Page 60 of Forbidden Wolf

“I thought you could teach me how to tune him out the way you did when I was little. Now it’s too late and Castus has you here as well.”

“When you were young, I was able to distract you with the song my mother taught me. It broke your connection to him. The master hellspawn who claimed me only requires blood from me to sustain him. Other than that, he tends to leave me in peace. I was weak, Tasha. His energy was too strong for me to resist. No hellspawn will touch me since I bear the mark of my master. It helped me mask your energy when you were a little girl as we sang together.”

A vague memory tugged at me. “He said he would make me his queen. Why are you not living with them?”

A sad smile curved her lips. “I know little of them, but what I have learnt over the years is that there are many masters who control many aspects of the hellspawn hierarchy. I’ve never heard of queens before, so perhaps the one that found you is stronger or wields more power?”

The mark on her neck that I’d never noticed before showed where he’d fed from her. I remembered the way the master made me feel in the forest and wondered if Mum had experienced the same magnetic energy. I’d been drawn to him, wanted to go to him, only Levi’s claim on me was stronger. After he marked me, he’d been a constant thrum inside me.

“What are we going to do?” I whispered, dread unfurling deep in my chest.

“Nothing.” Mum shrugged. “We are locked in here. If you are right, then your master will come for you. Kimber, what do you see?”

Kimber’s eyes stared far away, her expression blank. “Much darkness surrounds us. Blood will be shed tonight because the darkness has been discovered. Help will come from an unlikely source to aid us.”

“Maybe you should have asked her to draw it,” I replied, rolling my eyes. That was the problem with predictions: they were vague and unhelpful.

Instead of standing at the window and waiting for the slaughter to begin, I paced the room, searching for weapons. If Castus or this master hellspawn came through that door, they would feel the full force of my wrath.

“What are you doing?” Mum asked, her head canted to the side as she watched me.

“Looking for weapons. This wing of the castle is filled with desperation and pain. If you’re right and we each possess a gift, then we should be working together, not sitting in rooms waiting for that deviant to try and impregnate us.” I kicked at the bedpost until it cracked, and I tugged the remains of the post down. “Someone once taught me that nothing survives without a head or a heart. We are soldiers, each of us trained to fight and defend ourselves.”

I continued to collect weapons, and Mum joined me. Along the way, she kept lifting Kimber’s drawings and destroying them until none remained.

We fashioned weapons out of what we could find. Then I used Kimber’s hairclips to start the task of picking the lock. For years, I’d been used and sent out into a war I never believed in. My friends had died pointless deaths.

I refused to be that victim anymore. Levi’s wolf gave me strength and faith in myself, his courage infused into me, and his survival instinct pulsed in my veins.

The door finally yielded and swung open. There had been no guards in this part of the castle when Castus brought me here a few days ago. What was the point when he had all these women locked behind huge wooden doors, cowering in corners, and whimpering in pain?

I contemplated taking Mum and Kimber and leaving, but something stopped me, and I knew that I would never be able to live with myself if I abandoned these women to their horrendous fate.

One at a time, I picked the locks and the doors opened to reveal the horrors of Castus’ depravity. This was something the rest of the coven knew nothing about. These women were not in breeding programmes. They were being kept here against their will. His own personal experiment into vampires who exhibited unusual gifts. He wanted to harness that into his own army to protect him.

Mum helped women from the rooms, some of them trembling and shaking, others talking nonsense, one so detached from the world around her that she just lay in the centre of her bed curled into a tight ball. He’d taken strong warriors and broken them.

Anger and hatred boiled in my veins, Levi’s mark on my shoulder burning deep into my flesh. His wolf stood firmly at my side. There was nowhere to take these women since the hellspawn stalked outside our walls. Considering the condition of some of the women, they might stand a better chance out there, though. Mum seemed to have survived.

“Do what you can to get them to safety,” I said, giving Mum a quick hard hug.

I didn’t recognise any of the women and dreaded to think how many years they had lived through Castus’ own version of hell.

“What are you going to do?” Mum asked, grabbing my arm, and spinning me back to face her.

“Those creatures know that we know they’re out there. Every vampire in this base is at risk and needs to be alerted. They’ve been killing us for years and my team is out there.”

I was picking the lock to the door into the corridor when the sound of metal clashing outside reached me. My back straightened and my ears strained, my heart racing in my chest at the first sounds of battle.

Mum’s hand landed on my shoulder. “I think they know the enemy is at the door, Tasha. Every woman here needs our protection. You need to stay and defend them.”

I looked at the scared and miserable faces staring back at me, my attention returning to my mother as she spoke. “You once asked me which unit I thought you’d be placed in when you grew up. The answer was none. This is where you belong, Tasha. These women are like us, and need someone to lead them, a new coven where they will be safe from the harm of others.”

Fear paralysed me. I could barely lead myself most days, and the past few months I’d survived day by day.

“Please.” One of the women touched my hand, her voice breaking. “I’ve been here over a hundred years…”

“He takes our children just after they are born,” another woman said. “I don’t even know what they look like.”

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