Chapter Nine
The wheeled cage rocked back and forth repeatedly over the rutted road. Peder’s stomach rolled. If he’d had anything in his gut, he’d have lost it, but the vampires only gave them sips of water. Barely enough to keep his thirst at bay. Ahead of them menaced clusters of tall buildings, which extended as far as his eye could see. He twisted back around and memorized landmarks they passed so when he managed an escape, he could lead Kele home.
She leaned next to him, against the metal bars that separated females from males. Her fur brushed over his. There were twenty of them crammed inside the small space. It would have been twenty-one, but the female who’d entered the vampire leader’s tent last night never returned. Seven of the shifters came from the Temple attack. The others were from another tribe, west of Benic’s land. All of them were from different packs, but under the circumstances such division hardly mattered.
Jostling Kele with his elbow, Peder woke her from a drowse. “If you escape the city, you should head in that direction.” He pointed to a hill that crested like the moon. “Stay north until you pass the farmlands. Keep the mountains in front of you until you reach the forest. From there, you should find scent trails to lead you to Temple lands.”
Kele stared at his hand, not where it pointed. “You think we’ll escape?”
“Don’t you?”
She clanked her chains. “Not with these on.”
“They can’t keep us chained forever. How will we labor for them if we can’t move?”
“If they don’t keep me chained, then they will get a taste of how sharp my claws are.” She extended them fully.
Peder set his hand over hers through the bars. “Don’t. It won’t do do you any good, but it will probably get you beaten. Then I’d have to carry you home.” He winked at her surprised expression. “Can you pretend you’re omega? Just for a little while.”
“I—I don’t know. I’ve never tried. My whole life has been about not showing weakness or fear. Now you want me to do the opposite.”
“Sometimes meekness can get you further than brute strength. The worst thing you can do is draw attention.”
“With this fur, how can I not?”
He sighed and stroked her silken coat. How indeed? She was easily the most beautiful female he’d ever seen. How could he keep her safe? He saw the way vampire eyes caressed her in feral form. What would they do when she shifted to civil? Maybe all that training with Sorin in the challenge rings would come in useful after all, but only if he was free. Caged or chained, he wouldn’t have any power to protect her.
She glanced over her shoulder. “I’ve never been to a city before. Do you think it’s much different than Benic’s castle?”
He shrugged and swallowed the bile building in his throat, either from the sickening motion or the thought of that traitorous vampire—he wasn’t sure. Benic would stick his sword in Peder at the first chance possible. The vampire had made his loathing for Peder very clear. The way Benic watched Kele and the familiar way she spoke of him knotted Peder’s gut even more. “Had you been to his castle before he took you and Susan captive?” He gouged the wooden floor of the cage with the tip of his claw. Pretending it was Benic’s back helped his stomach.
“No. I’d never left the forest before then.” She kept glancing back at the city. “There are a lot of buildings. I didn’t know there were so many vampires.”
“There aren’t that many,” Nahuel replied. He sat next to Peder, his gaze pinned on Kele. “The city is filled with our tamer cousins and other types of shifters from across the ocean.”
“How do you know?” Peder leaned forward.
Nahuel had the build of a hunter but he’d grown quiet on their trip south. Most of the other males had roared and snarled until the vampire leader grew tired of them and shot them with darts. Only he and Nahuel remained conscious on their side of the cage. He didn’t want to start liking the male who would steal Kele from him.
“My pack trades with a caravan that travels from this city once a month. I’ve heard many stories of New Berg.”
“So many are domesticated?” Kele searched for and grabbed Peder’s hand. “I’ve no wish to live as a farmer.”
“Not our people.” Nahuel shook his head. “Most of these shifters traveled from across the ocean. Their lands are full and hunting rights are tight. They’ve been under the 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 Nahuel’s stare as an equal. At this point, pack hierarchy no longer existed and the hunter needed to understand that from now on they were both just slaves. “Can you manage that?”
This could be more difficult than he’d thought. He’d been trying to change his way of behaving from omega to hunter for months. Now he wanted Nahuel and Kele to change overnight from hunter to omega. They were doomed.
After winding through the city’s many streets, he’d lost track of their path. He hadn’t imagined such a maze of roads and buildings. They’d have to follow their noses if they didn’t go blind with the growing stink. He recalled this combination of body odor, animal and waste. It curled his nose hairs. The sound of water lapping the shore drew louder and the scent of fish mingled with the city smell.
Nahuel retched.
“The smell is not as strong if you try breathing through your mouth.” Peder patted Nahuel’s back and faced forward so he could see their destination. The buildings were lower here, with fewer spectators. They passed an empty wooden stage and neared an even larger cage than the one they were riding in.
Males exited the large building in front of them and approached the vampire leader. “How many you got, Huan?” the tallest asked. His skin reminded Peder of black, rich earth and he looked as if he could twist these metal cage bars with his bare hands. In the mix of smells, Peder couldn’t make out his species.
“Wolf shifters from the West.”
“You weren’t gone long enough to get all the way west and back.”
“We rode hard.” Huan, the vampire leader, dismounted. “They’re already branded. I want to move the inventory fast, Timothy. Any way you can place them on auction tomorrow?”
“Tomorrow?” The dark male’s eyebrow rose. “Why should I let you jump line? You don’t think the other slavers want to get paid?”
The vampire leader held out a clinking leather pouch. “Two of them have very pretty pelts. They’ll sell fast and at a good price. I didn’t even taste them.”
Timothy strode to the cage, peering between the bars until his gaze focused on Peder’s fur. It then traveled to Kele. “Maybe we should just keep and breed them. Their pups might be worth more.”
Before he knew it, Peder hit the metal bars with his forehead as his teeth snapped at Timothy. Pain shot through his head from the impact, but not enough to stop his need to tear out the slaver’s throat. They would never touch a single hair on any of Peder’s offspring.
Strong arms wrapped around his chest and tugged him from chewing on the bars. “You’ll chip a tooth.” Nahuel’s voice reached his ears. “I thought you told us to play nice. For an omega, you sure have a temper.”
Sinking to the floor, Peder leaned against the hunter and shook his head. And he’d been worried about them behaving. He’d been spending too much time with his pack hunters.
Timothy had jumped back from the cage. “Too bad he’s so pretty. That kind of rage can do well in the challenge rings. Unload them,” he ordered his men.
As one they converged on the cage, opened the door on the female side first, and pulled them out one by one.
Peder leaned as close as he could to Kele with bars between them. This could be the last time he ever saw her. “Kele, I never stopped writing you.”
She twisted to meet his gaze, her eyes wide, but they yanked her by the chains and dragged her out.