Fated for Her Wolves - Tara West Page 0,26

fucking rip your throat out.” Channeling her wolf, she let out a low growl and bared her fangs. No point hiding that she was a shifter.

“It’s too bad you have to be difficult.” Natasha pulled a gun out of her pocket.

Fucking bitch. Tatiana would rip her heart out before she could shoot her. Her wolf broke free, shredding her clothes, and she lunged for the demon, letting out a yelp when Natasha shot her in the chest. She tumbled to the ground, dazed, while her human hands clawed at the snow. What the fuck? Why couldn’t she hear her wolf? She jerked a dart out of her collarbone and kicked the demon when she shot another dart into her leg. Barely aware of the pins and needles pain in her backside from the cold, unforgiving ground beneath her, she gaped up at her tormentor.

Natasha hovered, her smile devious, waving her weapon. “Amethyst dart in the first round, and a sleeping drug in the second. Sweet dreams, little wolf. When you wake, you’ll be in a new body.”

What? With no other means of defending herself, Tatiana tried to scream for help, but her tongue felt too heavy and swollen, and then her eyes involuntarily closed as fatigue took hold. Her last thought before she surrendered to the darkness was overwhelming sorrow and regret that she’d never have a chance to make things right with her mates.

CONSTANTINE COULDN’T believe the words coming from Dimitri’s mouth. He wanted another mate? No other woman could replace Tatiana. Had he lost his mind? After zipping up his pants, he jabbed his brother in the ribs, frustrated with his negative attitude. “I can’t believe you’d say that without giving her a chance.”

He and Andrei shared a look. Yeah, they’d all been drinking, but as usual, Dimitri had imbibed more than the rest of them, stumbling like a drunk and spewing nonsense.

“Five fucking years, brothers.” Dimitri snarled and stumbled to the sink. “I’m trying, believe me, but she doesn’t want to be here.” He looked like a man defeated.

Andrei opened his mouth as if to speak but didn’t say anything. The despair in his bloodshot eyes was not comforting.

This couldn’t be their fate, to always pine for someone who refused to bond with them. Constantine refused to accept there was no hope. “You don’t know that,” he said, wishing he believed the words but knowing he lacked conviction.

Dimitri scrubbed his hands like he was trying to wash off the plague. “You don’t see it on her face?”

“She had a long flight,” Andrei said.

“She didn’t run to us or smile.” Shaking his hands, he stepped aside. “She doesn’t want to be our mate, and I don’t want to be hers."

Constantine felt sick to his stomach. “You don’t mean that,” he whispered, too numb to wash his hands. He stared at his reflection in the mirror, hating the haunted look in his eyes.

“No, I don’t.” Dimitri leaned against the wall. “I wish I did, though. I’d like to be spared that grief. I tried so hard for her.”

Andrei squeezed his shoulder. “We all have.”

“Constantine!”

That was Bunic Klaus’s wail. He pushed open the bathroom door and hurried out.

Alarms went off in his head when he saw Klaus and Novak looking like a dear caught in a hunter’s crosshairs. He scented blood, and that’s when he saw the gash on Novak’s arm. “Bunics! What happened?”

They both stumbled forward as if they’d returned from running a marathon. “Where’s Tatiana?”

Constantine’s world came to a slow, grinding halt. “What do you mean?”

Klaus wildly waved his arms like a madman. “We sent her into the bar ten minutes ago.”

Surely Klaus had to have been mistaken. “We never saw her,” Constantine said.

Andrei’s nostrils flared. “Are you sure she went in?”

“Da!” Klaus’s face turned red. “We walked her to the door.”

Dejan slowly rose, wiping sleep from his eyes, still clutching Tatiana’s scarf like a kid with his favorite blanket. “I would’ve smelled her if she’d been here.”

Andrei shook his head. “Not when the room already smelled of her from the scarf.”

Constantine shoved open the women’s restroom door. “Tatiana!” he called, stomach churning. His chest ached as if it had been cleaved in two. If she was here, had she heard their conversation?

“Tatiana!” his brothers hollered outside. He followed them.

Andrei ran ahead. “I’ve picked up her trail!”

He ran several yards down the road, then stopped, chest heaving, his breath fogging the air. Dropping to all fours, he sniffed the ground. “I smell her.” He flung a piece of