Taming the Queen of Beasts

If you like music while you're reading, try "Don't Forget Me" by Nathan Wagner. This song has been on loop in my ears for days in the lead-up to writing the following chapters. I hope it means as much to you as it does to me. It cries Reth and Elia's hearts to me.

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RETH

They hurried. They raced. They pushed through weakness and thirst and fear—and still, the climb, though easier in their beasts, took half an hour.

Reth knew they'd finally made it when Elia's beast reached a small outcropping and leaped onto it, then sank almost to her belly, hissing.

Reth leaped up alongside her, then shifted back, Elia following him a heartbeat later.

The rocks and dirt around them were deep in shadow, almost dark as night. But the sky overhead was beginning to pink, and in the far distance, the first beams of sunlight danced across the canopy of the WildWood and made the sands of the desert glow.

Elia hadn't taken her eyes off of him since she'd shifted back. When he turned to face her, the ache in his chest was so sharp, he wondered for a moment if he'd survive it.

She stood in the shadows, but the dull glimmer of sunlight that illuminated even where it didn't reach, made her skin glow, and her light hair striking sparks to his weary, loving eyes.

For a moment he saw her in all the ways he'd known her—the child who had befriended him and seen beyond the fear of him.

The beautiful young woman who'd fought to lead and given trust before it was earned.

The wife and mother who'd given herself so freely and begun to earn the wrinkles that now peppered her skin.

And now here they stood… his mate. His brave, magnificent mate, staring at him with adoration, and pain in her shining eyes.

"Elia, I—" his voice was hoarse and deep and erupted from the well of pain he called a chest.

"There are no Protectors," she said, her jaw tight and unmoving. "No one to protect us to get us in there."

"If my love, my blood cannot protect you, Elia, none can," he said earnestly. Then stepped towards her, but to his shock, she stepped back.

"We have to go in. The sun's coming up," she said, her eyes wild with fear, hands balled at her side, her lips dragging for the stone beneath their feet. "There's no time."

"The Creator will make time," he snarled.

Elia blinked, but then she smiled even through her tears. "For you, I think He will," she whispered. "You're that beautiful, Reth," she breathed. Then her forehead pressed into lines of worry and pain. He opened his mouth, but she shook her head and pushed on. "I don't think you realize just how incredible you are. I do, Reth. I do. And if there's one thing I can say I have never been guilty of in this life, it's being ungrateful for you. You are… stunning to me. Your heart, your love, your wisdom… I don't just love you because you're smoking hot, mate of mine. I love you because you're everything I wish I was. And I am so, so grateful that the Creator gave you to me, and to our children. You're the only reason I'm standing here, in the end. Because I love you too much to let everything you made beautiful be destroyed.

"I don't just love you to my bones. I love you to my soul. I am… made of love for you, Reth. Do you know that? It's the thing that keeps my heart pumping. And I'm convinced the Creator gave you to me because He knew no one else would lead me to Him, and no one else would inspire the kind of love in my heart that can do… this." She faltered then and he almost took her in his arms, but she shook her head again.

"You're worth it, Reth. You're worth this," she said on a rush of breath. And then her tears spilled. But she wiped them away, blinking because she wanted to see him, just as he was determined to see her, he knew. "The words sound so empty, but they're true. Thank you."

Reth sucked in the most difficult and painful breath of his fifty years, the breath that didn't want to come, and stepped up to take her in his arms, his eyes never leaving, searching hers as he spoke.

"You are the reward of my life, Elia," he rasped. "You are everything precious to me. You say I inspire love in you? But I say you're the one who drew it from me. Without you I was… dying inside. Without you I was cold arrogance and strength. No warmth. I was losing myself." He did step forward then and take her in his arms. "You brought light back to my heart, Love. That's the pure truth. And I've been grateful for it every day since."

She made a small whimper, staring up at him. "Reth," she whispered, and her voice was shaking. "I'm not sure I can—"

"You can, and you will. You were made for this, Love. I know it. I knew you had this in you, Elia," he hissed passionately. "From the day I met you, I knew it. The Creator made you different—whether they could see it or not."

"You always saw things in me no one else did—including me," she said with a shaky laugh, but the smile never reached her eyes.

He shook his head and reached a hand up to stroke her cheek. "I saw what was true about you—the Creator showed me. Because someone needed to. I see you, Elia. I always have, and I always will. Do you hear me? Do you?" He knew he sounded angry, but it was the force of his fear and pain. He couldn't let her go without being certain. But she'd dropped her head into his chest, her shoulders shaking.

"Look at me, Elia."

When she turned up her head, diamond tears in her eyes, her chin high and throat bare, he groaned the mating call and she took his face in her hands, her fingers scratching on the scruff of his jaw.

"You have made my life what it is," he said, his voice heavy and rough with grief. "This is not the end for us, Elia, I promise you. The Creator Himself promises you!"

"Reth," she said, her voice pained and desperate.

He shook his head. "My life for yours, Love. My last breath. My blood that yours might not be spilled." He tipped his forehead to hers and whispered, "I'm calling down the Creator Himself to save you…. are you ready?"

"Reth, I'll never be ready to leave you!"

He stared into her eyes, the shining pools of pain and love and he kissed her with everything within his heart, pulled her close, and tasted her one last time, and when he pulled back, he rasped, "Me either."

Then he drew the blade from the sheath at his hip, slid it against the skin of his wrist, took her hand, kissed her hair, and led her into the portal, its blue light flashing as he passed through.Â

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