Scent of Valor (Chronicles of Eorthe #2) (24 page)

Chapter Thirty-Nine

Pemma soaked in a large hot tub of water by the fireplace in Lord Benic’s castle. A storm rumbled in the distance and the wind howled around the building. The old stone walls gave her comfort though. She’d grown up in a place like this, filled with old things and solid furniture. Lord Weis’s manor had been too new and frilly. She always feared she’d break something priceless.

Ewald sat in a well-cushioned chair next to her. He puffed on a pipe and watched her bathe. “I think this is the first time since we’ve arrived to the New World that I’ve seen a real smile on your face.”

Pausing with a sponge in her hand, she thought about it. “I think it’s the first time I’ve felt safe.”

“That’s a bit insulting, Pemma.” He smiled as he spoke, though.

“It’s not meant to be. You can provide only so much protection, especially with slavers on every corner in New Berg and the stories of the West scaring me every day.” She dropped the sponge in the water and leaned back. “We’re going to die if we go.”

There, she’d said it. She wanted to believe in Ewald and his dream, but she’d lost faith in her master.

“I know.” He knelt next to her and retrieved the sponge from the water, running it over her skin. “We’re not going until we have a solid plan.”

“Like an army?”

He chuckled. “I think an army would make it worse. The shifters in the West seem to fear invasion. I don’t blame them. I think we should go west with just our small group and a very good guide. Maybe a couple of guides.” He picked up a towel that had been warming by the fire and held it out for her.

She climbed out of the tub and hurried to his open arms. “I’m sorry about Timothy. I didn’t do it to hurt you.”

He rubbed the towel over her skin and bent to do the same to her legs. “Are you tired of being my companion?”

“No.” She touched his dark hair with her fingertips. It was a lie, but now wasn’t the time to be honest. She first needed to speak with her alphas about a replacement and she’d have to train her as she had been trained. “Are you tired of me?”

“No.” She smelled the lie and it didn’t hurt as much as she thought it would. Ewald and she were never meant to fall in love. His kind lived too long to love her kind and she was too smart to allow her heart to be broken so easily. “I’d never met a hunter female as dominating as Kele. She was a curiosity.” He kissed her bare stomach.

“That’s because she was alpha.” She gave him an indulgent smile. “Like Gram.” Her alpha female and grandmother.

He chuckled. “Now that you mention it. I can see it. Your gram scares me.”

“She scares everyone.” Pemma slipped on a dress Benic’s pack had provided. His shifters seemed all well cared for. No one bore a brand on their hands and they all had kind words for their lord. If anything, they feared the wild shifters in the forest and for Benic’s safety since he’d ridden out after them.

Ewald retrieved his pipe and returned to his chair. “We’ll be fine, Pemma. I promise.”

She sat on his lap and rested her wet head on his shoulder. He didn’t complain. She couldn’t respond. She’d lied enough to him for one night. Maybe she should have some of the hunters give her and the other omegas lessons in fighting. It seemed like it would be a useful skill in the West.

The sound of hooves striking cobblestone in the courtyard drew their attention.

Ewald rose to his feet with her still his arms. He set her down before he strode to the window with her following close behind.

Outside, Lord Benic and his soldiers led some chained males. The stable boys were taking their horses. Large scattered raindrops fell from the sky, striking the people below. Benic stood before his prisoners, hands on hips, as if deciding what to do next.

Ewald hurried from the room.

She lifted the hem of her dress and raced after him. He ran down the hall like a wayward pup and took the stairs two at a time. Her hem got caught under her slippered feet. If not for the banister, she would have gone head over heels. She’d lost sight of Ewald but it didn’t take much to guess where she’d find him.

With a little more grace than a few moments ago, she walked out into the courtyard. The doorway had a small roof and she remained there out of the rain while Ewald and Benic strode toward her.

“What do mean you’re going to execute all of them?” Ewald demanded as the men pushed past her back inside the castle.

