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~ GAR ~

Rika was sitting up in the large sleeping platform at the end of the cave, beyond the fire, her knees up and a book leaned on them. There was a split second before she registered that she wasn’t alone and he used it to drink in the sight of her.

Her brown hair, longer now than when she’d arrived in Anima, was greasy and her eyes shadowed with dark smudges that made them look sunken. But her skin glowed with the low, warm light of the fire, and she hadn’t lost weight this time, thank God.

She must have felt his eyes on her then because she got a strange, thoughtful look, then her eyes dragged up from the book in her lap. Her eyes went wide and her mouth dropped open, her heart slamming against her ribs.

“Gar?” Her voice was tiny and broken and hushed and it sucked the wind out of his sails. The smile he’d pasted on fell from his face and he froze two steps inside the door. Oh God, help him. What had—

“Gar?” Her face crumpled and his heart cracked clean in two at the simultaneous wash of joy and grief that shone in her eyes. Then there was no more shining because Rika threw back the furs and leaped out of bed, racing through the cave to quite-literally throw herself into his arms, already sobbing before she’d even reached him.

He caught her in the air and pulled her against him, tight, one hand around her back, the other in her hair, hushing her, holding her, burying his nose in her hair and inhaling the scent of her, thanking God that she was there and safe and—

.....

“What are you doing here?” she wailed. “You aren’t supposed to be here!”

“I couldn’t stay away any longer. Are you… are you okay?”

“I’m fine!” she cried, pulling back to stroke his face and kiss his lips.

“She’s lying.” Gar didn’t even look away from Rika as Pegg’s voice rose behind him.

Pegg… Gar sighed. The male had arrived in ARenima with Rika—a friend, a companion she’d made in the human world. Or at least, in one of the worlds the human scientists used for their experiments.

He was an ancient—a creature that had existed before the humans discovered them. He was a Pegasus, a winged horse. Yet he could speak. He’d decided that Rika was his best friend, and so when she’d been sent to Anima, he’d followed, despite the danger of the traverse and the voices…

Now he lived here too, though not among the Anima. He and Rika had signals and ways of locating each other. When Gar had known she needed to be out here, he’d asked the male to go with her, to protect her…

He must have been out grazing.

All of this flashed through his head as he held his mate, but Pegg, never one to pull a punch, spoke again.

“She lost it and refused to let me go tell you. This is the first time she’s gotten out of bed since.”

Pushing down the pain that speared through him at those words—even though it wasn’t a surprise, it still hurt like a motherfucker—Gar gently set his mate on her feet and took her face in his hands.

“Rika… Why didn’t you let him tell me?”

“I’m sorry!” she said, and her entire face twisted in grief so heavy, Gar couldn’t breathe.

“Babe, don’t apologize, I’d never be upset with you—”

“I told her that, but she didn’t believe me,” Pegg said dryly.

“You had much bigger things to think about,” Rika said through the sobs breaking in her throat.

Gar almost swore. “Rika… what could be bigger than losing a child?” As soon as the words were out of his mouth, his throat closed and he trembled, eyes burning and throat afire with the ache of tears that would not be denied.

“Don’t, don’t, don’t…” Rika’s own tears spilled over again. “Gar, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry—”

“Why are you apologizing?”

“Because I can’t… because I’m not—”

“Rika, you’re everything. You’re everything. Don’t… don’t carry what you don’t control.”

She stared up at him, her eyes swimming in tears—and more tracking down her cheeks. But she grasped his face and pulled him down into a kiss, burying her fingers in his hair and crying against his lips.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered in his ear before kissing his neck, then releasing him so he could straighten and look at her again. “I’m so glad that you’re here,” she said, swallowing even as more tears trickled from her eyes.

“Why? Do you need help? Are you hurting—”

“No, no, nothing like that. Nothing to do with me. It’s just good that you’re here because…”

Gar frowned. “Because what—?”

But Rika just wiped her eyes and leaned around him. “Show him,” she said to Pegg in the low, threatening voice Gar had learned the hard way meant his mate would not be denied.

There was a heavy sigh behind him and Gar frowned at his mate, reluctant to take his eyes from her. “Show me what?” he said, finally tearing his gaze from her and turning to look at Pegg…

His jaw promptly fell to his toes and everything he’d been thinking fled.

Pegg stood in front of him. At least, Gar assumed it was Pegg.

The Pegg he knew was a horse, tall and broad, with beautifully feathered wings, and a mouth so smart it could cauterize a wound.

But this Pegg…

“Pegg?” he breathed.

The man that stood in front of him was tall—though not as tall as Gar, still easily six feet or more. His hair was brown and thick, and needed a cut, his beard, too. But he was muscular and fit and when he stepped forward, his face grim and eyes warning Gar to watch his tongue, he had the same elegant grace in human form that he carried as a horse—a Pegasus, Gar reminded himself.

“How the fu—”

“He’s a protector, Gar,” Rika said, her voice awed and only catching once. “So he can shift now.”

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