Scent of Valor (Chronicles of Eorthe #2) (2 page)

Tegrathe relaxed into the cushions a little more. “I wouldn’t have stopped at just breaking a bone. I would have killed you.”

“That might have been a better fate.”

“You never know. This Yaundeeshaw hunter might turn out to be a sex god like Ahote.” After a long moment of silence, Tegrathe gave her a weak smile. “Thank you.”

For the second time that day, Kele did a slow blink of confusion. “For mating a stranger?” She should check Tegrathe for a head injury.

“No, you could have killed me. You had a choice.” She tapped her chest over her heart in a sign of admiration. “You don’t always have to win a challenge to gain respect. Sometimes, that’s worth more than dominance. Now go get your medicine before this pain makes me vomit all over my new cushions, Hunter Kele.”

Something tight inside her gut loosened and a heavy weight eased off her shoulders. Kele nodded to her as an equal. “Yes, Hunter Tegrathe.”

Chapter Two

Fighting went against Peder’s nature, otherwise he’d have been a hunter of the Apisi instead of an omega. Or at least, that was what he’d thought until he met Kele. Maybe he just hadn’t had anything worth fighting for.

He watched a very pregnant Susan as she waddled in civil form, away from him and the Temple. She held one end of a rope in her hand. The other end was in his grip. He called out to her, “You should be the one standing here. I can walk to wherever you like.”

“You don’t know where I landed when I fell from the sky. I do.” She gazed up at the trees. Seven months ago, she’d fallen from a blue light and saved his pack.

He glanced at the forest.

Sorin, his alpha, paced around them. The expecting father’s protective nature was driving everyone crazy. The last two days had been constant arguments between the alpha couple about traveling to Temple lands. Somehow Susan had won and here they were, with five hunters prowling neutral territory while Peder helped measure things with a rope.

Susan stood under a rather large tree. “This is it.” She then marked the rope with a piece of coal she’d carried from their den’s fire pit. “Sorin?”

Not even a second later, he was at her side as if ready to carry her in his arms. “Are the pups coming?”

Her silence spoke volumes.

“Not the pups?”

“You need to get your shit together. I can’t handle your nerves.” She tapped his sensitive nose with her fingertips. “Show me where we saw the other gates. Th-the blue lights.” She twisted around. “Peder, come stand here with that end.” She pointed.

Sorin rubbed his muzzle, leading her farther away as he changed position. “I wish you’d stop doing that to my nose. It’s sensitive.”

Vendu, one of their hunters, rose from a nearby bush. “Sorin would be more relaxed if she’d stay in feral form while outside the den.”

“She’s more comfortable as civil. Maybe once she has her pups, she’ll be more, uh, more graceful in feral.” Peder leaned against the tree and took a deep breath of fresh green scents. Spring shoots spotted the forest floor and thickened the air with their fragrances. He’d first spotted Kele on such a day about a year ago from the cliff overlooking these lands, long before Susan changed their lives.

“Peder, come stand here now,” Susan shouted.

“Yeah, Peder, go stand over there now.” Vendu gave him a lopsided wolf grin.

Peder playfully slapped him across the muzzle. “You’re just jealous that you’re not her favorite.”

Vendu rubbed the spot where Peder had hit him. “Hey, you’re getting strong.” He pinched Peder’s upper arm and trailed him as Peder followed the rope to where Susan and Sorin stood. “Have you checked out Peder’s new muscles?” Vendu poked his stomach. “Not bad.”

“Stop, that tickles.” Peder elbowed the bigger hunter in the side.

Vendu dropped to the ground, clutching the spot where he’d taken the shot. “That hurt, Peder. I think all that building and digging Susan makes you do is starting to pay off.” Climbing to his feet, Vendu eyed him more carefully.

Peder stood where Susan had gestured. She walked away, shaking her head again as if confused by their conversation. She’d been born human and still was learning pack dynamics. Peder was so low in Apisi hierarchy, he shouldn’t have been able to draw the hunter’s attention. Because he’d dropped Vendu accidently with one shot, suddenly the big hunter was watching him more closely.

