Chapter Seven
Ebenezer
We are let into the room where the humans are kept. The lights are low, calming. I hear Theo gasp quietly. I give him a sharp look but he leans in and whispers loudly, “These aren’t rooms, they’re cages!”
I grab his arm, “Hush. This is the most effective way we’ve found. They’re safe. Unharmed.”
Just then we walk past a room with a woman crying, sitting at the back of her cell.
Theo shoots me a glare. Our light, the green, is off.
My chest aches with pity, but I suspect her gentle nature will earn her a lower ranking and, more importantly, easy-going chime, perhaps one with a beta attached to them as well.
Theo and I had ruled her out due to the distance from which she would be from her family if she was to join our chime.
Arch is frowning too. He stops in front of her. “Why can’t I hear her?” He inhales. “I can smell her.”
Erik answers from behind me. “Bio-filters. If you would like to speak to one of the women, I can deactivate it. But... I don’t recommend it.”
Arch frowns harder. Good thing he’s stone, or he’d have some wicked frown lines. I put a hand on his arm again. “Come on. We don’t have all day.”
The three of us walk the rows, only stopping at rooms with the green light still activated.
One looks much younger than her listed age of thirty-one human years, so we deactivate her touch screen.
Another lays, sleeping or more-like pretending to, on the floor.
Deactivate. An exceedingly slender female, and another that barely comes up to Arch’s waist, we decide against, as we are all larger males and we are not sure of the danger to a tiny female carrying our winglings.
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.”