Chapter 9

Mateus came back, unharmed.

“Hopefully, this won’t be necessary for much longer. The humans should be delivering soon,” Carmella voiced her hopes.

Lilitha glanced up.

“When will we know?”

“We sense them,” Silus explained. “When they approach our territory. That’s when we start preparing.”

“And then we’ll have enough for a few months,” Carmella added. “It’ll be good. We need a reliable food source right now.”

She leaned over and planted a kiss on Lilitha’s belly.

She had been doing that a lot lately. Touching her. Watching her.

Asking her how she felt, as if trying to live vicariously through her. Lilitha tried not to feel sad about it, letting her do as she pleased.

Carmella was right. It was a day before Damon was due to leave, the day quickly turning to night, when they all lifted their noses.

Lilitha looked over her shoulder. The scent was so potent she almost expected the humans to burst through the trees.

She hadn’t really noticed while in Mainstry. But here, out in the trees, where all there was to smell was trees and soil and wildlife, their approach was like a distant drumbeat.

It made her blood pump faster. It made her eyes burn.

She could feel a tingling sensation in her fingertips. The feeling was so intense that Lilitha let out a shaky breath.

“How far away are they?” she asked.

“Several hours. They’re right on our border.”

Her eyebrows shot up. “Several hours? That’s it?”

“By our pace,” Damon clarified.

She turned her head toward Silus as he stood. Mateus and Damon also rose.

Her heart started to race.

Carmella touched her thigh. “Don’t worry. They move slowly and they have to sleep, remember? It’ll be a day or two yet.”

It didn’t help Lilitha relax. She tried to recall her own journey, the uncomfortable, sleepless nights; the grueling trek; the fear and dread.

Those chains had been heavy. She rubbed at her neck, feeling the phantom weight of that heavy metal collar.

Then she remembered the night of the attack. That terrible feeling when she’d thought her best friend was dead. Lilitha swallowed.

Clara…

She hadn’t thought about her in so long.

Mateus sniffed, his horns pointed toward the canopy as he raised his face. “Smells like it’s bigger than usual.”

His tail was swaying.

“We’d better get ready,” Damon said. “They have been known to journey through the night.”

“What do you want me to do?” Lilitha asked.

“Stay here. Keep safe,” he instructed. “You, Carmella and Silus. And don’t do anything stupid.”

He narrowed his eyes directly at Lilitha.

“Don’t worry. She’s not going anywhere,” Carmella assured.

Lilitha stood without thinking, her legs propelling her toward Damon.

Damon pulled her into his chest as she hugged him. “We’ll be back,” he murmured. “We’ve done this many times before.”

Lilitha nodded.

“Do you remember when we first met?” he asked.

“You fed me flesh without telling me. Told me to keep calm, that you wouldn’t hurt me.”

Lilitha smiled as she remembered his mysterious, cloaked figure. He’d been angry and wild even then. She remembered how he had despised Clara.

“Did I lie?”

“Depends on how you look at it.”

She grinned. He grinned back. Leaning in, he kissed her softly. “I’ll be back.”

“We’ll be back,” Mateus corrected.

Mateus approached and Damon released her, stepping away as the big Diablon pulled her into a tight hug.

He nuzzled her neck with a sigh.

“You smell so good I could eat you,” he teased.

Lilitha laughed. He kissed her, then looked into her eyes, stroking her cheek with the backs of his fingers.

Then he laid his hand upon her belly. “See you both soon.”

He let her go and Lilitha watched as they both said their goodbyes to Silus and Carmella.

Then they were gone.

Silus, Carmella and Lilitha sat together as they waited—or tried to sit. Frequently getting up to pace the clearing.

Despite Silus and Carmella’s confidence, they were nervous too. Lilitha stared through the trees, holding onto the alphas’ scents, though they were getting lost amid the overpowering scent of the humans, which seemed to be getting stronger and stronger by the moment.

“They’re still on the move,” Carmella noted. She raised her face, closing her eyes. “Journeying through the night.”

“Is that a bad thing?” Lilitha asked.

“It’s unusual but not bad. The sooner they get here, the better.”

Silus was looking down into his lap, his forehead creased, tail swaying agitatedly.

Lilitha didn’t dare ask what he was thinking about.

Hours went by. Lilitha sat by Silus’s side, gripping his hand tightly, so tense her thighs were aching.

“Talk to me,” she urged. “Tell me about you and my mother.”

Silus spoke. Lilitha leaned her head against his shoulder as she listened, staring into the trees.

“You didn’t know I was here, did you?” Lilitha said after he fell quiet. “Here in the forest, when I first arrived.”

“No.”

“I was wrong. I forgot. Damon feeding me and finding me collapsed on the ground wasn’t the first time we met. We met before then. When…when…”

She bit her lip. “When Mandalay was raping me. I just didn’t know who he was.”

Thinking about it now, it seemed so absurd and terrible and impossible that she should be where she was right now. His mate. The mother to his baby.

That roaring, heartless monster. She remembered how he had sniffed her like an animal. How he’d hovered over her.

That dreadful certainty that she was about to die. “He was lucky he didn’t kill me. He said he hardly scented me at all.”

“It’s best not to think about such things,” Silus advised.

She looked at him. “When you go, will you join another clan?”

“I’m not sure. Maybe. If I can.”

“You will. I don’t want you to be alone.”

“I might be alone but that doesn’t necessarily mean I’ll be lonely, Lilitha.”

“Listen to her, Silus,” Carmella interjected. “It is dangerous on your own. You need an alpha.”

Silus’s tail swished. “I don’t need an alpha. I can hunt on my own.”

“When was the last time you hunted on your own?” Carmella asked skeptically.

“I will manage.”

“Do you think you’ll ever return?” Lilitha questioned, her voice barely above a whisper.

Silus let out a heavy sigh, his response simple yet final. “I can’t.”

Lilitha’s head dropped, her chin resting against her chest.

The rest of the night was a quiet one, filled with nothing but the stillness of the humans who had ceased their journey. Their scent remained unchanged, neither drawing closer nor drifting further away.

As the sun began to ascend, painting the sky with hues of dawn, Carmella and Lilitha tried to catch some sleep.

Silus, however, stayed awake, his back resting against a tree as he stared through the branches, lost in thought.

Lilitha’s nose twitched at the intensifying scent of the humans as they resumed their journey.

She must have drifted off because the next thing she knew, she was jolted awake by a roar.

She sat up abruptly, her heart pounding in her chest.

Carmella mirrored her actions.

Silus was already on his feet, his tail swaying back and forth as he glared through the trees.

“Mateus,” Lilitha murmured, rubbing the sleep from her eyes as she stood next to Carmella.

The sounds were alarmingly close.

The air was thick with the stench of humans.

Lilitha spun around, her heart pounding in her chest.

It felt as if they were everywhere.

As if they were surrounded.

As if they were right on top of them.

“How did they get here so fast?” Carmella asked, her voice filled with disbelief.

Lilitha clung to Carmella’s arm as Damon’s roar echoed through the air—and it wasn’t a good roar, if there was such a thing.

It wasn’t a roar of joy or his usual anger or frustration.

There was something different about it.

Something that made the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end.

Something that made her throat constrict.

They were in trouble.