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Rinan
The second the door to my room closes, Arlys begins to pace. I stand, feeling helpless, unsure what to do now. Every fiber of my being is screaming that none of this is right, but I can’t seem to think of a way to make it right.
Drogo makes an angry sound and punches the wall. The wood splinters, leaving a permanent reminder behind of this day. But he’s not done. He punches it again and again, until I’m sincerely worried he might break his hand.
“We’ll figure this out,” I tell them, trying to calm the volatile energy in the room.
“Figure what out? That we’ve been screwed over again?” Drogo roars and punches the wall again.
I’m surprised. We tease Drogo about being grumpy, but he’s never been violent. He’s crumbling under the pressure from our fathers and our people to figure out the Illness. We’re no longer allowed to visit the building where the sick have been quarantined, since the Illness is making the young sick too, but we’re aware of the number. Of the names. Especially those of the children.
Maybe it’d be easier if we could tell our people it’s the water. But we can’t; it’d create mass panic. So we have to continue keeping them separate. To keep up the show.
“We’re making progress. We know where the Illness is coming from.” We just have to do something awful to get there.
In King Talon’s room, we’d tried to be calm as we’d laid out the situation with the bears. We’d explained it from every angle, but we’d also emphasized just how much we didn’t want to form any kind of alliance with the bears. I think we’d had some hope that he’d come up with a solution we hadn’t.
He didn’t.
“There’s nothing to discuss,” Arlys tells us through clenched teeth, his fists balled up at his side. “My father’s decision is made, and once the other kings are informed, they’ll be on board too. We need this alliance to get to the mountain. And if we don’t get to the mountain, we all know what will happen to everyone.”
He’s right. The Illness seems to be expanding every day, taking down more and more people. We can’t even warn anyone about the water, because there’s nothing else to drink. Even our beer and wine has been made with water. The last thing we need is people panicking and refusing to drink.
There’s a clock ticking. And we can all hear it, including the king.
“We could still try–” I begin.
Arlys cuts me off. “The bears know everything. Probably from the damn spies that we’ve always known existed amongst our people. So there’s no way for us to step on their lands with stealth. We’ll die, and then our people will be left with no hope, and no witch to help solve the Illness.”
“And Queen Stone can’t be of any help,” I say, feeling sick.
King Talon had made it very clear, after going through the alliance documents, that Queen Stone had made a peace agreement with “the shifters,” not the “wolf shifters,” so as far as she was concerned, she was already in an alliance with the bears. We don’t know if that was done because she wasn’t aware of the different kinds of shifters, or because she was aware and this was all part of her plan.
So, that’s out as a possible escape from this alliance. And our fathers will be on board with this agreement.
They’re closer to the bear lands and have grown tired of the constant fighting. They’d jump at a chance at peace, especially when a peace bride is involved. Typically, shifters value their mate, and their brides, above all else. The expectation is that moving forward neither wolf nor bear would do anything to cause problems with the growing bonds forming between the males who are connected by a female, because that would lead to problems with their female.
There’s no way out of working with them.
I hate this. We all do. But it’s what needs to be done for our people and for our future. The king said we have to sacrifice and put our egos aside for the benefit of our pack. That’s why we turn to him for these types of decisions. He’s much more capable of doing that than we are right now. But trusting Garrick to share Tara feels… wrong.
My thoughts go to her. The tiny woman with the dark hair. The one who told me about her virginity with fear in her eyes. The one whose body feels made to press against my own.
How do we share her? How do we allow him near her without tearing him to shreds?
Drogo growls loudly, the sound low and threatening. “There’s no way we’ll allow him to marry Tara. It’ll link him to us forever.”
But it’s more than that. None of us says it, but we all feel it. We don’t want to share Tara. She’s important to us as more than just a peace bride. She’s important as a woman, as a person.
“Darkheart can’t go near her.” His eyes glow yellow, and I know he’s imagining Prince Darkheart with her. It makes me sick too.
Drogo rubs his face in frustration. His hand is bleeding, but he’s already healing. I think this would be easier for him if he could admit his feelings for Tara. It’d be easier for all of us.
Arlys clears his throat. “The thing is, we might not have to be linked to him forever. We haven’t consummated our marriage with her, remember?”
I nod. I’m painfully aware of that fact every time I’m near her.
But what does he mean? What would it look like if we continue on this way and add Prince Darkheart to our bond… when we haven’t consummated the marriage? When we don’t know what we want to do?
