Prince of Wolves - Tasha Black Page 0,32

her friend.

The unicorn took a step backward and for an instant Ashe dared to hope that her tone was enough to make it think twice. She had been a princess, after all. She was used to giving orders.

But it was clearly only moving to give itself the momentum to charge.

“Lift me up,” Ashe begged Delilah.

She felt the other woman’s hands on her shoulders as the feeling began to flood back into to her legs.

Ashe launched herself upward, pinning Delilah and Noah to the wall, with her body between theirs and the unicorn. She knew she didn’t have a chance against this thing, and only hoped this might be enough to save them.

She should never have tried to stay in this realm.

Ashe closed her eyes and allowed her thoughts to go back to Varik for just an instant.

He had not told her the truth.

He was a hardened bounty hunter, with a lot of baggage in his past. He’d probably done plenty of things she wouldn’t want to know about.

But he loved her fiercely, enough to let her run from him, even as it broke his own heart. And he was obviously capable of caring - his treatment of Ronan made that clear.

If only things could have been different between them.

The unicorn made another soundless charge. Ashe braced herself for the icy pain of the wicked horn running her through.

Instead, she heard a crash as the doors to the library shattered open.

She turned to see Varik thundering inside, with Ronan in his arms, as if her very thoughts had summoned them.

The unicorn turned to him, obviously not expecting this additional intrusion.

“Hold Ronan,” Varik cried as he leaped over the checkout desk to reach them.

She opened her arms instinctively and took the pup.

Varik turned from her and bowed.

No.

He wasn’t bowing.

He was… changing.

In a heartbeat she was no longer looking at the man she loved.

She was looking at a gigantic wolf, the size of a pony.

Ronan wiggled in her arms and she glanced down to comfort him.

Ashe’s breath caught in her throat.

Ronan wasn’t a puppy anymore.

She was holding a baby - a plump, adorable baby with a dimple on his left cheek and a swirl of soft brown hair that flopped to one side.

Baby Ronan reached a chubby hand up and grabbed a hank of Ashe’s hair, but he might as well have been wrapping his little fingers around her heart.

19

Varik

Varik had no time to see what Ashe thought of Ronan and himself in their other forms.

The unicorn had turned on him and was tracking him with brilliant, ice-blue eyes.

It was only a matter of time before it remembered its mission and turned its horrible attention back to the girl.

Varik let out a vicious snarl and lunged toward the beast, feigning an attack, then sidestepping it at the last moment. He coiled the muscles of his haunches again, then leapt past it, into the stacks.

If he could get it to chase him among the rows of tall shelves, he could buy time for Ashe and her friend to get away with the babies.

Varik landed, all four paws splayed. He was usually graceful and sure-footed in his wolf form, but he wasn’t prepared to land on a plane of ice.

He scrambled, claws trying to find purchase as he slid halfway down the aisle.

The unicorn was already heading his way.

His wolf senses tasted its bitterly clean scent on the air.

Varik lowered his body and eased himself around the corner and into the next section of shelves.

He waited what felt like a long time.

The unicorn could afford to move slowly and cautiously. It had its supernatural abilities on its side. The ice was nothing to it.

Varik forced himself to breathe slowly and steadily, keeping his ears swiveled forward, snout lifted to pick up the slightest hint.

Ashe’s scream pierced the air and he realized his mistake. The beast had doubled back instead of following him deeper into the books.

He threw his head back and howled as loudly as he could.

Ashe’s screaming stopped.

He could sense the temperature dropping slowly as the unicorn turned its focus back to him and traveled up the aisle he had originally slid down.

Varik began moving again, slowly, inching backward past another aisle.

If he could lure the thing out the broken front window Ashe and her friend would be safe, and he could figure out how to defeat this foul creature.

It chuffed in the aisle just on the other side of him, tasting the air as if trying to find him. He hoped its senses