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.
Chapter Four
Peder stared at the stone ceiling of the omegas’ quarters. The comforting sound of the others breathing or
snoring didn’t ease him into sleep as usual. The ache in his chest wouldn’t let him rest. He should have pursued Kele like a hunter instead of waiting on his heels as an omega, but it was difficult breaking one’s nature.
He glanced at the sleeping others. Was it really his nature, though? Who in this room trained with the alpha? Had any of them left the safety of the den without hunters? None had spent two days in the Payami den. Maybe he’d been born a hunter. No one would ever know. Too many terrible things had happened to the Apisi, molding them into something warped and broken. The next generation of their pups, like Susan and Sorin’s, would grow to be fine shifters.
If only he’d been born now. Without the constant struggle to survive, maybe he could have grown into someone he’d be proud of.
Who knew? These nighttime musings would probably fade into the shadows with the morning light, except the fact remained that he was unhappy. His parents had passed away when he’d been a pup and the pack had raised him, so in moments of deep doubt, he didn’t have anyone to confide in.
He rolled over and punched his thin pillow into a better shape. Why bother trying to sleep? It would be dawn soon. He growled at the wall. Kele would be mated by the afternoon. Would she choose to stay with this hunter after their first pup?
“Peder, go walk it off. Some of us are trying to sleep,” one of his fellow male omegas whispered across the room.
With heavy limbs, he rose to his feet and gathered his clothes. How would he survive the day?
Out in the canyon, the air still held some of winter’s bite. He had his leather kilt untangled from his worn sweater when a dark, heavy shadow moved at the far end of the canyon by the den’s only gate. Peder dropped his clothes and crouched low, scanned the top of the walls for the hunters guarding their home, but saw no one.
He melted into the shadow and shifted to feral form. If this turned out to be some animal, he’d never stop hearing about it from the hunters. Whatever he’d seen had either gone very still or left, since he couldn’t make out any shape from this distance or scent their presence. Moving as Sorin had taught him, he crept close to the ground and kept to the darkest parts of the night.
As he drew near the door, an itch developed between his shoulder blades as if something hung close to touching him. He spun around and, upon seeing the familiar face, clamped his muzzle shut before he howled in relief.
Sorin stood behind him in civil form, grinning like a fool. “You did well.”
Peder leaned against the canyon wall, panting. It took all his strength to keep his knees from knocking. “There are kinder ways of killing me than this. What are you doing awake?”
“Waiting for you.” Sorin returned to the spot by the gate where Peder had first seen the shadows move. “Took you long enough.”
“What do you mean?”
“Aren’t you going after Kele?”
He hadn’t planned on it, but since Sorin mentioned it, that seemed like a fine idea. “How would I sneak into her den to grab her?”
Sorin leaned his chin in hand. “You’ve no idea what to do.”
Peder fell to his knees. “Of course I don’t. I’m so fucking confused. She stopped answering my letters months ago. I might just make a fool of myself.”
“And?”
He jerked as if struck by the question. “And I don’t want to?”
Sorin smacked him across the forehead hard enough to make the den spin. “Stop being an ass. If you want the female, you have to challenge the hunter.”
“Oh, is that all?” Peder couldn’t withhold his sarcasm, not after his bellyaching all night.
“You can do this. The worst that will happen is he’ll win and take her as a mate. That’s going to happen anyway if you stay home and hide.”
“I’m not hiding.” He snapped his teeth at his alpha before his civil mind restrained his feral instincts. Falling to his stomach, he touched Sorin’s foot. “I’m sorry, Alpha. I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”
Sorin petted his furred head. “First, you’re in feral form within the den. That never ends well. Second, you’re young and in love. That rarely ends well either.” He tapped Peder’s shoulder for him to sit up. “I’ve taught you everything you need to know about fighting challenges. The only thing left for you to do is to have the courage to enter a ring.”
The alpha’s words clicked inside Peder’s head as if they were a missing piece of a puzzle. Courage. He’d never lacked it before, not even when faced with a castle filled with vampires. What he lacked was confidence. No one would hand that to him on a silver platter.
He’d fight for Kele if she loved him or not. If he won, he’d give her the choice of mates. He wouldn’t force her, but at least he could enjoy her rejection face-to-face. He shook the thought from his mind. It wasn’t what he wanted. If he lost, he’d crawl back home and lick his wounds, but he could be proud. He also had plenty of lovers who’d pamper him back to health, but he didn’t want that anymore either.
