Page 1 of Forbidden Wolf

Tasha

Every day took me nearer to my twenty-first birthday in a few weeks, a step closer to conscription into the vampire army, to kill our mortal enemy: the lycans. The war had lasted centuries and consumed so many lives that I doubted anyone kept a tally anymore. So many new recruits didn’t survive a year that I doubted I would see my twenty-second birthday.

After dragging my long black hair into a messy bun on top of my head, I pulled on my converse trainers. The need to escape pulsed deep in my veins. All the metal shutters in the facility were firmly in place to stop any harmful rays of the sun creeping in to cause death or injury to any of the vampires in the science core.

The metallic scent of blood tempted me toward the feeding hall, my stomach rumbling since I hadn’t eaten for days. I tended to pick at human food and drink coffee to keep my stomach filled between meals since blood was scarce this far into the Amazon rainforest in Guyana. There was no nourishment in human food, but it kept the hunger pangs at bay.

My fangs throbbed in my gums like athletes readying themselves for the starter pistol to sound. A bead of sweat formed at my brow in anticipation as I paced to where the commander stored the blood. Would there be any left?

The only benefit to enlisting in the army was that I would be given a ration; right now, I had to rely on what was left behind at the end of mealtime or ask my father to share his. He already gave to my little sister, so I hated to make him share it three ways. I didn’t want to be a burden to my family.

As I opened the door, the red light bleeped. An almost empty bag sat at the bottom of the fridge. Occasionally, the scientists left some blood for those of us without ration status. As my fangs ripped into the bag to gulp down what remained, my eyes closed in ecstasy.

Mother worked in another facility that didn’t allow offspring. There, she studied lycan pack behaviour and hunted for a rare species of flower believed to be able to neutralise their wolf form. Father studied vampire and lycan genetics here in this laboratory. They were far from the frontline of war since they’d served their twenty years conscription in the army and were now allowed to work in their chosen specialist areas.

Stretching and allowing the blood to strengthen me, I began to jog around the facility until the last rays of sunlight disappeared over the horizon. It helped to calm me as I prepared to escape into the night-time world. My palms itched even as I bounced up and down on my toes. The shutter slowly opened to reveal the inky darkness outside.

Night.

The aroma of the flowers in the rainforest combined with the distinct scent of every animal out there to form a cacophony of flavours to tickle my senses. My feet hit the edge of the precipice, and I flung myself headfirst into the forest, my hands grabbing a branch to swing myself up to crouch in the tree. My night vision could make out every tree and branch for miles around, detect the tiniest moths drinking nectar from flowers.

Freedom called to me like a seductress tempting me to sin. Every day I waited for this moment when I could stop being me and become merely a shadow in the night. Just another ghost in this huge ecosystem the humans had yet to explore. It was one of the few places on Earth that the night creatures could roam freely, without fear of discovery.

My nails elongated into claws that allowed me to leap between branches or climb tree trunks. At times, I flew alongside bats as I jumped from one tree to another. The air cooled my skin and allowed me to breathe fully after being locked inside that metal box all day.

Freedom made time irrelevant as I joined the other night creatures that I sensed around me in a myriad of emotions. Darkness was my protector from prying eyes below. A large shape caught my attention in the forest basin, so black it blended into its surroundings. I’d seen many jaguars on my travels and had heard rumours of a rare black jaguar in this area of the forest. My pulse leapt with excitement that this could be the big cat I’d been stalking for the past week.

Using my claws to climb down the tree, I cautiously jumped the last few feet to try and catch a peek of the elusive beast. Too late, I realised it was a black wolf prowling low to the ground. He reared around and snapped his canines. They dug deep into my arm, tearing through my flesh. I retaliated and bit his shoulder to try and force him to release me.

We lay on the ground, breathing hard as we stared at each other in horror. Our blood dripped onto the ground from our wounds to permeate into the forest floor.

Dead.

I was dead.

Lycan bites were deadly to vampires, and as much as we’d searched the globe, there was no cure. I knew that from reading Dad’s research.

His form slowly changed from black wolf to a male around my age. There was a feral magnetic energy emanating from the man that screeched danger. The wildness of nature resided in his tawny hazel eyes that met mine, shock in their depths.

“You fucking bit me,” he snarled, twisting his head as if to inspect my bite on the back of his shoulder. His solid muscles flexed as his body moved, making me feel small and weak in his presence.

When I imagined my death, it was in a heroic situation where I saved humans from the lycan threat. It never occurred to me that it would be as a virgin, lying deep in the heart of the rainforest on my ass, poisoned by a lycan bite.

I lay stunned on the ground, holding the wound that began to throb and burn on my arm. The wolf was well over six-foot tall with messy black hair. He was completely naked, his wide chest covered in ropes of muscles that led all the way down to a substantial cock between his legs. Although some of my friends in college had boyfriends and indulged in sex, no one had caught my attention until this very moment when faced with this naked male. Although I was scared and in pain, something about this wolf held me in his thrall. This apex predator towered over me with waves of power emanating from him.

He glared daggers at me, his eyes glowing amber as his beast emerged.

A foreign emotion curled low in my belly and radiated up my spine. Heat pulsed between my legs and made my thighs tighten. Pushing myself onto my feet, I gave him my best impression of my mother, arching an eyebrow and scowling.

“Technically you bit me first. What the hell are you doing out after dark?” I snapped.

His eyes cut away, and his jaw tightened. There was an unwritten law out here that the daylight hours belonged to the lycans and that the night was owned by the vampires.

“You jumped out of a tree on top of me,” he said, returning his deadly stare and shifting the blame to me.

No one ever told me that lycans could perform magic, but there was something in his gaze that held me immobile. A mesmerising quality that made me stop in my tracks and stare at him. I waited for the terror I felt when I saw other lycans in the forest—it didn’t appear. Instead, my panties felt tight and my stomach knotted.

“I thought you were a black jaguar and wanted to see one for myself,” I admitted, folding my arms across my chest to try and make me look more threatening.

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