Page 82 of Bosse
Jaz sat back, watching everyone.
Adrian leaned forward with his elbows on his knees and hands clasped.
“I am known as the Guardian,” the eagle shifter started. “I’ve been told you’re Bosse and that you escaped a castle in Slovakia where a lion shifter kept you captive.”
“This is true.” Bosse had been told this man was a guardian, but he now believed Guardian was the eagle shifter’s name.
“I’d like to know more about the person behind capturing other shifters.”
More than ready to share, Bosse explained, “He is called Krol. He is a lion shifter who believes he is a king and, as such, deserves entertainment like battles fought long ago in the Greek Parthenon. Everyone is expected to live as if we are in medieval times. He’s insane. He pits two shifters against each other to fight to the death.” Bosse wished that did not sound so civilized. “I was there two years. At first, he cheered when I continued to win my battles against other wolf shifters, but then he grew bored and sent me into the arena with other larger types of animals. The last one I fought was a Cape buffalo.”
Jaz showed a tiny reaction—respect—because she’d been raised by a Kodiak bear clan. Adrian smiled as if telling himself Bosse would be a great addition to the pack.
That would only be if he stayed.
“I hated every minute,” Bosse admitted. “My opponents were as innocent as me, but I had to protect my wolf, and he protected me.”
“I understand,” the Guardian said. “I would not judge you on those deaths. We have heard rumors of this lion shifter over the past year and stories of missing shifters, but we’ve found no one who knew how to find him—only people who heard of someone going to meet the lion shifter and never coming back. Shifter informants were not able to track these people. Trails ended at the same area each time.”
Bosse thought on the lack of information and shared, “That is because Krol keeps his people close to the castle and will kill anyone caught talking about him. His guards are human, but he pays a few shifters well to deliver fish, game, and other food. They feel under his protection and do not go into cities where they might speak to outsiders. As for the trail ending, Krol may be crazy, but he’s not stupid. He shows his humans how to wipe a scent trail to prevent unwanted intruders.”
Taking a moment to digest that, the Guardian said, “I want to know how he could kidnap shifters without a revolt from their packs.”
Bosse opened his hands. “It is simple. He shows up with a small army of human guards plus mercenary shifters who are paid well to do whatever Krol wants. When he captures a shifter, he warns the pack he will return to kill all the mates and offspring if anyone dares to come for their shifter or speaks of the kidnapping. In my case, the alpha did not want me to stay because I refused to breed females I would not take as mates. He sold me to Krol. My mother went along with it all. I had no other family.”
A dark look passed through Jaz’s face. She hadn’t liked to hear that, but she remained quiet.
This Guardian frowned, clearly not liking what Krol had done any more than Jaz had. He switched the direction of their conversation. “We believe he may have captured a female mate of one of my shifters.”
Jaz lost all relaxed composure and sat up straight. She asked, “Who?” at the same moment as Adrian.
“I will share that in just a bit,” the Guardian replied, lifting a hand to stall more questions. “Since my shifters would track anyone touching a mate to the ends of this world, I wish for Bosse to explain if he knows how this Krol could have taken a shifter while leaving no scent trail.”
“No scent? The guy is a lion shifter,” Adrian mused out loud.
“Exactly, but there was no animal or human scent to track this time,” the eagle shifter confirmed. “The only smell noted was of dark magic in the last spot where the mate’s scent lingered. Is Krol more than a shifter?”
Bosse stared at the ground, thinking. He lifted his head, meeting the Guardian’s disturbing eagle eyes. “Was it a recent kidnapping?”
“Yes. It happened yesterday in Austria.”
“Oh, no.” Jaz sounded deeply hurt, as if she knew the pack.
Nodding to himself, Bosse said, “I left the castle a couple of days back. The night I escaped, Krol left for five or six hours earlier that afternoon. Krol wields no magic that I know of, but he returned with something unnatural even in the shifter world.”
“What do you mean?” Jaz cocked her head.
“It appears to have been... made, not born,” Bosse replied. “I have no way to know for sure, but I have never seen or heard of a Lammogo. The upper body is the head and wings of a Lammergeier. Krol bragged they are vultures from South Africa with eagle-like heads and are very large in natural form. This one has a gigantic wingspan. I believe the lower body is that of a lion, and I am guessing that someone bonded those two together with magic.”
“Dark magic,” Adrian said as if the very word tasted dirty.
Bosse canted his head in agreement. “Yes. I could smell the stench down in the arena when Krol brought the creature to sit with him above where we fought. This thing is large enough to grasp a man my size with its talons and fly it from one place to another. Other than the magic scent, I never picked up a smell of any sort from it. Since it flies, it would be hard to track. Krol sent the Lammogo after me when I ran, and I barely managed to elude it.”
Jaz groaned and covered her eyes with her hand. “That’s awful. Ivo must be out of his mind.”
The eagle shifter sat back and said, “The mate is no small woman. She is six feet tall and pregnant. You’re saying you think this Lammogo could fly away with someone that size when she’d be fighting him?”
Bosse kept feeding them more information. “If Krol is the one who has taken the mate, then yes. I saw his pet lift a full-grown sheep. I believe the creature’s claws stunned it. When it released the sheep in front of Krol, the poor animal did not move a muscle. I have not seen this thing harm anyone yet, but I can’t say that it won’t. The Lammogo seemed to be trained to retrieve.”
