Chapter Six
The procession to Kele’s mating passed through the den. Her pack lined the walls and cheered. Some calls were a little rawer than she cared for, but she forced a laugh anyway. Kele wasn’t completely sure what “doggy style” meant, but she assumed by tomorrow morning she would know. Most of her companions were male hunters and she’d never felt comfortable asking them about sex. It would have seemed like she was asking for a private lesson. Maybe she could have asked Ahote, her private guard for years? No, that would have gone badly. Just the idea sent a shiver of revulsion down her spine. His idea of intimacy and hers probably didn’t match.
She waved at the female crafters who had beaded her dress. The only real female friend she’d had was Susan, who lived in a rival pack. Susan could have explained sex to her better than her mother. From her mother’s crude portrait scratched into the dirt of Kele’s bedroom floor, she understood the basics of where certain body parts had to fit. Somehow, she thought there was more to it than that, or males like Ahote wouldn’t dedicate their lives to the act.
They meandered through the dark maze of caves that protected their den from intruders and left her happy people behind. The pack would not accompany them. Since the alphas left with her, most of the hunters stayed to defend the den. It wouldn’t be the first time in shifter history that a den was attacked during a mating celebration.
When she and her mate returned in a few days, the wine would flow freely. She’d heard some of the omegas practicing with their instruments so they could be ready for the dancing and song requests during the feast.
It would be nice to be celebrated for a change.
Inali waited by the exit and fell in next to her as they strolled through the woods toward Temple lands. Everyone had shifted to feral form but her.
His gaze fell upon the amulet hanging from her neck. “Your mother told me of that gift. Do you think it’s wise to wear something from another male?” He sniffed. “It even carries Benic’s scent.”
“I hadn’t noticed.”
“Kele.” He said her name as if she were a pup in trouble.
“I would welcome a reaction from my mate-to-be, but I doubt the amulet will be noticed. If anything, it will remind the Yaundeeshaw of our wealth and our strong connection to Benic.”
Inali growled low and quiet when she mentioned the vampire’s name. “He rejected our invitation. He is no longer welcome on our land, let alone our den.”
“You’ll have to forgive him eventually. Most of our power is tied to the vampires. We can’t afford to alienate Benic.”
His step faltered. “You, of all people, know why I can’t do this.” He appeared genuinely shocked.
“I, of all people, will ask a blood price of Benic for taking me to his castle against my will. I will use this money to restore the Temple and you can increase the price of your wine.” She gave him a small smile. “His pride suffered more than anything from that adventure. If not for Ahote and Sorin, it could have ended much worse.”
At the mention of the Apisi alpha, her father flattened his ears. They had met once after Sorin had rescued her and Susan. Her father had given Sorin a handsome gift of gold for his poor pack in recognition of the Apisi alpha’s part in saving his daughter. Kele wouldn’t declare their packs allies, but at least they no longer called each other enemies.
“You will make a fine alpha one day. If this hunter proves worthy in future challenges, he should beg you to keep him. Our pack will always need a strong alpha couple to rule them.”
What if she didn’t love him after a year? She wouldn’t give voice to this question. Her father would probably laugh at the idea. She had always thought her parents loved each other, but by watching Sorin with Susan, she had realized that her parents shared a love for power. It wasn’t the same thing.
She wanted what Susan and Sorin had fought tooth and claw for. But what did she know of love? She’d almost given everything to an omega male who’d been the first to show any real attention to her as a female.
Desperate. That was what she’d been.
Then why did she still dream of Peder every night?
Stupid, stupid heart. She had to let Peder’s memory go as he had let her go.
She crested the hill leading to the Temple. The ancient stone walls loomed ahead. All her life, the site of worship had filled her with peace, but today dread lived in her heart. She cared not for this fate. Her mother called this mating an opportunity, her father a treaty, but she named it a prison. She’d agreed to this farce in a moment of weakness when she’d craved her parent’s approval.
Who was she trying to fool? She still craved their approval, but she’d come to realize they did not share the same ideals and her wish to gain their praise couldn’t ever be fulfilled.
Tracing the amulet necklace with her fingertips, she drew courage. Benic had been her friend since childhood and his betrayal still stung. Yet out of that darkness, she’d found the trigger to shift to feral form. She’d found the body to go with her hunter’s soul. This mating couldn’t take that from her. She’d faced worse when Benic had captured her and Susan. At least her mate wouldn’t chain her to a wall.
Her mother led the tiny mating party with three hunters. She noted Ahote wasn’t among them. He’d been against this mating from the beginning.
Yaundeeshaw shifters stood at the base of the Temple stairs alongside a male in civil form. He appeared as she had expected, tall with strong shoulders. His pale brown hair hung down his back in untamed tangles, and even from this distance, his gray gaze latched onto hers.
Nahuel.
He wore a leather kilt the males of her people preferred and a light blue sweater that appeared new.
From here, the mating parties would enter the Temple where, in front of their alphas, he’d smudge secretions from the glands under his ears onto her wrists to temporarily mark her as his. Her stomach rolled. Then they’d have to undress and shift to feral form. For the next three days, they would roam both packs’ lands together and get acquainted until their scents mingled enough to mark them as mated.
