Chapter 6: The Linking of Tribes

Susanna lay naked against Logan's chest, her heart beating wildly, her neck bearing a new marking that she would wear proudly.

"That was too long coming," Logan said with a content smile on his face. He held her close as she snuggled into his chest.

"Do you think they will need us for a while?" She asked, looking up at Logan with a glint in her eyes.

"I'm sure they can spare another ten minutes," he said with a smirk as he rolled her under him and kissed her thoroughly. She laughed as he pressed his body against hers and her laughs became moans against the feel of him against her. 

It was short-lived as Logan went still, his body frozen in horror as he listened to some unknown voice in his head. Susanna knew the look, she had seen it on her father's face as he spoke with Uncle Richard through their pack bond. Someone from Logan's tribe was talking to him. 

"What is it?" Susanna asked, frowning up at her mate. She could feel his trepidation through the bond that now existed between them.

"Seth, I can hear Seth," Logan said as he rose from their bed and quickly dressed. "He said Kate fell off the side of the mountain."

His voice was filled with urgency as he quickly pulled on enough clothes to be presentable and rushed out of their room.

"WHAT?!" Susanna screamed as she followed suit, pulling on a dress and barely buttoning the back as she raced after Logan.

"LOGAN!" Susanna screamed as she watched Logan jump on the impleva and race toward the mountain. Susanna looked up and she saw what Logan was looking at, her eyes widening in fear.

A waterfall of rock was falling down the mountain near them. A waterfall of dirt, debris, tree, and rock. 

Susanna grabbed Bram's arm, he was the poor soul walking by as she raced after Logan.

"Bram, I need your impleva!" She yelled in a hurry, pointing toward the rockslide. She swung herself onto the impleva's back and kicked his hind legs. The impleva turned its head to snort at Susanna. She let out a loud yell of frustration.

"He won't fly for you," Bram said in surprise at the brunette sitting on his impleva, expecting the animal to fly away with her on his back.

"Then get the fuck on with me, dipshit," Susanna said tartly as her frustration overwhelmed her and she reached out to pull him closer to the horse.

"What's going on?" Bram asked as he swung himself on the back of the impleva behind Susanna. He kicked the animal gently on his hindquarters and they quickly took to the air.

"Logan just heard Seth through the link and he took off," Susanna said as she tried to follow after Logan. She pointed ahead where Logan was flying their impleva. Bram looked ahead and let out a small hum of confusion.

"Seth stayed behind, didn't he?" Bram asked. His brows were furrowed as he tried to figure out what was happening.

"Yes, he was supposed to, but if Logan can hear him, he must be close!" Susanna said with urgency as she tried to kick the impleva to go faster and it just turned its head to nip at her knee.

"Fuck, get this thing to move faster!" she yelled out in frustration, watching as Logan raced off.

Bram took over, kicking the back of the impleva as he clucked his teeth and the impleva shot off after Logan, flapping its wings faster, the strong flap propelling them faster.

"He said Kate fell off a mountain," Susanna said the words out loud, her fear overwhelming her as she heaved in a deep breath.

"She what?" Bram asked with concern in his voice. He was staring at the mountain with a look of worry. They were racing closer and closer but it was still a hundred yards away. Logan raced in front of them, closer to the danger.

"I don't know, she fell off the mountain. Oh, shit, do you think they're by the rockslide?" Susanna's voice dropped as she watched a cloud of dust fill the air.

"OH, GODDESS, RIGHT THERE!" she screamed as she saw a familiar head of blond hair rolling over the side of the cliff.

She watched in slow motion as Kate hit a rock on the way down, her head lolling to the side. She was falling with the other rocks, heading down to the bottom of the cliff where she would be crushed. 

Bram pushed the impleva on faster but he wasn't fast enough to get to Kate, so he steered the impleva up to the top of the mountain.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" Susanna screamed as she tried to steer the impleva by its mane, sobs racking her chest as she saw her best friend falling to her death.

