Page 57 of Forbidden Wolf

Mustering what remained of my inner courage, I forced a smile on my face and pretended that I wasn’t filled with an incandescent fury that threatened to bubble over and scald the first person who annoyed me.

“Why don’t you show me your paintings, pipsqueak?”

There were dozens of paintings of different levels of darkness. Some were merely colours that represented pain, desperation, and despair. They clawed deep into my soul that this was what my sister experienced on a daily basis. Others were images, as if Kimber watched the world through the eyes of those out there in battle. One painting depicted a long tentacle with sucker. The one beside it showed long sharp teeth in a double row.

“I felt your pain that day,” Kimber said absently, as she stared at the paintings.

Every muscle in my body froze when I picked up a drawing created in black charcoal. The only colour in it was his red eyes that leapt out of the page at me.

“He still searches for you…” Kimber wandered to the window and stared into the darkness outside.

The master hellspawn.

She must be able to sense him out there, just like I had earlier.

“Kimber.” I grabbed her arm and spun her toward me. “You need to stop drawing these creatures. He can sense people like us and is searching not just for me but for all those like me. If he knew you were here, you wouldn’t be safe.”

Her gaze was devoid of all emotion when she stared up at me. My gifts allowed me to sense her soul and what I found there destroyed me. She didn’t care anymore. Castus had broken her until she no longer cared whether she was enslaved here or with the hellspawn who resided out there.

Levi’s wolf paced around the room; his nose wrinkled in a silent snarl as he studied all her art. He pawed at a page and I left my sister to go and study it. It depicted Levi and me sleeping in that tree the night we discovered the hellspawn patrolling the forest. His arms wrapped around my waist to hold me tightly in his embrace and his head rested against mine. My fingers were intertwined with his and the way we were leaning into each other showed the level of our intimacy more than any words.

“Did Castus see this?” I asked in a hushed whisper.

Her gaze moved to the page I held in my hands.

She flinched and took a step back. “He was so angry that he hurt me. I’ve never seen him in such a temper.”

My exile and torture in the medical unit when I returned finally made sense. He’d bitten me years ago when I first joined the military to make sure I wasn’t a virgin. I’d told them I’d been with Sam that summer. Now Castus was faced with the image of the same man with me again years later.

“Mum’s coming to join us,” I said, my tone upbeat even though terror ricocheted up and down my spine. My thoughts were in turmoil. Castus would never forgive such a treachery.

“Is she coming to take us home?” Kimber peered up at me with huge blue eyes that begged me to give her hope.

“Mum’s going to help us,” I said, drawing her toward the bed at the back of the room. “She was the only one who could make the voices stop when I was little.”

“You hear them too?”

“Always have, pipsqueak.” I crawled onto the bed and sat against the headboard, settling Kimber on my knee, and stroking her head the way I had when she was little.

“Who is he?”

“Who?”

“The man that you’re in love with.”

The sky outside was getting light. Levi’s wolf curled up beside me and my hand instinctively reached for his head.

“Levi is a man I should never have met but fate brought us together.”

Kimber rolled onto her belly to stare up at me. “He’s not a vampire.”

It was a statement, not a question.

“He’s a lycan,” I confirmed.

She curled up beside me, her head on my lap. “He loves you too.”

I contemplated her words while watching the world outside. The light meant that the master hellspawn and his minions would have to retreat, but it also meant that Castus would be forced to remain inside the coven. One enemy inside and the other outside. Either way, we were trapped without any means of escape.

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