Falling in Love with the King of Beasts

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*****

GAHRYE

Gahrye frowned and turned back to keep his eyes on Shaw. "What about my mate? Why didn't you let Shaw see her? She's prophesied also."

"How did you know?"

"How did you know?" The voices sounded frantic, raging, but also fearful. 

"Tell me why Shaw didn't see that Kalle was prophesied!" Gahrye gritted his teeth and ground his bleeding grip on the man's arm to get the blood flowing again. Shaw screamed, but when he sucked in another breath, it was the voices who answered.

"He loved the bitch." 

"We would not let him sabotage." That seemed the only reason they would give as the voices dissolved into a new round of hissing and fighting. Shaw's small, round body twisted like an Alligator attempting to roll prey. But Gahrye only held on, lifted him off his feet to stop him turning his elbow. He was too busy absorbing all of their words, trying to discern truth from lies. 

If that last statement was true, then Shaw had some measure of control—or, at least, the ability to resist.

"And me?" he asked finally. "Why didn't Shaw kill me sooner?"

"You were not predicted, coward!"

"Broken!"

"Desperate!"

"Too weak to be strong without us!"

"Only together do you become the prophesied Pair. Only together could we see you—in our hands. In our control. Apart you are useless. You will lose this, hero," they spat. "You will lose because you will be broken without us."

"Don't listen to them Gahrye," Kalle broke in. "They're lying."

"Bitch!"

"Cunt!"

"Stupid to trust. Stupid to believe. We did not see you for what you were—but we do now. We will destroy you when he is gone." 

"Unless you come to us—we can use you, you can still fulfill your purpose."

Gahrye looked at Kalle and she stared at him, more grief in her gaze than fear. She could  never step into the traverse. They both knew it. And they grieved it. There would be no miraculous answer. She would not see Anima. Ever.

"You can! You can! Come to us! We will take you through—"

"What do the prophecies say about her?" Gahrye ground out, twisting both hands to press his blood into the male's skin. "What purpose does she serve?"

The voices only hissed, but pulled his bleeding hand up to his mouth, tore at it with his teeth so the blood would flow more freely, then tore off Shaw's sleeve and wiped it down his arm before being forced to grab the male with both hands to stop him escaping.

He continued to screech and scream, writhing like he was truly on fire—his skin blistering and rising in shining welts wherever Gahrye's blood touched him.

"What are the prophecies!" Gahrye snarled. "Tell me everything!"

Shaw groaned and rolled his eyes as the voices retreated in a sucking, croak. His entire body shook, but just as Gahrye was about to ask Kalle for the knife, Shaw licked his lips and began, barely above a whisper. 

"Two human females, each a True Mate, 

One to guard, to hold the gate. 

One to guide, to deny hate."

He sucked in a breath, his body beginning to tremble. 

"Mate hearts pure, love true. Mate hearts pure love.

Love is the hope of the Anima. 

Humility will be their guide.

Strength unseen will hedge them in safety until the worlds collide."

Shaw was beginning to fade, his weight dragging down on Gahrye's grip, but Gahrye refused to give in and shook him until he started speaking again. 

"Love must sustain to keep Anima hearts safe. 

Love in silence. Love in distance. Love in death. 

Love must sustain to keep Anima hearts true.

Love in silence. Love in distance. Love in death.

Only purest love will bring forth the saving grace.

Love must sustain to bring Anima hearts to truth.

Love in silence. Love in distance. Love in death.

Love is the hope of the Anima. 

Humility will be their savior.

Pride, and the Anima will die."

Kalle gaped and moved around to Shaw's other side so she could see Gahrye and her uncle without forcing Gahrye to turn. 

Shaw began to cry, his entire body shaking like he sat atop a shivering bear. "Let me go, pleeeeeeeease… let me go… stop hurting me. Please…"

It was Shaw's voice, his normal voice, but Gahrye didn't trust it even as Kalle's hands slapped over her mouth and tears rose in her gaze. But her uncle was on his knees on the grass, slumped as low to the ground as was possible with his arm craned up in Gahrye's grip. 

There was no more hissing, no more curses. The male sobbed and all strength had gone from his attempts to free himself.

Gahrye was uncertain what to do. "What do you think?" he asked Kalle.

"They seem to come and go," she said examining her uncle. "I noticed it the other night… like sometimes he was himself, and sometimes he wasn't. It was like they left him and he could function without them knowing… but this… I don't know."

"They flee the Protector's blood," Shaw mumbled, his voice dry and cracked. "Please…" he whispered through gray lips. "Please, you have to help me. I've been trying to get free of them for years. Help me, please…"

Gahrye wavered. There was no doubt his blood was causing the man a great deal of pain. But he didn't trust this male—hadn't trusted him since their first meeting. So why should he now?

He looked up at Kalle and shook his head. "I'm not sure… he's weak now, but—"

He hadn't meant to drop his guard, lose his hold. But when Kalle looked at him he'd forgotten, just for a second that he was holding the male.

His grip must have loosened and Shaw struck like a snake—whipping his body to the side, his other elbow extended to take Gahrye right in the stomach, hard enough to wind him. Then, when Gahrye hunched against the blow and tried to suck in a breath, Shaw grabbed a new knife from his ankle and lashed out with it like a hammer in his fist, taking Gahrye right in the side.

Gahrye froze as every nerve ending in his body lit up in pain and he lost his grip on Shaw, falling to his hands and knees.

"NO!" Kalle screamed and tried to grab her uncle, but he scrambled out of her grip, giggling and stumbling backwards down the path to stay out of her grip. "Stop!" she screamed, but froze, torn between helping Gahrye and trying to keep her uncle from getting free to hurt him again.

Shaw giggled, twenty feet away and stopped. His bloodied arm hung useless at his side, but his eyes were ablaze with that fierce light again.

"Stupid hero. Not a hero at all," Shaw taunted and took one more step back into the moonlit shadow of a tree that Kalle had always used for summer shade growing up. "Stupid horse will never—"

Kalle screamed as a massive, golden body, with an open, glistening maw appeared from nowhere, claws tearing into Shaw at shoulder and belly. 

It happened so fast even Gahrye wasn't certain of what he was seeing.

Shoved into the dirt by the sheer weight of her, Shaw screamed the tortured scream of a dying man—and cut off when the Lioness's jaws closed over his face and neck.

His tormented grip, and spasmodic blows did nothing against her thick fur and gleaming claws as she dragged him, wriggling and jerking, back into the darkness of the trees, her eyes catching Gahrye's for a split second before she disappeared into the dark with her prey.

Then she was gone, and Gahrye sucked in a breath, slumping to the grass as Kalle leaped to help him. 

"Good one, Elia," Gahrye rasped, wincing as Kalle helped him lay down on his back. "Very, very good."

******

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