“No kingdoms live in peace forever,” Lola said.“Peace is like a season.When it happens, it’s inevitable that it will eventually end.What caused your people’s peace to end?”
He chuckled.“Curious cat.”
“I’m not a cat,” she pointed out.
“Not yet,” he said softly.
Lola shook her head.“I’m not touching that with a fifty-foot pole.Continue please.”
“Our kingdoms did as the Shaman requested.We established homes all over earth.And as the world evolved, we evolved with it.We integrated ourselves into society with humans.The Shaman sealed the portal so we’d never go home.This was now our home.We had to adapt in order to have any kind of life.
“Other than mostly minor disagreements, the ten kingdoms have managed to keep peace.”He paused and looked away briefly, almost as if he wasn’t sure if he wanted to continue.
“What?”Lola asked.
“The peace was strained about a decade ago.”
She frowned.“What changed?”
“Over time, for some unknown reason, the birth rates of our kind began to decline.And the children that were born to our kind were predominantly male.In fact, there have been no females born to a Damarian in over a century.”He looked her in the eyes.“This has caused the males old enough to have a mate to become quite… tense.”
“Why do I have a feeling that it made them tense for a reason other than some romantic desire for a wife?”Lola asked.She felt like whatever Callon was about to reveal to her was huge.
Callon ran a hand through his untamed hair.“Because having a mate for one of our males is much more than simply a partner to share a life with.We share the soul of the beast inside of us, but that beast is locked inside until we have a mate and the bond between us is completed.Then, and only then, can a male of my kind shift into their full animal form, as will his female.
“It’s then that we are at our strongest and most powerful.The more fully-shifted beastwalkers a kingdom has, the more powerful a kingdom is and therefore safer.”
Lola’s chest was tight as she breathed.She could hear the worry in Callon’s voice as he spoke.“So your kind is again in jeopardy of becoming extinct, but this time not because of war?”
“Yes, we were.There simply weren’t enough females.”
Lola’s brow furrowed.“Were?”
He nodded slowly.“I mentioned that the tension between the kingdoms started to grow about a decade ago.There is a reason for that.Something changed.”
Lola found herself leaning closer to him.“What?What changed?”She wanted to shake him and tell him to spit it out.Callon wasn’t a book that she could simply read faster in her eagerness to know more of the story.She had to wait on him to tell her.Another reason to like books better than people.
“We discoveredanimi,” he said, his voice filled with reverence.
“Okay,” she said slowly.“If I have to pull every ounce of information out of you piece by piece, I’m going to get violent.There are some things you need to know about me before we go any further with this.”She motioned between them, using his earlier words.“I need to know all the things.And I need to know them yesterday.”
Callon chuckled.“Believe me, Little Cat, I know how curious you are and how desperately you long for answers to things you don’t understand.”
“Stalker,” she muttered.
“Yes,” he responded without an ounce of shame.
“What is a damnanimi?”She practically growled at him.Her face was less than four inches from his.Lola hadn’t realized that she’d continued to move toward him while she’d been talking.
“You are,” he whispered, leaning closer until she could feel his warm breath on her face.
Lola blinked, attempting to clear the fog of lust that rose at his proximity.“I’m a human woman,” she argued.
“And ananimus,” Callon said.
Lola leaned away, needing a little distance before she did something completely embarrassing, like kissing him until neither of them could breathe.“Which is what, exactly?”
“Ananimusis a human female who has been imbued with the magic of our kind, and therefore a compatible mate for a beastwalker.Animiare able to complete the bond and bring out the beast laying dormant within a Damarian male.”Callon reached out and ran his thumb across her jaw.“You are precious.You are the answer to our survival.But precious things are coveted by many… and fought over.”
