Chapter Thirty-Eight
Peder sat by the dead fire pit and poked a stick into the ashes as he watched Kele dress. She had the finest set of tits, a perfect handful, firm and perky. Oddly, unlike most females, Kele seemed completely unaware of exactly how beautiful she was. She didn’t even preen for him. The dress she wore was of vampire fashion, something she’d carried from New Berg. As soon as they were back in his den, they’d burn it.
Rising to his feet, he dropped the stick on the cold ashes then kicked dirt on top. One couldn’t be too safe when it came to fires in the forest. Their coals seemed quite finished.
Kele struggled with a tie at the back of her dress.
“Let me.” He took the delicate strings from her hands and tied them for her. How nice it would be to watch her dress every morning as she wore his scent. He brought her marked wrist to his lips and kissed it. Seemed like fate that she’d be the one to wear it since he’d been her first lover. Her only lover, if he had anything to do with it. He would let her get away with a temporary mark for now. He had wanted to give her time to make sure she truly loved him before making the mark more permanent.
He’d seen the disappointment in her face last night but even though they were of the same age, her soul was much younger than his. Peder was her first. She knew nothing of love or romance. How could he be sure what she felt was real? He wouldn’t place a permanent mark on her and tie her to him forever only for her to realize what she felt for him was lust and not love. He couldn’t bear such an empty mating. He’d already endured pairings like that all his life. He wanted more.
The sunlight kissed the horizon in a pink dawn and he heard the Apisi stirring in the other camp. He swept the hair off Kele’s neck and kissed her nape, lingering there with her in his arms.
She sighed and leaned against him. It was such a satisfied sound.
“Come, let me introduce you to the hunters.” He took her by the hand. Neither of them had been anxious to shift to feral form yet. Touching in civil form was more intimate.
Sorin stretched by the fire in feral form. “If this damn portal doesn’t show today, I’m heading back home.”
“I’m surprised you left Susan’s side.” Peder set his arm around Kele’s waist, making it clear to others who she belonged to.
The alpha rolled his eyes. “I’m not here by choice. She wouldn’t rest unless she or I was here to ensure success.”
Peder grinned. “You caught her sneaking out of the den, didn’t you?”
Sorin snarled. “She’s impossible once she gets an idea in her head.” He eyed him. “You seem more centered today, more collected.”
He glanced away from Sorin, painful memories creeping back. “It was a tough journey.”
Sorin set his large clawed hands on his shoulders. “It’s good to see.” He pulled Peder into a fierce hug.
Some of the hunters chuckled. “Thank the Goddess you’re home, Peder. He can finally stop pacing the den at night and keeping everyone awake,” Vendu, the Apisi hunter, called out.
Peder slapped Sorin on the back and pulled away. There was a time when he sought such affection. He no longer needed his alpha’s strength. He’d found his own.
“How will you send a message to Susan’s people?” Kele never seemed intimidated by bigger hunters. Peder admired how she oozed confidence. It wasn’t an easy skill. He learned that the hard way in the slaver cage.
One of the hunters tossed a cloth-wrapped ball at him. “A note written by Susan is wrapped around this stone. We’re supposed to toss it through the portal.”
He held the message. “This was my idea.”
“It’s simple and brilliant.” Kele rested her hand upon his.
Her praise warmed his heart. “Where did Susan calculate the portal would open?”
Sorin spread his arms. “Here. Anytime in the last three days.”
“I can wait in your place, Sorin,” Peder offered.
All of the hunters grew very still, a few even folded their ears. He’d called him by name in public by accident. It was disrespectful unless he considered his alpha an equal, but Sorin had always encouraged him to use his name in private. Why?
Unless, in his heart, Sorin had known there was more to him and that they really were equal.
Peder could cower and ask forgiveness. Sorin would grant it without a second thought, but Peder was done crawling on his belly. Instead, he met his alpha’s gaze directly in almost a challenge. His heart, which had just basked in Kele’s praise, sank hard and fast as it dawned on him that his place in his pack would change. What would he do when he arrived home? Challenge the other hunters one by one and climb pack hierarchy? That thought didn’t give him any joy.
