Total pages in book: 83
Estimated words: 79927 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 400(@200wpm)___ 320(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79927 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 400(@200wpm)___ 320(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
Tilting his head to one side, he stuck his nose through the bars and inhaled, trying to get a better smell of the new scent. It seemed to be coming towards him and it was feminine.
It had been an eternity since he’d smelled anything female—well, other than the other animals in the various cages around him. But their scents didn’t interest him—none of them were sentient. They couldn’t speak or think or understand. But this scent—he was sure it belonged to a sentient woman. Not of his own species, but close—very close.
A moment later, he heard voices floating down the long metal corridor. For the first time in hours, he got to his feet. He inhaled again, more deeply this time. The scent was getting stronger—it was such a good scent—so right and true!
The scent of a mate—or one who could be a mate. There were other scents too—another female, but she was clearly already mated, Brux could smell her male on her. And of course, the scent of the huge insect being who fed him and let him out of his cage sometimes to run in the open area at the center of the ship. It had a sharp, metallic tang to it that stung his sensitive nose.
But neither of those smells interested him. He only wanted to see the one who smelled like she could be his mate. Lykan Monstrum couldn’t mate with just anyone—in fact, there were very few females, even of their own kind, who were genetically compatible with them. He hadn’t smelled any in this universe at all until now.
O please—please let her come, he thought, his simplified thoughts turning into a kind of prayer. Send her to me. Let me scent her. Let me see her. Please…PLEASE!
But then the footsteps began to fade and the scent did too. Brux’s heart—which was beating so hard—sank. No…she was leaving! She wasn’t going to come where he could see her. If he had been in his bipedal form, he would have cried.
As it was, all he could do was howl.
Lifting his nose to the sky, he called out for her—for the woman with the good/right/perfect scent—crying for her to come to him. It was purely instinct—one he couldn’t control, and he howled with his whole heart—with all the sorrow and loss and longing inside him.
Please…please…please …come to me! Come to me—I need you!
It was the only thought in his head and he couldn’t stop howling for his mate. If only he could see her, just once. If only she would come…
3
KIERA
“Zzo if you’ll come thizz way, I’ll zzhow you the greenhousezz where we grow most of our exotic vegetation for our animalzz,” Dr. A’flerzz was saying when Kiera heard a long, liquid howl coming down the corridor.
It was a heartbreaking sound, and it froze her in her tracks. She literally stopped moving—right in the middle of the long metal hallway—her head cocked to one side, listening.
“Hey, what was that?” she asked the Ba’ltzian scientist, frowning.
“Zzmm…” Dr. A’flerzz seemed to consider for a moment, their antennae twitching. The overhead lighting winked off their shiny dark blue carapace.
“It sounds like a wolf—an animal we have back on my own home planet—Earth,” Kiera said. “But I thought you didn’t have any Earth species here?”
“We do not,” Dr. A’flerzz affirmed. If they’d had human features, they would have been frowning in confusion, Kiera thought.
“Can we go and see what it is?” she asked. She didn’t know why, but she had an urgent feeling that she needed to see whatever animal was making that sound.
“Well…I zzupose we ought to zee what’s going on,” Dr. A’flerzz agreed.
“Sorry, Iyanna,” Kiera said to her friend. “I know you want to see the plants but I’ve got to see whatever’s making that sound. It sounds like it’s hurting, poor thing!”
Iyanna gave her an indulgent smile.
“The plants can wait. I know how anxious you get when you think an animal is in pain.”
“Thank you,” Kiera gave her a grateful smile and hurried after Dr. A’flerzz who was already leading the way.
They rounded the corner and came into a long room filled with cages. Most had plasti—glass shields and housed exotic small animals, but there were a few larger cages made of metal.
Kiera’s eyes were drawn immediately to the largest cage of all. Inside it, pacing and howling, was the biggest wolf she’d ever seen in her life. Or was it a wolf? Its huge golden eyes, when it looked at her, were strangely human. But the rest of it just looked like an ordinary wolf—albeit a huge one—with fluffy gray fur and a long, bushy tail.
She didn’t know how she knew the animal was a “he”—she just did. The same way she knew he was miserable here—miserable and desperate.
“Oh, poor baby!” she crooned going to the cage at once and putting her hand right through the bars to reach him.