Falling in Love with the King of Beasts

ELIA

The cave itself was warm and inviting, a wide and tall space that should have echoed, but there were rugs on the stone floor, and curtains and tapestries hanging over the walls to give the big room a comfortable feel. Elia swallowed. If she'd been able to come here by choice, to explore and then go home, she would have wanted to stay a very long time.

Although the furnishings were simple, they were also thick and warm, and clearly of great quality—if a little too masculine for her taste.

At the narrow end of the room, nearest the direction of the clearing, a fireplace had been carved into the rock at the front of the space and there was a couch and several chairs scattered around a large, dark wood coffee table in front of it.

The rest of the room was made of different areas with rock platforms for seating, benches, and wooden cupboards and drawer sets where they were needed. He had a full kitchen with a woodstove, though it looked like it had never been used.

There was no natural light in the cave, but a string of lanterns circled the space and bowed across the ceiling, bringing bright, warm light to every corner.

And at the back, the room seemed to curve to another area. This was the direction Reth led her, his steps faster than they'd been outside. "We don't have a lot of time," he said as they rounded the corner through a narrow, natural arch in the rock that opened out into a much smaller room, dominated by a massive stone platform at its center covered in furs and pillows.

Elia blinked. This was clearly the King's bedroom.

He walked past the bed platform—that was actually three platforms on different levels, she noticed—to a set of wooden doors to the right, pulling them open and humming his approval. "They made it ahead of us, good. This one, I think," he said, pulling something out of the space and walking it over to the bed where he placed the pieces down.

Because they were fur, at first she had trouble telling what was part of the bed, and what he'd taken out of the closet. But then he lifted one piece that was clearly a single-shouldered top in soft, gold fur that would cover the chest modestly, but leave the stomach bare. He extended it towards her, frowning. "It might be a little tight, but I think they judged it well."

She blinked at the tiny top. "You mean too small for you, right?" she snapped.

Reth's face stayed expressionless. "I won't be wearing a top," he said dryly, then raised an eyebrow at her. "It will be warm at the Flames, you'll be grateful for the lighter clothing," he said nodding at her suit jacket and jeans. "And… while I appreciate that the shoes were effective in the Rite, there will be no need for them tonight. The ground at the Square is smooth."

Elia looked down at herself and realized, suddenly, how out of place she must look to these people. Everyone she'd seen so far wore clothing of natural fibers, fur, leather and linen—if they wore it at all. And she didn't think she'd seen a pair of shoes among them at all.

Then she looked up at Reth, at this huge man—this King—and the impossibility of her situation hit her all over. She dropped her face in her hands. It had to be a dream.

"Elia," he said softly, gently. She could hear him moving toward her, but she didn't look up, couldn't bring herself to face the truth. Couldn't let herself believe she'd somehow ended up here—wherever here was—and with this man and now she had to marry him? "Elia, you are safe. You did it. You survived. And now you're here. I know it's a shock and I don't expect you to smile about it. Yet. But… this is the life you've been given by the Creator. Tonight's ceremony is a celebration. It will bind us before the people of Anima so that you're known and understood to be my mate, and the queen."

"What does that even mean?" she replied. "How can I be queen of a people I've never met? How can you expect me to just… be here? Send me back! I won't tell anyone about this place. I won't try to make trouble for you. I just—"

"That isn't possible," he said firmly, but with compassion. "The barrier between our worlds is complicated, designed only for the Anima. As a Pure one you gained entry safely. But if I was to send you back, the likelihood is that you would end either dead, or insane."

"What? Why?"

"Because the human mind was never intended to see the worlds," he said frankly. "You were only ever granted access one way across the barrier. Only Anima may go back and forth. If I sent you back, the barrier would fight you. I don't know why, it is the Creator's way."

He said that as if it were an explanation. Elia waited, but there was nothing more. "So, that's it? My life is gone?"

"Yes." His stark tone, his unbending expression… Elia wanted to scream.

"You can't just say, yes!" she shrieked. "You can't just tell a person that their life is over like that, as if that's just a plain fact!"

His brows pinched in. "But… it is?"

"But… you can't… if your life…" she spluttered.

Reth stepped across the final inches between them, his eyes burning with intensity as his presence seemed to suddenly fill the room and Elia was left shaking, forcing herself to hold his gaze and not back down.