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*****

~ ELRETH ~

Elreth sighed heavily, but in truth, she felt better than she had since this entire nightmare began.

Aaryn had finally clinched it the night before when he’d woken to find her sitting in bed, staring at the wall, unable to sleep.

“What’s wrong?” he’d jumped, anxious, to help her.

She’d felt terrible when she realized what stress she’d put him through these past few days.

Failure on failure… that’s what this entire episode had been. One big Elreth fuck-up after another.

She’d sobbed. She’d finally admitted it to herself, and broken down. And when she finally got herself together enough to speak clearly, they’d talked for over an hour, him listening patiently while she expressed every fear, every what-if from the loss of their child, right through to another human invasion.

.....

She’d become so agitated, he’d pulled her into his lap and cradled her, stroking her hair.

“But, El… none of that has happened. And none of it is in your control. You can’t stop every bad thing that will ever happen. You just can’t. It’s not up to you.”

And those words… so simple. So true.

They had opened her eyes.

She had somehow become trapped in a mind of fear—a very impossible belief that if she was just careful enough, or just strong enough, she could keep everything calm and peaceful and good.

And it was a lie.

She saw it.

There was a breathless moment of wrestling with herself—because if she was reckless, she could create harm for others… but even in that, Aaryn and Gar, Behryn and Reece… Tarkyn and Lerrin and and and… the list of strong, capable fighters around her went on and on.

She couldn’t stop every bad thing from happening.

And if something bad did happen, she had a lot of support from very strong people to get through it.

It seemed like she’d taken her first full breath in a week. Aaryn had been able to scent the change in her.

It was as if a weight had been lifted from her. It wasn’t that she didn’t fear—she was still terrified. But the compass that she had followed her whole life that had seemed to spin endlessly since the moment she’d seen Sasha and smelled her as human… that compass pointed north again.

She knew what was right now. She just had to pray for the courage to do it.

“Thank you,” she murmured against Aaryn’s lips, then stroked his tongue with hers. “Thank you for not giving up on me.”

“I love you, El. I never would,” he breathed out in a rush. She tilted her head to deepen the kiss and his hands tightened on her, pulling her hard against him as his body responded to her closeness.

Elreth hummed her pleasure when he brought one hand up, out of the water, the droplets tinkling on the surface as he reached for her breast, stroking her nipple with his thumb.

He let his head fall back onto the rocks behind him and she kissed her way down his chin, his jaw, his throat, opening her mouth over his Adam’s apple.

“Did I ever tell you this is the first place that I ever walked in on my parents having sex?” she said, her voice low and husky.

She shivered when Aaryn pulled her down over him so he could kiss his way up her neck. “I might remember a certain, traumatized young lioness whining about something to do with how gross her parents were,” he chuckled, then nipped at her skin.

Goosebumps shivered their way down her arm and back and Elreth sighed happily. “Never stop doing this to me, Aaryn,” she whispered. “I don’t care if we traumatize our kids… I never want to lose this with you.”

Aaryn moved his hand down to her stomach then, gently placing his hand over her flat belly. He blew out a breath. “It won’t be long until we have the chance to traumatize at least one of them.”

Elreth snorted, though fear jangled right along with desire in her veins as she gripped his broad shoulders and leaned back, bringing herself up against him, and grinding down.

Aaryn groaned and slid his hand further down, finding that swollen bud and sliding his thumb against it until Elreth began to gasp and twitch.

He was just whispering to her to give him some room, urging her up on her knees, when the door into the cavern flew open so fast it slammed back against the rock wall, then bounced back to be caught by a gauntleted arm.

“Forgive us, Sires, but—”

“Holy fuck!” Elreth hissed, throwing herself sideways into the water as Aaryn snarled and whipped himself around, splashing as he stood to put himself between Elreth and the intruder.

“What the hell, Drayko!” Aaryn growled at one of the equine guards they’d known and appointed to their personal attendance since the war.

The guard stood at the door, his body turned so that he faced the wall, but he didn’t retreat.

“I’m truly sorry, Sire! Truly, but this is—”

“Get over it, El, he was right to come.” Gar’s deep voice boomed in the cavern.

Elreth wanted to snap her teeth—but she was swallowing back tears that pinched at the back of her eyes and throat. “What are you doing, Gar?”

“Coming to tell you that the Prisoners escaped.”

“I—WHAT?!”

Gar strode towards them looking every inch the warrior, his eyes ablaze as he nodded. Aaryn was already getting up out of the water, but Elreth stood there a moment gaping.

“What happened?” Aaryn asked Gar as he clasped his hand to pull up out of the pool and hurry to the side to get the towels he’d left for them.

“We aren’t sure yet, but they’re gone. Zev, Sasha and their child… and we think they might have taken Jayah… or killed her.”

Elreth had never seen Gar look so fiercely dark, though she supposed he must have when he faced the humans.

She had one second to flinch, then she had to remind herself who she was and what responsibility she held.

Though her cheeks colored, she didn’t hesitate to push to the side of the pool and step up and out, taking Aaryn’s hand, then the towel he wrapped around her the moment she was clear of the water.

*****

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