Peder had no desire to fight challenges. Not just so he could beat his chest and declare he was stronger than Vendu. What was the purpose? To get a better mate? The mate he wanted lived with another pack. To get better clothes and food? Their pack was so poor that better wasn’t possible. He’d keep his fur intact and duck his head.

Sorin followed Susan, but shouted back to Vendu, “Peder’s been training with me every morning.”

“Training?” The young hunter’s ears came forward. “As in fighting?”

Peder stared at his feet and nodded.

“Hunter Peder has a nice sound to it.”

He jerked his head up, half expecting to see a teasing grin on Vendu’s face, but found him quite serious instead.

“About time too.” Vendu slapped him on the back. “I look forward to when you work up the courage to challenge me.”

A few months ago, such a strike would have landed Peder on his knees, but his stronger body absorbed the impact. “I’m not ready for challenges. I just want to be able to hold my ground if I need to defend the den.” Or claim Kele, if he ever found the courage to cross onto Payami lands, but she had stopped writing him. He didn’t want to shed blood only to discover she had no interest in him anymore. When she had released him from his imprisonment with the Payami, he’d thought she felt something for him.

A hunter ahead of them called out to Sorin. “We shouldn’t stay much longer. I heard there will be a mating here tomorrow. They’ll be sending scouts soon.”

Peder handed his end of the rope to Vendu and approached the other hunter. “A mating?” Most shifters didn’t bother with a mating ceremony. Marking each other with scents was enough claim, but it was good for packs to mingle blood, so occasionally a mating agreement was formed. “What packs?”

“The Yaundeeshaw and the Payami. I hear the alpha is giving away his daughter to bring strong hunter blood back in the pack.”

Peder couldn’t breathe. The Payami alpha had only one child. “How do you know this?”

“Are you all right?” The hunter, Awe, grabbed Peder by the elbow to steady him.

He shook him off. “Answer me.”

The fur on Awe’s neck rose and his ears went flat. “You best watch your tone, omega.”

Peder dropped his gaze and bowed his head. “Sorry.”

“Oh, answer him, you ass,” said Vendu.

“Every six days, some of the omegas from the Ohneka pack do their wash by the river that borders our lands. One of them fancies me. She’s the one who told me.”

The truth grabbed Peder by the balls. Kele was mating some Yaundeeshaw dog. Was that why she’d stopped writing? “Do you think they know each other?”

“With a mating? I doubt it. Those are all arranged by alphas. Speaking of which…” The hunter ambled toward Sorin. “Alpha, have you ever considered arranging a mating?”

The rest of their conversation faded as the pounding of Peder’s heart filled his ears. She’d mate a stranger before allowing him a chance to win her? He knew being an omega was not an attractive trait in a male, but he’d been really trying to change. He had the bruises to prove it.

Susan called Vendu to bring his end of the rope to her. She scratched symbols called math into the dirt all the while muttering under her breath.

The hunters continued to watch the forest.

Peder crouched close to Sorin. For some reason, being around his alpha helped him calm. The roar in his chest faded to a dull hollow ache and he stared at the empty Temple. What had he done to the Goddess to deserve such a fate?

“Peder?” Sorin knelt to face him and spoke quietly.

“Yes, Alpha?”

He grimaced. “How many times must I tell you to call me Sorin in private?”

He dragged his gaze from the Temple. “Yes, Sorin?”

“You smell anxious. Are you sensing danger?” Sorin’s eyes darted to the forest.

“No, I’d tell you if I did.” He plucked at his fur. Many found his golden color attractive, but to him it seemed a curse. No matter how he tried, he always drew someone’s unwanted attention. “The news about Kele surprised me.” His alpha knew of his pleasant stay within the Payami den, but didn’t know of his feelings toward Kele.

A few months ago, he’d spent a few days hidden in an abandoned room within the Payami den. To ensure that Sorin didn’t hurt Susan, Kele had taken Peder hostage. She had been attracted to him—Peder could tell, after years of being a sexually active omega, when someone wanted him. Yet Kele never once tried to seduce him even though he wouldn’t have denied her. Instead, she had appeared shy and sweet, something very rare in a hunter female. Her letters always hinted at wanting to see him again but she never made any commitments.

