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AARYN

Aaryn had been a touch nervous about Gwyn being around when they all separated from Elreth to go to the cave and wait for her to bring her parents. But to his surprise, Gwyn didn\'t step up alongside him, but alongside Gar.

She gave him a look that was speaking something Aaryn couldn\'t decipher, but he wasn\'t even sure Gar noticed.

Gar\'s eyes were sunken, shadowed. He\'d really been rocked by all of this today. Aaryn rolled his head on his shoulders. He was tense about all of this too. But he recognized the spark of anger inside as being a reaction to all of it—not just Gar\'s bombshell. But his own grief and frustration. He knew he would have to work to keep his reactions in check tonight. He was tired, afraid, and feeling insecure. But that was tough.

He was the Queen\'s Advisor. He knew the disformed even better than Gar—though not this aspect of their people—and he knew El. It was his job to make sure she navigated this as safely and wisely as possible.

A tiny shiver rocked through him as they stepped into the Cave. The Royal Cave.

His home, he reminded himself. This was his home. He blinked.

He took quick steps through the Great Room towards the kitchen. "Who wants tea?" he asked.

Only Huncer asked for a cup, but he made a whole pot anyway. He needed something to do. Something that would keep him from confronting Gar. If what Gar had said this evening was true, the male was right not to have shared it. But a part of Aaryn wondered if this was Gar\'s way of making himself important.

He was suddenly the right person to reveal this after twenty years of secrecy?

Aaryn was skeptical, but unwilling to dismiss it entirely. If he knew one thing about Gar, it was that the male took it very seriously when lives were at risk.

Except his own.

He\'d walk into danger with a chuckle and muttered curse. But when others were in danger, he lost all sense of the flippant, arrogant prince, and instead became a serious and formidable male.

Especially when females were at risk.

If Gar was revealing this—was willing to put the disformed in the spotlight, and raise an alarm—then Aaryn was at least sure that Gar believed it was an emergency. That the time was right.

He just needed to pray Gar was right.

He\'d made tea and settled everyone, moving the furniture in the room to make a large circle as he\'d seen Reth do when the Council met at the cave. He took the seat next to where Elreth would sit when she arrived, and they all sat down and waited.

The quiet was tense. When the door opened the first time, right after they sat, it was to let Tarkyn in—he checked around the door first, then looked surprised when he saw the empty seats.

"She\'s still bringing her parents," Aaryn said a moment later.

The Captain nodded and hurried over to take a seat next to Gwyn, who looked uncomfortable, but smiled up at him.

It wasn\'t more than a couple minutes before the door opened again, and this time it was Elreth, her face tight and pale, her parents following her.

And she\'d obviously told them because Elia looked like she might cry, and Reth was a thundercloud.

Aaryn took a deep breath, then locked eyes with El.

Her jaw tightened. Her eyes were slightly red, very shiny, like she was fighting tears. But her expression was resolute, and she walked straight to the chair next to him without hesitation. He squeezed her hand as she sat, then left her alone.

Her parents greeted everyone quietly, then took the small couch across from Elreth\'s seat that had been left for them.

Reth threw an arm across the back of the furniture, glaring a little as if challenging anyone to approach Elia—that they\'d have to deal with him.

And yet, when he looked at his mate, his expression didn\'t soften. The thunderclouds remained.

Elia seemed in shock. She stared at her own hands in her lap, wringing them, then opening and closing her fists as if her fingers were tingling. She didn\'t meet eyes with anyone in the room—except Gar.

She looked up, directly at her son, and her face became a mask of grief and fear.

Gar stared back at her, obviously fighting to keep his expression blank.

"Why?" she breathed.

"It\'s time," he said flatly. "It\'s me. It\'s time."

She shook her head, but didn\'t argue.

Elreth looked around the circle and then sighed. "Well, we\'re all here," she said, nodding to Tarkyn. "So… I didn\'t want to have this conversation in front of everyone. But I trust you all to see clearly, not to panic, and to advise me appropriately. So, I think we need to start at the beginning and understand exactly what\'s happened over the past twenty years. Then… then we need to hear from Gar about what\'s be happening just recently, to understand… how we got to this point tonight. I hope you\'re all rested, we aren\'t leaving this cave until we all know exactly what we\'re facing," she concluded resolutely.

Aaryn gave her a look to let her know how proud he was of her, and that he believed in her. She flashed the sign for \'thank you,\' but didn\'t give him more than a passing glance. She was tense and afraid. He prayed he could be a steady help to her, rather than another drain on her already shattered nerves.

They were all going to be shattered by this, he suspected. Apparently even the people.

Aaryn blew out a breath as Elreth turned to her mother.

"Mom? I understand this started with you. I  know this is a shock—believe me, it\'s been alarming to all of us. So just take your time. But I think the time has come. Tell us what\'s been going on. And how this started. Where did this prophecy come from? How do we know it\'s real? And what does it actually say? Are all of the Anima truly at risk?  And if so, how do we protect them? Everyone here wants nothing more than to keep the humans out of our world, and to keep ourselves and our loved ones safe. So… the floor is yours. Tell us the story. Please?"

NEW BOOK OUT NOW! My entirely new character and world is now live! It\'s still in the process of being vetted by AllNovelFull, but you can find it if you search "Rise of the Dark Alpha":

Zev prowled towards her, all shining, brutal beauty, his chin low and those incredible, piercing eyes fixed on her. He didn\'t stop until they were toe-to-toe and he blocked her view of every other male in the circle. 

His eyes dipped to her mouth as he leaned in, his whisper playing on her skin. 

"You. Are. Mine." 

His deep voice twanged in her belly as the howls of the wolf pack rose from behind him to echo across the mountains of Thana, while the other Chimera protested his claim. 

Fighting the urge to stroke his broad, bare chest with her shaking hands, Sasha forced herself to tilt her head and raise an eyebrow. "So bold for a pup who just found his fangs."

The other males hooted with laughter.

Ignoring their taunts, Zev\'s eyes sparked and he leaned even closer, the scruff on his jaw tickling her cheek as he smiled. "So bold for a human who already knows the pleasure of gasping my name."

She shivered when his teeth grazed her ear. 

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