233 In the Dark

~ ELRETH ~

She was almost asleep, just beginning to nod off when the pounding began at the door.

Aaryn leaped out of sleep—and out of the furs—like a cat with its tail on fire, sprinting before he’d even left the room, still naked.

Elreth’s heart leaped into her chest as she threw back the covers, instinctively grabbing Aaryn’s shirt and shoving her arms into the over-long sleeves, pulling it around her as she darted after him.

“El, let me handle this! We don’t know—”

“Just get the door!”

It was happening. Whatever that heavy thundercloud had been hanging over them since the peace treaty, it was already coming home to roost.

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As she and Aaryn threw themselves around the corner and into the Great Room, Elreth prayed that whatever it was it would end this, once and for all. No matter which way it took them. She needed this done. Finished.

She’d do anything to make it happen.

.....

They both slid to a halt near the door, but Aaryn turned to her, snarling a vicious warning when she tried to reach past him for the heavy beam, barring the door.

Elreth gaped at him for a moment before he got himself under control. “Please, El…” he said, clawing a hand through his unbound hair. “Let me protect you. Please.”

She nodded once, pulling his shirt tight around her and waiting for him to lift the massive bar—his biceps flexing at the weight.

The pounding stopped when the beam groaned against the steel braces that held it.

Suddenly all El could hear was the pounding in her own skull.

Aaryn quickly opened the door and peered around it, then his entire body went still—as the scent of Zev wafted in the open door, and Elreth growled—but Aaryn was suddenly backing away, holding his arms back to block Elreth as Zev shoved into the room, eyes blazing… and his son in his arms?!

“Do you wake up with the cold sweats?” he demanded, standing just inside the door, his eyes fixed on Elreth over Aaryn’s shoulder.

“I—”

“Back the fuck off, Zev,” Aaryn growled, half-crouching, his body rippling towards the shift.

“I’m holding my son—do you really think I’m here to fight you?” Zev snarled, then immediately snapped his attention back to Elreth. “Do you wake up at night in cold sweats? Do you have nightmares that repeat? Do you feel like the walls are closing in on you? Do you?!”

Elreth was completely confused, but she did register that Zev clearly wasn’t trying to come at her physically.

“I’m sorry,” she said, shaking her head. “I don’t know what you’re—”

“Just answer the fucking questions! Do you have bad things in your mind? Bad dreams, sweats, fear that has no source—do you suffer these things?”

Elreth blinked, aware of Aaryn glaring at the male, but also flicking his eyes towards her.

She swallowed. “I do, yes,” she said carefully. “Not every day. And not always the same as what you’re saying… Just… different.”

“Different how?” He waited, staring at her like her answer was the last question on earth. “Different how?!”

Aaryn growled again, but Elreth put a hand on his elbow to hold him back.

“I have trouble sleeping,” she said quickly. And when I do sleep I often dream… I wake up thinking I’m back in that time.”

“Yes. Right, yes!” Zev said, then cursed under his breath. “It makes your skin too tight and your head buzzes.”

Elreth nodded. “I hear my pulse in my ears and my skin feels like… like it’s humming. I snap at people and lose my temper too easily.”

Zev blew out a breath, finally turning away to look from her to the space around them, though she didn’t think he was actually seeing any of it. Rather, he was seeing things in his mind. Memories. Of the things that had made him so unhappy? Or of these… events?

Then he swallowed audibly and turned back to her. “When Sasha and I arrived… when we saw you…” he said hoarsely.

“I thought you were the humans coming back,” she said quickly, licking her lips because they were suddenly dry. “I thought you’d found a way back.”

Zev nodded, his forehead furrowed, but his eyes angry. “And him?” he insisted, raising his son higher, towards her.

Elreth’s heart sank. “I didn’t even register… not really. I wasn’t… it wasn’t until afterwards… I wasn’t thinking straight. In that moment, it felt like everything was a trick. Anything could be a trick.”

Zev’s jaw went tight. “And now?”

“Now?” Elreth whispered, putting a hand instinctively to her belly. “Now I’d die to keep him safe. All of them.”

Aaryn growled, but Elreth just looked at her mate. “I mean it.”

*****

~ JAYAH ~

Jayah was woken suddenly, pulled from her mate’s arms by the sound of a frantic, high voice in the mouth of the cave. She sat up quickly, grabbing a long tunic she always kept at her bedside for emergencies, but didn’t even have it over her head before two silhouettes appeared in the now-open door.

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One of the healers and… “Sasha?”