She stared at the slavers on their knees with heads hanging in exhaustion. She didn’t see Huan among them. She waved at one of Benic’s soldiers.

He paused with a questioning look on his face.

“Where’s the leader?”

He glanced at the slavers. “The shifters killed him before we got there. Lucky bastard.”

“Lucky?”

“After Lord Benic is finished with these ones, they’ll wish the shifters had killed them.” Chuckling, the soldier who had stopped to answer her question left her wide-eyed.

Ewald’s voice was growing louder. She returned inside to the common room, where Benic sat at a table with a tankard of ale, watching Ewald pace back and forth. “They should be brought back to New Berg for trial. You haven’t the legal right to execute vampires, Benic.”

He sipped his drink, his gaze tracking to her, and he pulled out a chair next to him. “Pemma, I hope my people have showed you my hospitality.”

“They’ve been very kind to us. Thank you.” She sat next to him and gave Ewald a
what are you doing
look. Benic had been kind enough to house and feed them, including their hunters. Who knew where her packmates were now or what they were up to?

Benic returned his attention to Ewald. “Who do you think will try them? Those slavers will be released within days and heading west to enslave more shifters or worse, they’ll be back poaching on my fucking land.” He glanced at her. “Excuse my language.”

She laughed. “I’m not so easily embarrassed. Please, continue.” She agreed with Lord Benic. Slavery was wrong no matter what religion a person followed. She didn’t want to imagine what debauchery and anguish these so-called people had committed, but she was sure that whatever punishment Benic came up with wouldn’t be enough.

He gave her a tired smile. “Ewald, you’re very young.” It was odd hearing this. Her master was three times her age. “Things don’t work here like they do in the old country. Weis still believes that wild shifters should all be wiped from this world to settle the land in peace.” He paused for a drink, but from the way he stared at Ewald over the rim, she knew he did it to allow this information to sink in. “Is this what you plan to do when you go west? Kill any shifter you encounter or enslave them to be sent east?”

“No.” She knew Ewald’s answer before he even said it. He was many things, but cruel wasn’t one of them. Their pack had practically raised him. “I just…” He sat down hard on a chair and poured himself a tankard of ale then drained it empty. “Will it be so hard to carve a small haven?”

Benic shrugged. “I don’t think anyone has tried. Do you still wish me to send these slavers back to New Berg?”

Ewald stared into his empty tankard, then shook his head.

“Good.” Benic slapped the tabletop with both his hands. “Pemma, I think it best you retreat to the south tower. I’ll have my people move you to rooms there.”

She rose to her feet. “Why?”

“For what I plan to do, I’ll need the space of the courtyard and I expect there to be much screaming throughout the night. I think the south tower is far enough away to insulate you from the noise.”

Her stomach rolled. She pressed her hand to her throat. “Very well.” Her voice sounded faint even to her own ears. “Ewald?”

He seemed to age before her eyes. “Go ahead without me. If I can condemn these vampires to this fate, I should participate in meting out their punishment.”

Benic took her hand and led her to an elderly maid by the stairs. “Rest while you can,” he whispered by her ear. “Ewald will need comforting afterwards, I’m sure.”

Chapter Forty

Pausing at the territorial line separating Temple land from Payami, Peder sniffed the ground. Alphas marked their lands every few days. “The smells are faint. No one new has been marking it so we can assume no new alphas have been chosen.”

“This will be the last time I smell my father’s scent.” Kele ran her nose lovingly over the spot, then leaned back and howled. The mournful sound echoed through the forest. “But you’re right.” She shook her fur out. “We have time to join the challenges.” Charging ahead, she left him blinking after her.

Ahote bumped his shoulder. “Let her lead us in. The pack needs to see her as an alpha before we introduce you.”

He flicked his ears in assent. Otherwise, it would appear as if he came in as a conqueror rather than a mate. They ran on a well maintained path and this time, the pace was less frantic.