"Logan's got her, look!" Bram said firmly as he pointed at Kate. Logan had pushed his impleva to a breakneck speed and he swooped under Kate, reaching out to grasp her by the arm and yank her out of the waterfall of rock and onto his impleva just as the animal flew out of the cascade of the mountain that was kicking up a storm of rock and dust.

"Oh, fuck, he's got her," Susanna said, a sob of relief racking her body. "Where are we going?" Susanna turned in her seat to look at Bram and try to follow the track that Logan made back toward the camp with Kate lying half-dead in his arms.

"We have to find Seth," Bram said with finality. The reality of the situation hit Susanna like a ton of bricks. They had found Kate, but what happened to Seth in this rock slide? Where was he?

They flew low over the mountain, staying just high enough to avoid the rock slide as they looked for another body, another man that might be alive. 

"Please let him be alive, oh Goddess, please let him be alive," Susanna murmured as she looked around the ground for Seth. She didn't want to imagine how she would tell Kate that her mate was dead. If Kate and Seth had fully mated, then she still risked losing her best friend. She willed Seth to be alive with every fiber of her willpower.

"Right there," Bram said as he pointed toward a man crouched on the ground, his head in his hands as he let out loud, racking sobs so loud that even Susanna could hear them this high up.

Bram swung the impleva down toward Seth with a thud and Susanna dismounted quickly. The rockslide was over and they were as close as they could safely get to Seth.

"SETH!" Susanna called out as she jumped from rock to rock. She raced ahead as fast as she could. She was the fastest runner in Elail, but she supposed she was just average for Kreil. Despite her speed, it was still slow going as she navigated around the loose ground and rocks that had been dislodged in the rockslide.

"SETH!" she called out again, willing him to look up at her. She ran closer and called out once more. "SETH!"

He raised his tear-stained face to look at Susanna and shook his head regretfully.

"SETH, SHE'S ALIVE. COME ON!" Susanna was yelling at him so he would get up and get moving.

He shook his head as he dropped his face back in his hands. 

"Oh, fuck, come on, Seth," she muttered under her breath. She was still a dozen feet away, trying to navigate the precarious ground lest she become the next victim to take a tumble off the side of the mountain.

She skipped along the rocks and finally reached him, putting her hands on either of his shoulders and shaking him violently.

His head shook from her shaking and she briefly thought she might be shaking too roughly but she remembered what she was there for.

"Seth, look at me!" She said the words loud and sternly, shaking him more. He looked up at her, his face a mask of sorrow.

"She fell off the side of the mountain, with the rocks. She was here just a few minutes ago and now she's," he paused as he took a deep breath and let a sob rack his body, "gone."

"No. Seth, no. Look at me," Susanna said, willing him to listen. "She fell, yes. We saw her. You called out to Logan and he jumped on an impleva and raced to her, he got to her just in time. He grabbed her by the arm as she fell and he caught her on his impleva. She's at the camp. She's with Logan at the camp."

Seth looked at Susanna for a full thirty seconds before he shook his head and repeated what she said. "Logan caught her on his impleva?"

"Yes!" Susanna let out a breath of relief. "Seth, come on! She's at camp, come on!" she said, standing up and pulling his arm up with her, encouraging him to come along with her. "We need to go find her and see how bad it is."

"How bad it is?" Seth repeated in a daze as he followed after Susanna, stumbling as he went.

"Yes, dumbass, snap out of it!" Susanna yelled back at him, clapping her hands precariously close to his face several times before his eyes started to clear. 

The crass words and loud noise seemed to do their job because he shook his head and looked at her with astonishment.

"You called me a dumbass?" he asked as he looked around and saw the destruction.

"Well, you're being one right now. Get on the damn impleva so we can go find Kate." Susanna said, exasperation dripping from her words. When he didn't move fast enough, she got in his face and screamed, Now!"

He jumped into gear at the words, finally understanding that his mate was not dead. Not yet at least.

"Did you feel her die?" Bram asked as Seth came to the impleva. 