Then the letters had stopped.

Sorin made an annoyed noise. “Kele probably thinks it’s her duty.” The alpha stared intently at Peder. “There’s more to this than you’ve told me, isn’t there?”

The omega nodded. Shifters could scent lies.

“After their first pup is born, she doesn’t have to stay with him. She’d be free to mate another.” Sorin shrugged. “It’s not an ideal situation. Not unless you’re willing to fight for her.”

That Yaundeeshaw hunter was going to touch her. The fur on Peder’s back rose. The dog would take her to his bed tomorrow night. He should have crossed onto Payami land already, but no, he had stayed hidden in his den like a coward.

The rumble of growling in his chest drew him out of his thoughts. Everyone stared at him.

Sorin stood at alert. “What is it?”

Shit, he was making things worse. Quieting, he shook his fur flat. “Sorry, got lost in my thoughts.”

Susan pointed to the marks in the dirt. “It’s difficult to calculate this by hand, but I roughly estimate that the doorway will open again in five days. Unless the door has already done so unwitnessed, then my math is all wrong.” She scratched her head. “We should watch the area and make sure no one stumbles in. I can’t imagine what would happen to my world if this virus went through the portal.”

Here he was worried about a female who obviously cared nothing for him, and Susan—carrying two pups in her belly—was trying to protect a whole world. “I thought you had destroyed your machine.”

“I thought so too.” She continued to scribble a few more things in the dirt. “Something is keeping the portal from closing. At one end, in my world, the portal is anchored.” She drew a box to represent this. “At this end, the portal is whipping around like a cat’s tail and jumping positions. If I’m correct, the radius of this tail can grow, which is bad.” She rubbed her belly.

Sorin immediately joined her in touching the bump of her belly protecting their unborn offspring. “It’s time to go home. I’ll send hunters in four days to camp and watch for the blue light.”

“No, no, I’m coming back.”

Sorin snarled, sharp and commanding. “For ten generations, my family has been born in that den. I will not have my pups dropped on common forest ground like strays. Once they are born and you are well, then you can return.” He leaned down and met her glare. “Don’t you dare try to sneak off on your own. You remember what happened last time.”

Susan’s expression grew somber. “Yes.” She set her hands upon his. “Babies first.”

“Pups.”

She laughed. “Fine, pups.”

Peder stared at her scribbles, understanding a few of the symbols. She’d been teaching the pack simple math. Things like adding and multiplying. He could comprehend it better than anyone in the pack, but the stuff in the dirt didn’t even contain numbers. “If the portal’s exit whips around like a tail on Eorthe, that means it can open anywhere on our world?”

“Yes.”

“How do you know it hasn’t already opened somewhere outside this forest?”

“I can only pray it hasn’t. So far, from the measurements I’ve taken, it seems to be getting more distant from the original point of entry by that tree.”

“Each time it opens, it gets farther from here like a pendulum swinging.”

“Exactly. You truly grasp things quickly, Peder.” Odd how a few simple words could soothe his deep wounds.

He had rarely received such praise while growing. Sorin’s father made sure they’d all been miserable, but he’d had a special place in his heart for torturing pretty omega males.

“That means I might only get two more chances at the doorway before it leaves this forest for good.” She rubbed her chin.

Sorin’s ears folded even farther back over his head until it appeared he had none. “Why do you want access? I thought you had chosen to stay with me.”

“I’m staying. I’ve been infected. Even if I wanted to leave, I couldn’t. But I have to send my world a message. Whoever is on the other side needs to be warned. They have to guard the portal from letting anything go through. They also have to know the risk of walking into it as well.” She rubbed her temples. “I have to figure out how to send a message. It’s not like I have a cell phone or a two-way radio.”

Sometimes Susan was too smart. She said things no one understood and could bypass a simple solution in pursuit of something bigger. “Write them a letter. Tie it to a rock to give it weight and throw it through the portal.”

“Jesus, that’s so easy. They’d also be able to verify it’s truly from me by the handwriting.” She clapped Peder on the back almost as hard as Vendu had.