A dark cave loomed ahead. One of the four guards on the mountainside jumped down to greet Kele with nudges and licks. His fur appeared tattered and fresh claw marks ran along his left arm. “We’re so glad you’re safe.” His gaze grew dark as it turned toward Peder. “Who’s this?”

“He’s with me.” Kele laid a white-furred hand upon his gray arm.

The battered guard rose on his hind legs and approached them. He nodded to Ahote. “Good job finding our Kele.”

“Was there any doubt I’d succeed?” Ahote stayed next to Peder. He pointed at the other hunter’s fresh wounds. “Were you challenging to be alpha, Minu?”

“No.” Minu frowned. “The pack has gone crazy.”

Kele pushed forward. “What do you mean? What’s happened?”

“What do you think? We weren’t ready to lose your parents. With their death and your disappearance, too many of the pack tried to fill the void at once. Factions formed and the fighting fell out of the ring. Feral law almost swept the pack away.”

Peder’s heart pounded. Feral law was never supposed to be inside the den, only the challenge ring and in the forest. It had been ages since such a tragedy afflicted their tribe.

“Oh no…” Kele twisted as if to run inside the caves, but Minu grabbed her arm.

“It didn’t happen. The elders called upon all the hunters who didn’t wish to challenge. We returned the pack to civil law, but not without some casualties.”

Ahote’s ears drooped. “But the pack is still divided?”

“Yes, I didn’t know how we’d ever bond under one couple again after the fighting.” He caressed Kele’s face. “But I do now.”

Peder growled and knocked his hand away. “Are you scent blind as well as injured?” He rose to meet the hunter’s glare. He reminded Peder of the first shifter he’d fought in the slave compound, all muscle and no training.

“Kele, it’s not time to bring a guest to the den.” Minu’s gaze roamed over him, his nostrils worked as if taking his scent from that distance.

Peder crossed his arms. “I’m not her guest. I’m her mate.” So his test of dominance would begin here. The next few days would be tiring, but it wouldn’t compare to what he’d had to endure from Timothy. He smirked at the thought. It was as if he’d spent his whole life preparing for this moment.

The guard’s ears sprang so high Peder almost laughed. He glanced at Kele for confirmation. “He doesn’t smell like Yaundeeshaw.”

“Because he’s not, he’s Apisi.” She admitted Peder’s origins without hesitating. He hadn’t expected that. It was like admitting she’d mated an animal. “We’re here to fight the challenges.”

“No.” Peder rested his arm around Kele’s shoulders. “We’re here to win them.”

Ahote laughed. “That’s the attitude.” He clapped the other guard on the back.

“You support this mating?”

The other guards on the wall peered at him with interest.

“Peder helped me rescue Kele twice. She loves him. I think he deserves to fight at her side.”

“But alpha?”

Ahote nodded.

Kele guided Peder inside the cave system. “Once the challenges are done, you’ll have to learn these tunnels. It’s our best security.”

The tunnels grew very dark and he found his way through only because of his feral gift of night vision. “Even if an enemy was lucky enough to find their way through, he’d still have to figure out a way to escape.” Whoever thought of this was brilliant.

“Only one person’s made it out unguided in recent memory.”

He grinned. “Sorin.” He could smell Kele’s growing anxiety. “What worries you?”

She gave him a weak laugh. “I’m not sure how to introduce you. My pack expected me to mate with Nahuel and I return with a different male.”

He stopped her with a touch. “You can’t walk in the den smelling of doubt.” Gathering her against him, he rubbed his scent into her fur. “They don’t know what we’ve gone through so they haven’t a right to judge us.”

“What will we do if they refuse to let you fight?”

“Then we leave. We’ll return to the Apisi or travel west or live with Benic. Whatever you want to do, Kele, I’ll follow.”

She rested her head on his shoulder. “I don’t know what I ever did without you.”

“Okay, lovebirds, there’s time enough for that kind of stuff in your own room.” Ahote loped pass them. “Let’s get some food. I’m starved.”

“Excellent plan.” Peder pulled Kele by the hand and raced Ahote out of the tunnels.

