Taming the Queen of Beasts

GAHRYE

Gahrye walked down the trail, Reece following him. They'd been arguing for the last twenty minutes, ever since they left the others back in the cave.Â

"No, Reece, you need to stay here," he said again, through his teeth. Not because he was angry, but because he needed his son to hear his determination.Â

"No fucking way."

Gahrye whirled on him and Reece stopped in the middle of the trail. "Listen! We don't know how all of this is going to play out. You're safer here—if those scientists get their hands on you they'd never let you go. Do you want to be a lab rat in some insane man's fetish dream?"

"No!" Reece snapped. "But if you're all successful, I'll never see you again! I'll never see Mom, or come home…"

Gahrye looked at him sadly. "Reece, I told you. That world is not your home. It's where we raised you and I know you understand it—but it doesn't understand you. You have to be able to see—you're going to thrive here!"Â

"And what about Mom? I didn't even get to say goodbye!"

Gahrye sighed and looked at his son—so much of a man, yet still a kid in some ways. Was he really trying to convince him to stay here, to separate himself from his entire life, forever?

Yes, he was, and for good reason.

"Son, I am so grateful for how protective you are of her. It's been a balm to me over the years knowing that if something happened to me you'd take such good care of her."

Reece snorted. "She says I'm just like you."

Gahrye puts a hand to his shoulder. "I hope so. I hope I love her as well as you do."

They stood there quietly, both of them looking off into the forest. Then Reece blew out a breath.

"What if—"

Gahrye shook his head. "The danger here is specific, and you can avoid it, or you can help them fight it. But in the other world, you'll never be free, Reece. You know that. You're willing to take that risk right now, but if something were to happen to us, the Protectors will all be here. You won't even have a network. And we've never had the numbers…. Please, Reece. Your mother and I have a job to do, and our weight would be so much easier to bear if we knew you were here, among your people, who will embrace you."

Reece looked skeptical, but he pushed on.

"They don't have a wind-reader anymore, Reece. You have a purpose here. You have something to offer. And you don't have to hide. If this goes wrong and you get stuck, walk into who you are. Who you are is Anima and it's beautiful. When I was your age I would have given anything to have that."

"But you and Mom—"

"Your mother and I might not make it through this, Reece. I'm sorry, but… I think you know that. I think… I think you've known that and you haven't wanted to talk about it anymore than we have. But now… there's no more time. We can't avoid it anymore. The danger is real and present and that means we have to make hard choices. Please…" he softened his voice and stepped closer to his son. "Please, Reece."

Reece's jaw shoved forward, but for the first time he didn't say no. Gahrye dared to hope.

"Go, Reece. Go do what you do. Take care of people. Be smart. Outwit the enemy. And if we don't make it back… know that you're so loved. So loved. By both of us—"

Reece's face twisted and Gahrye, his own vision blurred by tears, pulled him in. "I mean it, Reece. You're such a good male."

"Man. I'm a man."

"You're a male, Reece. Stop fighting what you are. I did it for too long. I never found my peace until I accepted what I was and how I was going to be used. There's nothing better than walking into what the Creator made for you."

"The Creator wants to destroy my family!"

"He'd never do that unless it was worth it for what you gained. That's what I learned. I spent my entire youth angry and fragile because I couldn't shift and wasn't valued. But if I had been, I never would have known how to coach Elia to understand the people here, I would never have connected with the disformed, and I wouldn't have ended up in the human world and meeting your mother. I never would have had you. But I couldn't see all that back then. I could only see the pain and the injustice of it all.

"Whatever the Creator takes away he replaces with something better, Reece. Look at my life. It's true."

"But I don't want something better! I want what I have!"

"You never want to have your own mate, your own family?"

"What if my mate is in the human world? Have you thought about that? What if she's there and I haven't found her and now I never will?"

Gahrye shook his head vehemently. "If that were the case, you would have found her. The Creator knew this was coming, He would have brought you together. Or maybe she's here and you just don't know it yet. Or maybe you don't have a true mate, but I doubt that. Your heart is too big. You're too much like me." He tried to break the tension and winked, but his son just kept staring at him, hands in his pockets, his face twisted in grief and danger.

"I have a true mate," he muttered. "I just don't know where she is."

"See, this is what I mean, Reece. You can't see around every corner. You can only see around the ones the Creator shows you. So… what's he saying now.

"I don't want to know."

"Yes, you do."

"No, I don't!" Reece snarled and got right up in his face.Â