Annie Nicholas: Scent of Salvation

“No, where was it?” She sidestepped toward the Temple exit.

“Right above our heads, not long ago.” His eyes narrowed. “I don’t know how you missed it.” Since she fell out of it. He’d seen her limp form tumbling in the air from the light just before it winked out.

She trembled, and her scent changed. “I—I—oh yeah, the blue light. Weird phenomenon. Scared the shit out of me.” She quickened her steps to the exit. “I should be heading home.”

“How?” The scent of her untruths grew stronger. Everyone knew you couldn’t lie to shifters. Why was she trying? “You just said you were lost. Will you wander unaccompanied through our forests until someone worse than me finds you?”

Peder quietly stepped behind her to block the exit. He might be submissive for a male, but he was smarter than most and could work without guidance. Sorin would make a hunter of him if it was the last thing he did.

The human blinked her large brown eyes, such an unusual color. Everyone he knew had amber, blue or green eyes, never the rich darkness of mother earth. Life came from the earth, which was why they returned their dead to it. Did this human bring life with her?

“Maybe the Goddess sent her?” Peder’s softly spoken question quieted Sorin’s doubts.

Fanning his ears, Sorin stepped closer to her. “Did she send you?” What little hope he’d sheltered for his people had vanished this morning when he’d spoken the burial rites over the graves. This stranger shed some light through his despair.

She shook her head. “N-no.”

“You will return with me.” Sent from the Goddess or not, he couldn’t afford to take any chances by letting her go. So much for not dragging an unmarked female to his den. It would make hunting and defense that much harder since his healthy hunters would strut through their canyon home and beat each other senseless over a stray.

Her gaze darted to the doorway just before she slipped under his arm and past Peder’s reach. Swift as a jackrabbit, she scrambled down the stairs and squeezed into the thick brush surrounding the Temple.

As he watched her escape, Sorin shook his head. He really was tired. Too many sleepless nights in a row were affecting his reflexes. The odd blue light, her sudden appearance and his need for a miracle were too coincidental.

He pointed at Peder. “Go get the flowers and bring them to Lailanie. I’ll take care of the female.”

“Chasing will only frighten her more, Alpha.” Peder still stared at the floor, but at least he offered his advice without being coerced.

“What would you have me do? Let some other pack have her?”

“No, just don’t be so…intimidating.” He pointed to his exposed teeth with his claws. “Try not thinking she’s prey.”

“Go get the fucking flowers, Peder. I promise not to eat her.” He leapt from the stone steps and skirted brush too dense for him to enter. The sly female wedged easily into the smaller spaces where he couldn’t pursue with his bulk, but the brush didn’t lead anywhere. It only surrounded the Temple foundation. She was trapped.

Crouching low to the ground, he moved along the thick wall of plants. His little prey made enough noise that even the youngest of pups could track her. With ears fanned open, he followed her progress. The birds started their songs again as he got to the far end of the area.

By the Dark Moon, she moved slowly. He could have taken a nap while waiting. He watched Peder head toward their home with a small sack of flowers. The rustling in the bushes drew closer, and Sorin gathered his energy to pounce.

From out of the brush snapped a young sapling, which whipped the sensitive tip of his nose. With a yelp, Sorin fell back, clamping his hands over his muzzle. Through pain-filled eyes, he watched the female tear across the open ground.

Sorin blinked to clear his vision and bounded after his suddenly fast quarry. Her white coat fluttered behind her like a treaty flag, but this female didn’t show any signs of surrender.

She ran full-tilt up the hill toward its summit.

Trailing closer, he could smell the trace of border markings on the wind. If he didn’t hurry, she’d run off the neutral ground of Temple lands and onto some other pack’s territory. He couldn’t follow if she did. “Stop! There’s danger that way.”

She twisted and glanced at him, not watching her step. Something caught her foot at the top of the hill and she fell.

Sorin leaped, reaching with clawed fingers. They pierced the hem of her white jacket. The delicate material tore along the sharp edges of his claws, and the shreds slipped through his fingers. Relief mixed with triumph, pumping through his veins, gave way to dread. He scrambled to grab the tatters and not lose the female, but the momentum of her flight downhill sent her tumbling head-over-heels out of his grasp.

A cry echoed over the quiet forest of Payami lands. Kele spun toward the sound. It came from the direction of the hills, off their path.

Her guards, in feral form, tightened the circle around her. They perked their ears forward as low growls rumbled in their chests.

The thick forest blocked her view. She couldn’t see who cried out. Shoving past the males, she headed toward the noise.

Ahote, her primary guard, blocked her way. “We’re to take you to the Temple and the Temple only.” He gestured at the overgrown path that connected their den and their place of worship.

Well, her place of worship. Not many of the pack prayed anymore.

“I’ll send someone to investigate.” He gestured to another of the males.

She glanced at each of her four guards. It wasn’t their fault she needed protection. Her defective body made her weak. Not being able to shift to feral form, stuck as a civilian, left her defenseless in the wilds. Traveling in the forest was safer as a beast, with sharp teeth and claws to fight. Until she figured out her trigger to change shape, she’d need guards whenever leaving the pack’s den.

But she rapped her knuckles on the tip of Ahote’s nose anyway. If she let him boss her around, the others would eventually start. Her place in pack hierarchy was a constant battle. Even her own mother didn’t know how to treat her. “I’m not ignoring a cry for help. They might be hurt.” As daughter of the Payami alpha couple, Kele was due more respect, but the fact she couldn’t shift confused everyone’s instincts.

Ahote’s ears folded back and he moved aside, not breaking eye contact. A quiet growl stirred in his chest as she passed him. It was difficult to ignore the huge, black beast, but if she showed even the slightest scent of fear he’d attack her.

With practiced ease, she slowed her heart rate and kept breathing in a steady rhythm. Any of her guards could tear her to pieces, but she needed to believe they wouldn’t. The only thing stopping them was her overprotective father.

Pushing past the bushes, Kele inhaled. A strange odor blew in the wind, mild and floral.

Not far from the path, a female in civil form lay on the ground at the bottom of the hill. She rested just over the Payami territory line, marked every four days by her father’s scent.

The female sat and gaped at them. Leaves and twigs clung to her brown hair. What used to be a white coat was twisted around her torso.

Kele halted in her tracks.

A massive, silver-furred male raced down the hill toward them.

For a second, Kele lost control of her fear as her heart took flight. He was big—bigger than her father. This boded ill. Packs were not allowed on each other’s territories without an invitation from the alpha.

Her guards charged forward, blocking the strange shifter’s path across their border.

The male slid to a stop but his feet remained on Temple ground. Barely. “She belongs to me.” He leaned forward and confronted Ahote nose-to-nose.