Free A Feast of Souls: Araneae Nation, Book 2 by Hailey Edwards Page A

from the fire toward the milling Theridiidae, the guard left us alone.
    “I’ve never seen a canis act so…domesticated.” Vaughn lifted his head, nostrils flaring. “There are more of the animals, wild ones, following us. It’s the same pack we heard in the forest before the Theridiidae released their beasts.” He leaned a fraction closer. “This one smells like them too.”
    “What does that mean?” No wild canis would behave this way unless… I gulped. “You don’t think it’s been infected, do you? The closer we get to the veil, the warmer the weather and the more likely we are to encounter the plague.” I wiggled my toes, willing the canis get off, get off .
    “I don’t think it’s sick. Animals infected by the yellow death smell rotted, even while alive.” His nostrils flared once more. “This one smells wilder than the others. I’m interested to see what the hunt master makes of him.” He bent low and inhaled. “The beast smells familiar somehow.”
    I wrinkled my nose. He smelled of wet hair and fetid breath to me.
    “Eh, is this him then?” A brawny male swaggered toward us. “Rangy thing he is.”
    “He won’t leave the female’s side,” the guard supplied. “Take your mutt and go.”
    Scratching his cheek, the hunt master said, “He’s not mine. Not part of my pack.”
    “Who else’s would he be?” The guard scoffed. “You’re not saying he’s wild?”
    The hunt master spat a guttural command at the canis who flicked his ears and shut his eyes.
    “See that? Didn’t so much as bat an eye.” He waved a hand. “Get my bow. I’ll handle this.”
    Regret stirred behind my heart, but fear of the plague kept me from interfering. Early stages of the illness made infected animals act peculiar long before the yellow death made its body rot.
    I witnessed that firsthand when the plague came to Beltania.
    The guard arrived with a bow, his arrow notched. The canis yipped, bolting into the woods.
    “Clever beast.” The hunt master glanced from the forest to me. “Too clever.” He slapped the guard’s shoulder. “I’d keep an eye on the female if I were you. I heard she does tricks. If she can bespell canis, Torrance will have to intervene. You’d have to be deaf to miss the pack trailing us like babes following their mother.” His eyes cut to the woods. “Or their alpha. It’s not natural.”
    From the corner of my eye, I glimpsed a flash of yellow eyes amid the deepening shadows.
    The hunt master was right. This wasn’t natural at all.
     
     
    Howls raised chills along my arms. When firelight reflected a pair of golden eyes at the edge of the forest, I shifted nearer to Vaughn. He glanced up, his eyes warmed by some emotion, there and gone before I could name it. Ah yes. So like the canis I had compared to his prowess. I jerked my chin toward the tree line. “He’s still out there.”
    “He’s marking as he goes, claiming new territory.” He inhaled, scrunching up his face. “Or I suppose he might be leaving a trail for his pack to follow. I’ll admit, despite the family crest, I’m woefully uneducated in the habits of canis. They were native to Cathis once, but not any longer.”
    “Your family’s crest, the Mimetidae clan head’s crest, is a canis?” How fitting an emblem.
    “You sound surprised.” His brow creased. “Canis embody things prized by my father and forefathers: loyalty, ferocity, intelligence. Father had a breeding pair and spoke of repopulation.”
    “I never knew that about Brynmor.” Granted, my knowledge of him was limited and tainted by the grief he had dealt my family, the calculated murder of my uncle, Rhys’s father, Kowatsi.
    “Few did.” He grinned. “He told all those who asked that he bred them for their flavor.”
    I returned his smile, because it was easy and fond, and because I cherished similar memories of my own father. Exhaling past the old pain, I reminded myself my parents had enjoyed long and happy lives. They had