Taming The Queen Of Beasts

<strong>ELRETH</strong>

"I pray that I have proven to you that, even with the choice to do harm, I will always deny it. My life is given to your service, Sire," the male said more quietly, his eyes on the dirt. "I used this only to prove to our brothers that sometimes sheer might is not enough to win a war. Sometimes the protection of the most powerful among us are far more important. I pray… I pray I have demonstrated this risk without losing the honor of the Queen. But I acknowledge it breaks my vows to lay hands on you. If you choose to kill me, I will accept the judgment. I submit myself to you. I surrendered my life to your service, and I meant it."

Elreth was floored and took a moment to register what he'd said.

She wanted to roll her shoulders, to loosen them, but she'd heard Aaryn snarl. If the fight was truly over, if the Equine submitted, she didn't want to give her mate any reason to rush to her defense.

But she needed a moment.

So, leaving the disformed male on his knees, she turned to face the Equines, who now stood, hands at their sides, and their faces in despair.

They knew, as Elreth did, that this male's point had been made.

There was no gain in winning by force, when you lost your most powerful players to the enemy in the process.

Elreth caught eyes with Aaryn and had to hide a smile at the shock and hope lighting in his.

"I won't kill you," she said to the male, turning to face him again. "Instead, I would ask you to join my personal protection team. Your skills and forethought demonstrate not only a warrior's spirit, but a sharp mind. The royal family is in need of more like you," she said proudly.

The male's head snapped up, his eyes wide. Then he blinked and dropped his chin again. "I… thank you, Sire," he said breathlessly.

Then she turned and tried to keep any hint of the smug satisfaction she felt out of her voice as she addressed Tobe—who'd been taken out of the fight and knelt in the dirt awaiting the verdict.

"I think you will agree that the disformed have proven both their worth, and their strength in this challenge. As judge, cry defeat of the Equines. Do you submit?"

Tobe's eyes dropped to the dirt as two of his advisors leaned into his ears, shaking their heads, but when he looked back up, it was with a grim smile.

"I submit," he said quietly. "The Equine tribe stands for the disformed. We acknowledge their strength as a tribe, and… we submit to the Queen's judgment."

Although the Equine voices throughout the Hallowed Grounds rose in protest, many of the other tribes cheered and applauded, the wolves raising their howls.

And while she waited out the tumult, Tobe lifted his chin slightly to catch her eye, winking quickly before he dropped his gaze to the dirt again.

Why, you dirty little—

Elreth cut off the thought. She couldn't afford to get distracted. There was still one tribe left, and if this had shown her anything it was that she couldn't anticipate what they might bring. So, stifling a smile, Elreth turned to the birds. The tribe had positioned themselves behind the line of Alphas so she was forced to face all of them as a group when she lifted her voice.

"What do the Avaline say?"

Surprisingly, it wasn't the Alpha male of the birds that stepped forward, but his mate, who stood at ground level, the rest of the tribe spread out behind her.

The female walked carefully across the grounds, sliding between the Alphas to come and stand before Elreth.

Elreth wanted to growl. The birds as a group had been the hardest on the disformed as a whole. While they provided well for their people—all their people—the disformed were barely even acknowledged as birds, and some of the saddest stories she'd heard came from their tribe.

It was hard to say what their response to this call would be since the tribe was rarely dominant. So Elreth waited for the female to reach her and bow her head in submission.

Then she raised her head and one eyebrow in a question.

Elreth nodded for her to speak her mind.

The female spoke as if they were the only two in the conversation, but Elreth was aware that the entire bowl had gone silent, all ears perked to catch the last of the question.

"As birds, we are entirely dependent on our ability to shift. Our role in the tribes, our families, our mating rituals—all require the wings and feathers the Creator gave us. It is what makes us Anima."

There was a ring to those words that made Elreth distinctly uncomfortable, but she kept her mouth shut, waiting for the female to voice her question.

"A tribe can only be a tribe if it belongs among us," she called, her voice pure and high. "The birds challenge the disformed to prove themselves Anima. Fully Anima." The woman's eyes flashed. "If even one of them can shift, the birds will submit."

Elreth's stomach dropped like it had been thrown off a cliff as the entire bowl remained so silent, she heard the whirr of crickets in the clearing beyond the bowl.

Every instinct in her wanted to slap the female in the face. Every thought in her head spun—of course the disformed were Anima! There was no question…

But the question seeded arguments she could not stand to see perpetuated among the people. And if she didn't answer it, if she only declared it an untruth, the disformed would not have met the question, only her authority had.

Elreth snapped her head to look at Aaryn, finding his face pale and tight. He stared at her, pleading, as did every disformed in sight as she wrestled, knowing what she could do… and what she would do. What was right for the disformed.

But would it only sentence them to generations of claims of bias? Would it only fuel the fire of their critics because they had not meet their final challenge?

She didn't care. The disformed needed her in this, and so she would speak to—

"I take the challenge, and answer," a deep voice called from the back of the disformed ranks.