Turning his back on Sorin, he strode away from the camp before he did something stupid that he would regret. Timothy had fractured the peace Peder had found once his old alpha had died. He needed time to heal and rediscover who he was.
“Peder, wait.” Kele ran after him. She grabbed his free hand since the other one still held Susan’s message. He’d better return it to Sorin. “That was very courageous, what you just tried.”
He shook his head. “No courage was needed. It was stupid.” He leaned against a tree and closed his eyes. “I’m very confused. All my instincts are skewed. For the last few days, all I did was fight to stay alive and I can’t seem to let go of that urge. It rubs me the wrong way that my packmates can’t see the change. That it’s somehow not visible to them.”
She ran her hands down his back in slow strokes. “I see it.”
He twisted to face her, leaning his back against the trunk. “Do you?”
“I think I see it more than you do.” She grinned. “You’ve found your inner hunter, Peder.”
He smirked. “I hadn’t realized I’d lost it. I’ve always been omega.”
“Your old alpha was a tyrant. Did it ever occur to anyone in your pack that maybe he beat you into being omega? I saw the hunter in you the day we met, Peder.”
He blinked slowly. Beaten into submission enough as child, he could have lost his way. “Sorin—” He cleared his throat. It had suddenly gone very dry. “He always pushed me to do more. He doesn’t do that with the other omegas. Maybe he saw it too.”
She looked back at the camp in the distance. Sorin stood at the edge as if waiting for Peder’s return. “He didn’t attack you when you called him by name. He’s not tracking you down to remind you of your place within the pack. I think he knows.”
“Maybe, on some level.” Sorin was many things, but introspective wasn’t one of them. He might have sensed something about him, but Peder doubted he knew what.
A halo of light lit up the right side of Kele’s face and her hair took on a bluish hue. She shielded her eyes and pointed.
Peder grinned and waved at Sorin.
He nodded. “Toss it in,” he shouted.
Facing the bright light of the portal, he squinted as he took aim, then threw the message-covered rock into it. He hoped Susan’s people received her warning. If she was right, then the portal would be moving out of their forest and protection soon.
The message vanished.
Kele stared at the portal. “This is the first time I’ve seen it close.”
“Me too.”
“I wonder what it’s like on the other side.”
“From Susan’s stories, I doubt we’d like it. Actually, I think it would be like New Berg, but worse.”
She clung to his arm. “Poor Susan. I’m glad she escaped it.”
The portal flickered then disappeared as quickly as it had appeared.
“Will you come home with me, Kele?”
She spun around. “I had just assumed you were coming home with me.”
He raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms. “Because I was omega and would do whatever you wished? That my life within my den means less than yours?”
Her scowl grew darker. “That’s not fair. My pack is alphaless. I have to go home, Peder.”
“Oh.” He rubbed his forehead as his cheeks burned. He’d forgotten about the death of her parents. He’d been orphaned at a young age and didn’t remember his parents’ love so he found it difficult to relate. “I’m sorry. You should attend their burial. I didn’t mean to sound so heartless.”
She looked away and blinked rapidly. “I’m sure they’ve been buried already. I’m returning to become alpha and lead my people.”
“You’re going to fight in the challenges? Haven’t they already happened?” Kele as alpha? He could picture her in this role. She’d be a strong and just leader, if a little naïve.
“No, Ahote told me Sorin ordered a week’s time mourning before the challenges can begin. That means they’ve just begun.”
“You can’t go into a challenge by yourself. You’re supposed to have…” A mate. His eyes went so wide they ached. “Me?”
“Yes.”
He stared at Sorin in the distance. His return to the Apisi would be no less of a challenge. He did not fit anywhere and would have to start fresh, no matter where he went.
She rested her head against his arm. “I believe in you.”
“I don’t know why.”
