Page 7 of Forbidden Wolf

I knew I would be standing waiting for him as soon as the sun disappeared tomorrow night. A shiver of lust and fear rippled down my spine and into my stomach as I imagined glowing eyes watching us in the dark, ready to strike when we least expected an attack. What we planned wasn’t just forbidden by our leaders, it was considered as treason with an automatic death sentence. All it took was one person to catch us and we were both dead after we’d survived each other’s bite.

***

Tasha

I stood in the shower for ages, trying to convince myself not to meet Levi. It didn’t work. While getting ready I sung the song Mum used to sing me to as a child, humming the bits where I’d forgotten the words.Stay strong against the creatures of the darkness, they come to steal your light...I’d believed it was about the lycans coming to murder us all in our beds. Yet for the first time, I no longer believed that anymore. Levi wasn’t a creature of darkness; he’d saved me when he didn’t have to yesterday.

To try and persuade myself that my attraction to him could be attributed to the moon cycle or my own hormones, I visited the social area of the facility. Alcohol didn’t affect us the same as humans, it just gave a vampire a small high. The whiskey burned going down my throat, but it didn’t help. None of the male vampires remotely interested me. In fact, one of them approaching me left me empty. He propped his hip beside me at the bar. He stood about five foot ten with black shoulder length hair and bright blue eyes. The smile he gave me was pleasant but not what my heart craved. I declined his offer of another drink, because if I accepted then he would get the impression that I was interested.

I didn’t want this life that was planned for me anymore.

Tonight, it felt like my blood was connected to the sun, tugging me toward the entrance of the facility as it slowly dipped under the horizon.

What the hell was I doing? Was I seriously thinking about breaking our sacred laws to spend time with a lycan? I could face eternal death for even considering this. Tendrils of excitement and fear warred inside me.

“Tasha?” My sister Kimber stood watching me. It was as if my guilt had summoned her. Her blonde hair curled around her face to give her an angelic vibe and her blue eyes were huge in her face. She garnered a lot of attention everywhere she went.

“Hey, pipsqueak, what are you doing out here?”

“I couldn’t sleep. Do you think Dad would let me off the base with you?”

“No can do, pipsqueak. I’m stalking the elusive black jaguar and I can’t have him biting my little sister.” The truth was always best hidden in a lie. It was harder to detect and easier to remember.

She pouted, her eyes travelling to the door to the outside world. “Will you take me with you one day?”

“When you’re old enough to be allowed out alone.”

“You’re not twenty-one yet,” she pointed out.

A sad smile curved my lips, and I tucked her unruly blonde hair behind her ears. “I know, but I will be in a few days and then I will be considered old enough to fight and die.”

“You sound like Mum.”

I booped the end of her nose with my finger. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”

Her grin lit up her face and I wanted to protect her from the ugly truth of life. We were called essential to the war because to call us sacrificial would cause discord. The vampire covens strived on order and compliance. My Dad lost his brother in the war and he had never got over the loss, and never mentioned his name. It was as if he never existed.

The metal shutter behind me started to open and my heart beat rapidly in my chest. Every doubt I possessed about meeting Levi evaporated as the inky darkness called to me. I would go because there was no way I could resist. There was something about him that drew me to him like the moths to the sweet nectar of the night flowers.

I gathered Kimber in a hug. “Sleep tight, pipsqueak.”

She squeezed me and stood watching as I dived off the platform into the waiting arms of the trees below. The night embraced me, accepting me for who I was and not what it could force me to be. Out here, I could breathe and be myself. I didn’t have to be careful what I said or what tone I used when I spoke to the higher-ranking vampires in the facility. There was just me and the other creatures that emerged after dark.

The moon guided me, lighting the way through the rainforest. The sounds of the creatures became a symphony playing for me alone to hear. Trepidation curled deep in my tummy, while excitement beat in my chest.

One night, I promised myself. I would allow myself one night to explore my wild side with a wolf. All my friends chose their first lovers based on their intelligence or supernatural abilities. Listening to their experiences had not spurred me on to wanting to explore my sexuality. But kissing a naked lycan in a cave big enough for only the two of us definitely sparked that interest.

The silhouette of a man leaning against a tree came into focus. I expected to find him naked, not dressed in black jeans and a black T-shirt that stretched across his muscular chest. He looked bigger than last night, more menacing. My heart skipped a beat when he glanced up and his eyes met mine.

I froze high in the branches of the tree, drinking him in from the messy untamed curled black hair and tawny eyes that watched my every movement to his heavy biker boots. He was every fantasy I’d had come to life. My little lace panties ignited and made the flesh between my legs pulse with need.

My feet hit the ground in front of him, and suddenly I felt shy, pushing my hair behind my ear because I couldn’t think of anything to say.

“I guess I should be grateful that you didn’t attack me tonight,” he said, breaking the awkward silence.

“I see you found your clothes.”

We both smiled and everything was back to where it had been the night before.

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