Chapter 21

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*****

~ HARTH ~

Harth’s skin prickled where his hair brushed her collarbone, and Tarkyn tensed under her hand. But then Gar straightened enough that there were inches between them.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

.....

“Who sent you?” he asked carefully, inhaling as she answered.

“No one! Well, our Alphas, I suppose. The Creator showed them the way for us to get here and we did!”

“Did the humans know you were coming here? Did they have anything to do with your arrival?”

“No! We were running from them!”

Gar inhaled deeply.

“Is she true?” Tarkyn asked quietly.

Gar frowned. “I think so. I can’t be certain. Her scent threads are different. But I think she’s being honest.”

“Of course I’m being honest-this is my mate! I wouldn’t lie to my mate!”

But none of them answered immediately. She turned to Tarkyn-would he really not believe her? Had he really been convinced she was somehow lying? A tiny groan sounded in his throat, but when he looked at Gar, he shook his head.

“I believe her. I’m sure of her. But... I can’t make this call. For the good of the people... I can’t. I’m too close. I’m so damn drawn to her, I don’t trust my own judgment. I don’t know if I can see this clearly.”

“I remember the feeling,” Gar said dryly, glancing at his mate, who smiled. “But that doesn’t help us.”

“It sounds like the matebond,” Rika said slowly. “Even if it’s different, even if it doesn’t work for the same reasons, is it any different in how we’d treat it? I mean, if neither of them has ever connected with someone before-”

Gar turned back to her, his brows heavy. “Have you ever bonded with another male?” he asked, inhaling her scent again.

“No!” Harth snapped. She didn’t know if she wanted to cry, or bite something. Did they really think she had somehow engineered this connection? How could she even have known about these people-let alone, about Tarkyn personally? “You’re... he’s my mate! I can’t believe you’d...” she turned to Tarkyn. “Do you really think I’m lying to you?”

“No,” he said immediately, which gave her some relief. “I know you feel it, and I know you’re telling the truth. But... Harth I’m a fighter. A Defender. And if this weren’t happening to me, I know what I would say to another. So much has happened that we didn’t anticipate, there are so many involved in this that we don’t know yet, we can’t know if they’re somehow at work. Even if you don’t lie, we can’t yet know if you’ve been manipulated and put in my path, or... something,” he ended lamely.

Harth’s mouth dropped open and she took a step back from him as Tarkyn and Gar both turned to the older male.

But his eyes went wide and he lifted his hands. “Oh no. I’m not part of this. I gave you my advice. The decision is yours.”

“You’re Advisor to the Queen! Behryn, your wisdom is needed here!” Gar growled.

“No, I make myself available. I give advice-and I have. I have suspicion, but hope. But the decisions are yours. If you want further advice from me, then I say you need to talk to Elreth and Aaryn. They need to make this call. It’s her kingdom at risk.”

“Where is El?” Tarkyn asked, as if he was surprised he hadn’t asked earlier.

‘Who is El?’ she asked in his head.

Tarkyn turned to her. “Elreth is the Queen. Our Alpha. In the end all decisions are hers.”

But Gar was looking wary. “El’s... busy.”

Tarkyn gaped at him. “Too busy for this?”

Gar cleared his throat, glanced at Harth in a way that made her immediately nervous, then his face got very serious. “The party that found these Chimera... it was El and Aaryn and their guard. They took them and brought them back here. Now they’re... interviewing them.”

“Wait, who?” Harth asked quickly. “Who did they take?”

Gar’s lips pursed, but he answered. “A mated pair.”

Harth blinked. Though some of the Chimera had chosen to mate since they came to this world, there were still only a few established pairs among them.

She prayed they hadn’t caught Kyelle and Lhars. The Chimera would be falling apart without them.

When they’d left the world given to them by the humans, the true Alphas, Zev and Sasha, had learned that the humans had their son. They’d been forced to send everyone else through the gateway without them so they could safely try to reach their son in the human compound without endangering any other Chimera.

Not knowing how long it might take to save their son, or what the consequences might be of their attempts, Zev and Sasha had appointed Kyelle and Lhars as Alphas until they returned.

It had been three months and Zev and Sasha still hadn’t joined them here in this place. Kyelle, an owl-shifter, and Lhars, another wolf like Harth, had kept their people organized and focused. If they’d been lost...

Harth swallowed hard and prayed as fervently as she ever had that the two were safe.

Then the rest of what Gar had said hit her.

“Wait, you’re imprisoning them? We just left captivity! We just left prisons at the hands of the humans and now you’re locking us back up again?!”

“They haven’t been harmed,” Gar growled a warning at her. “Only... contained. They have a babe. We’d never-”

Harth frowned. “A babe? There are no babes-but then she broke off, stunned.

Tarkyn leaned closer. “What is it, Harth?” he asked quietly.

She couldn’t breathe. It couldn’t be. Surely their luck wouldn’t have been so bad... but...

The only Pair she knew that could have a babe was Zev and Sasha. The Chimeran Alphas.

Harth growled.

Their Alphas had returned and been taken before their people even knew they’d arrived?

“Harth, what is it-”

Scrambling-the urge to tell her mate the truth was there, but these others... could they be trusted? She didn’t feel that they could.

But then her eyes were caught by movement at the line of trees on the other side of the meadow at the same time that the Anima apparently heard whoever was arriving.

They all watched as two females, surrounded by a ring of guards, walked out of the line of trees-one tall and red-haired and dressed in a linen shirt and leathers like the others here. The other in the black, skin-hugging suit of the humans, her dark hair gleaming under the sun.

Harth’s heart leaped.

The dark haired one was Sasha-don. The Chimeran Alpha. And she carried a baby!