Scent of Salvation (Chronicles of Eorthe #1) Read Online Free Page A

to detect any scent of abuse. Small amount of blood from minor scrapes. Nothing major. No smell of sex either. Actually, the female smelled very clean, of soap and flowers and more importantly, no scent markers declared her attachments. Not even a pack’s.
    “She clearly isn’t yours.” Rising, she stepped between the female and all the males. Unmarked females were a rare commodity. Females were always in demand. Between childbirth and illness, their numbers were less.
    Ahote turned, his nostrils flaring as his ears came forward and fanned in surprise. “She doesn’t carry anyone’s scent.”
    Kele sighed as all her guards twisted toward the runaway female. Nice. An unmarked female surrounded by a bunch of unmated males. Even though her father kept assigning unmated guards to protect her in hopes one might claim her, no male ever had. Her natural gift to ward off mating interest was an unwanted talent.
    She growled her own warning to back off. Not very impressive coming from her in civil form; however something had to be done before their intelligence dropped and they began to think with their cocks. Mating challenges could be bloody.
    The silver-furred male crossed his arms over his chest. “She’s not a shifter, which is why she’s free of marks. She calls herself a hu-man.” He snarled at her guards. “I found her first. The Goddess sent her to me.”
    If she could be in feral form, Kele’s ears would have perked. “You still worship the Goddess?” She’d thought most shifters either prayed to the vampires’ God or didn’t pray at all.
    The strange shifter eyed her from head to foot and kept silent.
    “Do you have proof?” Kele raised an eyebrow.
    “She fell from a blue light in the sky. Ask her.” He pointed to the unmarked female, who rose to her feet and stood close to Kele’s back.
    “Did the Goddess send you?” Kele asked. The blue light was the reason for the trek. Guards watching the entrance to their den reported seeing it burn in the sky above Temple lands. Her parents had sent her to investigate.
    The female blinked, her gaze traveling from Kele to the strange male. “I—I don’t know. All gods work in mysterious ways, don’t they?”
    Kele didn’t smell any lies. “Did you fall from a blue light?”
    Wringing her hands, the female backed away. “Yes,” she whispered.
    Kele’s breath caught in her chest. “Truly?” She looked at the strange male once more for confirmation and approached him. He easily towered two feet above her short frame, but she was practiced in how to hold her ground. “She’s on Payami ground now, so I lay claim to her.”
    Surprised grunts came from her guards.
    “You can’t claim her. You’re—you’re female.” The strange male lifted his foot as if to step over the territorial line.
    Her guards growled and closed in on him.
    Ears folded back, he bared his teeth and stayed on his side of the border.
    “Enough of this.” She clapped her hands as if disrupting a puppy squabble. “She’s not a shifter so she’s not part of pack hierarchy. None of you have rights to her. But she’ll be my guest.” She glared at the foreign shifter who acted like an alpha. “Be off.”
    The female leaned close. “Thank you.”
    “You’ve grown bold, Kele, for someone who can’t shift.” The stranger shook his mane and relaxed his stance. “You don’t possess the power to order me.”
    A small muscle ticked along her jaw. This mutt didn’t need to remind her of her impotence. She was quite aware of it. “And who exactly are you?” Especially since he knew so much about her.
    Fur melted to tanned skin. The male kept his muscular shape as his animal nature faded and he changed to his civil form. His muzzle and ears reshaped, leaving a rugged, angry face. A pale scar ran across his face to the corner of his lower lip, giving him a perpetual frown.
    He didn’t cover his nudity. “Sorin, alpha of the Apisi.” His untidy silver hair hung down his back to