He wanted a mate, a true match to bear his young and stand at his side with pride. Not some shifter who just fancied his pretty fur and face. Kele saw past all that. At least, he thought she did.
He rubbed his sore head. If he kept thinking about this, he’d go mad. “I’m going.”
Sorin slapped him on the shoulder. “Good. Susan will be furious with me for letting you go, but she doesn’t understand our ways.”
Peder laughed. “You’ve more courage than the rest of us.”
“You do too. If you doubt stepping into the ring, remember this: Kele couldn’t find a better mate than you.”
He nodded and took a deep breath as the tense muscles in his chest relaxed. For the first time since they’d left Temple lands, he felt settled. This was the right thing to do. He gathered his clothes before tossing them into a pack, which he slung over his back.
Sorin opened the gate. “Beat him to the ground,” were his parting words as Peder raced out into the forest.
Pale coral of dawn light outlined the mountain tops as he climbed the pass leading to Temple lands. He’d arrive before the mating parties and rest. Maybe even wash in a stream. He’d stand tall in the center of the Temple until both packs arrived. It was easier if he pretended to act like a hunter than to truly think he was one. With enough practice, maybe one day those lines would blur.
The sun hung just above the horizon, blazing with a hint of summer, as Peder descended the mountain. He turned around a sharp corner of the trail and stumbled upon a band of males. Digging his claws in the dirt, he came to a sudden halt. The wind blew in the wrong direction for him to have scented these vampires. No one should be on this part of the pass. It was still Apisi land.
Had Benic finally decided to kill him off? It seemed too cowardly for the vampire; he would prefer to sink his blade in Peder’s back personally. Besides, these bloodsuckers didn’t wear Benic’s colors.
They drew their weapons.
He backed away. “You’re on Apisi pack land.”
One of them laughed. “Shifters don’t own land. This is Lord Benic’s forest last I heard.” He spoke with a thick lilting accent.
“You’re not from his castle.” The cliff walls on each side of him were too steep to run and if he climbed, the vampires with bows would find him a fine target.
“No, we’re not.” The leader chuckled. “And you have rather pretty fur.”
His men fanned out around him.
Peder’s racing heart stopped. They wanted his fur? He scrambled backward but the loose soil under his claws made it difficult to gain any distance. Panic didn’t help either. Shifters were stronger than vampires, but there were four of them and only one of him. What were they going to do with his fur?
“Easy, mate. We ain’t going to hurt you,” one of the closer bloodsuckers said. “We’ll get a fine bag of gold for this one.”
Peder rose on his hind legs and snarled like Sorin had taught him. His fur stood on end along his spine.
“Don’t let him
escape,” shouted a vampire as he pulled a blowgun from his belt.
Peder swiped his claws at the vamp that wanted him for gold. Something stung his neck. He clapped a hand over the spot and pulled out a thin dart.
Dog shit, not again. His knees turned to water and he kissed dirt.
Kele ran her fingers over the fine blue and white beadwork that formed a white wolf on her dress. “This must have taken forever to do.” So much fuss for a simple mating. Her parents weren’t known for their modesty. Everything had to be on a grand scale, including her mating day.
Mother hadn’t even let her do her own hair.
She stood behind Kele, brushing out the knots. “Don’t you dare drop your gaze when you meet him. Never let your mate think you’re submissive in any way or he’ll wander.”
At this point, she didn’t care if he wandered as long as he was discreet. “Does this hunter have a name?”
“Nahuel.”
“That’s pretty.”
Mother made a rude noise. “Your father picked him. I hope we don’t have another Ahote on our hands. That one is enough trouble as is.”
“He could use a little competition.”
She cuffed Kele across the head.
“Ow.”
“Kele, you keep a rein on your male, otherwise I’ll castrate him.”
“I’ll be sure to add that to my mating vows.” She grimaced as her mother tugged the brush through her hair with unnecessary roughness. After tonight, she’d no longer be a virgin. She wasn’t sure if she should admit this to her future mate or not. Would he be able to tell? Her lack of experience would probably be evident. She should have taken advantage of Peder when the opportunity arose but being an omega, he would have only viewed her the same as all his other lovers. She’d wanted something different for both of them and just didn’t know how to go about it. Looking back, she realized how unfair it was of her to expect an omega male to act like a hunter.
Too many mistakes and no time to correct them.
Mother finished braiding her hair. “Let me help you with the dress.”
Kele eyed her. When had she become so helpful?
Scent of Valor (Chronicles of Eorthe #2) Page 3