"What?" Seth asked.

"You would feel her die, you would feel immense pain at her death. Did you feel that?" Bram repeated. He spoke more kindly than Susanna did, but he wasn't close to Kate and didn't feel the need to rush back to see her.

Seth shook his head. "No, I don't think so but we're not fully mated."

"Doesn't matter, you claimed her. You'd still feel it," Bram said with a nod as he pulled Susanna up by the arm and they waited for Seth to climb up behind Susanna. 

Seth's eyes finally cleared and he repeated it slowly to himself. "I didn't feel her die."

He looked up and finally mounted the impleva behind Susanna. As soon as he grabbed her waist to hold on, the impleva rose in the air and swooped down toward the camp.

"I knew we were close," Seth repeated softly as he saw how close they were to the Daikon camp. It was closer than he had thought, even. They would have still had to climb around the side of the mountain because the drop-off of the cliff was too steep to climb down.

"Why are you here? You were supposed to be with Izzy and Nate! Why did you come here?" Susanna asked, her voice desperate for answers as she turned accusing eyes to Seth.

"Amelia," Seth said as he shook his head to clear it. "Amelia left a note. Kate has it. It will stop this war."

Susanna breathed out a sigh of relief. "Well thank fuck for that, they were at an impasse. We have about three more days before the talks end and the fighting begins."

"There won't be fighting. Amelia left, they have no claim to attack," Seth said.

"Why would Amelia leave? Where did she go?" Susanna asked, her voice concerned.

"She wouldn't tell us, she was worried about Izzy and she said she was going north to see if her suspicions were right. She took Izzy's blood with her, I think she knows what's going on with Izzy and Cliff," Seth said as he remembered that Susanna and Logan had left before they had spoken to Amelia. This was all news to her.

"Izzy and Nate are mated," he added as an afterthought. It seemed like the kind of thing Susanna would want to know.

"They're WHAT?" she asked, turning once again to glare at Seth. The impleva landed with another thud and she almost fell off her seat as she glared at Seth.

"She's fine, she was happy, she said she didn't want to be stuck without a way to talk to him or for him to find her again. Anyway, they're still at the castle, we came with the letter to avert war and give Amelia a headstart on her journey," Seth replied lamely.

"A head start?" Susanna asked as she glared at Seth, knowing more information was forthcoming.

"Where the fuck is Kate?" Seth looked around, trying to find where his mate would have gone, tired of answering questions that he didn't care about.

"The medic is this way," Bram said as he walked toward the center of the camp, Seth and Susanna following close behind. Bram had been listening closely to the story that Seth told. He knew he would have to tell the king and he didn't relish that task.

The three of them weaved through the tents and finally reached a large, tan canvas tent setup with utilitarian efficiency. Susanna could hear murmurs inside and she burst through the doorway without preamble as she searched frantically for her friend.

"Where's Kate?" she called out, catching sight of Logan near the back of the tent. She took off in his direction. He had some explaining to do.

The words stuck in her throat as she saw her friend lying on a cot, a needle sticking out of her arm. She had bumps and bruises all over her body, one particularly large lump was in her abdomen. The doctor prodded it gently as he waited and watched.

"What are you giving her?" Susanna asked, pointing toward the needle.

"Blood," the doctor replied.

"Oh Goddess, Kate," Seth said as he sat in a chair by her bed and reached out to grab her hand. She lay still as a statue, and as pale as one, too. The dust and dirt from the mountain gave her an ethereal look, not exactly the look of an angel, but definitely the look of something that came from the afterlife.

She didn't move as the medics worked around her. She didn't move while Seth grasped her hand in his own, she didn't even move when they rolled her onto her side to drain the blood pooling in her stomach from a plastic tube.

"Is she going to be ok?" Susanna asked. Her worried brows were creased with concern.

"She'll live, yes, but she has a long recovery. Her wounds and broken bones will heal in a few hours, but her muscles will be sore for weeks, she will have to be careful what she does and she'll need to take it easy," the medic said calmly.

