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Elreth felt as if the very earth beneath her had been ripped out from under her feet.

Stunned silent, mentally scrambling, she was frozen, unable to do anything but stare at Zev and try to process what he’d just said.

The fact that one Alpha would challenge another for dominance wasn’t without precedent—it might even have been a course Elreth might have taken under other circumstances. But she couldn’t fight him. Not now.

This male who stood in front of her, his entire body rigid with rage, who’d issued the challenge…. He hated her. She was certain of it. Could smell it on him.

Her father had spoken to her in her early years when she’d struggled in relationships with her peers at times. He’d warned her that leaders tended to become the face of a person’s pain. That when an Anima reached their limit, the straw that broke the camel’s back would inevitably be the one they saw as having authority over them.

He’d warned her clearly to expect it.

And even more clearly never to lord it over others.

“There’s no faster way to leave a bitter taste in the mouth of a person than to throw your power around, El,” he’d said sternly.

.....

She was only twelve and he’d caught her ordering Aaryn to do something for her because she was the King’s daughter.

Elreth was already mortified. She never did that to anyone, let alone Aaryn, but he’d gotten irritated with her and told her she couldn’t do something because she was too young, and it had pricked her pride. So she’d returned the favor.

When her father heard her, he’d growled so loudly it was almost a roar, and dragged her back to the cave by her elbow, then practically shoved her into a seat and stood over her, his hands on his hips.

“Is this the way you carry your Alpha, El?” he’d snarled. “Flashing your power, using it against people?”

“No!”

“Do you want to know what it feels like?” he’d growled menacing, bending over her, and he was so huge… she’d so rarely seen her father angry, when his lion’s eyes flashed, she’d jerked back in the seat.

“No! Dad! I wasn’t—I don’t! I was mad at Aaryn—”

“And this is how you deal with it?”

“No! I mean, yes, today, but not usually. I just—”

“You just thought you would lord yourself over your best friend—dear God, what do you do with the little pissant serpents when they get going?”

“I don’t, Dad, I promise!” she’d been near tears—half out of embarrassment, and half in sheer fear of disappointing him. She hated nothing more than when her father looked at her sadly.

“What the hell, El? How many times have I told you, holding power, especially power you were created with, is a massive responsibility?”

“I know!”

“Clearly you don’t! Clearly you see it as a weapon to be wielded—”

“No, Dad, I promise.”

He’d stared at her long and hard then, his jaw twitching, then he’d blown out a long breath and raked a hand through his hair, before kneeling down in front of her so they were on the same level.

“You listen to me—”

“Dad, I know. I do listen. I know, I just—”

“I SAID LISTEN!”

She’d been shocked. Her father had cursed and looked away from her for a moment, clearly fighting for his own control. But when he found it, he leveled the gaze on her that made Alphas quail.

“When you have power, Elreth, it provides great privilege. More often than not, your power feeds itself—and the very things you earn by being strong make you even stronger. It can easily fall into the trap of believing that you deserve that. That it makes you… special,” he muttered. “And while there is truth to the fact that you are, indeed, greatly gifted by the Creator, there are two sides to the power coin.

“Power brings privilege and…?”

“Responsibility,” she whispered.

He nodded. “Now, hear me, El, because clearly you are now old enough to hear it: Responsibility isn’t simply jobs you do not want to do. It isn’t only the weight of decisions you do not want to make. It is also carrying blood on your hands.”

She blinked. This was new. She looked up at him tentatively. “What?”

“When you are in power, El—true power—there will come times when you fail. It is unavoidable. The only thing that is one hundred percent guaranteed in your life is that you will fail. Do you hear me?”

She nodded hurriedly.

Her father took a breath again, dropping his voice when he continued. “Understand that when you are in power your decisions affect others because it is by your word that they act. And that means the day will come when your choices cost others. Pain, heartache. Even their lives. It is unavoidable that this will occur—what you can do is minimize it. Make as certain as you are able that you are not flippant with the lives of others. Make as certain as you are able that you do not play with pain that will cost someone else. Do you hear me?”

“Yes,” she’d breathed, her guts twisting in anguish. “I do, Dad. I do.”

“Good, then your final lesson for today: When you know you were wrong, you own it. Do you hear me? You do not pass blame. When you are in power and given every privilege and every right, then you take your lumps when they come. You show true strength—you stand in the face of your critics and you say yes. Yes, I did get it wrong. And then you do everything in your power to rectify it. Everything!”

She’d cried and nodded, reached for her father who was scaring her. Something she’d felt so rarely with him, it was as if she was suddenly several years younger again.

And true to his nature, he’d sighed and scooped her up into his chest, then turned and sunk into the chair himself, letting her cry on his shoulder.

He’d stroked her hair and waited until she stopped crying. Then he’d set her on her feet and made her go apologize to Aaryn.

Aaryn who was invited to dinner and given dessert that Elreth didn’t receive.

And who’d poked his tongue out at her when her parents weren’t looking…

She’d been so angry at the time. But the lesson had always stuck.

Power was responsibility. And true responsibility didn’t want to carry others into failure with them.

Elreth didn’t. She never had—and even more since the war, she was so highly aware of the effects of her decisions.

They had almost cost her her mate.

So now… here she stood, facing a male who hated her power. Who had been broken by her failure, and now he wanted her to fight for it. He wanted to take her power because he believed she had used it wrong. He was convinced he would win.

And more and more as Elreth reconsidered all that had happened in the war and the things she’d seen, she tended to agree with him. In the previous months she’d already been convinced that the males in her life had never truly unleashed on her in a fight. Not completely.

She could beat Tarkyn in challenges for speed, or specific moves. But in a fight to the death? She was not confident of that at all—and Tarkyn had admitted he wasn’t entirely certain he could beat Zev.

So where did that leave her?

She looked Zev in the eyes and saw his rage burning. Felt his hate.

Her father’s voice echoed again.

“You feel like their hate is for you, El, but in truth, it’s the burn of injustice… or envy… or pride. You simply become the target for the feelings they’ve found no other outlet for.”

Zev was definitely a male who needed an outlet.

And here he was, asking for one—asking for the chance to take her throat, or her people. Because she suspected she knew his strategy.

He knew he could beat her. But he didn’t expect her to fight. He expected her to submit—or call her people in to fight for her.

Which meant she had a decision to make. An impossible, painful, terrifying decision.

And meanwhile, the stink of aggression was rising beside and behind her. She’d brought Behryn and Reece alongside to read the winds during what she hoped would be talks for peace, or better yet, a treaty of agreement. But she’d brought Gar because Gar was fucking terrifying. And if there was need for any standover tactics, he was the male to do it.

And he’d already found his mental balance enough to begin.

She could smell the tension leaching off him in waves—the sheer threat as he watched his pregnant sister be challenged by a male warrior who was possibly the best and fastest fighter they’d ever seen.

She put a hand back, gripped Gar’s wrist to hold him in place, knowing it would take physical contact to break through if his Alpha was getting ready to attack. And she prepared to defend her people. To the death if need be.