Falling in Love with the King of Beasts

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*****

GAHRYE – Human World

Gahrye caught himself staring at Kalle instead of reading again, and muttered a curse too low for her to hear.

They were in the strange room she called the library. Despite his desperation, Gahrye had been awed when he entered. The room wasn't large—about the size of his bedchamber—but the walls were entirely lined with bookshelves, from the floor to the ceiling. There were strange ladders that rolled along the walls on tiny tracks, and… the room smelled old, even to him.

There was a lot less of the tangy, offensive scent of this world in this room and he thought if he needed a break, this might be a way to at least get some measure of relief.

There was a large table in the middle of the room, longer than his bed, but not as wide, and eight chairs, sized for Anima, around it. At each end of the table was a rolling shelf unit and Kalle told him when he was finished with a book, to put it there. That they would reshelve it properly.

"Don't try to put them back yourself, even if you know exactly where it goes. My Grandmother can always tell, and she will… have words with you."

Gahrye had grinned despite himself. "Your grandmother sounds like Aymora."

Kalle shrugged. "I wouldn't know, but it wouldn't surprise me."

Then she got to work, walking the shelves, running a gentle hand along them, her fingers dragging across the spines of the books. Every few seconds she would stop and frown, then pull a large tomb from between its brothers and flip through it quickly, either adding it to the growing pile in her other arm, or putting it back—very carefully.

Gahrye just… watched her. Watched the way her hair wavered in the air from her movement. Watched the small lines pucker in her brow when she was looking for something. Scented the frustration in her—and the little bursts of joy when she thought she'd found something.

Something in his chest was slowly furling open, like a flower opening to the sun, and it terrified him. He couldn't fall into this trap. He couldn't let himself get distracted…

But she was so damned beautiful.

And she smelled like a dream.

He wanted to taste her neck to see if the memories that had been planted in his mind were true. He wanted—

"Here, start with these," she said, suddenly turning to face him and catching him staring.

He knew his eyes widened, but he was frozen in her gaze, her wide green-brown eyes blinking. Her cheeks beginning to pink. Then she swallowed and, with a small smile, brought the books and pushed them into his chest. "The top one is the histories of the traverse and it has a section about the humans leaving and coming back. Below that are the stories of Queens—I'm almost certain it tells of the human Queen from a long time ago. And the other two are about healing and… what I would call medicine. Do you use that word?"

Gahrye nodded dumbly. She patted the books and gave him a little nudge. "Then, why you don't you start looking and I'll see what else I can find. We can take these back to your rooms if we need to."

The temptation was there to throw the books aside and just pull her in. But that would be highly offensive. It was always the female's choice to mate. Gahrye swallowed and blew out a breath as he turned away from her, to sit at the table where at least his rising interest would be hidden from view.

Focus. He needed to focus.

With a heavy sigh, he opened the top book and began to scan the pages.

*****

An hour later he raked a hand through his hair and cursed.

He'd found the notes on humans and the traverse and pointed out to Kalle where they referenced other volumes that she said were at the big library. She'd made notes and "texted" them to her grandmother whatever that meant. Apparently her grandmother would get a letter with the titles so she could locate them before they got there.

The stories of the Queens didn't immediately reveal anything useful, but Gahrye hadn't given up. The healing volumes were much more interesting, but all seemed to focus on the Anima themselves, not humans, or… whatever Elia was now.

Would she change back when she wasn't pregnant anymore? Gahrye blinked.

What if she didn't? What if she was Anima now? Or… or something else that could shift?

That wave of resentment roared up in his chest again and, with his elbows on the table, he dropped his head in his hands.

He had to stop thinking about himself. He had to focus on getting Elia the help she needed to get back to her human form—and then to stay there. He had to keep her healthy, and ready to return so that when Reth called her back...

A shiver of fear rocked him. The light in Reth's eyes when they'd taken the vow had chilled him to the bone. The promise of death if he failed hadn't been empty. Reth had pressed it into him by sheer will. And the blood vow…

He felt it pumping in his veins, driving him.

He would succeed, or die trying.

And lose his True Mate in the process.

He huffed at the ache that jolted behind his ribs at that thought.

"Hey, hey. Don't give up yet. This is barely scratching the surface. There's so much more we can search. Don't worry. We'll figure it out. This is what the Creator made me to do. I'm really good at finding information and… I'll help you, Gahrye, I promise. I won't give up."

Her soft hand landed on his shoulder and his skin pebbled under his shirt at her touch. He sat back in his chair and turned his head to look at her, his hair falling over his eyes because of the way he'd clawed through it, but he couldn't move. He could barely breathe. She looked him right in the eye and… she cared.

That was all. She just cared.

It took his breath away.