and stopping took a second. Her animal responded quickly, which was the point. He was the most powerful of all Lykos, and the beasts knew and obeyed when he commanded it.
What? she asked. Her stance was alert as she sniffed the air. Humans?
Mageia, evolved humans with some magical ability with the elements.
That’s the difference in their scent? I assumed the difference was illness. He heard the curiosity in her voice.
They’re gone, but I need to look around for just a second. I want you to stay here. He knew she wouldn’t run, at least not far. Not when he still had her sisters. It wouldn’t matter if she did, he would find her, and if she incited his beast, she’d find herself claimed, pinned and screaming her release no matter where he caught up to her. He didn’t need to give her another warning.
Are they dangerous?
This group is, but not all are.
He quietly stalked around her and moved to check the perimeter of the site. The scent was slowly fading with the light rain. There were chemical smells left over from the explosion that had leveled the building weeks ago. He didn’t like it.
*****
In taking them on a path away from her sisters’ home, she’d landed in something else. Dacia wasn’t sure what she was sensing. She couldn’t distinguish whether she was feeling danger or just the obsession of her animal. So many roiling emotions she was trying to understand. Anxious. Her damned wolf had started snarling the second he left her side. Every feeling was new, different, and needed deciphering.
She paced as she watched him. His beast was huge, beautiful, with deep obsidian fur that begged for her human fingers. When they’d started, she was nearly lost in the euphoric emotion coming from her animal. She’d never felt such a sense of freedom and utter sense of safety, enough that it left her fighting for breath. She’d spent her life watchful, on guard, making sure humans weren’t hunting anywhere near where she ran.
She hadn’t even scented the humans, Mageia, until he’d ordered her to stop. That power had grated against her, but her animal ate up every bit of his command. All the changes were just so damned much to process. That odd secure feeling and the fact that he’d been using their telepathic connection. Having the mental link in and of itself left her reeling and distracted. The permanence of it was beyond disquieting and left her stomach churning. It didn’t feel anything like the connection to her siblings. It was intimate and arousing. Intense, just like everything else about him.
Her animal was getting more agitated, and she was at a loss at how to calm it. There were so many scents coming from the destruction ahead. Subtle, as she was still several hundred feet from the first debris of what was once a big home, but still throwing her off. The bitter scent of ash was burning her nose, and her body was warming with her beast’s irritation.
She paced back and forth, narrowing her gaze on her surroundings, but always tracking back to Conn’s muscular flanks. She knew better than to follow. She didn’t know what they were up against, but he did. She watched as he stalked forward and looked up in the trees closer to the destruction. She followed his gaze and saw something small and black. A camera hidden in the foliage? Something a human would barely see if they were standing beneath it. She frowned. He tracked around the area, slowly. The wood fencing around the property was demolished in spots, and there were tracks all over from the one road she saw to her left. Probably from when emergency crews came in and doused the flames. The faint scent she’d caught when they’d stopped was slowly filtering away. Whoever these Mageia were, they’d been gone for a few hours.
Conn disappeared around a partially erect wall and what was left of a fireplace. A small glimmer of moonlight shone through the dissipating clouds and gave the scene an eerie quality. Was this how he’d found
What? she asked. Her stance was alert as she sniffed the air. Humans?
Mageia, evolved humans with some magical ability with the elements.
That’s the difference in their scent? I assumed the difference was illness. He heard the curiosity in her voice.
They’re gone, but I need to look around for just a second. I want you to stay here. He knew she wouldn’t run, at least not far. Not when he still had her sisters. It wouldn’t matter if she did, he would find her, and if she incited his beast, she’d find herself claimed, pinned and screaming her release no matter where he caught up to her. He didn’t need to give her another warning.
Are they dangerous?
This group is, but not all are.
He quietly stalked around her and moved to check the perimeter of the site. The scent was slowly fading with the light rain. There were chemical smells left over from the explosion that had leveled the building weeks ago. He didn’t like it.
*****
In taking them on a path away from her sisters’ home, she’d landed in something else. Dacia wasn’t sure what she was sensing. She couldn’t distinguish whether she was feeling danger or just the obsession of her animal. So many roiling emotions she was trying to understand. Anxious. Her damned wolf had started snarling the second he left her side. Every feeling was new, different, and needed deciphering.
She paced as she watched him. His beast was huge, beautiful, with deep obsidian fur that begged for her human fingers. When they’d started, she was nearly lost in the euphoric emotion coming from her animal. She’d never felt such a sense of freedom and utter sense of safety, enough that it left her fighting for breath. She’d spent her life watchful, on guard, making sure humans weren’t hunting anywhere near where she ran.
She hadn’t even scented the humans, Mageia, until he’d ordered her to stop. That power had grated against her, but her animal ate up every bit of his command. All the changes were just so damned much to process. That odd secure feeling and the fact that he’d been using their telepathic connection. Having the mental link in and of itself left her reeling and distracted. The permanence of it was beyond disquieting and left her stomach churning. It didn’t feel anything like the connection to her siblings. It was intimate and arousing. Intense, just like everything else about him.
Her animal was getting more agitated, and she was at a loss at how to calm it. There were so many scents coming from the destruction ahead. Subtle, as she was still several hundred feet from the first debris of what was once a big home, but still throwing her off. The bitter scent of ash was burning her nose, and her body was warming with her beast’s irritation.
She paced back and forth, narrowing her gaze on her surroundings, but always tracking back to Conn’s muscular flanks. She knew better than to follow. She didn’t know what they were up against, but he did. She watched as he stalked forward and looked up in the trees closer to the destruction. She followed his gaze and saw something small and black. A camera hidden in the foliage? Something a human would barely see if they were standing beneath it. She frowned. He tracked around the area, slowly. The wood fencing around the property was demolished in spots, and there were tracks all over from the one road she saw to her left. Probably from when emergency crews came in and doused the flames. The faint scent she’d caught when they’d stopped was slowly filtering away. Whoever these Mageia were, they’d been gone for a few hours.
Conn disappeared around a partially erect wall and what was left of a fireplace. A small glimmer of moonlight shone through the dissipating clouds and gave the scene an eerie quality. Was this how he’d found
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