Page 32 of Forbidden Wolf

A faint smile touched his lips. “I’ve spent ten years wanting to find you. If they kill us, at least we’ll die together.”

“How romantic,” I replied, sarcasm lacing my words.

“We’re both warriors. What says romance more than hunting down whatever is killing both our species out there?”

I rolled my eyes at him. “If you get me killed, I’m coming back to haunt you.”

A tremor of apprehension and excitement pulsed down my spine at the thought of tracking whatever was out there, especially with Levi at my side. Even though something else was hunting us, lycans and vampires were still sworn enemies. I promised myself long ago that I would find a way to be with Levi. A common enemy would do that.

Settling myself on Levi, I allowed myself the luxury of feeling his arms around me, keeping me safe. It was only when I sensed the security of his protection that I finally admitted how scared I’d been for years.

Vampires were many things, but first and foremost we were apex predators at the top of the food chain. We killed without emotion or remorse. My inner beast paced restlessly inside me at the thought of embarking on a quest. Tomorrow, I would find and destroy one of those creatures, as long as I could achieve that before it located and killed us first.

***

Tasha

Rancid mud surrounded us up to my waist. Levi powered through undeterred, his hand holding mine. Weapons were strapped to his arms and back to avoid the quagmire. He held a scanning device in his other hand, his gaze moving between the device and the land around us, as though searching for a hidden enemy.

Somewhere in the past ten years, Levi had grown into a man with muscles of steel and an attitude to match. I’d loved the boy, but the man left me lost and confused. His kisses were enough to scorch me and his touch made me weak in the knees, but he was a distant stranger. He called me his mate but stared at me with rage in his eyes. I wasn’t sure whether I should be terrified or mesmerised.

I stumbled, and he hauled me closer to him, those hazel eyes flashing over me.

“You need to feed,” he said, his gaze assessing the horizon for a place to stop.

“No.” I held my hand up in protest. “I just need to rest for a few minutes.”

Feeding used to be spontaneous and sexy with Levi, in the heat of the moment. Now he made it feel clinical and a task he needed to perform every few hours against his will.

His eyes narrowed on my face, so I turned away to study the wasteland that had once been luscious meadows filled with vibrancy and life. I wasn’t the same girl I’d been that summer. Gone was my careless attitude and nights spent doing whatever I wanted. War had crushed me under its heel, and Castus had taken a personal grudge because I’d avoided his advances. My life was a living hell that sucked the energy out of my soul.

A flicker of movement passed my left leg. I froze, my gaze moving down to study the static black liquid. The pain in my side gnawed deep into my flesh even though the skin had healed over. Something still festered in there, making me sick and weak.

When something long and thin slithered up my leg, probing my side, nausea burned my throat.

“Levi,” I said in a low voice, not wanting to move in case it was one of the creatures, and it bit me again. I squeezed his hand and deliberately moved my eyes to my side.

His jaw tightened, and he checked the scanner in his hand. The area around us was completely black. Levi passed me the device and detached a blaster from the strap around his bicep.

I hated snakes, and anything with more than four legs tended to not be on my favourite species list either.

Levi’s eyes locked on mine, and he silently counted down with his fingers. He shot the area with a stun blast and then launched himself into the mud, his hand dragging a tentacle out, followed by a small red creature with a massive snapping jaw and red eyes. It possessed four tentacled arms and two stumpy legs. The tentacles lashed out ferociously, two of them finding Levi’s body to clamp around, one still in Levi’s right hand, and the last trying to reach me.

I always kept a dagger up my left sleeve and flicked it out in time to cut into the tentacle, severing the tip before it could touch me. The creature screeched, his jaws trying to bite anything it could reach even as Levi held it away from him. Blood trickled down Levi’s arms where the tentacles touched him.

I began hacking at the limbs of the creature, black blood oozing from its wounds into the swamp. A switch inside my head flipped, and I plunged the dagger over and over in a frenzied attack, my fangs lowering in response to the battle.

It squirmed from Levi’s grasp, and its jaws latched onto my shoulder. I gasped as burning pain radiated down my arm. Levi’s hands transformed into wolf paws with elongated claws. He grabbed the top and bottom jaw and pulled until the head ripped apart.

I stood staring at the twitching body.

A bigger tentacled creature leapt from the water and dragged the other one under the inky blackness. I jumped backwards, flailing in the mud.

“What the fuck was that?” Levi demanded; his gaze fixed on where they’d disappeared into.

“No idea.” A wave of dizziness swept over me, my hand fluttering to my chest.

Nothing got past my guardian; his hazel eyes flashed tawny amber as his wolf made an appearance. “You’re weak.”

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