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*****

ELRETH

They both sprawled on the warm surface of the flat rock, Aaryn on his back, Elreth\'s head resting on his shoulder, one leg cocked up. She could feel herself soaking in the sun. It was early enough in the season that the afternoon sun was still warm—but just not quite warm enough. She snuggled into his side and winced, turning her mind from what had happened back at the portal. They only had a few more hours like this. She could confront that tomorrow, or the next day. After they were back at home and settling into their responsibilities.

She groaned. Aaryn\'s arm closed tighter around her. "What\'s wrong?"

"I don\'t want to go back tomorrow," she sighed.

"Me either." He paused a moment. "I wish it could always be like this. But I also don\'t. I\'m excited, El, for what we get to do. I\'m excited to help the disformed. I\'m excited to see the change in the tribes. The whole thing."

Elreth nodded. "I\'m excited for you to be my Cohort. You\'ll be able to come to just about everything as my Advisor. We can be together, even when there\'s stuff going on."

"That could be as dangerous as it is enjoyable," he murmured with a sly smile.

Elreth smacked his chest. "Don\'t remind me. Seriously, this is going to be a problem."

"We\'ll have to find private corners—but of course, that means you\'ll have to learn to be quiet."

"Me?! I\'m not the one who\'s forever groaning."

"No… you just say my name. A lot," he sniggered, then put on a false, high voice. "Aaryn! Oh, Aaryn!"

Elreth growled, and rolled over him, pinning to the rock as he laughed and continued to mimic her cries. She clapped a hand over his mouth, but he wouldn\'t stop laughing.

"At least I don\'t swear." Then she made her voice deep. "Oh, fuck, El… fuuuuuuuuuuuck."

His brows pinched, but she didn\'t let go of his mouth until he licked the palm of her hand, then she yanked her hands back. "Gross!"

"You don\'t think it\'s gross when I do it other places." Then, grabbing her around the waist, he sat up, holding her on his lap so she couldn\'t move. 

"Don\'t you even start this again!" she warned him. "I need a nap and… and… to prove to myself that I can go more than an hour without—"

"I wasn\'t going to," he grumbled. "I\'m just holding you because we\'ve only got a few more hours and I want to make the most of it."

Elreth sighed. He was so sweet. She shook her head and put a hand to his face. "You\'re a good male, Aaryn," she said quietly. "I can\'t wait to walk through this life with you."

He shrugged. "Yeah, I have that effect on people. Especially the disformed. They think I\'m awesome."

Elreth rolled her eyes, then dropped her head to his shoulder and hugged him. "They\'re all going to think you\'re awesome soon, Aaryn," she said quietly, turning her head so her lips brushed his neck. "All the tribes are going to be so impressed by my Advisor. They\'ll probably like you more than they like me."

He snorted. "Now you\'re just lying to be nice. It won\'t work."

They sat there, holding each other for a silent minute, then Elreth remembered the question she\'d been meaning to ask him. "Who will you give the Alpha to when you become Cohort? Are you grooming anyone for that yet?"

Aaryn froze. His breathing stopped. 

Elreth sat up quickly to look at him and found him gaping, his forehead pinched. "What\'s wrong?"

"What do you mean, give the Alpha to? I\'m the Alpha?"

Elreth jerked her head back. "You said you\'d be my Cohort!"

"And I will. But I\'ll also be Alpha of the disformed—unless someone challenges me and wins. I\'m not abandoning them, El."

"I\'m not asking you to abandon them. But you can\'t be Alpha and my Advisor, not if I\'m making them a real tribe!"

"What? Why not?!"

"Because you\'d be biased! You\'d  have a responsibility to make everything as good for them as possible!"

"So? You have Alphas in leadership everywhere—they\'re Security Council and Women\'s council—Huncer\'s your Cohort and she\'s the head of the Women\'s Council! It doesn\'t get more Alpha than that!"

"Aaryn, Huncer\'s been in leadership for twenty years or more. She\'s proven herself. Everyone knows she can be balanced and… do you really want to add this to the resistance we\'re already going to have around making the disformed a tribe? You know it will make the other tribes nervous!"

"The Cohorts always have a special interest in their own tribes—that\'s why you pick them, because they can represent wisely!"

"Remember what the Equines brought to the Petition? Remember what the Elders said the first time we spoke about you? Everyone is going to be suspicious of your motives and what you\'re angling for even without this. But if you\'re Cohort AND Alpha and then I announce that I\'m making the disformed a tribe… they\'re all going to think I\'m only doing it because you want me to!"

"So! We\'ll show them that you aren\'t!"

"How are we going to do that? They won\'t even entertain this if they think it\'s a power play. We can\'t put another obstacle in front of them, Aaryn. I\'m not making this up. You know I\'m right!"

He growled and she had the feeling he wanted to push her off his lap. But to his credit, he just glared and didn\'t move. 

"Aaryn," she said more gently a minute later, putting a hand to his broad chest, "As Advisor, you will be in a better position to improve the lot of the disformed than you would be as their Alpha. You need to be able to give advice that\'s good for the entire Anima, not just one tribe."

"You think I\'m not capable of being objective?"

Elreth tipped her head. "I think it would be really hard for other people to see when you\'re objective, even if you are. And I think you underestimate the loyalty you\'ll feel—especially since those first few months are going to be really hard for them. You\'ll want to make it easier if you can. But… but we are at the top of the hierarchy  now, Aaryn. We can\'t be tunnel-visioned. I want to bring the disformed into their own tribe as much as you do, but I won\'t do it in a way that puts them at risk or disrupts the other tribes any more than necessary. That\'s because I have to be objective. I can\'t just think about them. And if you would look at it that way, you\'d see… I know it\'s hard. I\'m sorry, I thought you realized this."

"No, I didn\'t," he muttered. "I didn\'t at all. I don\'t see why other leaders can be Cohorts, but I\'m the one who has to give my leadership up?"

"Not initially," she said. "Just, once we make them a formal tribe. It\'s very rare for an Alpha to be a Cohort, because the role takes them away from the tribe too much. But even where I know it\'s happened, it\'s always been males who have been in the position for years, and have proven to the people that they work for all of Anima. No one\'s going to believe that of you yet, Aaryn. I\'m sorry. They just won\'t."

He growled again. "So we just bow to their expectations and don\'t even try?!"

"No, we are wise and we look ahead and we remove what obstacles we can, wisely, then deal with the rest. You won\'t like being an Alpha and my Advisor, Aaryn. You\'ll have to be away from your people too much. I don\'t… I don\'t want you to resent me because they need someone who\'s present."

Aaryn blew the air out of his nose, then met her eyes, his own were hard and flinty. "Well, maybe I won\'t be Cohort after all, then."

"WHAT?!" Elreth leaped off of him and stood over him, gaping. "You can\'t be serious?"

"I have brought them this far. I did, El. They look up to me. I have fought for this—fought for them! And now that we\'re finally about to see it all come to fruition, you want me to abandon them?"

"I don\'t want you to abandon them—I want you to see that being my Advisor gives you a better chance to help them than being Alpha does!"

"Not from their perspective. They\'ve spent their whole lives either being rejected by the people they love, or watching others go through that. I don\'t know a single disformed who isn\'t at least a little bit traumatized by the fear of being abandoned, either by their family or their tribe. Do you have any idea what it would do to them if I just said, "See ya!" and headed off into the sunset with you?"

"That\'s not what I\'m asking you to do!"

"Maybe not, but that\'s how it will feel to them!"

Elreth stared at him as it came home to her what he was saying. "You\'re serious," she breathed.

"I… I think I have to be."

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