“Very well, the decision’s been made. I’ll send hunters to watch for the blue light to return with a message for them to toss inside.” Sorin scooped Susan into his arms and started toward their home.

Peder glanced at the Temple one last time.

What should he do about Kele? If he knew she held even a raindrop of affection for him, he’d stay for the mating and challenge this Yaundeeshaw. He’d lose, but at least she would know he was willing to die for her.

Chapter Three

Adventures were things Pemma had only read about. She’d been content living with her pack in Europa—crowded but content—though Ewald promised she’d be much happier in the New World.

The ship’s front—oh, she meant bow—carved a path through the small waves and the scent of salt lay heavy in the air. She couldn’t wait to smell something other than ocean and ripe shifters. Being away from the city had had an unexpected result. Her sense of smell had grown much stronger. She wasn’t the only one. Many of her packmates had more acute senses now that they’d left the nose-blinding cities. Just yesterday, Fini scented a school of fish nearby. What a catch.

Reaching the New World would open so many avenues for her pack. Maybe they’d even meet some wild shifters like in the stories she’d read in Ewald’s newspapers. She had to keep this wish secret since he’d never discussed the news with her and he didn’t know she could read.

For weeks, all she’d seen was water. Flat calm water, raging gray water, even murky swirly water filled with merpeople glaring at them as they trespassed over their home. She shuddered. A mermaid had almost taken their alpha—her grandfather—with her siren’s song. This ship wouldn’t have been big enough to hold a wolf pack in crisis from the loss of their leader. Just the injury toll resulting from hunter challenges could have destroyed this adventure before it even really began.

Stiffening, she leaned over the side of the ship. Something caught her eye. It looked…yes, it looked green. Green water? “Ewald!” She called toward the captain’s quarters, where he still slept. The green grew thicker and didn’t move like the flowing water around them. Lifting the hem of her dress, she ran to the door and thumped on the hard wood. “Ewald, come quick and look.”

The door swung open. Her vampire master rubbed the sleep from his eyes as he pulled a suspender strap over his shoulder. “The sun is up already? I feel like I’d just gone to sleep.” He gave her a doting smile. “What are you yelling about, Pemma?”

She grabbed his hand and pulled him toward the bow too excited to mind her manners. “Look.”

He stared and yawned. “What am I supposed to be seeing?”

She growled her frustration and pointed to the green plainly visible now. “Land.” Most omegas wouldn’t have dared growl at the vampire, but Ewald never reprimanded her outbursts. He wasn’t pack and ruled them by vampire law. Now, if it had been her grandfather, she’d have kept her gaze downcast and her frustration more guarded.

Ewald blinked a few times and leaned forward. “I don’t see anything. Maxim, bring me my eyepiece,” he called to the steersman.

Maxim jumped from the poop deck to land gracefully like all cat shifters. “Good morning, my lord. I see Pemma has you up early. Again.”

She made a distasteful face at him. Her mother wouldn’t have approved, but
she
was back in Europa with those who had refused to board the ship. Mother had raised her to act like a vampire lady. Pemma’s wolf nature was omega, which made being Ewald’s concubine easier. Omegas were the caregivers of the pack, the easy lovers, the artists. She didn’t care about climbing pack hierarchy. She just wanted to love them.

Maxim was always trying to get her in trouble, especially with Ewald. Ever since she’d turned down a chance to warm his bed last winter, he’d been her worst enemy. Too bad he had the courage to follow their master on what most called a fool’s journey.

Ewald held the bronze tube to his eye and scanned the horizon. The eyepiece was a vampire wonder. It helped them see things in the distance much clearer. “By God, Pemma, you’re right. Land ho!” he shouted.

Other sailors picked up his call.

She clasped her hands. “We’re almost there.”

Ewald hugged her and pressed a kiss to her mouth, branding his claim upon her flesh. The familiar touch sent a blaze of warmth through her body. His strong arms pulled her firmly against him. Vampires couldn’t mark females as shifters did, but no one could ever doubt whom she belonged to. He pulled away just enough to speak. “You saw that with just your eyes?”

She nodded, a little breathless.

“I shall call you Hawkeye Pemma from now on.”

“Oh yes, please do, especially when Maxim is around.” She shot a daggered look over their master’s shoulder toward the cat.

