look into the market. Which is when she realized that the shadows she'd seen weren't Anima moving to find a meal… they were bodies, strung from the beams that held the roof up.

One by one she recognized Brant, Behryn, Aymora… and then, with a hushed, NO, her eyes found Reth, his thick body slumped, hanging from the rope like a rag, his body slowly, slowly, turning until he faced her and she could see his face… black and swollen.

The scream that tore out of her raised the roof as all the guns went off at once and her body clenched into nothing but pain.