ADMINISTRATION NOTE: For the next week or two I'm going to try uploading the daily chapters a little earlier (4:30 and 5:30pm, Pacific) to make the content available to the East Coast readers at a more convenient time. On NovelFull, little details like upload times can have an impact on income, so this is an experiment to make sure I'm not hurting Reth & Elia's audience. I'll let you know if it changes again!

*****

GAHRYE

He'd made it this far, now he was going to lose Elia to her beast in the WildWood?

Gahrye stumbled to his feet, cursing and ran for the tunnel just in time to see a burnished brown rump disappear around the corner, tail flashing before it blended into the wilderness behind it.

"Shit!

" He ran the length of the cave, sliding to a halt at the open mouth just as breeze, blowing from the east, while Elia had gone West, which meant he was going to have to track her since the wind would be blowing his scent to her, rather than the other way around.

"Elia!

" he called, then clapped a hand over his mouth as the WildWood went quiet around him, except for the rustle of leaves and distant birds.

He still had no idea what was going on with the wolves, or where Reth was. He couldn't risk drawing attention to their presence until he knew for certain it was safe.

Throwing a hasty prayer skyward that he could find her quickly and convince her to follow him again, Gahrye started running, then groaned and slowed, gripping his side.

He'd forgotten about the stab wound.

Fucking Shaw. He was glad Elia had eaten him, though he wasn't sure how she was going to feel about that, if she remembered it.

Somehow in the adrenalin rush of the Traverse he hadn't really felt it. But now… now that he'd relaxed, and he'd been dragged thirty feet through the dirt and dumped on the cold stone of the cave… now he was reminded.

Biting back a groan, he slowed to a walk and searched the dirt for tracks, inhaling the fresh, glorious air of Anima.

If he had his choice, he'd still be in the human world, holding Kalle, making love to her. But if he had to be apart from her, there was nowhere he'd rather be.

Now if he could just get the Queen back to her King before she disappeared into her beast, or just plain disappeared, maybe he could figure out how to convince Reth to send him back across the Traverse to warn Kalle.

There was a broken twig that held the dark musk of lion. Gahrye passed it and kept searching for more clues about where Elia had gone. Either she didn't remember her way back to the Tree City, or she'd gone so deep that the beast was in control.

Neither of those was a good answer for Gahrye.

He desperately needed to get her back to the Reth—quietly, and preferably in her human form. But how to get her to change?

He'd hoped the sight and smell of Anima would draw her out. But based on the tracks he was finding, and the scent on the leaves of the underbrush, she was still in lion form.

Gahrye's stomach trilled. He kept his eyes on the ground, darting in every direction looking for more tracks. He couldn't afford to lose her now. But he also couldn't afford to yell at her. The deeper they went into the forest, the stronger the smell of bear.

They should be sleeping this late in the season, but the scent of a lion, especially if Elia didn't change back, was enough to pull any out of sleep if she got too close. The last thing he needed was to get her back here, then have her killed by a bear.

What the ** were the bears doing west of the Tree City? It made no sense!

Gahrye shook his head and winced against the pain in his side and his arm.

"Come back, Elia,

" he muttered under his breath as he leaped onto a mossy rock to get some height and see if he could see any sign of her in the clearing ahead.

"Come back. For your mate. Come back for me.

"

Gahrye swallowed hard. The birds in this clearing weren't singing. Perhaps because a massive predator had just passed through?

Then—there! A flash of brown at the other side of the clearing and a short branch quivering where it passed.

Gahrye jumped off the rock and started across the clearing as fast as he could without reopening any wounds.

"Elia!

" he hissed as he shuffle-jogged across the space.

"You're going in the wrong direction!

"

There was no sign that she'd heard him, or decided to listen if she did. He reached the point where she'd been and there was a few short strands of hair caught in the thick, evergreen leaves of the small branch. But no sign of a waiting lion or—even better—a weary and frantic Queen.

"Elia!

" he whisper-screamed again.

"I'm here. And you're going the wrong way!

"

But even the birds didn't answer him.

With a heavy sigh, Gahrye plowed into the underbrush and started walking as fast as he could and still look for signs.

It was growing darker by the minute. For a moment he thought perhaps she was just looking for a den to sleep in, then he remembered, no. Lions were primarily nocturnal. If he didn't find her quickly, she might slip past him in the dimmer light of night.

For a moment he wanted to just sink to the dirt and curse the Creator. Why was it always this way? Why did everything he was asked to do turn into such a **show?

All he'd ever wanted was to matter. To love and be loved, to have a family, and to matter to someone.

He mattered to Elia, he knew. The dark, selfish thoughts made shame heat his cheeks. If the roles were reversed, he knew Elia would have hiked through the forest for as many days as it took to find him. He knew she would.

He just wished…

Gahrye sighed. He just wished for once something could be easy. That he could succeed in something he tried, without a fight. That he could point at a target and reach it without diversion.

That he could take a single step with certainty.

Was that so much to ask?