Taming the Queen of Beasts

RETH

While it had still been the night in which they'd been shot down, they'd first hidden among the copse of trees the bird had pointed out, looking for any further activity from the humans. But aside from a few scents on the wind, there'd been nothing. And from that spot as the night had turned into day, they'd been able to see where the desert met the shining, deadly cliffs of Midnight. A gust of dry, crackling wind had given Reth hope, and sure enough, after an hours of hunched travel, they'd found a small pool, water trickling from the highest reaches of the cliffs into what amounted to little more than a puddle.

Without water—their skins burst by the fall from the birds—Reth knew they wouldn't survive the rest of the desert crossing. So he'd insisted that they stay in the thin shadow of the cliffs and drink their fill through the heat of the day, sucking at the clean water as often as they could. But as afternoon gave way to evening and they'd be able to travel again, they'd covered themselves from head to toe in the gritty mud.

Rika had suggested that mud would assist them in hiding from the human tech—something to do with body heat that Reth hadn't understood—but he knew it would also protect them from the elements—the cold of the night if they were forced back to their human forms.

As the sun dipped low and neither of them could hold another mouthful of water, he'd looked at her.

"We'll have to travel in our beasts," he said quietly. His breath stopped as his heart gave a painful, jagged patter, then settled back into his chest.

Elia nodded. She'd been so quiet since they were shot down, he was concerned she might have been injured and hiding it. But she moved freely.

No, it was her heart that hurt. Her very soul. Not her body.

She looked up at him and Reth gathered her in. Her eyes were wide and sad.

"Don't worry, Love, we'll make it."

"But there's no Protectors, Reth," she said in a tiny voice. "Even if we get there… Gahrye said I need someone to get me safely to the center."

"The Creator will provide," Reth said through his teeth.

"But—"

"Elia, please," he said, his voice cracked and broken. "Please don't make me argue with you for… for this. I will get you there. I will get you to the center. If my love and my blood won't keep you safe, nothing will."

Her eyes filled with tears again, but love shone in her eyes. "Oh, Reth. I'm so sorry."

He blinked. "Sorry for what?"

"I've been so… selfish."

He frowned, casting his mind back. His mate travelled out here to sacrifice herself for the people of Anima… and somehow thought she was being selfish?

It was true, he really would die not understanding women.

"Elia—"

"With you, Reth. I've been so selfish with you. I'm so sorry. I've been so wrapped up in my own grief, my own pain, I've been adding to yours instead of sharing it. Please… I'm sorry." She put her gentle hands to his face and pulled him down to a soft kiss and Reth went with a groan of pain.

He didn't want to let her go. Didn't want to shift and be separated from himself even that much. Didn't want to be separated from her at all. But he knew if he didn't keep moving, keep putting one foot in front of the other, he would stop and he wasn't sure he could make himself move again.

"I love you, Elia."

She smiled—the first genuine smile he'd seen in days. Then kissed him again. "Reth, I am so, so blessed to know the truth of that. I love you too, you gorgeous man. I love you, Reth. To my bones."

He made himself smile and raise an eyebrow. "Still coming second, Elia. I love you to my soul."

Neither of them spoke about death. They only turned to face the mountains silhouetted by moonlight, shifted into their beasts, and began the slow trot that they could sustain for the hours that would be needed to make the traverse in time.

And deep from within in his beast, Reth watched his beautiful mate, caught her golden eyes, and thanked the Creator that she was still there. Thanked him for every minute they had left.

*****

They trotted for hours, through the night, the pads of their beasts feet beginning to crack from the dry sand.

Hidden deep in his beast, Reth was only vaguely aware of the urgency of time—but his mate's strength was flagging. He'd continued to nudge her with his thick head, running alongside, rubbing their bodies together to urge her forward. Forward. Always forward.

The looming cliffs of Midnight finally gave way to the canyon and rocky riverbed of the land where the Outsiders territory began. Reth shifted back to his human form as Elia did too, next to him. He looked around for the safe crossing of the river.

Tales said if they followed this river west, it flowed even past the cliffs and canyon, to the sea. Reth had seen an ocean once in the human world and had always vaguely dreamed of traveling this way when he was no longer ruler, to see the same here in Anima.

It wasn't going to happen, he realized, his heart seeming to swell painfully in his chest. The desert sands were giving way to rocky riverbed and gnarled trees. The canyon opened to the east, the river flowing before them, while the cliffs resumed ahead of them, veering off left and right, as if the river had cut them out of the land.

"Where is the portal?" Elia asked quietly after they'd drunk their fill. Her face was pale and her hands shaking. Reth took them in his own.

"I don't know," Reth said, his voice heavy with resignation. "The Protectors were going to sniff it out. But I'm sure that one of us will. I know we have to find the landbridge to the other side and head up and east."

Elia closed her eyes for a moment, her forehead wrinkling. "What do you think the kids are doing?" she blurted, her voice thin and frail.

Reth squeezed her hand and started to walk, Elia at his side. "I have no doubt that Elreth has everyone in the Tree City dancing to her tune. And Gar is… bellowing orders and threatening anyone who so much as looks sideways at Rika."

Elia's lips twitched up on one side. "He really loves her."

"She's his one," Reth said quietly with a glance at his mate, his True Heart's call. She met his eyes and smiled more, rubbing his arm with her free hand.

"I'm so glad we got to meet her."

"Me too."

​ Those thoughts took them both deep, so neither of them spoke for a while. But Reth's attention was soon taken by his mate's slow progress, and hesitant steps.

"Love, are you well?"

"I'm just tired, Reth. So tired."

Tired as he was, as much as his chest ached, his body held reserves of strength her small, human frame had never known.

A moment later he tugged her to a stop, then knelt down in front of her, looking at her over his shoulder with a grin. "Get on."

"No, Reth! You're exhausted too, I can't—"

"Elia, I have been carrying you on my back since I was ten years old. I may not… may not have opportunity again after the coming dawn. Please. Let me hold you."

She swallowed audibly and closed her eyes for a moment, then, breathing something about stubborn alpha males, she put her hands to his shoulders, leaned over him, and let him grab the backs of her thighs and pull her up into his back, then hiked her higher.

Then, with her arms wrapped in front of his collarbones, and her chin on his shoulder, he began to carry her, his mind turning back to the first time he'd ever done this with her.

He'd been so young. So carefree by comparison. He'd had no idea where this would take them.

He wished he could go back, he found. Not because he wanted to change where their lives had taken them. But simply to live it again. To know her better. To love her more. To give himself more fully.

For a moment, he thought to share the thoughts with her—to tell her what he was seeing in his mind. But then he heard a small sniff and felt something cold on his shoulder, and Elia suddenly turned her head to kiss his neck.

"I love you, Reth. I love you so much," she whispered. "I always have."

He nodded, swallowing his own tears.

He shouldn't have been surprised that they were having the same thoughts.

*****

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