Vendu came into his view and stood next to Sorin. “Nice toss, Peder. Hurry up, we want to go home. We need you to clean camp.”
He ground his teeth. “Clean your own damn camp.” It shot from his mouth before he’d processed the thought.
The hunters all glanced at each other, ears folded down.
Sorin bent his head toward them as if saying something. The hunters gathered their own things.
Peder let out a breath he didn’t realize he’d been holding. Obviously, he couldn’t follow someone else’s orders anymore. He’d been doing things his way and it had been working. He kept the peace in the slave compound. He’d protected Kele. He’d got her out.
Was he going rogue?
No, if that were the case, he wouldn’t want to be around her either. Heck, even Ahote didn’t rub him the wrong way like the hunters of his pack. Then again, Ahote had been following his lead since New Berg and didn’t treat him like an omega. “What will happen to us if we lose?” Peder asked.
“We die.”
“Kele…”
“Peder, I spent the last few days watching you face slavers and vampires and other hunters. You’ve been just and fierce and loving.” She came around in front of him, cradling his face in her hands, forcing him to meet her clear blue eyes. “You are everything an alpha should be and I’d be proud to die at your side. This is the right thing to do. My pack grew strong under my parents’ lead. I have to do this. I have to continue their legacy. Together we could do anything.”
He could heal the rift between his pack and hers. Maybe even with the Yaundeeshaw, after he told them of his bond to Nahuel. Most importantly, he could keep Kele as his mate.
They’d been through so much together. He didn’t doubt her affection for him anymore. If she only lusted after him, she wouldn’t have asked him to fight with her as a potential alpha.
He could have a family.
Those kind of dreams had been dashed so long ago he’d forgotten them. A mate, pups, a family cave where they could raise them within a strong pack. These things were worth fighting for.
“I’ll do it.”
The most precious smile bloomed on her lips. She clapped her hands and bounced. He’d never seen her so happy or act so young.
With a heart filled with light, he lifted her in his arms and swung her around. All the pain and suffering weighing down his soul faded at the sound of her laugh. She was his future.
He didn’t hear Sorin’s approach until his shadow loomed around them. The hunters gathered behind him, their bags filled and on their backs. Sorin set his hands on his hips, a very civil gesture that looked odd on him in feral form. “What’s going on, Peder?” His ears were folded to the side and the scent of his anxiety filled the air.
“I’m returning with Kele to her pack.”
Ahote paced around them until he stood by Peder’s side. By his stance, he seemed ready for a fight.
Sorin’s ears flattened. “It’s not a good time for this. Their alphas are dead and the challenges have already started, even though I told them to wait at least a week.”
Kele entwined their fingers. “Then we need to be on our way before they’re done.”
Sorin’s hand shot out, grabbing Peder’s upper arm. “You mean to fight?”
He met his alpha’s gaze as he’d never truly done before today. “I’ve found a new place in the tribe.” He stared at Kele.
Ahote pried Sorin’s fingers off Peder’s arm. “The Payami need a strong alpha, a smart alpha. Peder has proven himself to me many times. I will stand for him when he asks to enter our den.”
Peder twisted to face the Payami hunter who had once filled his veins with fear. “Really?”
“I followed you into Benic’s castle, not Sorin, and I’d follow you again.” He slapped Peder hard on the shoulder.
Sorin slapped to his other shoulder, adding to Peder’s growing number of bruises. “I hope the next time we meet, it will be as equals.”
Suddenly, the gravity of his decision settled around him. “Can I ever visit?”
Sorin grinned, exposing canines as long as his fingers. “You better. We’ll have young soon and I won’t be leaving the den until they are fit and strong.” He nodded to Kele and Ahote before leading the hunters away.
As the Apisi passed, the hunters added their own slaps and a few murmured good-byes.
Once his old pack was on their way. Kele gave him a gentle tug. She’d already undressed and shifted to feral form. “We really need to hurry.”
Peder shifted while still dressed. The old kilt was too big for him, anyway. He would start fresh with nothing from the Apisi on him.