Scent of Salvation (Chronicles of Eorthe #1) (3 page)

“Chasing will only frighten her more, Alpha.” Peder still stared at the floor, but at least he offered his advice without being coerced.

“What would you have me do? Let some other pack have her?”

“No, just don’t be so…intimidating.” He pointed to his exposed teeth with his claws. “Try not thinking she’s prey.”

“Go get the fucking flowers, Peder. I promise not to eat her.” He leapt from the stone steps and skirted brush too dense for him to enter. The sly female wedged easily into the smaller spaces where he couldn’t pursue with his bulk, but the brush didn’t lead anywhere. It only surrounded the Temple foundation. She was trapped.

Crouching low to the ground, he moved along the thick wall of plants. His little prey made enough noise that even the youngest of pups could track her. With ears fanned open, he followed her progress. The birds started their songs again as he got to the far end of the area.

By the Dark Moon, she moved slowly. He could have taken a nap while waiting. He watched Peder head toward their home with a small sack of flowers. The rustling in the bushes drew closer, and Sorin gathered his energy to pounce.

From out of the brush snapped a young sapling, which whipped the sensitive tip of his nose. With a yelp, Sorin fell back, clamping his hands over his muzzle. Through pain-filled eyes, he watched the female tear across the open ground.

Sorin blinked to clear his vision and bounded after his suddenly fast quarry. Her white coat fluttered behind her like a treaty flag, but this female didn’t show any signs of surrender.

She ran full-tilt up the hill toward its summit.

Trailing closer, he could smell the trace of border markings on the wind. If he didn’t hurry, she’d run off the neutral ground of Temple lands and onto some other pack’s territory. He couldn’t follow if she did. “Stop! There’s danger that way.”

She twisted and glanced at him, not watching her step. Something caught her foot at the top of the hill and she fell.

Sorin leaped, reaching with clawed fingers. They pierced the hem of her white jacket. The delicate material tore along the sharp edges of his claws, and the shreds slipped through his fingers. Relief mixed with triumph, pumping through his veins, gave way to dread. He scrambled to grab the tatters and not lose the female, but the momentum of her flight downhill sent her tumbling head-over-heels out of his grasp.

A cry echoed over the quiet forest of Payami lands. Kele spun toward the sound. It came from the direction of the hills, off their path.

Her guards, in feral form, tightened the circle around her. They perked their ears forward as low growls rumbled in their chests.

The thick forest blocked her view. She couldn’t see who cried out. Shoving past the males, she headed toward the noise.

Ahote, her primary guard, blocked her way. “We’re to take you to the Temple and the Temple only.” He gestured at the overgrown path that connected their den and their place of worship.

Well,
her
place of worship. Not many of the pack prayed anymore.

“I’ll send someone to investigate.” He gestured to another of the males.

She glanced at each of her four guards. It wasn’t their fault she needed protection. Her defective body made her weak. Not being able to shift to feral form, stuck as a civilian, left her defenseless in the wilds. Traveling in the forest was safer as a beast, with sharp teeth and claws to fight. Until she figured out her trigger to change shape, she’d need guards whenever leaving the pack’s den.

But she rapped her knuckles on the tip of Ahote’s nose anyway. If she let him boss her around, the others would eventually start. Her place in pack hierarchy was a constant battle. Even her own mother didn’t know how to treat her. “I’m not ignoring a cry for help. They might be hurt.” As daughter of the Payami alpha couple, Kele was due more respect, but the fact she couldn’t shift confused everyone’s instincts.

Ahote’s ears folded back and he moved aside, not breaking eye contact. A quiet growl stirred in his chest as she passed him. It was difficult to ignore the huge, black beast, but if she showed even the slightest scent of fear he’d attack her.

With practiced ease, she slowed her heart rate and kept breathing in a steady rhythm. Any of her guards could tear her to pieces, but she needed to believe they wouldn’t. The only thing stopping them was her overprotective father.

