Page 187 of Monsters in Love

Knowing my duty as an elder to this new generation, I agreed to help. “Continue your research, Jalen. I wish to know all we can about our mate.” I moved away from my brothers, even as Jalen muttered under his breath about slow connection speeds and other technologicall ills.

When I returned home and dissolved the old contracts with House Gorgo, I could publicly claim Capricorn as she should be. The other clan will not be happy. However, they would listen to reason, especially with the promise that magic would flow in the mountain once more.

I joined the ranks of the first-years buzzing with their new roles as blooded orcs. Demonstrating how I would prepare and store our kills for travel, I pried open the massive rib cage with barely a grunt. I cut out the prized organs, displaying each one to the young hunters.

I paused when I encountered the deer’s heart. It was unusually large. Upon closer inspection, I saw there were two hearts, not just one. Even the captain cheered at that.

Twin hearts. This was a good omen. I called out to the rest of the clutch to finish what I’d started. Many eager hands made the work quick.

I cleaned and wrapped the hearts carefully. These would make a lovely gift. The sooner we were done, the sooner I could give these to Capricorn.

Ihad to be patient for an extra few days while we detoured around rock slides and impasses along the trail. These inconveniences had nullified the quick work of the hunt, but at least we would still be back before the start of term.

Imagining Capricorn’s face kept me going. Needing her near me had allowed me to set and keep a brutal pace for the rest of the hunting party. No one dared complain.

Everything had reminded me of her. Her laugh. Her scent. Her wicked tongue.

A rival team had nearly ambushed me as I was thinking about her soft, creamy center, and how she tightened around my tongue.

Gods, the taste of her sweet cream down my throat was a delicacy I would hoard.

Though it felt like an entire century, Rothgar, Jalen, and I broke from the rest of the party with the captain’s blessing. After a stop at one of our cabins in the foothills to clean the week’s hunt from our bodies, we finally made our way back to the Gloaming District.

Something was very wrong.

I could feel it in the air as soon as I moved through the village.

Capricorn’s scent was gone completely. Even though days had passed, her scent would not disappear as if she had never been here. I did not detect the subtle flavor that had haunted me for months on the campus grounds.

Her presence still called to me. The bit of her that twined with the dhara’s essence still thrummed within me. At least I knew she lived. That feeling alone was the only reason I did not wage an open war upon the damned pixie who refused to even speak to me when we stopped at the tavern. Capricorn’s scent was absent here, too, though it had been layered into the very essence of this establishment one week prior.

When I had reminded Tia the pixie of the retainer I had given her, she winked away from me in a flash of light, only to reappear with the bag of gold, which she hurled at me.

Though she was little, she was fierce.

I did not want to go to Capricorn’s home with Boudica, at least not like this—frustrated and enraged. I would have preferred for her to invite us. However, with this sudden and strange disappearance, I had no choice.

Boudica of the River Tribe had scent markers that were easy enough to follow, and soon we were at her doorstep. It was a comfortably sized, bungalow-style town house in a quiet section of town. A little farther off campus, but closer to downtown and Bespelled Brews.

I did not like the idea of all these darkened pathways that Capricorn would have to walk to and from her classes. I would need to provide a better solution for her.

I pressed the buzzer at the door. Resonant doorbells echoed within. When the silence stretched with no answer, I tried the door once more.

“Perhaps there are other ways to enter,” Jalen suggested. He looked at the entryways and scoped the windows.

“Tempting, but I do not want to disturb any wards,” I said.

“This is beyond troubling,” Rothgar growled. He paced the length of the front porch, scanning the streets for any sign of her. “She should be here.”

“Perhaps she is back on campus, and we have just missed her,” Jalen said.

“You should have planted a tracker on her,” Rothgar muttered.

That wasn’t a bad idea, considering.

“Maybe it would be worth going in and doing a welfare check?” Jalen offered. “I could go in and out and make sure her wards are intact.”

Rothgar jumped on that idea. “Yes, do that! What if she’s hurt and immobilized and cannot call out?”

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