~ HARTH ~
It was so hard. So hard staring at him, listening to what his Queen ordered, seeing him realize in the same moment that she did, that it meant they'd be pulled away from each other. She didn't want it. She fought it. She wanted to scream, and shift, and just… fight.
She wanted to fight this.
But he was her mate.
She felt his honor, his concern, his stress.
He wanted her safe. He trusted himself to do that. Despite his clear exhaustion, he stood strong and proud and looked to her—was she okay? Would she be safe?
Then his voice bloomed into her head and she wanted to whine with the sheer joy of having him there, with her.
'I'll do everything in my power to move this forward in peace,' he said simply, his eyes locked on hers.
As the Queen organized her people and asked for the guards to watch over her and the prisoners—Harth's hackles stood up to hear her alphas referred to that way—Tarkyn just watched her. Pleading.
Harth sucked in a breath and glanced at the guards. A growl puttered in Tarkyn's throat, but he swallowed it quickly, and turned to the guards.
"She is my mate. She remains untouched unless she poses a direct threat to an Anima. Do you understand me?" he snarled.
The guards all saluted, and even though Harth didn't trust them as far as she could throw them, her heart squeezed again at her mate's concern.
The idea of him leaving her, of being here with these strange people… it made her heart race. "May I stay here… with my alphas? Just to be near them."
Tarkyn opened his mouth, but it was his Queen who answered. "You'll be in the other cell for the time that we're gone so that you can be here together."
Tarkyn whirled on his Queen, his body poised, as if he would grab her and shake her, but her mate stepped forward, his eyes pinpoints on Tarkyn, and the Queen raised a brow.
"Do we have a problem, Tarkyn? Is my Captain going to subvert my orders?"
"No, but, she's my mate, I—"
"And she'll be under guard until we're clear what's going on with these invaders, and who's involved. When we return you can be reunited, but I don't have enough manpower right now to let her wander around, Tark. And don't tell me that you'd support that idea under any other circumstances."
Tarkyn shivered. He wanted to fight this, and suddenly Harth saw what her fear was doing to him.
He was a powerful male among these people—second to the Queen. He had already been humbled in the eyes of his people by having been taken by her, and now he wanted to fight an outright order.
If he didn't submit, Harth knew it wouldn't just affect his position in the hierarchy, but also theirs together.
Harth had spent most of her adult life in the wobbly hierarchy of the human's scientific "herds." She wasn't familiar with an established society like this. But she knew from her time in Thana with her own people when she was younger, that without the hierarchy, everyone's lives would be chaos. If she was truly going to protect her mate as she'd vowed to do, she had to protect him even at harm to herself. But that meant putting herself back into a place where powerful others could control what happened to her.
Harth swallowed as he shuddered, fighting the submission. Adrenalin flooded through her veins. If she was ever going to find peace with these people, she had to help him sustain his position in the eyes of the Queen and his people.
Shoving away the jangling fear twisting in her gut, in her mind, Harth showed him herself, standing behind him, one hand on his back, her forehead resting between his shoulder blades.
'I want to be close to Zev and Sasha,' she said, pretending the idea of being locked in didn't make her skin scream. 'And this is better than being in a cave.'
At least the tree had a high ceiling and windows. She didn't feel so… enclosed.
But her chest tightened.
Tarkyn and his Queen glared at each other, but he saluted her and submitted and she nodded once, then turned back to giving orders to the others as she moved towards the door.
Tarkyn reached for Harth, pulling her into his chest. He was trembling.
'How far away will you go?' she asked in his head.
'I don't know. It depends whether she takes us to the security building, or her cave.'
'I hope it's close enough we can keep talking.'
'How far away does this link extend?'
Harth shrugged within the circle of his arms. 'It depends on the wolves and how close they are and… it's impossible to know for sure. But usually we can sustain for at least a mile or two. The closer the bond between us, or the more wolves involved, the further we can go.
'I don't know how far it will work for you, though, Tarkyn, so… if we lose touch … please come back.'
'I'll never leave you, Harth. Not by choice,' he said simply, then squeezed her harder. He straightened though, and they stared at each other, both of them feeling the coming separation and despising it.
She didn't want this, but she could feel him just as resistant as she was, and it was comforting. He would come back. She was certain of it.
'Go,' she said, before her courage failed her. 'Go prove to them that you're just as strong and… and honorable as you were before I showed up. Go kick some ass, Tarkyn."
He gave a small smile at that, then stroked her cheek with his thumb before he took a deep breath and turned away, stalking for the door as if he might smack it if it offended him.
'I'll be back the first minute I can,' he growled in her head.
She nodded, but as the door closed behind him and the guards ushered her to the other cell, she held herself back from him so he wouldn't feel her fear.