Falling in Love with the King of Beasts

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*****

KALLE

By dinnertime Kalle was beside herself, pacing the floor of the suite, hands shaking.

He should have been back by now, surely?

She forced herself to go downstairs and bring up three meals, muttering about working, researching, all of them tired and unwilling to take a break. The cook smiled and made her a tray, but Shaw's eyes were sharp on her and Kalle hustled out of there, too shaken to be able to lie well.

Why wasn't Gahrye back? Even if he wasn't a Protector, even if they were wrong he could have crossed and then come back.

Couldn't he?

Images rose in her mind of Gahrye leaving the portal and walking into the arms of the wolves. Or of fleeing them, back into the portal and being chased by ignorants who didn't know they couldn't cross with him—unless he was a Protector, she reminded herself. Then they would be safe.

She gulped. Then Gahrye would make a homicidal wolf safe, have to deal with it in the portal. Her Gahrye. Her peace-lover.

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Her mate.

She choked back a sob and forced herself to sit at the coffee table and chew and swallow food to keep her strength up. But she didn't taste a single bite.

Gahrye was only delayed. Probably by the difference in how time passed. Or maybe he took a message to Reth. Or… something. He was coming back. He would be back any minute. And then she'd feel stupid for doubting.

She didn't let herself think about the alternatives, but nausea rose in her throat and she stopped eating.

Two hours later, as the windows became black, and the cool fall air became the chill of night, Kalle moved all the hidden histories into Elia's room to keep them safe, and had to listen to her groan in her sleep. The sound—the sheer pain of it—cut at Kalle's insides.

Elia was missing her mate. Elia was grieving—so deep and harsh she'd retreated into her beast. But even her beast wasn't free of it.

It hit her then that that would be her soon. Soon she would be the one spending nights alone. Pining. Unable to escape the fear. Nothing to do but wait…

The thought, the vision of it in her mind, made her freeze. Then she became a whirlwind.

She locked the door on Elia's room so there was no chance of her getting loose in the house. She ran to Gahrye's room, to the clothes she'd brought there, and dug through her things before wrapping a scarf around her neck and pulling on her warmest sweater and gloves, her fleece-lined leggings. It was going to be a cold night and she couldn't stay another minute inside these four walls. She was going to go wait for her mate.

She had not said goodbye to Gahrye forever this morning. She'd said See You Later. That was all. And she was going to prove it.

*****

The Big House gardens were peaceful at night—only the distant rush of cars in the little city below where they were positioned on the hill, and the glow of the streetlights below silhouetting the trees and walls around the property.

But when Kalle made it to the Portal entrance she could feel something… uneasy. As if eyes watched her and warned against coming too close.

She'd never been tempted to try the portal before. Never even really considered it. But just then, it called to her. Made her ache. She needed to know what was going on inside it. Needed to know where Gahrye was, what had happened to him. But she couldn't and it tore her apart.

She wasn't going to try to cross. She wouldn't even touch it. But she wanted to be close. She might see him coming, see… something.

She didn't want to wait a second longer to find him than she had to.

So, breath shallow and quick, she approached the pile of boulders and dirt that looked so non-descript. Then her breath caught.

There was a faint glow emanating from it. she'd never seen that before. It called her and made her frightened at the same time. What was causing it? Was Gahrye on his way? Did he make the portal light up.

She sat there for several minutes, barely breathing, waiting for some change. But nothing did.

She took a step closer, then another. Until she stood in front of it like a door. Her feet itched to step forward and she had to clasp her hands together, reminding herself that she couldn't go through. That she had vowed not to. That she was unprotected—worse, she'd made an oath that gave the voices control over her if she did.

If it was real.

One thing that she'd been thinking lately, that she hadn't mentioned to Gahrye because she hadn't wanted to get his hopes up, was that she wondered if the oath was a shield. Propaganda. A ploy.

The few references to Guardians she'd found in the histories only ever showed them in the human world, but there were no warnings given, no tales of the oaths—and no moral tales of what happened to the Guardians who tried to cross.

It was something she'd noticed in Anima history: Whenever there was a law, a restriction, a caution, there was always a story to tell them what happened to the Anima who tried to breach it. Always.

And yet, there was nothing about the Guardians.

It gave her hope that perhaps, just perhaps, Gahrye could take her through. But she wasn't going to risk that until she was sure. If she insisted, and she was killed—or worse, taken by the voices—Gahrye would never forgive himself.

She felt certain she had the moral fortitude to resist them. Nothing meant as much to her as Gahrye. All she would have to do was keep him in her mind—remember who she was going to, who she would win by defeating them and she would make it through. She was certain.

She leaned towards the Portal and it glowed slightly brighter as her breath hit the surface of it. Kalle blinked. She brought one hand up. She wouldn't pass through, she'd just touch to see if it—

"STOP!" A deep voice snapped from behind her. Then a strong, male hand clamped around her wrist and yanked her back, turning her from the portal so quickly she almost lost her feet.

Kalle shrieked and braced, one hand to her chest, and ended up blinking in the twisted, raging face of her uncle Shaw.

"You aren't going in there!" he growled. "I won't let them have you as well."

*****

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