Chapter 31

                                    

                                          
The lush green landscape outside her window was not so different than Sophia's birth pack. Makes sense since it's between Crescent Valley and here.
Lightning bugs, with their short bursts of brightness, speckled her view. Some were warning predators away, some summoning lovers, and some calling for supper. Poor males, landing next to a female thinking she had beckoned them for romance to find themselves being eaten alive instead. They don't even get the same satisfaction as praying mantises or black widows. To be consumed by the mother of your offspring must be somewhat rewarding, right?
The view was cut out, and her head shook to clear that train of thought from her mind. She needs to get out of this room and go home. The last time she saw anything from outside of their suite was in Dominic's arms as he carried her up from the basement. Back when it was just her in her body.
A hand rested on her unchanged stomach. All the action was happening inside. If Dominic hadn't told her, she wouldn't have known.
"It's still early. Things can go awry." Focusing on the horizon was limited by the amount of haze in the air and had nothing to do with the flat topography or vegetation. She was above the treetops, looking at all the places she couldn't go.
A tight collection of skyscrapers blurred into the fog of the atmosphere in the distance. Humans are so funny. Sure, wolves are pack animals. But the need for the smaller species to be together is so strong that they accommodate this instinct by building up when they don't have enough land. What are they doing that would require them to be fifty stories in the air so that others can be thirty floors below them?
That was one of the more shocking revelations of watching the twin towers go down. Not the amount of destruction humans wage against one another, but why were so many people crammed into those buildings? Do they all know each other? Or do they want to be around others to ignore them?
Maybe one day, she'll understand the more populated species that seem out of balance with their lives, but for now, she'll admire them from a distance. And wonder what it would be like to be in one of those tall, shiny buildings.
The sound of stiff Styrofoam breaking pulled her out of her thoughts, and she scanned the room empty of other life. The furniture that seemed impressive when she first entered only held her interest for the first few hours. It was a substitution of money for personality. Peter would not let them live in a room like this back home, that's for sure.
A smattering of white powder across white tile was more noticeable by the speckles of shadows it cast than the presence of the material itself. But there are no footprints in it, and didn't she come that way?
Another light shaking of her head. She must have walked up from the kitchen area. This pacing is getting monotonous.
Where would a broom be kept in here? Maybe there's a closet in the kitchen. Go back the way you came from to keep your feet clean.
Ripping and tearing noises and a thump pulled her from her domestic planning. There was no longer a sprinkling of dust but a collection of debris and...
Kiran lunged forward, "It's mate!"
The fogginess she had been feeling was now explained by the sudden revelation that her former mate was nearby and not, in fact, in a cell where he was supposed to be.
More prepared to drop from a ceiling and neutralize her than she was to receive him, he used his advantage to slap a single silver cuff to her wrist before she could use the mindlink to call for help.
Oh, goddess, he was bigger than she remembered and more menacing too. A face so darkened by evil intent would still seem shaded in full sunlight. Sinister eyes and a jaw held tight by rage glowered down on her.