Page 80 of Forbidden Wolf

Levi

I was so fucking sick of sanctimonious vamps trying to tell me what to do. The only reason I was entertaining this asshole Dominic was because I knew it was pissing off Castus that I left him standing and ignored him. The reports of what he did to those women sat on my desk and one fact remained clear: one day I would kill him for what he’d done to Tasha and her sister. Castus couldn’t hide behind his coven forever.

Dominic stared at the scans and the location of the hellspawn, his lips pursed in anger. “How long do you think they’ve been here?”

“Who knows?” I replied with a shrug. “Maybe forever? All I know is that they created those swamps that appeared about five years ago so they could live in them.”

“There are no swamps around Castus’ castle,” Dominic pointed out.

“They’re either evolving or bringing new players onto the board. At this stage, I don’t know for sure.”

There were some troubling DNA results that I wasn’t prepared to share with anyone until there were verified. Those creatures were more than any of us every feared. They defied every natural law of this world, making them unnatural and fucking terrifying.

A faint smile touched Dominic’s lips. “Something tells me you could take a good guess.”

I stared him straight in the eye. “I only deal in absolutes.”

“Indeed. What exactly do you want from this treaty?”

My wolf lifted his head in interest, his claws digging deep into my chest. We wanted what we’d wanted all along—Tasha. Now that she slept in our bed, there was no way we would let her go. My fucking wolf had gone walkabout to find her without my permission. No wonder the asshole was so pleased with himself and didn’t keep trying to get out and start fights. He was too busy sleeping on her bed and getting tummy rubs.

“I want my people safe,” I replied, giving him the diplomatic answer.

“And if I recalled all the vampires back to their coven, that wouldn’t bother you?” He was probing, since he’d probably watched me defend Tasha.

A dark smile crossed my lips. “This is a treaty between our people born from necessity since we’re both getting slaughtered out there. Let’s not be sentimental.”

Tasha’s life depended on me being a good poker player. My emotions were rarely ever on display because I’d spent a lifetime hiding them until no one ever got to see the real me. My wolf had always suppressed my reactions until I was nothing more than a cold-blooded killer with no regrets. People feared me because I was a black wolf. They were notorious for losing control and killing without thought. My wolf was different because we’d embraced our union a long time ago. Tasha gave us another focus that we both agreed on.

Every step on my journey to pack leader had been for her alone. She was my prize and now that I’d claimed her, I was making damn sure that no one could take her from me.

“Have you captured any of these hellspawn?” Dominic continued to study me. He would never find a chink in my emotional armour.

“A few,” I said. “Would you like to see them?”

It was always better to hide the important points inside a bigger revelation. If he was looking at hellspawn, then his attention was off Tasha.

Dominic’s fangs flashed. “I would indeed. Castus couldn’t give me any details since he didn’t actually see any of these creatures.”

There was little point in replying because we each had our own opinions on that particular vampire. I wouldn’t be happy until the sun shone on him and he resembled a sundried tomato. Then I would dance on his bones.

Our research labs were heavily guarded, but I’d anticipated the arrival of a vampire envoy at some stage to try and renegotiate the terms of our treaty. There would be no change because Radar had our wording determined before we even reached the vampire coven. My future was tied into that contract and not a single aspect of it was up for negotiation.

My scientists had set up an aquatic room with those nasty little fuckers with tentacles of doom that liked to stick on their victims and create horrendous lesions. There was a massive pool in the centre of the room that started with fresh water in it. The water was now a muddy quagmire that concealed what was in there.

I deliberately stood back as Dominic stepped forward to peer into the pool. Of all the hellspawn we’d captured so far, these were my least favourite. Once those tentacles stuck on your skin there was no prising them off unless you sliced the tentacle off, and even then, it was a nightmare. They hurt like hell, sending pulses of pain into your body for days after it attacked you.

“Get out of my way,” Castus said from the hallway. “If Dominic is in there as coven leader, then I should be present as well.”

Castus pushed his way into the room. I swallowed the temptation to thrust his head into the pool and let the creatures currently dwelling in there attack him.

He shot me a heated glare and went to join the other vampire. The reports I’d read on what he did to those innocent women flashed through my mind. He was a sadistic asshole who deserved to be fed to the hellspawn. Or the feral wolves in the forest outside my pack land.

Castus poked his finger into the water, wrinkling his nose when he sniffed it. “What the hell is this stuff?”

It was what his soldiers had been wading through for years.

“Hellspawn excrement,” I deadpanned. Yes, the dirty little creatures liked to live in their own shit. Yet another reason to want to wipe them off the face of this planet.

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