VEXAROKA dakmu scouting party had passed through the area not even an hour before. I could smell them in the air, although the rain slightly dampened their over-powerful musk. Not enough that I did not wrinkle my nose at the lingering stench, however. Theirs was like a fire in the lungs.

  I snorted, trying to clear it from my senses, but it clung stubbornly.

  They were despicable things, and not simply because of their foul odor.

  Like ravenous beasts, they had come from the western mountains and destroyed much. They spread in a sweeping march through the jungle, assailing cns and vilges, and taking as it pleased them.

  The dakmu were ruthless and cruel in a way I struggled to comprehend. They found great delight in our suffering. Worse yet, they lusted hungrily for the flesh of gakh. Our alphas, they sughtered and consumed without remorse. While our omegas, they kept only for mating.

  The dakmu did not have omegas of their own. Not anymore.

  When first they came, my om-father had said that death was preferable to being taken by them. I had not understood then, but I had since seen what the dakmu were capable of. What they had done to our cn and to so many others.

  I wisely chose to give the dakmu a wide berth.

  Circling downwind, I moved where my scent would not carry and stuck to the trees whenever possible. The rain made the moss-covered bark slick, but I dug into each branch and trunk with sharpened cws. I knew this jungle better than the dakmu. I had lived amongst its branches for all of my life, while they crawled from mountains and caves.

  It was a life I had once shared with others, but no longer.

  Some gakh had fled at the first sign of the dakmu's approach. Yet many others had remained behind. My al-father had been among the vilge guards. The strongest. The bravest. Even if he had been given the opportunity to run, he would not have taken it. He would not leave the vilge undefended.

  So the dakmu had come, and he had fought.

  I shook my head, rain flying from my hair with the rapid action. My thoughts flew with them, leaving my mind mostly clear.

  But not my nose.

  I could still smell the dakmu. Yet beneath that, as the faintest of whispers, was something else. Something delicate and sweet. Something out of pce. I was intimately familiar with the jungle but had never smelled such an inviting thing. Turning my face upward, I fred my nostrils as I tried to take in more of the curious scent.

  Whatever it belonged to, it was between me and the dakmu.

  Taking another deep breath, the hairs at the back of my neck raised on end. The sensation traveled down my spine and through to the end of my tail.

  The fragrance was foreign, I knew, yet somehow intimately familiar. The longer I wrapped myself in those alluring notes, trying to pin them down, the more my pulse seemed to thrum. Even draped as I was in the cape of night, I felt flushed. The rain did nothing to cool the sudden heat of my skin.

  With a twitch, I found myself making a snap decision.

  I was in motion, leaping from one branch and to the next, where I used the yielding spring to unch myself across the vast gaps. My hands were thrown out, catching another limb and swinging forward. I sped through the trees, hand over fist.

  Minutes bled by, the jungle a blur as I chased the fragrance to its source. Then with a muffled thud, I dropped to the ground and grew motionless.

  In this pce, the scent had become near overwhelming.

  Whatever it was, I was close to finding it.

  As silent as an atul, I crept through the foliage, my eyes and ears tuned toward the trees. My nose, though, led me forward.

  Lowering myself to a crouch, I perched at the edge of a rockface. Below, the endless sea of jungle continued. I took another whiff, my lip curling back in disgust. Beneath the scent I tracked, I could still smell the dakmu. Their own musk was thick and heavy here. They were nearby, hidden somewhere in the dark.

  My instincts warred against each other.

  Despite the weight of both sword and dagger at my hip, fighting was ill advised. If the dakmu managed to bring me low, I would be killed like all the others. Yet something deeper than fear twisted in my belly, hungry and tight. It told me to keep searching. Whatever produced this scent, I wanted to find it.

  Needed to.

  I tried to block the dakmu from my mind, closing my eyes in a desperate effort to finish my hunt.

  It was not my nose that prickled but rather my ears.

  From the shadows below, I heard a whimper, like that of a creature caught in a hunter's snare. Quiet as the grave, I lowered to my front, peering over the edge. My eyes easily probed the darkness.

  The creature stood out against the earth; a dark mass huddled so tightly about itself that I could not make out what it was. With each measured breath I pulled into my lungs, I knew this was the source of the inviting scent.

  As I watched, it mewled again, a violent shiver rocking its small body. The mass folded even farther inward, continuing its gentle vibrations.

  With my heart in my throat, I slipped carefully over the ledge. I hung for a moment, my tail rasping the mud, then I lowered to the ground just outside the shallow shelter. I remained in the rain, the little creature having yet to catch wind of my presence. I dropped slowly onto my haunches, eagerly picking the thing apart with my eyes.

