Chapter Eleven
Sorin shook his mane and let it settle around his shoulders. Once he’d caught his breath after his climb with Susan, he had continued his journey home. Unlike the Payami’s, the Apisi den lay at the other end of his land from the Temple border. He had to cross through a mountain pass to reach it. Thank what little luck he owned that it wasn’t winter.
Rolling his head, he tried stretching the kink out of his neck. Susan’s added weight had placed quite a strain on his already overtaxed body. Lack of sleep and food had left him drained prior to the Payami guards beating him, but every moment away from his sick pack sat heavier on his soul and drove him to keep moving.
After cresting the pass, Sorin paused for another rest. He sat on his haunches. Pinks and corals colored the sky as the sun began to set. The black outline of the branches from the forest rose in worship as Sorin took a sparse minute to rest and appreciate the view before descending the mountain pass to his den.
“There’s water.” He pointed to the mountain wall, where a well-known spring leaked out the side and trickled into a stream not far away. “We’ll rest here for a moment.”
Susan seized handfuls of his fur and pressed against him as if she were growing to his spine. The scent of her fear filled his nose. She tried to control it. He could tell by the way it fluctuated, but it had been growing worse the higher they climbed.
“Let go.” He twitched the muscles on his back and slid her toward his hips. “I’d like to keep my fur attached to my skin.”
With a gasp, she climbed back up. “Stop that. You’re going to drop me.”
“To the ground? Yes. It’s not like we’re hanging off the cliff, Susan. It’s just a pass.” He grinned as her fists tightened in his fur. Definitely not the spirit of an omega in this one—it would take a strong hunter to tame her.
“I’d hate to see your version of a mountainside.” The sweet scent of her sweat coated his nose. It mixed with Ahote’s mark and soured his stomach. The thought of that male touching his strong and innocent Susan raised his hackles. If he ever crossed path with Ahote again, there’d be blood.
He let her press to his back and strode to the spring. Careful not to allow her to pull any chunks from his hide, he reached behind him and pried her hand from his fur.
“What are you doing?” Her voice rose.
“Washing this mark off.” He leaned forward so the water could pour over her wrist and rubbed the area with his thumb. It didn’t take much work. The oily substance of Ahote’s temporary mark washed away easily. That would be the last time he’d ever allow Ahote anywhere near her.
Wind dried her skin quickly, and he brought her delicate wrist to the glands under his jaw by his ear. He’d never marked a female before. Something in his stomach fluttered. Technically, she’d belong to him. He glanced over his shoulder and met her big, brown eyes. Rubbing her soft skin over the gland, he scent marked her. No hunter would proposition her while she wore this.
That would be good. He didn’t want to watch his hunters courting her. It would lead to bloodshed. “There. You belong to me now.”
She tried to withdraw her hand but he wouldn’t let go. “Stop it.” She wrapped her legs around him even tighter as he tried to coax her off his back again. Dark Moon, when was the last time any female had clung to him like this?
“Let go of me.” He laughed as he tried to dislodge her. “You’re like a leech. Get off. I’m holding onto you.” The laugh cleared his head and eased some of his pain.
“No.” She buried her face in his fur. “I’m fine right where I am.”
Until now he hadn’t really noticed how lithe her body felt against his. He needed a rest from her touch before he did something stupid, like claim her. Once they reached his den he’d have to soak in the cold river and forget Susan. “Goddess, save me from stubborn fools.” He bent forward and grabbed both her arms. With one sharp yank, he pulled her free.
Like the parasite he’d named her, she wrapped her limbs around his arm as he set her feet on the ground.
He stroked her long, tangled hair before guiding her in front of him then turned her to face his valley. “I’ve got you, little leech. Relax.” He glanced at her face to experience her first reaction to his beautiful home and let out a frustrated snarl. “Open your eyes and look at the view.”
It took all Susan’s courage to do as he asked. The climb had been the last straw. After the last twenty-four hours she’d finally unhinged. Sorin’s presence was the only thing keeping her sanity intact. She cracked open her eyes.
For once the height of where she stood did not flood her senses. Instead the view held her in rapture. A small, emerald-green forest covered the valley snuggled between the mountains. Sun gleamed off the snow of the highest peaks, and a lazy river cut through the trees.
“My den lies east of the river where it bends close to the mountains. Hot springs feed the river from there.” He turned his head so she could see his feral profile. Bestial in appearance, yet the longing on his face was very civil.
“Do you live in a volcano like the Payami?”
“No, my people aren’t crazy. We live in a small canyon.” He continued to pet her head in slow, soothing strokes, his deep voice a coat of honey on her frayed nerves.
A flock of birds took flight over the isolated valley. Susan had never seen anything so surreal, and her adventures on Eorthe were just beginning.
Sorin sighed. “Home.” The word sounded so wistful. Without warning, he swung her around onto his back again and grunted as she resumed her death grip.
“I wish you’d stop tossing me around.”
“I’m alpha. I do as I please.” He gave her a hard look. “That might be the hardest lesson you’re going to have to learn.”
She swallowed with difficulty. Sometimes it didn’t pay to be weak. Her whole life she’d focused on studying, not working out. Brains over brawn only applied in a modern world.
The trip downhill went by in flashes of rocky slopes that transformed to brushes and eventually trees. Sorin was so attuned to his land he virtually soared over the ground. If they followed a path, she couldn’t see it. Through the trunks, she glimpsed the river. They followed as it curved to the right toward the mountain’s edge until they reached a massive, wooden gate that blocked the way into a canyon.
Weathered, ancient doors sloped outward, making it a difficult climb and easy to defend. As they drew closer, Susan noticed every inch was carved. Faces of feral beasts covered one door and smiling, civil faces decorated the other. The detail was so lifelike, she ached to touch them. “Beautiful.”
“My grandfather’s father spent his life making these doors. Every member of the pack at that time is on there.”
“A little piece of history.”
He paused by them. “They represent our duality.”
“The yin and the yang.” Maybe their worlds weren’t so different after all.
“What?”
“My people have a philosophy about how contrary forces are interconnected and interdependent.” She hooked her fingers together. “The good and the bad make a whole.”
“The feral and the civil? Interesting.”
The doors opened outward, just enough for them to squeeze through before they closed again.
Slipping off Sorin’s back, Susan glanced around the canyon. A single dirt avenue stretched in front of her. Caves lined the stone walls. No multiple staircases or balconies like the Payami den.
Simple and clean, it reminded her of her home—the small, sparse apartment she’d kept. Like her home, this place was empty of people.
Sorin meandered over as he pulled a shirt over his head. He’d shifted to his civil form and already wore a leather kilt. His hair matched the color of his fur, silver-gray and silky, but grew past his shoulders in tangles, almost to his hips. Firm jaw and a crooked nose, as if it had been broken a few times. He was smaller than the beast but still big enough to twist her into a pretzel and dip her in chocolate.
The idea of him licking it off her sent a burning flush to her cheeks. She twisted away from him. “Where is everyone?” The silence in the canyon echoed with forgotten laughter. The contrast this den had to the life-filled Payami home sent cold dread into Susan’s stomach.
Sorin pointed to the largest of the caves. “Most of my pack is in there.”