Deadly Approach

CELEBRATE WITH ME! Tarkyn and Harth just got *officially* contracted. (Don't worry, we won't be locking chapters until the end of the month.) That means we can now receive gifts and Golden Ticket Votes! (GT are less important than normal votes right now, while the book is so young, so if you're supporting another author, maybe wait until November to place GT here...)

What is a HUGE help with the early book is gifts! If you have coins and can offer gifts on free chapters, it helps the book a GREAT DEAL (the smallest gifts are totally fine!) So, if you want to celebrate with me, maybe throw an ice cola at Tarkyn once in a while this month? THANK YOUUUUU

*****

~ HARTH ~

They all stared at her like she was something unrecognizable. Harth's skin crawled with their scrutiny. "What?" she growled. "I have no more control over how I was made than you do!"

But Gar ignored her and turned to his mate. "You're saying she lived… later than you?"

"I think so. It has to be. She remembers a date in the past that was still forty years away for me. That must be what they did after we kicked them out of Anima! They must have started… making people like you. Or, something like you."

They looked at each other in horror and Harth's guts twisted. But before she could insist that they understand she was no threat to them, another male approached.

Tall, and older than most Chimera Harth had ever seen, this male carried himself with an authority that matched even her mate and this Gar. Yet, he clearly submitted to them.

"What's going on? The guards said you called for me, Gar, but—" Then the older male saw her and his eyes widened. "Is this one of them?"

Tarkyn's grip on her arm tightened, and he shifted his weight so he partially blocked her from the male's view.

"This is Harth," Gar said, his voice deep, but unsettled.

"Why isn't she in chains?"

Harth tensed, but Gar shook his head. "She's safe. Mostly. She's Tarkyn's mate."

"She… what?!" The male snapped his head around to find Tarkyn with wide eyes. "Are you certain?"

Harth bristled. "Yes!"

But Tarkyn didn't respond so quickly.

Certain he must have missed the question, she looked up at him, only to find him frowning at the older male.

"Tarkyn?" the male insisted. "Is it true?"

"I believe it is," he said. "I… I sought her, from the Creator. And she appeared. But she is… not Anima."

"Neither's my mate," Gar interjected dryly.

Tarkyn turned to stare down at her as if she were a puzzle to figure out.

"What?" she asked, a chill beginning in her blood. "Tarkyn, you are my mate, and I'm yours! You vowed—"

"You vowed to her already? Have you completed the bond?" the older male barked.

Harth's hackles rose, but Tarkyn held her tightly. "We were… interrupted. But I'm certain of it. There is a bond. We can both sense it. And there's a… knowing."

"But she's one of these Chimerans?"

Tarkyn nodded.

"And they're made by the humans. An attempt to copy us, it would seem," Gar said, watching the older male carefully. "I was inclined to believe she was brought by the Creator just as my mate was. But… what do your instincts say?"

The older male looked hard at her, his muscles carved from what seemed like marble, though he wasn't as broad as Tarkyn, or Gar.

"The concern from the first has been deception. How can we know they weren't planted here by the humans, and it isn't until now that we've learned of their existence?"

"Does it matter if they're mated?" Gar asked.

"Can we know that they're truly mated? The humans were very cunning. What if they made these Chimera to possess this as a skill or a… gift? How do we know they can't replicate our matebond just as they did our bodies?"

"Because we can feel it!" Harth said, offended. Tarkyn squeezed her arm, but she didn't back down, she turned her face up to him, searching his eyes—his compassionate, pleading, worried eyes.

Why was he worried?

"You said you could feel it!" she said, grabbing for his arm.

"I definitely feel the connection. But… how do I know that's the same bond Gar feels for Rika? I've never felt it before—"

"Because it's me!" Harth cried, her heart feeling as if it would tear in two. "You feel me! Just like I'm feeling you!"

"Unless they figured out a way to force the bond—you said that, didn't you Harth? That they forced some of you into bonds?"

"That wasn't… that was different," Harth spluttered, frustrated. "Chimera bond the moment we have sex. When they put breeding pairs together it was inevitable—"

"But you said there were some that didn't do that, right?" Tarkyn asked her, and the question in his eyes, the doubt, it wanted to break her.

Harth held his gaze and shook her head. "There was one. One Chimera who could mate with multiple females—but the females couldn't! They all bonded to him even though he didn't and… it was horrific! They all died, pining for him when they learned he'd found his soul mate. Because they made him different, but all the rest of us… all the rest of us only got one chance!"

"Does this sound right?" Gar asked Rika quietly.

"I don't know. They couldn't make creatures when I was there… at least, not that I know of."

"Tarkyn," Gar said quickly, "Can I approach? I want to scent her for truth. If she's telling the truth then we can trust what she says. At least, that she believes it."

Tarkyn looked uneasy. But Harth's skin crawled when he nodded, because that massive male immediately walked towards them.

Harth growled instinctively, but Tarkyn looked down to meet her gaze, pleading with her silently not to resist.

She gripped his hand, angry and afraid, but also terrified to let him go. "What… what is he going to do?"

"Nothing. He doesn't even need to touch you," Tarkyn assured her. "He just needs to be close. He'll be able to tell if you don't tell the truth."

"You think I'm lying to you? My mate?!" she hissed.

Tarkyn's face fell. "I'm sorry, Harth. I don't think so, but… I don't want them to lock you into a tree. Please… let him do this. Then they'll know they can trust your word."

"My word can be trusted because I'm honest!" she said, offended, but knowing there was no way to prove that to them. So she stood, trembling, as the massive Gar came and stood at her other side.

He stared down at her, his eyes narrowed and he leaned in to inhale her scent.

*****

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