~ TARKYN ~
"Tarkyn?" Elreth said briskly, the tone in her voice snapping him to attention, despite his weariness.
Tugging Harth with him, Tarkyn took the steps to close the gap between them so he stood next to Elreth on the other side of the cell bars. Harth followed, but pulled against him, reluctant to get close to Elreth. He prayed the day would come that the two would admire each other the way he admired them.
Elreth, arms folded across her chest in a gesture that meant she was feeling defensive, turned to face him, her jaw tight. Aaryn, her King, stood at her shoulder, his brow furrowed.
"Any warrior held that way… Elreth, I really think you can't expect to have meaningful conversations about peace while he's held so brutally."
"He almost killed our guards."
Tarkyn nodded. "And I might have done the same thing if my mate had been under threat. We… we have to look for a way through this. If there's any chance these people can be allies rather than enemies, we have to treat them as such until we know for certain."
Elreth chewed her lip, then turned to look into the cell again.
The human woman stood at the side of the stone plinth, one hand holding her son to her shoulder, the other gripping her mate's forearm where he struggled.
"Holy shit." The deep voice rose behind them and Tarkyn turned.
Gar had arrived, his mate standing in the doorway of the prison, clearly alarmed by the voices raised within it. But Gar stood at Tarkyn's back, his face dark.
"Fuck, El, really?"
"He almost killed three of our guards, Gar. Three. At the same time."
"And I might have done the same thing," Gar muttered, folding his massive arms across his chest exactly as his sister had. "You'll never get through to him like that. You wouldn't get through to any of us. Let him loose. Let him breathe. Let him touch his mate and see his son."
"Let him set an ambush for our guards?" Elreth said, one brow high. "Let him shift—who knows if his strength is greater than ours. What if he can break the bars?"
"Seems unlikely, if he can't break the chains," Gar said logically.
Tarkyn was suddenly grateful for the War Chief. He could be as hot-headed as his sister at times, but when he thought, he thought clearly.
And he was right.
Tarkyn nodded, relieved that he wasn't the only one counseling this. "Lock them in, give her the key to unlock the bonds. Let their family reunite. Let his body rest. Let everybody rest. As long as he's contained, there's no immediate danger. And then when he's rested, then maybe we can talk. To both of them."
"And if we have need to get in there?" Elreth spat back—as was her way. Tarkyn had learned months earlier, she argued to hear the answers, not because she couldn't see sense. Both he and Gar nodded. "Then we knock him out again."
Elreth chewed her lip.
The wailing of the babe ratcheted up, and Tarkyn's heart pounded harder, faster.
He'd never been affected by the crying of children before. But something about this day, something about holding his mate and smelling her agitation as he smelled rage and blood on another, strong male and his mate… it all conspired. Tarkyn had to wrestle his own beast back for a moment. He couldn't afford to give in.
'Trust me,' he sent to Harth quietly as she opened her mouth like she would argue. 'I know it's hard to see, but don't give in to the temptation to attack. This needs to be managed or it will be all-out war between our people.'
'It might be too late to avoid that,' she hissed in his head, but he knew her venom wasn't for him, but for the pain twisting her chest as she looked at her Alpha.
To Tarkyn's relief, Aaryn, the King, stepped quietly forward then, leaning into Elreth's ear.
Tarkyn didn't catch what he said—the two had an uncanny ability to communicate silently—but a moment later Elreth, after staring at her mate long and hard, heaved a sigh, then began rattling off orders.
"Bring Jayah—we need a healer's input about why he woke. And the wetnurse as well. She can feed outside. Who has the key to the bonds?" Before anyone answered, she turned to the bars and stared at the human woman. "Your baby needs to be fed. If you're willing to give him over to the wet nurse, I'll lock you in with your mate and give you the keys to release your mate."
"You can't be fucking serious?!" the woman spat.
Elreth bristled. "Deadly serious," she snapped back. "Your mate is a threat to any except you. Your son will be returned to you when he's been fed. But we can't easily remove him from you once your mate is free, and frankly, your mate might be a threat to him, even without intention. So those are your choices. Either your mate stays bound while the nurse feeds him here, or you release him to the nurse and we return him when he can rest."
"You ask me to choose between my mate and my child?!"
"No, Sasha, I ask you to choose between freedom for your mate, and your anger. I will not apologize for protecting my people, just as I suspect you wouldn't. I gave you my word that no harm will come to your child, and I meant it."
"How do you define harm? Will you return him to me?"
Elreth's jaw flexed. "You have my assurance as Queen and Alpha of All, that once your son is fed, he will be returned to you through the foodgate—at least, as long as your mate has calmed. If your mate remains a threat, your son will be brought here to see you and returned to you when it's safe to do so."
The woman's face crumpled and she trembled as she looked back and forth between her son and mate. Tarkyn felt her pain and fear and pleaded with the Creator to give her reassurance that no Anima would harm her baby.
Offspring were far too precious in this world.
Then Sasha looked at Harth and the two females shared a silent moment. Tarkyn's chest squeezed with the rush of love, anger, and resignation he felt from his mate.
"I'll do everything I can," Harth said to her clearly, her eyes shining with unshed tears.
A moment later, Sasha closed her eyes, dropped her chin to kiss her son on the temple, her hand cupping the back of his small skull, then she walked slowly towards the gate.
Everyone watched, holding their breath, as a female from the wolf pack bustled into the tree, scented the tension and grew immediately wary. But she took the baby from Sasha and hurried him outside as the guards closed the cell door in front of the human woman and locked it.
Tarkyn watched the woman's eyes swim first with grief, then immediately with determination. Sasha turned a look on Elreth that raised the hair on the back of his neck. But all she said was, "Where are the keys? I need to free my mate."