Page 1 of Howling Eve (Ragoru Origins #2)

Chapter One

S kal was alone. He was old. He was scarred. And he was alone. He didn’t try to follow the other males who formed triads and sought promised mates among an unfamiliar people—humans. He did not trust them. Their cities were loud, and they gathered like wasps on a hive, always ready to sting as far as he could see. Nor did he have any desire to form a triad. His males and his mate, like so many others before the passage, had died slow, terrible deaths on their home world. The gods were merciful in that he had never sired rogs only to watch them die as well. That he survived his mate was enough shame.

He was not a fool. He knew that this was a new chance and opportunity for males who lost their families to try again and had begun forming triads even before arriving to this world. He snarled unpleasantly at any male who attempted to approach him, ensuring that they would leave him alone. Skal was too old and too mean to welcome any other males into his company, and he had little interest in trying to attract another mate. He sought nothing more than some secluded place where he could pass what was left of his life in comfort and peace.

At least humans did not venture far from their hives, leaving much of the wilderness free. Much of it was filled with other monsters without a safe place to truly rest, but it was merely an inconvenience compared to what he had left behind. What he could sate his appetite on, he avoided as he continued to make his way among the vast stretches of land, looking for the place that he would call his.

He didn’t need much. Many triads sought sprawling territories that would keep others far from their dens. He just wanted a small, defensible area that would make it easy for him to keep out Ragoru and humans alike.

Casting a look around the mist-shrouded forest, Skal rumbled in approval. He liked this place. Sheer cliffs of a mountain enclosed much of it, leaving only a narrow access point into it except for the forest that funneled into it from a small opening of land directly to the west. The mist poured in through the forest, gathering against the cliffs like water filling a basin. It was thick and dense, obscuring much of the woods within it. He was not a small male. Even among Ragoru, he tended to tower over most of them and was broader across the chest, and yet he felt comfortably concealed as he slipped through among the trees, the autumn leaves crunching softly beneath his paws.

His ears pricked, his sharp sight scanning for any hint of the dangerous predatory plants that grew where trees sprung up the thickest. He had to remain alert for their presence. Even a full-grown Ragoru could be pulled down by one of the monstrous plants and consumed. That aside, his stomach felt empty and hollow. Hunger gnawed at him. Traveling through the mountains had yielded little game, and now that he was in the woods, he was eager to search for prey.

His nose twitched as he slipped among the trees. He paused as he caught a faint, appealing scent. It was sweet, thick, and musky, with a sharp blend of spices that made him salivate. A branch cracked, and there was a rushed, rustling sound as something darted among the bushes. Skal’s ear turned to follow the sound, but he dismissed it, suddenly far more intrigued by this new scent. Under the rich food smells, there was another tantalizing scent that he could not quite identify. It intrigued him, pulling him in as much as the other scent did. It pulled him through the woods and mist until a glow of light shimmered and broke through the haze. It pulled him up short because humans made this light, but he did not hesitate long.

The light was solitary and weak. A lone human or a very small number at most. Not enough to overpower a male such as himself. He would frighten them away and claim the territory and the delicious things within it for his own.

Skal’s hackles rose with his excitement as he sped toward that light, watching as it grew bigger. He didn’t stop until he was at the edge of a very small clearing where a human den sat in the midst without any others nearby. He slowly peered around, his nostrils flaring to pick up the scents. The tasty food smell was stronger than ever, but the other scent had grown as well and become more defined. A sweet human scent.

His head cocked curiously. This was unusual. Nearly all of his human experiences with human scents were stale and layered over each other repeatedly from the close contact that they seemed to enjoy with each other. They were not anything he considered appealing. It was actually the opposite. He disliked the sourness of human musk, but there was a ripeness and freshness to this human scent that made him lick his teeth hungrily. He was confused as to why it was alone, but he felt emboldened by it, too. There was no reason not to investigate. It had been so long since he felt intrigue over anything that he suddenly felt alive and excited.

Prowling through the darkening woods, he crept closer. His ears tipping forward, he cautiously scented the air as he closed the distance between himself and the human den, wary in case there was some sudden new arrival.

But no one came. There were no new sounds. No new unpleasant scents. Just the delicious scents that drifted from the wooden den, teasing his senses, and luring him in as much as the light called to him and invited him.

The hour was growing later, the darkness closing in among the heavy cluster of trees, and the mist thickened to a fog shrouding everything. It made his fur damp where it clung to him, and he wondered if the human knew that he was there. If the human could see his pale gray fur at all. If the human was scared.

Did he want them to be?

Skal wanted the territory and the strange den. But he also wanted the tasty things, including the human scent.

He would investigate and savor—and then he would decide if he would chase the human away or keep the human as his—as part of his new territory. He hungered for home and comfort, but these new scents made me hunger for something he hadn’t desired for many turns of the seasons. He hungered .