One female with yellow hair stares at us openly, hunger in her gaze.
“I like this one,” Theo declares, an easy grin on his handsome face.
Arch sniffs a few times and silently deactivates her green light.
We almost reach the end of the row and are discussing the nine we have left to choose from when Arch freezes. His eyes close and he inhales deeply. When he opens his dark eyes, he looks almost drunk.Replete, satisfied.
He sniffs again and turns, literally following his nose. He walks back down the aisle, stopping in front of one room, who’s green light wasn’t on to start with.
“This one,” he rumbles lowly. “She’s ours.”
Chapter Eight
Theodore
“Arch,” I mutter quietly, given we’re in a room with other chimes, “We cut her before we even got here.”
His eyes are locked on the woman but he stands at attention, wings slightly open and back, hands clasped under them.
“Smell her. She’s ours.” He’s utterly convinced.
I step closer to him and inhale as my eyes take in the human. She has brown hair with a copper sheen to it, big golden eyes, curved hips. She’s tucked into the corner, looking down.
My eyes flutter closed as I see Ben step to her touch screen. She smells perfect.Ours. Like the forest after a thunderstorm, with a hint of electricity mixed with the fresh rain and fallen leaf scent.
Arch is right.She’s ours. I know it.
Ben’s voice cuts into my reverie. “Fern Williams. Thirty-six years old. County of residence: Bolten, New United States. Settlement: Sylrya. Occupation: small business owner.”
The woman has finally looked up. Arch snarls and I realize at once why.
Our human is injured. Anger quickly rises inside me, intense and overwhelming. I clench my fists, trying to calm myself.Three angry gargoyles is a sight to scare just about anyone shitless and I don’t want her to fear us.
But an odd look crosses her face and she stands smoothly, her heavy brown skirts flowing around her. She pulls her fine knit shawl tighter around herself and strides to the front of her cell.
She’s on the taller end of average height for a human woman, I’m pleased to see. I’m not pleased to see the finger marks on her neck, nor the swollen, split lip and what looks like will become a wicked shiner. “Oh sweetling, who did that to you?” I mutter, still trying to master my anger. To my shock, she answers.
I can’t hear her of course, but her mouth moves and her eyes blaze angrily. She finishes up her tirade with a rude gesture that can’t be mistaken.
Archibald laughs. Actuallylaughs, at the spark within our female.
“They can hear what we say,” Erik adds, rather unhelpfully.
Ben pulls us away from her cage. “She’s a poor choice. Her parents were known rebels.”
“Were?” Arch questions, eyes still on her.
“Not converted. Dead,” Ben says quietly. “I think she’ll be too headstrong for us to chance it. And that is on the slim assumption that she’s not a rebel herself.”
“Don’t care,” Arch mutters, stepping forward and activating the green light on her touch screen. She flips him off and turns to sit facing the wall. “She’s ours. I’ll settle for no one else.”
Chapter Nine
Fern
Those bat bastards all file out and the lights in our cages go out. I curl my fists in frustration. From what I can tell, at least two of the groups are interested in me being their baby-mama.
Fuckthat shit.