The dark hunter shifted to civil form and searched through a pile of kilts by the door. “Something here should fit you.” Dressing, he assessed Peder’s size before tossing him a fine black leather kilt.

Peder ran his hand over the soft leather. They must have very skilled crafters. He recalled his threadbare kilts, some of them made of fabric because the leather was needed more for the hunters. He’d never worn such fine work.

Ahote handed him a sweater the color of Kele’s eyes.

He turned as she pulled a matching colored dress over her head. It reached below her knees and was decorated with a simple pattern of white beads that stretched across her chest.

She tilted her head. “What?”

“You’re beautiful.”

A blush pinked her pale skin. She slipped her hand in his and rose to her tiptoes to kiss his cheek. “You’re not so bad either.” She traced the muscles on his chest.

Peder let out a sharp breath as need sizzled across his flesh. He was used to females wanting him, but this new sensation—his own desires—flared at her slightest touch.

She strolled across the sandy floor of the den toward a large cave on the other side of the entrance.

He’d been there before as a prisoner, but they’d snuck him in blindfolded and housed him in a room away from everyone so he hadn’t seen the den clearly. The top of the mountain was gone and let in sunlight. Wooden stairs were built along the inner walls of the hollow mountain, leading to other levels of caves carved out of the stone. Swinging bridges crisscrossed the gaps overhead to connect all the sides. He grinned. It was huge and housed so many shifters.

A group of hunters, also bearing the evidence of recent fighting, strode out of the large cave entrance where Kele walked. They stopped at the sight of her. One of the females hobbled on crutches with a solid splint around her leg.

Kele waved Peder over.

He took one more glance at the open sky before joining them.

“Kele!” The female hugged her close. “You wouldn’t guess how happy I am for your return.” The hunter turned a questioning gaze upon him.

Kele set her hand possessively on his arm. “This is Peder, my mate.” Those words sent a wave of warmth through his body and washed away any uncertainty of his decision to follow her home. He rewarded her with a quick peck on the lips. She cleared her throat and gave him shy smile, but didn’t reprimand him for his open affection. “Peder, this is Tegrathe. She’s the top female hunter.”

“When no one returned from the mating ceremony, we sent hunters. They reported that someone had taken you and the others who were missing. Sorin had ordered Ahote and Benic to rescue everyone. The others returned a few days ago. They told us of the slavers.”

Kele nodded. “Good. Benic told me he’d purchased them and sent them home. Peder and I were separated from the others. It took Benic more time to free us.”

Ahote cleared his throat and raised his eyebrow at Kele.

“And Ahote.” She grinned.

Tegrathe eyed Peder closer and inhaled. Her attention snapped to Kele. “By the dark Goddess, you mated an Apisi? Did the slavers hit your head too hard?”

Kele’s grip on his arm tightened.

“Kele! Peder!” A male voice shouted from across the den.

Peder startled as his name filled the uncomfortable silence.

The male seemed familiar as he jogged over. He hugged Kele hard. “I’m glad to hear of your escape.” The stranger slapped him on the shoulder. “And yours.”

Peder finally placed his face. He’d been a hunter taken with them by the slavers. He couldn’t recall his name. There had been so many in the compound.

“Were you harmed?” The hunter’s voice grew more serious. “I’ve been asking Tegrathe to let me return with others to kill Timothy.”

“He’s dead.” Peder went still as he recalled Timothy’s sightless stare. “I killed him.” It hadn’t been a pretty death, either.

“Kele is mated to Peder.” Tegrathe watched them with interest.

“I’m not surprised.” He set his hand on Peder’s shoulder with a familiarity saved for packmates. “Not after the way he took that beating for Kele.” He shook his head solemnly as if recalling that day. “Kele’s made a good choice.”

Kele leaned against Peder. “We’ll be entering the alpha challenges.”

The male blinked and searched Peder’s face then glanced at the other hunters. The Payami shifters’ expressions questioned the hunter. Peder could only assume it was because their packmate was the only one among them who had known Peder as a slave.