"But she'll live?" Seth asked, looking up at the medic with terror on his face.

"Yes, she'll live," the medic said with a kind smile. "Logan got to her just in time. If she'd hit the ground, she would have died instantly."

Seth looked up at his friend, his gratitude palpable. Logan brushed it off.

"You would have done the same," he said gruffly as he looked down at his hands and sat near Seth.

Seth nodded and stared down at his mate, memorizing every feature she had, every freckle and mole, every curve of her face. 

Kate slept for the rest of the day and through the night but the following morning, she finally opened her eyes and turned her head to see Seth sitting by her bed, grasping her hand tightly, eyes still closed in a fitful sleep.

"We made it out?" Kate asked, her voice hoarse.

"You're awake!" Seth cried out as he opened his eyes and heard his mate's voice.

"I'm awake," Kate confirmed. Her face grimaced, "But I think I'd prefer not to be."

"Do you hurt?" Seth asked, moving her gingerly to sit up as he sat on the bed next to her.

"All over," Kate agreed as she nodded her head.

"They said you would be alright, but you'd be sore for awhile," Seth said with relief.

"What happened?" Kate asked, her brows lowered. "I was falling off the side of the cliff and then I took a rock to my temple and I blacked out. I was headed toward the edge. I should be dead."

"Yeah, you should be. Logan heard me through our link. He came on an impleva and caught you as you were falling. If it weren't for him," Seth's voice broke and he cleared his throat. "He saved your life."

Kate looked around and saw Logan staring at her with a small smile. Susanna sat in his lap, curled around him in a possessive manner.

"Thanks, Logan," Kate whispered. She was tired, her body ached and she was famished.

"Anytime," Logan replied. "Kreil take care of each other."

"Maybe now you will finish the damn mate bond? Now that everyone else has?" Kate asked, her eyes glinting as she nodded her head toward Susanna.

"Huh?" Seth asked.

"They're mated," Kate said with a small smirk which quickly turned to a grimace.

"They are?" Seth asked, he lifted his head to look at Logan and Susanna. They both nodded and Susanna blushed prettily.

"We're the only ones left," Kate said with a dramatic sigh. 

"And we'll stay that way until you can move without a cringe," Seth said with a firm voice. He leaned down to kiss her gently. "I thought I lost you."

"Me too," she admitted as she looked up at him with the fear she had felt when she thought she would die at the hands of a natural disaster.

"You always said you wanted adventure," Susanna chimed in unhelpfully.

Kate snorted and then grimaced at the pain in her abdomen at the laugh. "Ouch. True, I did always want adventure. Just maybe not this kind of adventure."

Seth laughed lightly as he kissed her gently once more.

"What do you say? Tonight? You and me? One bed?" Kate asked coyly.

Seth laughed in earnest then. "If you can walk without pain from this bed to our bed, then I won't say no."

Kate scowled at him as she realized she couldn't do what he asked.

"Alright, maybe tomorrow?" she asked with a raised brow.

"You just almost fucking died, ask me next month," Seth replied with a scowl.

"Not to interrupt because I'm fucking glad you're alive, but why are you here?" Logan asked.

"Oh, the letter!" Kate said as she looked around her chest, searching for the letter that had brought her and Seth here.

"Oh shoot," she said, looking at Seth in a panic, "I don't have it."

"Where did you put it?" Seth asked calmly. He couldn't even muster up enough energy to be worried about the letter, he was so grateful that Kate was awake, talking to him. Her face was covered in dirt and dried blood but the skin had repaired itself and her cuts were small, red, angry-looking scars. 

Kate closed her eyes, trying to remember that morning when they had packed camp. She recalled pulling the letter out, as she did every day, to make sure it was still safe and she still had it in her hands. Then, she tucked it into the side of the saddlebag attached to her horse. The horse that had thrown her. The horse that was likely dead, if Kate's journey down the mountain had been any indication of the horse's fate.

"It's in my pack," she said with despair. "On my mare."