Maxim hissed and climbed back to the poop deck with his stupid grace.

Chuckling, Ewald released her. “You’re incorrigible.”

“I thought that’s what you liked about me.”

“It’s one of your finer traits.” He rested his arm around her slight shoulders and leaned into the ocean breeze. “Smell that?”

“The salt? It’s hard not to.”

“No, freedom.”

“Oh.” Freedom meant different things for different people. For her, it meant no more mother hovering over her every decision and a chance to actually live like wolf shifters should, out in the wild and out of the cities.

Ewald tossed her one of those looks. The kind that said “you’re still a pup”. In his defense, his age tripled hers. His idea of freedom was running from the marriage his father had arranged for him to an older female vampire. She must have been at least two hundred years old. Young by his kind’s standards yet still older than him.

Heavy footsteps fell behind them. Pemma’s alpha had joined them staring at the land. “My, it looks green.” He bent and gave her a small kiss on the forehead. “Good morning, Pemma.”

“Good morning, Gramp.” She fingered a new tear in his leather kilt. “I can mend this.”

“No doubt you can, but you’ve other duties.” He didn’t mention what those were. She already knew. Ewald was her duty.

“I saw the land first without using the eyepiece.”

“I don’t think the rule of finders keepers will apply to this,” Gramp teased as his eyes traveled to where Ewald’s arm rested on her shoulders.

The vampire stared ahead at their destination and didn’t notice.

Gramp gave her an approving nod. For as long as their pack had been owned by Ewald’s family, there had been an omega in one of the family’s beds. This task had fallen upon her ever since she’d caught her master’s eye. It was the easiest way for the pack to keep apprised of information. Her alpha had known of Ewald’s plans to journey to the New World before Ewald’s own father, and Gramp had acted upon this plan quickly.

The promise of open land with hunting rights was a mighty draw for Europa shifters, especially the wolf packs. Cats didn’t mind the crowded cities as much.

“I don’t want it all. Just a little piece with deer living on it.” She’d never been on a hunt, but the prospect had even her omega blood pumping. “Oh, and rabbits. I love rabbits. They taste so divine when they’re fresh.”

Darkness didn’t frighten Benic. He used it like a blanket and insulated himself from the world.

The fire in the hearth crackled with green uncured logs. He enjoyed the pop that sap made within the wood when heated. Benic emptied his glass and refilled it with fine Payami wine. His last bottle. He should savor it because they wouldn’t let him purchase more. Not after he had attempted to kidnap the alpha’s only daughter.

As vampire lord of this region, he could demand both wine and female from the pack, but experience had taught him he’d enjoy neither if taken in such a manner. Kele should come to him of her own free will, but how could he woo her from a distance? Especially with Peder lurking in her shadow.

The door to his private study slammed open. “There you are.” Inacio, his incubus pet, stormed into the room. “How many more days do you plan on hiding in here?”

Benic ran his fingers around the rim of his glass so he wouldn’t gulp the last of it. “I’m not hiding.”

Inacio crossed the room and tore open the thick curtains. Sunlight poured into the study like liquid fire as the incubus did the same to the other two windows.

Benic squinted in the sudden glare. “Have you no mercy?”

“I let you lick your wounds for months. Your castle is falling to ruins in your absence.”

Pulling open his unlaundered shirt, Benic stared at the scar on his chest then poked it with his fingertip. “My wound appears healed. You cured me. It’s a miracle.” He laughed and kicked an empty wine bottle across the floor. “Why don’t you get us another bottle and we can share it?”

Inacio picked it up and grimaced. “Your cellar is empty.”

“Oh, the Payami wine. I know this.”

“No,
all
the wine, you drunkard.”

“What?” Benic set his glass down. “That’s impossible.” Had he really gone through his stock? That was quite an impressive feat.

“You look and smell like something the shifters have pissed on.” Inacio had been with Benic for years, and with time, his talented tongue had grown loose with Benic. Maybe he should have it cut out.

“Thank you. It took a lot of effort to achieve this state of dishevelment. Now, unless you’re here to undress me, I’d suggest you leave in the opposite manner you arrived before I get nasty.”

