Page 26 of Forbidden Wolf

Delicious nectar poured down my parched throat, tempting me to open my eyes. If I did that the fantasy would evaporate and leave me cold and lonely again.

“Tasha?”

The pain in my side had muted to a dull ache, and my head didn’t feel as fuzzy anymore. Tentatively, I opened one eye to find I was lying in a cave. My mouth was stuck together, and my fingers probed the injury to my side. It had scabbed over. I flinched and my head slumped back.

A shadow loomed over me but there was nothing left in me to fight with. Whatever it was could just eat me and be done with me. The figure knelt in front of me and reached out to tuck my hair behind my ear in a familiar gesture.

“I thought I lost you.” A male voice spoke.

I didn’t even have the energy to open my eyes again. All my limbs felt like they were filled with lead. There was nothing left in me but aches and pains.

Gentle hands lifted my head and more of that delicious ambrosia was poured down my throat. I was helpless to resist.

My life consisted of a few moments of lucidity, followed by a twilight world where everything was nothing but shadows and dull emotions. Sometimes, I convinced myself that the softness tickling my face was Levi’s wolf curled around me, protecting me. I missed his fur. Occasionally, I felt the fur of dead lycans I’d encountered. None of them were as soft as Levi.

I’d been drowning for so long in this existence of pain that my slow ascent to break into air left me feeling raw and shaky. Pushing myself to sit up, I studied my surroundings. The cave was big enough to ensure the sun didn’t find me. Not that it mattered anymore; my summer with Levi had changed me at a physical level, not just an emotional one.

Grimacing, I tried to move because after countless hours or days, I needed a drink and to breathe some fresh air. A figure I hadn’t noticed at the edge of the cave mouth turned and darted toward me. All I could do was hold a trembling hand up to defend myself.

“Easy, Tasha, you’re still weak from the toxin you’ve been fighting.” The male crouched in front of me and my weary heart stumbled over its beat.

Levi.

“I thought you were a dream,” I croaked, my mouth and throat dry.

His hand cupped my cheek.

“If it was a dream, then it was a nightmare,” he replied with a tired smile. “You’ve been in and out of consciousness for days. I thought I was never going to get that injury on your side healed.”

My hand went to my side to find smooth skin that my fingers traced up. “Where are my clothes?”

“They were rancid and contaminating your wound, so I had to remove them.” His eyes flicked down over my exposed body. “I didn’t think you’d mind since I’d already seen you naked.”

We both knew he’d done a lot more than look in the past.

What little energy I had was fading fast.

“You need to feed.” He bit into his wrist and held it against my lip. The delicious blood finally made sense.

My hands closed around his wrist, my eyes on the blood trickling from the wound.

“You’ve been feeding me.” It wasn’t a question.

“You were trying to die on me when you promised me Paris.” Levi tucked himself in behind me and wrapped his arm around me to put his wrist at my mouth. “You need strength to fight whatever was in that bite to your side.”

I gently sucked the wound, his blood filling my mouth with his unique flavour. Nothing else tasted like Levi, his flavour dark and seductive with a hint of masculine spice. My fangs ached in my gums, but my body didn’t possess the energy for them to descend. I licked his wound to help it heal.

“What happened?” he asked.

Did he mean the attack or the past ten years without him?

My fingers linked through his and I rested my head against him. “The last time I saw you was ten years ago. You need to be more specific.”

His deep chuckle made his chest vibrate under my cheek. “Yeah, we’ll get to that later. What attacked you because that was neither a lycan nor a vamp bite.”

“No idea, all I know is that one tentacle grabbed my leg while another grabbed my throat. It held me under the water while it bit me.”

“Did you jump out of a tree at it?” he asked, his fingers squeezing mine.

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