Fated for Her Wolves - Tara West Page 0,28

healed him, and her family defeated the demonic werewolves, she’d spent her final night in Romania in an abandoned castle with her mates. It had been magical. Though this was a dream, she prayed she’d never wake if it meant she’d spend forever in their arms again.

“Tatiana,” Constantine called. “Come run with us.”

She prayed her fathers couldn’t hear, though if memory served, they had slept downstairs. “But what about poachers?”

Dimitri threw his arms wide, grinning devilishly. “We will protect you.”

“Who will protect you?” she said; the woods teemed with hunters looking for wolf pelts.

Dimitri waved her down. “Come with us, iubita mea.”

Her heart did a backflip when he called her his beloved in Romanian, especially since she doubted she’d ever hear him call her that again. “My fathers.”

Dimitri held his arms up to her. “They’ll catch us if you don’t hurry.”

Without another thought she slipped off her clothes until she wore only a T-shirt and panties, and climbed onto the eaves. Dimitri shifted into a powerful protector, a giant, white furry beast nearly as tall as the second story window. Her protectors were what the humans called yetis, sasquatches, abominable snowmen, but to her they were a source of comfort and safety, able to shift into wolves or powerful bulwarks of their pack. She jumped into his arms, thanking him when he set her down. Still in human form, she suddenly felt self-conscious.

“Come on,” Dejan said, shifting into wolf form, his brothers, even the protectors, following suit.

She quickly threw off the rest of her clothes and shifted, tail wagging as she ran with her mates. Rather than howl and yip, as she’d done so many times with her parents and brothers on their Alaskan reservation, they had to move quietly through the forest, skulking like sly foxes, keeping to the shadows. A pall settled over her as they ran, Constantine in the lead, Dejan and Andrei beside her, and Dimitri bringing up the rear. They guarded her in a tight formation, the fur on their necks standing on end, their ears constantly twitching as they assessed every scent and sound. The only thing they had to worry about in Alaska was an occasional bear, but the protectors of the pack easily scared them away. It depressed her to know this would be her future as a shifter—always looking over her shoulder, always worrying about their government learning their secrets. As far as they knew, only the American military knew about the Amaroki, and the tribes hoped to keep it that way.

They ran until they reached an old castle with crumbling turrets and boarded up windows nestled in the heart of the forest and covered by overgrown vines and thick tree branches.

Constantine shifted from wolf to protector and easily ripped the boards off the door, waving everyone inside. After he bolted it behind them, he shifted back into wolf form, and they raced through the castle, howling and yelping as if they had not a care in the world.

She chased them, panting as they ran up the stairs and through the halls.

They entered a bedroom at the end of the hall. Her mates shifted into humans and bolted the door behind them. Tatiana realized they had put a lot of thought into this night. In the center of the room was a large, four-poster bed, framed by dozens of softly glowing candles lining the walls.

When her mates flopped on the bed, she remained in wolf form, whimpering and tucking her tail between her legs.

“Come on, Tatiana.” Dimitri patted the bed with a wolfish grin. “We won’t bite.”

She wasn’t sure about that. She glanced at a folded blanket on the bed.

Dejan draped it over her shoulders and patted her head. She licked his fingers in a gesture of gratitude and then shifted back to human form.

They unabashedly gawked at her as she climbed into bed beside them.

“You don’t have to cover up,” Dimitri said, nuzzling her neck.

She cinched the blanket tightly around her breasts. “I want to.”

“But you have such a beautiful body,” Constantine said, wrapping an arm around her waist and pulling her flush against his bare chest.

She wanted to pull away, but the desire coursing through her was too intense to disobey. When he raked teeth down her neck, purring, she melted like wax in his arms. “My fathers will kill you if we bond before the ceremony.”

“We can do other things,” Dimitri said and caressed her thigh.

“What other things?” she asked, spreading her legs when Dimitri’s hand climbed higher.

“We