Chapter 543: Bad News
RETH
Reth snapped back from his mental undressing of his mate to find her eyes, wide and pleading. And her chest rising and falling rather faster than usual. "Stop!" she said breathlessly. "I can… I can feel what you're thinking about… I can smell…" she groaned again and put her hands over her face. "How do you all do this, walking around all day smelling people, hearing them. Knowing that they're thinking about this—doing it? I had to listen to Gahrye and Kalle when we were back in the human world… ugh. It almost broke me."
Reth grunted. "It's not fun when you are burning for your mate and someone else has theirs, that's true," he said, his voice deep and rippling with desire for her. "But usually… usually it is just life. Something that keeps us all connected. I know when Behryn and Hollhye have… when they're loving, and when they're fighting. I know when they wish for each other, and when she is pinning her ears back."
Elia's cheeks flushed red and she gaped at him. "You're telling me every time we…"
He smirked. "Yes."
"Reth!" she slapped his chest. "Why didn't you tell me?! That's so embarrassing. I mean, I knew when we first… but I thought it was a mating bond thing. You're telling me… every time!?"
"No one is embarrassed by this except you, Elia," he said simply. "They're either jealous, or, if their own lives are fulfilling, they are comforted to know their King and his mate are so… unified," he chuckled.
Elia groaned. "How am I even going to look people in the eye? Maybe I won't ever come out of the cave again. This is my home now. For the rest of my life. Elreth doesn't need to see the sun, right?"
Reth laughed and pushed what was left of the food aside to pull her into his chest and stroke her back as he spoke. "Don't think about that now," he whispered, kissing her hair. "Let's just… enjoy each other as we can. And when those days are returned to us… well, you'll see. No one else will care. I promise you."
She squeezed him close, but he could scent her dread.
He was just glad that it was over something so small. He tried to move the conversation on, to distract her. "Kalle… that's Gahrye's mate?"
"He told you about her?" Elia said, her voice strangely guarded.
"Barely," he replied, watching her carefully. "I could tell from his scent that he'd found his True Mate. He said that she's unable to come here? My heart goes out to him."
Elia gave him a flat look. "You need to do more than feel bad for him, Reth. We need to send him back. He needs to be with her."
"That's impossible," he said, grimacing. "I feel for Gahrye, but… we just can't."
"What do you mean? Of course we can! I can choose another Adviser—or he can travel back and forth."
"No, Elia, you don't understand, I agreed with the Bears to close the portal permanently. Except for retrieving you—which I was on my way to do—I told them that I would not send anyone else through. Gawhr will take the region and we'll be at war again if I do."
"What?!" Elia pushed up on an elbow and Reth pulled back from the panic on her face. "Reth, you can't do that! He has to go back!"
"I'm sorry, Elia," he said gently, not wanting to upset her when she was already so tired. "but I didn't know that when I made the agreement. The wolves held the region, though loosely, and I doubt that many beyond Lerrin knew what they held. But I couldn't split my numbers. The Bears came to our rescue. But they have serious misgivings about the Portal. Had you not been my True Mate, and had I not already passed safely through… had Gawhr not understood the impact of losing a true mate… look, it doesn't matter. The fact is, I made an agreement. I told him we would cross only to get you, and once you were here, that we wouldn't allow any others to use it."
"You can't do that!"
"Actually, I can…" he said firmly. He did not wish to fight with her. At all. "Elia, what's wrong. I know this is hard on Gahrye, and I appreciate that he gave up time with his mate to bring you back… but… you seem agitated. Please calm down."
"Gahrye gave up so much more than you realize, Reth. How can you be so calm at the idea of True Mates being separated like that? How can you just—"
"Because you are here and my prayers are answered, and no matter what else happens, I am grateful. I will not doubt that the decisions I made to get us here, to return you, were wrong when they have ended so rightly. Elia—"
"Reth! Think! Imagine if you were here and I was there and someone was telling you that you could never cross again!"
His mind filled with the images then, of his time there alone in the cave. When he'd found her letter. Those cold nights without her. The night before he fought Lerrin and didn't know if he would survive…
Imagine walking through that to be told he couldn't go back to get her?
His stomach felt sick. "I am… not unsympathetic," he said a moment later, his voice low. "But I'm also stuck. At least until Spring. I can… I could speak with Gawhr again then. If the Bears decide to move, we'll be fine. If they don't, I'll present the case to him."
"So, wait, the Bears own the portal lands now?" she asked, shocked.
"No. But I gave them rights to inhabit it. I had to, Elia. We were already stretched so thin. I couldn't afford to give the wolves space to come at us from multiple sides at once. Not to mention that you were there and I didn't know—"
"That's my point! We can't use it for our own gain, then stop others from doing the same!"
"We can, and I will," Reth said, his voice getting sharper.
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