Scent of Valor (Chronicles of Eorthe #2)
vampire yoke so long they don’t remember their own cultures. Many have come here looking for space. Not all are wolf shifters either. The last caravan had some female cat shifters from Afrika. Lion, I think. Kicked a couple of my hunters’ asses.” He chuckled and elbowed Peder in a knowing way.
    For once, he was actually naïve to what Nahuel hinted at. He’d never been with anyone but wild wolf shifters. Peder hadn’t even met a domesticated shifter until breaching Benic’s castle and he hadn’t stayed long.
    Did cat shifters live in packs like wolves?
    The sun had passed its zenith, but they would enter the city before sunset. This was good. He could study the buildings closer. Running within a city should be comparable to the tight woods of his valley home. One needed a good path to keep from getting lost.
    He squeezed Kele’s hand. “We can’t afford to be separated.” They needed to escape before that happened.
    Nahuel leaned forward and sniffed at his fur. “Apisi?” His gaze strayed to Kele. “Why did you agree to our mating if you’ve given him your heart?”
    Peder dropped her hand as if stung. “Her heart doesn’t belong to me.”
    “Then why do you keep touching her like it does?”
    “Nahuel, this isn’t the time or place for this.” Kele sounded exhausted, her voice quiet and sad. “And Peder, stop playing games. My soul aches too much for such things.”
    The hunter tilted his head as if waiting for Peder’s answer.
    He shrugged. Peder understood females as well as the next male. “I haven’t the heart to play games either.” Shifting his hips, he faced Kele. “You agreed to mate him. Not me.”
    She turned her back on them both. “I did only after you stopped writing me.”
    Nahuel snorted in disgust. He returned to his spot in the cage. “We’re here.”
    “Wait.” Peder held up a claw to Kele and twisted to face Nahuel. “What?”
    He pointed over his shoulder.
    The road continued into the city and had grown more crowded. People paused to peer into the cage and some pups ran alongside, calling out to each other about the wild shifters arriving.
    Peder stared at the city folk, all thoughts of studying their path forgotten. Some of these shifters stared back, a blank, forlorn look in their eyes. Their threadbare clothes barely covered their civil flesh. A few didn’t even have boots and tread the street barefoot. His gaze wandered to the brands on the backs of their hands. Their future watched them pass, a warning of things to come.
    His heart thudded so loud in his ears he didn’t hear Kele call his name until Nahuel poked his side.
    She knelt by the bars separating the cage, her chained hand reaching toward him. “As soon as they open the door we should fight. The three of us together have a chance.”
    Peder shook his head. “Our ankles are bound. How far do you think we can run before they ride us down or dart us once more? Do you want to end up like that omega female that is missing today?”
    She blinked and searched the other females on her side of the cage. Kele hadn’t noticed the female missing. Why would she? Omegas were low in pack hierarchy, shadows in comparison to the hunters. The missing female had acted like an omega. They weren’t very good at denying people anything. He knew firsthand.
    Yet when ordered to shift Peder had denied the vampire leader. Six months ago he wouldn’t have been able to say no. He would like to claim his denial came from his growing courage, but honestly he’d been so focused on Kele’s well-being that it hadn’t occurred to him to comply to anyone’s demands but hers.
    “Then what do you suggest?” Nahuel asked.
    “Stick together. Build the vampire trust until they take these shackles off us. Then we take the first chance to run.”
    “Trust?” He spat out the question.
    “The more you act like an animal, the more they’ll treat you like one. I’m not asking you to cower. Just don’t…bite.” Peder meet

Similar Books

Green Grass

Raffaella Barker

After the Fall

Morgan O'Neill

The Detachment

Barry Eisler

Executive Perks

Angela Claire

The Wedding Tree

Robin Wells

Kiss and Cry

Ramona Lipson

Cadet 3

Commander James Bondage

The Next Best Thing

Jennifer Weiner