Page 25 of Forbidden Wolf

“No idea,” I gasped, my vision swimming in and out of focus.

In my mind, I was back ten years in time to a forest I’d lived in since my pack migrated there from Europe. Only one person sent these strange shivers deep into my core.

“Levi…” Her voice sounded in my head. My heart stumbled over its beat in recognition.

Tasha.

Her pain was mine. The panic blooming in my chest belonged to her but echoed in me. My head snapped up and my eyes glowed amber as my wolf paced restlessly inside me. He could sense her as an extension of us. She was close by and in pain.

“I can’t explain right now, but I have to go,” I said, struggling to stand. “Get to the rest of the team and radio through for an emergency airlift out of here.”

Radar tried to grab my arm. “Levi…”

“It’s difficult to understand. Do you trust me?” I said.

“Hell yes, you’ve saved all of us countless times.”

“Then trust me now. I need to go.” I didn’t wait for any further argument from him.

Instead, I followed an invisible cord that had connected Tasha and me from the first night we bit each other. I’d always known where she was in that forest, the true north on my internal compass. It was no different now. Footsteps sounded to my left and I ducked low, pressing myself to the ground behind a bush when a vampire unit raced down from a helicopter toward the fighting. More victims for whatever lurked in the mud.

A familiar tug resonated in my solar plexus and I turned to my right, following a line of dead trees. Every one of my wolf instincts were on red alert, trying to capture Tasha’s scent. The smell of death became too strong and my faith started to fail when I saw a figure lying face down under a tree. There was no movement, and she looked like another corpse on the battlefield. I rolled her, crouching low. She gasped in pain, her fingers fluttering to the massive injury on her side. She was so pale that I doubted there was any blood left in her body.

My breath was stuck in my chest until it physically hurt to inhale, my heart beating rapidly. This couldn’t be the vibrant Tasha who lived in my memories. It just fucking couldn’t be. My hands shook as I tried to cover her wound, a tear slipping down my cheek.

“This isn’t fucking Paris, Tasha,” I ground out, slashing my dagger across my hand, and holding it to her lips. She’d fed from my blood before with no side effects. My wolf prowled restlessly inside me, demanding to get out to her.

Her throat never even moved to swallow, her eyes still closed, her head flopping back.

“Shit.” I bit the side of my mouth with my canine, and then pressed my lips to hers and let the blood flow into her mouth. My thumb massaged her throat in a vague swallowing gesture.

Please, I silently prayed, continuing to bite into my mouth and force the blood down her throat. We were halfway there to the twenty years we promised each other. It was the only thing that kept me going most days, the focal point in the distance that propelled me forward. To get to Paris we both had to stay alive.

My fingers dug into her as I held her cold near lifeless body tight against my heat.

My lips pursed together to stop my whimper from emerging. I pressed my forehead into her shoulder so that my tears were for her alone to sense. My claws lengthened as I fought my wolf for control. I would set fire to whatever was under that water if she died.

***

Tasha

I existed in a world of pain and coldness. Whatever those phantom creatures were, I felt certain they had not evolved on this planet. I’d studied evolution and species for years and never encountered anything like what was out there. A tentacle had wrapped around my leg, dragging me under the putrid water. Another grabbed my throat as the mouth bit deep into my side. Instead of screaming, I inhaled a lung full of mud and slime.

For five years, I’d fought in remote areas of the world, my unit punished by Castus for unseen crimes. He took rejection badly. We rarely saw lycans, and most of those we encountered were already dead. The creatures that were killing us were slaughtering the lycans in equal measure. I’d witnessed death, held members of my unit as blood gurgled from their mouths as they succumbed to their demise. Sometimes they called for family members; other times they stared vacantly at the sky.

Garbled voices sounded against my ear as I lay in agony with my body shaking uncontrollably. Some shouted and others whispered. Occasionally, I made out the deep voice of a male shouting commands. None of it made any sense to me.

My last thought as I lay gasping was Levi.

Ten years ago, I met the only man who could touch me. The sexual touch of others repulsed me, and I would never know if it was because he was my first or if I would have been like this even without meeting him. Even before Levi, I’d avoided any sexual contact.

In my delirium, I thought I tasted his blood and heard his voice. I even imagined the heat of his flesh warming me as it had done so many times that summer.

“Tasha?”

I burrowed deeper into that heat and allowed my imagination to take me to my happy place. In the brief times we made it back to base to rest, his memories helped me sleep. My fantasises were about us living deep in the forest with the magical waterfall. We’d run away to be together and loved freely.

A cool hand felt my fevered brow the way Mum used to do when I was little and told her I couldn’t go to school because of a bellyache.

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