ELRETH

She'd been joking about ninety minutes, just like he'd been joking about two hours. They both knew there would be no cutting this meeting short.

But as Elreth stood among the Alphas, turning and speaking to whomever approached, answering questions to individuals and to groups, explaining the prophecy, the pricklepig, Gar and the disformed, again and again, it was only sheer discipline that kept her in the room and focused.

Aaryn prowled the edge of the gathering looking more leonine than lupine as he paced. They were lucky no one noticed his intensity, the way his eyes flashed whenever one of the males got in Elreth's space. This group might have taken the set of his jaw as a challenge.

Normally Elreth loved a meeting of the Alphas. She'd attended with her father in the past—a learning experience, he'd called it. She'd loved the different form and function of the Alphas, informal and fluid, unlike the meetings with the elders. This was a group of Anima leaders, predominantly males, each of whom had risen to top of their group, trade, or tribe. Their appointment wasn't political like Elreth's, or familial like Aaryn's. They didn't fight towards a goal. They were simply the strongest of the Anima in their sphere.

Within them as a group, the hierarchy was clear—Elreth at its peak. Only Aaryn was the unknown quantity. Under any other circumstances, Elreth knew, the Alphas would have spent time pressing into Aaryn, challenging him, finding where he fit among them. But tonight their focus was only one thing… the protection of their groups, and learning the new balance of power that would come when the disformed were acknowledged as a tribe.

While Elreth spoke to the oldest and strongest, Gar circulated among them and at first he was ignored, assumed to be there as Elreth's brother. But as the others began to scent the strength of his conviction, the hum of his Alpha power, more and more turned to ask, to find out why he was there, and to measure him for the role when they learned what he'd done.

None of them challenged him.

There was a moment, as Elreth turned away from one group to approach another and Gar had just finished standing over two of the strongest males, who submitted and accepted his position, that he caught her eye and smiled smugly. He straightened his face immediately when another Alpha approached, but she could feel the desire to laugh shimmering in him.

Elreth would have rolled her eyes if it hadn't suited her purposes to not have to waste time watching her brother kick everyone else's asses.

But it was humbling, too, seeing him here, among all these males. Aaryn's words came back to her—that Gar really could have taken Dominant, followed their father, instead of her, if he'd wanted to. She hadn't given it much thought, hadn't wanted to. But it struck her in that moment that he might have been right.

Elreth rolled her head on her neck and turned to the Alpha of the Birds as she approached. It didn't matter. There was no point speculating. She was Alpha and Gar didn't want the role. He had a role to play of his own.

And besides… she really could take him if she had to. She was sure of it.

As she launched into her explanation of the prophecy again for the Bird Alpha, the hair on the back of her neck suddenly stood on end, as if someone had breathed against her skin.

Elreth shivered and tried to hide it.

Then she saw her mate's bright eyes, catching hers from over his shoulder as Aaryn passed the group where she stood, that promise still heated and bubbling in his gaze.

What she wouldn't give to just leave these people and take him to the Weeping Tree. Or the Bathing Pools. Or… well, anywhere they could be alone really. Things had been so busy, their coupling so often late at night at the end of the day, or early in the morning… just once she wanted the chance to be truly alone with him again, like when they'd gone to that cave after the Flames and Smoke.

Time unfettered, and without a deadline looming. Hours to just be together and enjoy each other.

Her chest physically ached at the thought and she was so distracted she had to ask the Bird Alpha to repeat her question.

"Oh, sorry… no, the prophecy was received by Gahrye,

" she said.

"But it spoke to my mother and Gahrye's mate—the human Guardian. And it spoke… about me. And Gar, we think, as well. It focuses on the disformed though. They are a shield for the rest of us to help us travel to and from the human world, to help us understand the human world, and to gather information and… look, there's so much they do. They've been training for this for decades, though they didn't know it. What we have to do now is learn how to wield the weapon we've forged.

"

Once again she had to answer questions about how certain they were of the prophecy—a prophecy from a disformed about the disformed?

Motives were suspicious.

But Elreth was able to point to all the ways they'd discovered it coming true—most notably the unidentified human in the WildWood, and the weapon they'd brought.

"We don't know how much time we have, only that we have to prepare as if there's no time left at all,

" she said firmly to the Master of Kitchens, a strapping older ram. One of the few Elreth knew who hadn't been afraid to face her father.

And then, just as all the conversations had so far, she was turned back to the disformed, to her brother's new position as Alpha, and the role he was expected to play.

But always, always, during every word, a corner of Elreth's mind was on her mate, seeking his scent, her skin pebbling when he passed and dragged his hand along her ass, or his thigh brushed hers.

That… that was the promise of this evening. The Alphas would get their answers, and take them back to the people. But tonight… tonight Elreth was leaving this place with her mate and taking time with him.

After all, if the world really was ending, they needed to make the most of the days they had left.