“I can’t find him, Jayah!” the woman wailed. “Zev took Zan, said he would walk with him because Zan sleeps better that way, and I let him. I shouldn’t have let him. He was upset. Now he’s out there somewhere and I can’t find him and Zan’s supposed to be feeding and—”

“Hold on, hold on…” Jayah hurried forward. Skhal had already risen on the other side of the bed and was dressing, strapping a knife to his hip and preparing to go out, no doubt to find Zev.

“He’s closed his mind off,” Sasha said through tears. “I thought it was safe—better if he had Zan. He’s protective. I thought… I thought he’d never hurt him, so…”

“You thought right,” Skhal muttered, his voice dark and rough. “If he’s not back, something’s happened.”

Jayah hurried over to put an arm around Sasha while the healer with her explained quickly.

Sasha had returned to the healing center at high moon as agreed, to be there when they fed. But Zev had never returned the baby. So they’d gone looking, but Sasha couldn’t get Zev to answer their link, and none of the other wolves that were awake had seen him.

“I brought her here because I thought you might… or Skhal…”

“You were right,” Skhal said, already at Jayah’s side and fully dressed. “I’ll find him.”

“I’m so afraid,” Sasha said, her entire body trembling. “I’m so scared that he’s… snapped. He was so on edge. I thought he was doing better, but I confronted him and—”

“It’s okay, Sasha. It’s okay. Don’t worry.”

The woman looked up at her with nothing but fear in her eyes.

Skhal leaned in to kiss her cheek gently, then turned and disappeared silently out the door.

“Look, there you go,” Jayah said quickly. “Skhal has known Zev even longer than you. He’ll find him. He’s an amazing tracker, and he knows Zev. He’s going to figure this out. Then we’ll bring Zan back—”

“But he’s not supposed to be late for a meal!”

Jayah put her hands on Sasha’s shoulders. “We’ll find him. Both of them,” she said. “You go walk the trails and call for him. It’s possible he just fell asleep somewhere. He doesn’t know the trails. Or maybe he didn’t want to use one of our beds—in any case. I’m guessing he’s close. Skhal will find his trail. We’ll figure this out.”

Sasha nodded numbly. “I’ll keep calling through the link,” she said, her lips barely moving. Then she turned for the door, trotting before she’d even gotten out of the room, the healer who’d accompanied her, on her heels._{f𝐫𝑒𝗲𝙬𝒆𝚋𝐧૦𝘃𝗲l.c𝚘𝘮}

Jayah watched her go, worry whipping through her.

She turned away to make kaf and mix up a sedative, just in case Zev was found and needed… calming.

But within thirty minutes, she’d only heard from Skhal twice, both times to ask if Zev had shown up there.

Jayah had prepared anything she could think of and put it all neatly into a bag in case she was called away, in case Zev had been injured or was sick, or Sasha…

It was almost an hour later before Skhal’s voice, fierce and solid, sounded in her head.

‘I’ve got him.”

‘Thank the Creator. Where was he?’

‘With the King and Queen if you’d believe it. But he was already on his way—’

‘Wait, what?!’

‘I don’t have the whole story yet, but it sounds like our Alphas have found a way to make peace,’ Skhal said, and she could hear the smile in his voice.

‘We’re taking Zan to the healing center so he can be fed, but I’ll bring Zev to you and we’ll make sure Sasha knows to come there too—Zev can’t find her in the link. She was so distraught, she must have cut off.’

‘I’m sure she’ll reach out again soon. She really was beside herself.’

‘I’ll reassure him. We’ll see you again in a little while.’

‘Does he need anything to… calm him, or—’

‘No,” Skhal said with the same conviction he’d had about whether Sasha was right about Zev. ‘He’s calm. It’s too early to be certain, but… he seems like he’s in the best place I’ve seen him in months.’

With a heavy sigh of relief, Jayah let herself drop into a chair at the table and put her face in her hands, her heart spiraling with both unease and joy.

The males were on her doorstep just half an hour later—Zev almost zombielike in his tiredness, but also without that searing edge that had seemed ready to burn down the world.

Jayah hoped.

Zev didn’t want to stay. He was checking that Sasha wasn’t on the road to Jayah’s cave. He was going to find her.

“Skhal, you stay here,” he said numbly. “I’ll call for you if I need you.”

“But—”

“Stay,” Zev said, with the sudden depth and conviction of a true Alpha. “Mates need to be together. Stay here. I’ll let you know if I need you.”_{𝒇𝑟𝐞𝐞w𝐞𝑏𝙣𝑜vℯl.co𝑚}

Then he was gone.

.....

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