She swallowed with a throat gone dry and stopped in front of him.
He easily stood five hands taller. Bowing slightly at the waist, he offered her his wrist to smell. “I’m named Nahuel.”
She slipped her wrist toward his nose. “I’m named Kele.” Nothing sparked at his touch. Not like it had with Peder. Would her parents disown her if she changed her mind?
She glanced at her mother, who sternly glared as if she could read Kele’s mind. How did she do that?
After three days together, she and Nahuel would have to decide which pack they would return to and live with. A portion of her desired his pack. She’d have to face a number of challenges since she’d be a new threat to the female hunters but she wouldn’t have her parents watching every mistake.
The sound of musket fire filled the forest and the acrid scent of gunpowder burned her nose.
Hunters in the distance howled a warning. As one, they tensed and scanned the surrounding forest. Nahuel shifted to feral form, tearing through his clothes.
A red bloom formed on her father’s chest. He stared down at the hole where his heart was before his legs failed and he folded to the dirt.
“No!” She reached for him, but a heavy weight dragged her to the ground. Struggling against Nahuel’s body, she could do nothing as she watched her mother tear headlong into the woods toward the vampire hunters, who sprang from the foliage in an ambush.
The attackers outnumbered their small party. How had they masked their scent? Why would Benic send his men to kill her father? If he thought to take her again, he would find a well-trained hunter under this civil form.
Another volley of shots cracked against her eardrums. Someone shouted, “Don’t kill them all. We need to replenish our stock.”
Her mother and the Yaundeeshaw alphas fell in a cloud of smoke and blood.
Darts flew through the air thick like mosquitoes. Snarling, she shifted to feral form under Nahuel’s unconscious weight and pushed him off. Her mother could still be alive. She might only be injured. Kele hurried to her father’s side and fell next to him, rolling his body only to meet his unseeing eyes. Sorrow crushed her chest. She couldn’t breathe.
No.
She stroked his pale fur.
“Look at the pelt on the white one. Don’t let it get away.”
She twisted to see a vampire pointing in her direction. He wanted her? Then the bloodsucker would get to meet her face-to-face. Keeping low to the ground, she raced over dead branches and pack members. They would be avenged if it took her last breath to do it.
Screams stabbed into Peder’s consciousness and he jerked awake, not in full control of his limbs. Flailing, he smacked something solid that stung the back of his hands. He blinked, trying to clear the fog from his visions. Shots rang against his ears. The stink of gunpowder overwhelmed his nose and blinded him from smelling his surroundings.
Where was he? Who was making that horrid high-pitched scream? He had to help but suddenly it seemed as if he’d grown eight legs and had no control over what direction they moved. Had he gotten into Dorian’s lightning water again? After the last time, he’d sworn never to touch that stuff.
His stomach didn’t want to turn itself inside out, though. Last time he’d gotten drunk it had taken all day for the retching to stop.
He rolled over and peered between bars. How had he ended up in a cage? He grabbed the cold metal and tugged with weak arms. Outside, a vampire ran through the gunpowder smoke with a musket at the ready. He aimed at a white shifter in feral form as she raced low to the ground toward him.
Kele? What was she doing in his nightmare? “Duck!” he shouted at the top of his lungs.
The vampire’s shot barely missed her as she hit the ground at his warning.
She then jumped the bloodsucker and tore his throat out with the practiced grace of a seasoned hunter. The sheer violence shook Peder to the core. The Kele he knew didn’t have these fighting skills, or taste for blood. What had happened to her?
He stared as a group of vampires carried shifters to his cage and dumped them in with him. None seemed familiar. There hadn’t been a battle between shifters and vampires on these lands for a century. What caused this?
“Don’t shoot her! That pelt will bring us more money than the golden one.” A vampire dressed in rusted chain mail stepped into his view. He lifted a tube to his mouth and blew a dart into Kele’s neck.
Shaking the bars, Peder cried out as Kele fell to her knees. He rubbed a sore spot on his throat. He’d seen that vampire in the mountain pass separating Apisi lands from the Temple. He had more vampires with him now. When he’d taken Peder, there had only been four of them. Peder didn’t recall this cage, one drawn by horses, but his memory was still foggy.
Kele’s gaze rose slowly and met his. Her eyes widened as she mouthed his name but no sound reached his ears. If he was to die now, at least, it would be with the knowledge that she hadn’t forgotten him.
Shifter blood soaked Temple soil. The packs would call for retribution. He fought the cage walls and only gained bruised shoulders for his effort. “Kele.” He reached for her as two vampires carried her to his cage. Only then did he notice the bars separating their prison.
The bloodsuckers tossed her into the other side with the females.
With his arms between the bars, he pulled her body close and stroked her soft, pale fur. He’d wanted to stop her mating ceremony, but not at this cost.
“Hey, the gold one’s awake.”
“The dart must have just nicked him last time.”
A sting landed between his shoulder blades. The fog closed in but he clung to Kele through the bars. Somehow he’d save her. He’d find the hunter hidden inside him and bring her home.