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Elreth sat in her chair in the Security Council building, sighing heavily. Aaryn was seated at her right, his eyes bright and fixed on her, Gar at her left—and he wouldn’t stop making comments. Scratch that, both of them were being completely insufferable.

They both knew she was pregnant and even though she’d sworn them to secrecy and neither of them had broken her confidence, they were both doing everything in their power to be overprotective asses.

She was pregnant, not dying.

Though, she supposed, they were trying to make certain that was true.

She pressed her lips thin as Gar leaned forward, shaking his head and looking just like their father when he was irritated—a thought that sent a pang of grief through El’s chest and brought tears to prickle at the back of her eyes and throat.

Cursed pregnancy. It was turning her soft!

She cleared her throat to smooth the lump there, and blinked away the threatening tears, forcing herself to focus on the issues at hand: How to prepare for both a peace treaty, and to fortify the city in the event that the treaty didn’t succeed.

“No!” Gar was growling at her. “The patrols were already stopped. They’re completely free to move around on that peninsula beyond the ravine. The guards won’t even encroach if they scent them—unless they move beyond that boundary. We can’t give them any more leeway than that.”

.....

“But you know Zev’s over there now hammering the imprisonment point. You know he’s telling them that they’re still caged—”

“And you know you have Tarkyn there, and Lerrin and Suhle will arrive to offer the counterpoint. These are talks, Elreth—we can’t afford to just set them loose in Anima. Assassins of that caliber… no! There’s already been a couple of unidentifiable scent trails reported, so it seems like a handful of them might have gotten past our guards as it is—hell, somehow they busted him out of the prison tree! I can’t believe you’re even considering—”

“I just… I have to give something,” Elreth muttered, frustrated. “I have to find a way to demonstrate to all of them that I’m serious about forming an alliance… somehow.”

“What you do is trust your Captain and your allies to find their way through the negotiations and get them to the table,” Aaryn said quietly. “Then you make your… overtures. Your responsibility is first and foremost to the Anima, El.”

“I’m aware!” she snapped at her mate. “That’s my point—I can’t ask the people to potentially pay for the mistakes I made. I have to… make it right for them. If Tarkyn is right about their natures, if he’s right that they’re running scared from the humans, not aggressive… then we’ve got to forge that bond so that they can feel safe here. Keeping them penned is only going to make it worse. And besides… what if there are more matebonds to discover between our people? What if letting them be more free will essentially force connections—”

“You do realize these are the arguments we were making days ago—” Gar growled.

“Yes, Gar! And now that I’m agreeing with you, you’ve got another opinion. What a shocker!”

Gar narrowed his eyes at her. “I am not the enemy here.”

“No, but you are fucking annoying, little brother.”

He growled and Aaryn cleared his throat to get both their attention.

Elreth looked away from him, her cheeks heating. They’d talked before they came and she wasn’t holding up her end of the bargain. She wasn’t doing a good job of keeping her personal feelings out of this discussion. She hadn’t been doing a good job of keeping her personal feelings out of… well, anything lately.

Was it pregnancy doing that to her? Or fear? Or grief? Or… all of the above?

She felt helpless and heartless and… like a failure. And now that she scrambled for answers, considering everything in case they found the salutation in the unexpected, now they wanted to fight her on that too?

“I think that your efforts have been noticed already,” Jayah said carefully from her place against the wall. She’d been so quiet, Elreth had forgotten she was there. They all turned to look at the healer who’d sworn she was taken, but not harmed. They’d all noticed how much space she was giving—taking for herself. But Gar encouraged all of them to just let her have it. That when she was ready their friend would return to her normal self. Being kidnapped—even unharmed—was traumatic for anyone. Jayah cleared her throat. “The Chimera who helped Zev get away indicated that… the people were relieved when the Anima moved further west.”

Elreth sighed. “I hope it’s enough.”

“I believe it will be. Especially if you’re able to open talks. I do, however, think that allowing the people to mix—to see if there are other pairs… that could be of use also. Perhaps there is a way, while the talks occur among leaders, to bring the different tribes together?”

Elreth nodded. “I would be happy to allow it, but it’s easy for me to say. I hold the greater population. In the event of conflict, having our peoples mixed will be an advantage to me—at least, that’s how he’ll see it.”

Jayah shrugged. “Perhaps consider not bringing all of the Anima to the meeting if they agree to it? Even the numbers.”

Elreth nodded again. Tarkyn had raised that too, and again, she was happy to comply. But she knew—and so did Zev—that she did that from a position of strength. Even allowing them to determine the meeting place, they both knew it couldn’t be more than a few hours travel from the Tree City. Not unless they were calling the Anima beyond their own village. And no leader in their right mind would open themselves up to that kind of scrutiny in the middle of peace talks. Especially one Elreth suspected held even fewer warriors than they claimed.

Elreth sighed wearily. If only she’d freed him a day earlier! How could she possibly convince him that she’d intended it now?

Aaryn’s hand appeared on her thigh and Elreth looked up to find her mate staring at her, concerned. He didn’t need to sign, she knew what worried him.

‘I’m fine, just tired of turning circles in my head,’ she signed quickly. Before he could respond, or anyone else could raise anything else, Elreth turned back to her friends.

“It’s pointless to speculate about anything. Lerrin and Suhle will be arriving there today. Tarkyn’s already there. We just need to wait until we hear that they’ll meet and go from there. But in the meantime… we need responsible measures in place just in case… in case it goes wrong,” she said sadly.

The others sighed too, then. But no one argued.

For once, Elreth wished they’d had reason to.

*****

~ SASHA ~

The sight of two fully-grown male Chimera fighting was terrifying, and awe-inspiring. It was also exhausting.

Sasha winced, her heart pounding in grief as a blow from Lhars connected and Zev grunted, pitching forward—but used the movement to grab for his brother’s arm and twist to throw him.

But Tarkyn was still waiting for her to explain why she wasn’t taking Alpha back from Zev.

She wondered what he would think.

“When I took Alpha, it should have been his,” she said genuinely. “He was the one who’d earned it. He’d fought his way through the ranks—and even though he was injured, he was winning his final fight, against the then King. But… unexpected events occurred.

“When the others called me Sasha-don, Zev was so proud and he wanted for them to accept me so badly, he submitted to me. I argued about it with him, but the conflict then was with the humans. I had knowledge and understanding that he didn’t. And I was female—while it was the females who had been kidnapped. It was right for me to lead our people through that. But I’m not a physical fighter. I can’t do this,” she said, tipping her head towards Zev and Lhars, both grunting with their efforts to reach each other. “Zev and I always agreed that when the timing was right, we would give each other submission. While we were fleeing the humans, saving our son… I needed to follow him. It was right that he take control—he understood what was needed and had the skill and strength to fight. Just like this.”

They both looked at the two wolves, now wrestling, cursing each other.

“I can’t lead our people in war,” Sasha said quietly. Sadly. “I wouldn’t want to—but I couldn’t even if I needed to. I don’t have the knowledge. And I can’t… even if I would have handled this differently, I can’t deny the risk that you and your people pose.”

She turned back to Tarkyn then and waited for him to meet her eyes. “I may not hold the depth of anger that my mate holds, but make no mistake, I do not believe that you’re harmless. And your Queen… I hope she has a good heart. I hope what she told me before it all went to shit was true. But no, Tarkyn. I won’t remove him from this. Because when push comes to shove, he needs to lead the people through this.”

Tarkyn sighed, nodding slowly. “Then I think we are both praying for the same thing—and we had better hope the Creator shares our desire for peace.”