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As we move forward, pay special attention to the name at the beginning of the scene. I hope you enjoy seeing parts of this story unfold through the eyes of Tarkyn and Harth’s closest allies!

*****

~ ELRETH (Hours Earlier) ~

There were still rare moments when Elreth had to remind herself that she was a Queen. Dominant of Anima. The Alpha of All.

Having an unknown male take her by the throat and hold a spear-blade to her neck was one of them.

And it was all her own damn fault.

She’d been frantic for days, biting down every cry of fear her body yearned to give, swallowing every coil of rage. For a moment, as those around her sought unity, she’d thought there was light-a way through this shitfest. This clusterfuck of chaos that she hadn’t seen coming and had somehow only made worse with every decision and declaration she’d made.

She’d rushed to defend herself and her people, entreating this strange leader of an even stranger people to see her as Alpha and find a way to step up to the line of peace with her.

.....

She’d been thoughtless. Arrogant. Reckless.

It had happened so quickly. One moment she stepped towards the bars, a guard rushing to her side that she was about to growl at-the male was already in prison, they didn’t need further cover! Then Zev had taken her captive.

The shame of that moment would live with her forever.

Her father had warned her.

Her brother.

Her mate.

She knew her dominance was born of an iron, Creator-given will and a whip-smart intellect. Yet, while her physical strength had been honed by every important and knowledgeable male in the hierarchy over the years, her sly, feline skills of combat required space and time so with her lighter, quicker frame she could use her adversary’s greater weight and momentum against them.

Power for power, she would never outstrip an Alpha male. She knew that. She’d known it. They’d warned her. Again and again.

They’d warned her because she’d been raised a female among honorable, powerful males. And she’d been reckless before, too trusting of those who trained her, too instinctively willing to believe they would not actually harm her.

Thoughtless, instinctive recklessness. A gamble she’d never lost because the males she’d fought-even her own father in the challenge for power-would always submit rather than kill her. And they knew she would fight to the death.

Her willingness to die for the cause had always outstripped their willingness to hurt her.

But she’d never gone toe-to-toe with an actual enemy.

So on this day, already beaten down and rocked by self-doubt, Elreth was humbled. Taken by an adversary.

And it was her own damn fault.

It happened so fast it had taken her seconds to realize that the sudden pain in her temples was the pressure of the bars against her forehead as the male held her there, nose to nose. The nervy-sting on her neck was the spot where the blade had scratched her skin. And the pit of dread in her stomach was because he’d pinned her so tightly against the bars-from neck to ankles-that her arms were useless.

She was at his mercy.

It pissed her the fuck off. And frightened her beyond measure.

While the males around them froze in alarm, watching for space or avenue to save her, while her mate shuddered behind her in rage and abject terror, Elreth’s heart simultaneously screamed with rage and gut-wrenching fear.

Zev, this strange, Chimeran wolf, stared her down, letting her see that he had her, and he knew he had her. Letting her see the derision and unfiltered hate in his gaze.

Letting her feel the pleasure he would take in killing her.

Elreth had been present when sheer malice entered Anima and almost destroyed them all. But she’d been the center of power. Her role had been one of strategy. She’d ordered and the people moved. She’d spoken and their hearts responded. She’d pointed and the soldiers attacked.

She had never shared breath with a male that wanted her dead before. Never, until now, felt the squeeze of his fingers, or the chill of his blade on her neck.

But as Zev, the male she had bound and stripped of his rights, seethed, his fingernails almost piercing her skin, his muscles quivering with the effort to keep her-and the guard holding the spear-braced against the bars, Elreth finally understood what they’d all been telling her all these years.

Dance away. Flee. Never allow yourself into the hands of a true enemy. It is better to live humbled, to fight another day, than to let your pride carry you to death.

And yet, she wasn’t the only one who’d failed.

As she and Zev glared at each other, and Elreth’s heart wavered on the edge of despair, Tarkyn’s smooth, careful voice echoed in the room. He sought to free her, but he did so from a distance too far to intervene.

Because he’d protected his mate first.

And so, they had both failed. And their failures might just end her life.

Even as a screaming alarm shrilled in her head so loudly that she couldn’t take in the words being spoken around her, Elreth found herself strangely still, every animal instinct quivering with certainty that movement meant death.

She cast around for any other answer, but came up blank. He had her leg locked at the ankle. Her arms pinned between her body and the bars, and his grip on her throat already constricted her breathing-but was also joined by that fucking blade.

Elreth Elias Hyrehyn stood there in the dim light of the prison tree, surrounded by the strongest, most vital warriors of the Anima, and faced the truth of her mortality.

And she prayed.

She stared into the eyes of the male who would choose whether or not to kill her. She made certain he knew she did not go cowering. And she prayed.

She prayed for her mate who struggled so desperately behind her that she could feel his trembling shake the air.

She prayed for her brother who had already lost the rest of their family, that he wouldn’t be left alone.

She prayed for her people, that they would never come into the hands of this wolf, or the warriors that served him.

And she prayed that she might live... that she might right the wrongs that were suddenly so clear.

And more than anything else, she prayed for forgiveness for all the ways she’d been living and thinking and leading that had brought them to this point. And she prayed if she was freed that the Creator would show her how to fix this so no one else had to die.

*****

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