Pushing past the bushes, Kele inhaled. A strange odor blew in the wind, mild and floral.

Not far from the path, a female in civil form lay on the ground at the bottom of the hill. She rested just over the Payami territory line, marked every four days by her father’s scent.

The female sat and gaped at them. Leaves and twigs clung to her brown hair. What used to be a white coat was twisted around her torso.

Kele halted in her tracks.

A massive, silver-furred male raced down the hill toward them.

For a second, Kele lost control of her fear as her heart took flight. He was big—bigger than her father. This boded ill. Packs were not allowed on each other’s territories without an invitation from the alpha.

Her guards charged forward, blocking the strange shifter’s path across their border.

The male slid to a stop but his feet remained on Temple ground. Barely. “She belongs to me.” He leaned forward and confronted Ahote nose-to-nose.

Kele knelt next to the female. “Are you injured?” The female had a traumatized expression. “Did he hurt you?”

She stared at the feral males and grabbed Kele’s hand, her eyes never wavering from the beasts.

Sniffing, Kele tried to detect any scent of abuse. Small amount of blood from minor scrapes. Nothing major. No smell of sex either. Actually, the female smelled very clean, of soap and flowers and more importantly, no scent markers declared her attachments. Not even a pack’s.

“She clearly isn’t yours.” Rising, she stepped between the female and all the males. Unmarked females were a rare commodity. Females were always in demand. Between childbirth and illness, their numbers were less.

Ahote turned, his nostrils flaring as his ears came forward and fanned in surprise. “She doesn’t carry
anyone’s
scent.”

Kele sighed as all her guards twisted toward the runaway female. Nice. An unmarked female surrounded by a bunch of unmated males. Even though her father kept assigning unmated guards to protect her in hopes one might claim her, no male ever had. Her natural gift to ward off mating interest was an unwanted talent.

She growled her own warning to back off. Not very impressive coming from her in civil form; however something had to be done before their intelligence dropped and they began to think with their cocks. Mating challenges could be bloody.

The silver-furred male crossed his arms over his chest. “She’s not a shifter, which is why she’s free of marks. She calls herself a hu-man.” He snarled at her guards. “I found her first. The Goddess sent her to me.”

If she could be in feral form, Kele’s ears would have perked. “You still worship the Goddess?” She’d thought most shifters either prayed to the vampires’ God or didn’t pray at all.

The strange shifter eyed her from head to foot and kept silent.

“Do you have proof?” Kele raised an eyebrow.

“She fell from a blue light in the sky. Ask her.” He pointed to the unmarked female, who rose to her feet and stood close to Kele’s back.

“Did the Goddess send you?” Kele asked. The blue light was the reason for the trek. Guards watching the entrance to their den reported seeing it burn in the sky above Temple lands. Her parents had sent her to investigate.

The female blinked, her gaze traveling from Kele to the strange male. “I—I don’t know. All gods work in mysterious ways, don’t they?”

Kele didn’t smell any lies. “Did you fall from a blue light?”

Wringing her hands, the female backed away. “Yes,” she whispered.

Kele’s breath caught in her chest. “Truly?” She looked at the strange male once more for confirmation and approached him. He easily towered two feet above her short frame, but she was practiced in how to hold her ground. “She’s on Payami ground now, so I lay claim to her.”

Surprised grunts came from her guards.

“You can’t claim her. You’re—you’re female.” The strange male lifted his foot as if to step over the territorial line.

Her guards growled and closed in on him.

Ears folded back, he bared his teeth and stayed on his side of the border.

“Enough of this.” She clapped her hands as if disrupting a puppy squabble. “She’s not a shifter so she’s not part of pack hierarchy. None of you have rights to her. But she’ll be my guest.” She glared at the foreign shifter who acted like an alpha. “Be off.”

The female leaned close. “Thank you.”

“You’ve grown bold, Kele, for someone who can’t shift.” The stranger shook his mane and relaxed his stance. “You don’t possess the power to order me.”

