Scent of Valor (Chronicles of Eorthe #2) Read Free Page B

Shifters could scent lies.
    “After their first pup is born, she doesn’t have to stay with him. She’d be free to mate another.” Sorin shrugged. “It’s not an ideal situation. Not unless you’re willing to fight for her.”
    That Yaundeeshaw hunter was going to touch her. The fur on Peder’s back rose. The dog would take her to his bed tomorrow night. He should have crossed onto Payami land already, but no, he had stayed hidden in his den like a coward.
    The rumble of growling in his chest drew him out of his thoughts. Everyone stared at him.
    Sorin stood at alert. “What is it?”
    Shit, he was making things worse. Quieting, he shook his fur flat. “Sorry, got lost in my thoughts.”
    Susan pointed to the marks in the dirt. “It’s difficult to calculate this by hand, but I roughly estimate that the doorway will open again in five days. Unless the door has already done so unwitnessed, then my math is all wrong.” She scratched her head. “We should watch the area and make sure no one stumbles in. I can’t imagine what would happen to my world if this virus went through the portal.”
    Here he was worried about a female who obviously cared nothing for him, and Susan—carrying two pups in her belly—was trying to protect a whole world. “I thought you had destroyed your machine.”
    “I thought so too.” She continued to scribble a few more things in the dirt. “Something is keeping the portal from closing. At one end, in my world, the portal is anchored.” She drew a box to represent this. “At this end, the portal is whipping around like a cat’s tail and jumping positions. If I’m correct, the radius of this tail can grow, which is bad.” She rubbed her belly.
    Sorin immediately joined her in touching the bump of her belly protecting their unborn offspring. “It’s time to go home. I’ll send hunters in four days to camp and watch for the blue light.”
    “No, no, I’m coming back.”
    Sorin snarled, sharp and commanding. “For ten generations, my family has been born in that den. I will not have my pups dropped on common forest ground like strays. Once they are born and you are well, then you can return.” He leaned down and met her glare. “Don’t you dare try to sneak off on your own. You remember what happened last time.”
    Susan’s expression grew somber. “Yes.” She set her hands upon his. “Babies first.”
    “Pups.”
    She laughed. “Fine, pups.”
    Peder stared at her scribbles, understanding a few of the symbols. She’d been teaching the pack simple math. Things like adding and multiplying. He could comprehend it better than anyone in the pack, but the stuff in the dirt didn’t even contain numbers. “If the portal’s exit whips around like a tail on Eorthe, that means it can open anywhere on our world?”
    “Yes.”
    “How do you know it hasn’t already opened somewhere outside this forest?”
    “I can only pray it hasn’t. So far, from the measurements I’ve taken, it seems to be getting more distant from the original point of entry by that tree.”
    “Each time it opens, it gets farther from here like a pendulum swinging.”
    “Exactly. You truly grasp things quickly, Peder.” Odd how a few simple words could soothe his deep wounds.
    He had rarely received such praise while growing. Sorin’s father made sure they’d all been miserable, but he’d had a special place in his heart for torturing pretty omega males.
    “That means I might only get two more chances at the doorway before it leaves this forest for good.” She rubbed her chin.
    Sorin’s ears folded even farther back over his head until it appeared he had none. “Why do you want access? I thought you had chosen to stay with me.”
    “I’m staying. I’ve been infected. Even if I wanted to leave, I couldn’t. But I have to send my world a message. Whoever is on the other side needs to be warned. They have to guard the portal from letting anything go through. They also have to know the risk