  Its scent sweetly beckoned to me, but I showed great restraint. I remained outside, watching.

  From what I could see, it was gakh, like me. Yet his ears had been cut off. The pointed tips, with their sensitive tufts of hair, were gone. Left behind were only rounded stumps. His tail was likewise missing. Where the tailbone was meant to start, just above his rump, he had nothing. Then, along his side, running from the pit of his arm to his hip, a rge discoloration marred his skin. An old bruise.

  Had the dakmu done these things to him? Why? Would they not have also eaten the rest of him?

  A slow thought turned over in my head.

  Perhaps this gakh was not an alpha.

  If that were so, then the dakmu must have removed and eaten the parts that they thought he did not need, keeping only the bits necessary for mating.

  Then had he escaped? I smelled no dakmu on him, but I knew they lingered nearby even now. Surely, they were tracking their escaped omega.

  Theirs.

  A simmering anger began to bubble within my chest the longer I took in the omega's pitiable appearance.

  How would he ever navigate the jungle? Without a tail, he could not leap from tree to tree, nor could he safely secure himself to their branches. The dakmu had effectively bound him to the earth; a shackle without the physical weight.

  It was a miracle that the dakmu had not taken his arms or legs. Although perhaps they intended to. Especially now that he had escaped from them.

  The notion added fuel to an already growing fire. A low growl rumbled in my chest, lip curling back to expose my fangs.

  The omega bit back a startled sound, his head snapping up and swiveling in my direction. His dark eyes were wide, filled with panic and fear. His scent shifted with that emotion, a hint of bitterness suddenly curling at the edges of his otherwise heady aroma.

  I had startled him.

  Suddenly, a shot of guilt struck me like a loosed arrow. I moved forward, out of the rain and into his den. Here, his pheromones were even more weighty. "Forgive me," I said, my voice strained from disuse. "I did not mean to frighten you. I —"

  The dark-eyed omega scrambled away from me, only stopping when the wall of rocks came up against his back.

  I tried again. "You have nothing to fear, omega. I am no dakmu. I am gakh, like you." My tail raised behind me, the furred tip curling ever-so-slightly forward in a friendly greeting. I could not remember when st I had made the gesture. Not since before coming of age, certainly. "Did the dakmu do this to you?" I reached out a hand, trying to brush his injured side.

  The omega shouted in a shrill, then kicked out a leg, trying to drive me back.

  I carefully withdrew my hand before pressing both into the dirt beneath my knees; a show that I was no threat, my cws well hidden. Yet it seemed to do very little to ease the tension hanging in the damp air. The omega simply stared, his wide gaze flitting fearfully between me and the dense jungle beyond.

  Carefully, I turned my head, my ears twitching as I struggled to hear beyond the rain.

  Only silence.

  Then a second ter, movement.

  It was distant, but I could faintly make out the sound of something moving heavy-footed through the trees. Another tense moment passed and the shuffle happened a second time, lumbering closer.

  With a sudden force, everything settled into perfect pce.

  The omega was not frightened of me. Rather, he feared the dakmu stalking in our direction. Why had I not realized it sooner?

  I knew immediately that we had need to get somewhere far away. Somewhere beyond their reach.

  Without further hesitation, I sprung up the slope. Snatching at the omega, I hauled him into myself. An arm hooked under his knees while the other turned him toward my chest. Then I was on my feet and pounding heavily into the rain. He made a sharp sound in my arms, pushing and twisting away, but I was already in a full run.

  "Do not fret." I tried to soothe him. "I will take you from here. They will not have you again, I promise."

  It would be difficult to climb while carrying him as I was. Still, we could not stay on the ground. I hefted and slung the omega over my shoulder, then cwed my way up the trunk of the tree nearest the den. When I had a sturdy branch within reach, I adjusted the omega in my hold and vaulted.

  For one fleeting moment, we were weightless, caught in suspension. Then we nded atop the rocky outcropping that sheltered his den. No sooner than my feet connected with the earth, I was tearing across the jungle floor.

  I knew it would take the dakmu precious moments to climb the rocky crag. They were big and strong, yes, but they were also heavy and slow. Much slower than I was. The dakmu were bound to the mud of the jungle, slowed by it. This while I had the advantage of the trees.

  By the time the dakmu reached the top of the cliff, I and the omega had gained a considerable distance.

  Against me, I could feel him shivering. His breathing was hitched and uneven. He felt like ice to my own burning skin.

  "You are safe." I turned my head toward the hip bouncing against my shoulder. I nudged him with my nose and took in his scent. It was still soft and sweet, but that same bitter twinge of fear stood out.

  His nerves were unlikely to calm until the dakmu were gone, I thought.

  fallenbeelzebub