A small muscle ticked along her jaw. This mutt didn’t need to remind her of her impotence. She was quite aware of it. “And who exactly are you?” Especially since he knew so much about her.

Fur melted to tanned skin. The male kept his muscular shape as his animal nature faded and he changed to his civil form. His muzzle and ears reshaped, leaving a rugged, angry face. A pale scar ran across his face to the corner of his lower lip, giving him a perpetual frown.

He didn’t cover his nudity. “Sorin, alpha of the Apisi.” His untidy silver hair hung down his back to his hips.

The female who tumbled down the hill gasped, her tight grip on Kele’s hand weakening as her eyes rolled back. She crumpled to the forest floor.

Kele blinked at the prone body at her feet. What had happened? Did she just die? She knelt, pressed her fingertips to the female’s throat and found a steady, strong pulse.

The ground vibrated with the rising sound of growls.

The alpha had crossed the line and squatted across from her. “Is she hurt?” Sorin brushed a loose strand of hair from the female’s cheek. Concern flashed across his face—so quick Kele wasn’t sure if she’d truly seen it. Dark circles and worry lines made Sorin appear older. Her gut said the female wasn’t the cause of his premature aging.

Ahote went down on all fours behind Sorin. The fur along his spine stood on end, and his bared fangs dripped saliva. He crept closer.

“Wait!” She raised her hands to stop the attack but a second too late.

Sorin twisted in time to meet the assault but her guards were in feral form, and the alpha was outnumbered.

She heard the crack of flesh hitting flesh, and the scent of fresh blood masked all other smells in the area. The fight didn’t last long. Her guards stood over Sorin’s prone, unmoving body and panted.

“You better not have killed him!” The idiots. Her father had no tolerance when it came to trespassers. They were usually beaten and returned to Temple land as a warning. Repeat offenders became omegas of her pack.

But Sorin was an alpha. She shook her head. This was different. Kele had heard the stories about the Apisi, a small pack to the North—too small to be a threat and too crazy to absorb into her pack Her father barely tolerated their existence. She didn’t want them to retaliate over something so insignificant as young males fighting over a female. “Toss him back to neutral ground.”

Ahote returned her stare with his sharp blue eyes. “You sure? Your father may want to speak with him first.”

“About what? It’s not like his pack has anything we want.” Trading for the return of a trespasser was a common practice. Someone had to pay the price of breaking pack law. As an alpha, Sorin should have brought a nice bounty, but she knew his pack was poorer than dirt. She ground her teeth. She wouldn’t risk displeasing her father either. He might protect her from others but he didn’t have a problem tanning her ass. “Fine, bring him.”

She regarded the prone female.

Ahote knelt on the other side of her.

“She fainted. Sorin frightened her, I think.” Kele kept her laughter in check. “I don’t care if the Goddess sent her or not. That’s not a good way to leave an impression on an unmated female.”

Her first guard ran a gentle fingertip over the female’s unmarred cheek. “She acts like she’s never seen a shifter before. Have you ever heard of a hu-man?”

“No.” Kele bent closer to examine the inside of the female’s mouth. “No fangs. Her canines are too small and dull for a shifter.” She rolled her onto her side. “No wings, tail or fins.”

He leaned closer. “The light?”

“That’s why my father sent us.”

“Do you truly think she came from the Goddess?”

“She doesn’t work so openly, Ahote.” She rose to her feet. If the female came from the light, she’d need to question her before anyone else questioned her. Maybe she held the key to freeing Kele from the curse of remaining in civil form.

She assessed the female’s slim shape, a shape that contained a nice touch of extra curves that Kele lacked. “You’ll care for her? Not let these dogs abuse her?”

A snarl escaped Ahote. “But I’m not interested in a permanent mate.”

Kele fought to control a grin at his expression. Ahote could use a little humility. “I know. That’s why it has to be you until I find out more about her.”