“Nastier,” he corrected. “May I suggest a bath before you continue your poor attempt to seduce me?”

His snort turned into a laugh. “Very well. Have the servants draw me a bath.”

“When have you last fed?”

It was Benic’s turn to grimace as he rubbed his aching head. The blasted light was giving him a headache. “I don’t know.”

“A bath with a wench it is, then.”

He shook his head. “No wench. I’ve had my fill of females.”

Inacio knelt in front of him. “If I had known the white shifter meant so much to you, I would have seduced her into never leaving your side.”

“That would have been cheating.” He couldn’t meet Inacio’s gaze. The incubus already knew too much about his weakness for Kele. A smarter vampire would have killed him as a result but after recent events, he believed he was very, very stupid. Why start doing smart things now? Benic sighed. “Have them bring me some ale while I wait for the bath. You could feed me afterwards.”

“Very well, master.” He didn’t leave his place at Benic’s feet.

“What else?”

“Nothing.” He rose to leave.

“Tell me.”

Inacio hung his head. “The shifters are gathering around the Temple. There are whispers among the servants that it’s a sign of pending war.”

He chuckled. “It’s not war, Inacio. It’s worse. It’s a mating.” He sneered the last word. Inali and his bitch wife, Chaska, had the gall to send him an invitation to Kele’s mating ceremony. The dark cushioned him from the world but it hadn’t blinded him. He knew very well what had been going on outside his study.

The crops had been sown, his castle shifters had popped out seven more pups for him to feed over the winter months, and Inali had arranged a mating with a hunter Kele had never met. A fine fate for the female who’d scorned his affection.
May the bastard be fat and smell like elk ass.

“The wild shifters aren’t thinking of war. They’re thinking of fucking and making more pups. Tell the staff so they can ease everyone’s minds.” Benic gestured toward the study’s door.

“That soothes my heart. Fucking is something I understand much better than fighting.” Inacio’s smile grew crooked and his gaze darkened with secret promises.

Benic had to laugh again. The act seemed strange after months of solitude and alcohol. Time healed all wounds, and what else did a vampire possess in great amounts but time? Unfortunately, Kele didn’t have many years to remain young and he’d been a romantic fool to think she could bring him any kind of joy.

“Will you go to the mating?”

“No.” One half of the Payami pack wanted to kill him and the other to eat his liver. “I haven’t time to fool around with such mundane things. We have a wine cellar to fill, which means we should embark on a trip to the finest market.”

“New Berg?”

“Yes, I think a trip to New Berg would place me in much better spirits.” He hadn’t paid his respects to the Grand Lord Weis in decades. It was about time he gave vampire politics in North Amerigo his full attention. Who knew, maybe the Nation had decided to allow vampire females to finally travel to the New World.

He’d let the wild shifters living in his forest rot for all he cared anymore.

The noise in his courtyard traveled through the windows. Most of his people were domesticated wolf shifters, procured during the battles as the vampires settled this new land. None remembered that time, but the vampires who remained under his care did.

The castle shifters were nervous about the hurt feelings between him and their wild cousins. Benic’s memories of those battles had not faded yet. “We’ll send Kele a mating day present in our absence.” He scratched his chin. “What do you think would be appropriate? Something that says, ‘Sorry for stealing you and let’s try not to kill each other over it.’”

Inacio rolled his eyes. “I’d suggest one of the new pups, but I know you’d say no.”

“True, that’s not acceptable.”

“Maybe one of your mother’s amulets?”

“Jewelry?” The shifters beaded their clothes for special occasions. Some decorated their hair with feathers and wore simple jewelry. An amulet could be a good choice. “How about the one covered with small rubies?”

“It would sparkle on Kele with her pale hair and skin. I think it’s an excellent choice.”

“Send it now with my swiftest omega.”

“A shifter? One of your mounted guards would arrive faster.”

“Yes and he’d be returned in pieces. They won’t kill a submissive. Maybe they’ll just keep it.” He shrugged. “Go, I want her to receive it before the ceremony.”

Maybe this way, she’d be thinking of him tomorrow instead of her precious Peder.