ELIA

She tried to sleep, but this cave that smelled so strangely and was so tall, would not let her relax. Even the prey that were kin, the prey she could not eat, remained quiet.

She needed her mate. The urge pushed her to her feet again, pacing the unsafe space. She needed her mate. Young were coming and he was needed. His strength, his dominance, to watch over her when the time came.

He was out there, she could scent the space that led to him. But he did not come.

She tried to sleep, but she could not.

The one that was inside reeked of fear and pain, pining for the mate as well. Battering her insides, begging to be freed.

She growled. This one was hurt and sick and growing weak. Too weak.

She shook her head, her ears snapping against her skull.

Too weak to be allowed to roam when young were coming. She needed to be kept safe.

But she fought. She fought with the lion's heart. So the lion tried to sleep, but she could not.

The one that was inside needed to understand—she was safer there. They were both safer there until the mate came.

She was weak. Far too weak.

But at least her strange voice was getting quieter…

The beast tried to sleep, but she could not.

*****

GAHRYE

The cave was silent. Dark in this side-tunnel where the portal lay, but cold light seeped into it from the main cave.

Gahrye took a deep breath and his heart raced. Clean, pure air! The scents of home!

He hadn't realized how much he'd missed it until that scent filled his nose and he wanted to weep with relief. But he couldn't. He couldn't make a sound. He couldn't risk it.

Drawing himself into the cave on tip-toe, he forced himself to focus. The air in the cave was clean, dusty, dry and… old. The trace of scents from Anima across months were there—including wolves. But all were cold and weak, laid over by dust.

Old.

Nothing fresh. Nothing new.

He took another step closer to the main cave, then another, scenting then waiting, scenting then waiting.

His heart sang with the smell of his home, the clean, crisp air that fed something in his chest. He felt stronger already! But grief hit him in the chest as well.

He needed to be here. Elia needed to be here. But Kalle could not be here.

He couldn't spend time thinking about that.

Slowly, over minutes, he made his way out of the branching tunnel where the portal lay, and into the main cave, blinking at the sunlight that played outside—the grass, the trees, the blue sky, the rushing laughter of the nearby creek, the mountains looming in the distance.

He was home. He was truly home.

Then, near where the cave opened in the rock, an old scent that hit him like a spear in the gut.

Candace.

She had lain here. Her blood drying. Her scent cooling. Her life…gone. She had been here.

Squeezing his eyes against the tears that he could not afford, Gahrye knelt and placed his hand in the dirt that held her faint scent and prayed. Prayed she had not suffered. Prayed she was with the Creator. Prayed she could see the love they held for her, even now.

Prayed Elia would not have the skill to scent this when they arrived.

Then he swallowed and stood, and walked into the sunlight and rushing beauty of his home.

Ten minutes later he was certain. The clearing around the cave was empty. There were slightly fresher scents crossing it, many times, mostly wolves, which made his stomach clench. But the scents were old. And then he found the tracks of bears near the water.

Gahrye blinked. The tracks were old, dried into the mud of the bank because no other animals or Anima had visited since.

All these scents were all old trails, fading quickly in the sunlight. Not as old as the scents in the cave, but almost gone.

Gahrye blew out a breath. He was safe. He was certain of it. There was no one nearby.

But… but if that was true, why had Reth not sent anyone to tell them what was happening? Why hadn't they had a messenger—or a visit from Reth himself?

If the portal territory was held by the Tree City, why had no one come through?

Uneasiness churned in his stomach as Gahrye turned to face the breeze and his nostrils flared. He opened himself then—something he'd been unwilling to do fully in the human world, with so much darkness and stink. But now he opened himself to read the winds.

Images flashed in his head—Anima fighting Anima.

The fear of females at the hands of males.

Alpha hearts torn between ruthlessness and mercy.

Alpha hearts torn between love and hate.

A time of confusion and heartbreak, a time of unwanted change. And purposes… purposes found, but for all the wrong reasons.

Death. The desire for death.

Blood. Bloodshed was coming.

Alpha hearts had to return to balance!

He, Gahrye was needed. Elia was needed.

The Anima walked into a new age and without them… without Elia and Gahrye, the Anima would not survive.

Gahrye sucked in the breath he hadn't realized he was holding and his eyes flew open. Then he was running, scrambling, stumbling, clawing his way back into the cave, into its depths, past the place where Candace had rested, into the branching tunnel were the Portal lay.

He threw himself at that glimmering, shifting air, threw himself towards the traverse—and was thrown backwards like he had hit a wall.

He bounced to the floor of the cave, stunned, his eyesight doubled.

Confused, he leaped to his feet again and ran for the portal, then bounced off it like he had run into the side of the cave.

Panting, cursing, Gahrye stared at the swirling light. The light that had beckoned him through.

It shifted, taunting him, glittering, beckoning. But when he laid his hand to it, he could not pass through.

The portal would not let him enter.

*****

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