Peder braced for attack. He wasn’t sure by whom, but this moment would set the tone to the pack’s judgment, and his kind was known for attacking first then asking questions later.

“Peder…” The male swallowed visibly. “I’m honored. You didn’t seem to savor leading us when it was forced on you.”

“I didn’t.”

It was the wrong answer. He could tell when Kele let her hand fall from his arm, but it was honest. He would not start this journey by lying.

The hunter straightened his shoulders as if coming to a decision before kneeling at Peder’s feet and pressing his face to them. “I would follow you.”

His heart hammered even faster. He almost jumped away at his touch. In the slave compound, some of the shifters had touched his feet with their hands in submission after he’d won his first challenge but this hunter was claiming him as his alpha in front of his fellow packmates. Would that be enough for them to accept him as pack? He doubted it. He wouldn’t have accepted a stranger so easily.

Tegrathe’s eyes narrowed as the hunter rose and stood at his side. Peder could sense she wanted to pace but her injury kept her still. Her nostrils flared. “My leg keeps me from fighting.” She glanced at Kele. “Thanks for that.”

Kele chuckled. “You are my strongest competition. I won’t apologize for what I did.”

“You broke her leg?” Peder asked.

“The day before I left to meet Nahuel, we fought a challenge for dominance. Tegrathe won though.” Kele grimaced. “Like I said, you’ll have your chance to try again once you’re healed.”

Tegrathe shook her head. “I learned a lesson that day. Sometimes one doesn’t have to die or kill to show dominance. You could have killed me but chose mercy instead.” Unsteadily, she used her crutches to kneel with a scowl of pain and touched Kele’s feet with her hands. “You are the only female I would choose to follow.” When she tried to rise to her feet, Peder reached to help. She swatted his hand. “You still have to prove yourself to me.”

He grinned. She reminded him of Lailanie, a hunter in his pack. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

Kele led him into the empty pack gathering room and sat at a table. Not long after an omega female appeared with a tray of food and drink. Without a word, she deposited it in front of them and left.

That was him not long ago.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen it so quiet in here.” Ahote joined them in their meal. “It’s eerie.”

“You don’t need to keep following us.” Kele handed him a plate.

“Yes, I do. The more support is shown of your mating, the better the others will accept him.” He nodded toward Peder. “I sent Gongi to speak with the other two hunters he’d been held captive with.”

Peder assumed Gongi was the hunter who’d just claimed him. A few hunters wandered into the room and sat a few tables over. They watched him and Kele in silence, which did terrible things to his appetite.

“You should remain here and speak to anyone who wishes to question you. When I’m done eating, I’ll go find out where the pack is in challenges and find out how many couples you have to beat.” Ahote shoveled his food into his mouth.

“I’m still not sure why you support me.” Peder picked at his meal.

“Being alpha isn’t about muscles, otherwise I’d be alpha. It’s about heart and head.” He pointed to both body parts. “I followed Kele’s father long enough to know he never had to step in a challenge ring to remind us he was alpha. Respect goes a long way in a pack. While I traveled with Benic, I had lots of time to think and realize that I didn’t want to follow any of our males. I feared what would become of our pack.” He pointed at them with his fork. “You two. You’re smart and you’ve got good hearts. You care about us.” He encompassed the shifters in the room. “That I respect and would follow.”

Kele wiped gravy from Ahote’s chin with a cloth napkin. “When did you get so smart?”

“Don’t say that too loud. I don’t want rumors spreading.” He winked at Peder.

Watching Peder among her pack warmed a part of Kele’s heart she hadn’t realized was cold. She leaned forward and rested her chin on her hand.

As they ate, more and more of the pack trickled into the gathering room until it was filled like when her parents lived.

Peder appeared comfortable speaking with whoever came to their table to chat. His disarming smile and open manner won over many of her pack from pups to elders, hunters to omegas. Maybe everything would be all right.