Page 82 of Forbidden Wolf

My gaze dropped to Castus on the floor. He was pale, his hands trembling and his eyes fluttering.

A shiver of fear trickled down my spine. If this was how Dominic treated his friends, how would he treat someone who was his enemy a few weeks ago?

***

Tasha

The highest-ranking officials on the base from both vampires and lycans sat around a long rectangular table in the conference room. I sat beside Levi with my tablet, flicking through photographs of different hellspawn and maps of their current locations. None of them were of any interest to me, but it prevented me from having to join in the conversation.

The persistent familiar pulses that ran through my body told me Castus was still on the base. He was calling all his vampires to him subtly, trying to regain the strength of his coven. Most distrusted him after he’d abandoned them.

Dread churned in my stomach at the thought of facing him again. He knew that I’d taken a lycan lover in my youth. He also knew Levi was the alpha on this base. My nerves were stretched as I contemplated what revenge he would enact for my crimes.

Levi was brainstorming with Dominic about our new alliance, effectively removing Castus from the equation.

The door flew open and Castus stood in the doorway. His expression and body language said he wasn’t happy that he’d been omitted from the meeting. He stomped into the room and dragged a seat out before glaring around the table. There was a red mark around his neck with dark red circles in it. Was that a tentacle bruise?

My phone rang and I lifted it because that ring tone belonged to Kimber. Levi glanced up as I left the room with the phone to my ear.

“Hey, how’s it going pipsqueak?” I said when I was out of earshot and wandering back toward our bedroom.

“Radar brought me a games console so he can teach me how to play online,” Kimber chittered on the phone. My ears picked up because his name came up regularly in our conversations.

“How’s the new accommodation?” I asked. Levi had moved them to another location where they all had separate rooms within a massive apartment complex. Mum had been raving about it earlier.

“Your Levi arrived last night with Radar to make sure we were okay and had everything we needed.”

My Levi… The words made palpitations echo through my chest. Was he mine? He’d locked me in our room last night because he was going on a mission. At least I now knew where he’d gone. I closed our room door and threw myself on my tummy on the bed.

“Good. As long as you and Mum are safe, that’s all that matters.” My finger continued to swipe across the tablet Radar had given me that contained surveillance footage of hellspawn from that cave in the forest. I stopped, the tip of my index finger tapping the screen. The master hellspawn stared out of the screen as if he knew I was watching him.

There was something in those eyes that made me want to crawl to him while simultaneously running in the opposite direction. He attracted me at a cellular level that had nothing to do with looks or personality. Even on the screen it felt like he could look directly into my soul and listen to my inner thoughts. The memory of his voice echoed in my head.

“Tasha?” Kimber’s voice broke through my thoughts.

“Yeah?”

“What’s happening with you? I felt this terrifying presence and you stopped talking for a few minutes even though I was calling your name…” Her voice lowered. “It’s him, isn’t it? The man cloaked in darkness who stalks you.”

Part of me wanted to deny it; part of me needed to pretend none of this was real.

“He finds me in my dreams,” I finally admitted. “The only rest I have from him is when Levi is with me. His presence seems to block him.”

“I’m scared, Tasha.”

“Don’t be, pipsqueak. Levi has you and Mum in a safe location. No one is going to get to you.”

She was silent for a moment. “It’s not me I’m scared for. Some fates cannot be avoided no matter how hard you fight against them. He’s fixated on you and won’t stop until he finds you.”

I rubbed my tired eyes since I’d avoided sleep last night to try and block out the voices. “I’m fine, Kimber. Please stop worrying and go and practice your game because I’m sure Radar is a gaming ninja.”

She chatted for another few minutes about Mum and the other women before we said our goodbyes. I set my phone on the dressing table and rolled onto my back and closed my eyes. When I opened them a few moments later, I noticed the tall and incredibly angry lycan standing staring at me with bunched muscles and clenched jaw. There wasn’t enough energy left in my body to argue with Levi, so I closed my eyes and pretended he hadn’t just heard the conversation between me and my sister with his exceptionally sensitive wolf ears.

He moved with stealth to capture me, the bed dipped, and his thumb caressed over my bottom lip, his fingers cupping the side of my face.

“You didn’t tell me you could still hear him.” His voice was soft compared to the tension in his body.

My breath caught as his scent settled over me in a blanket that blocked out the rest of the world.

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