Fated for Her Wolves - Tara West Page 0,54
wonderful and loving, but they’d been bonded to Katarina over twenty years. She was the mother of their four sons. Maybe some small part of her was afraid they still had feelings for her, especially since it was clear they were angry with her for putting them to sleep and going after the demons alone.
Jovan threw up his hands. “And yet you still risked breaking our hearts by fighting demons.”
The baby stirred, and she whispered soothing words to him. “I did it to keep you safe.” She gave him a hard stare. “I knew my powers were stronger than theirs.”
“But not your cunning,” Boris said, crossing beefy arms.
Just great. Now both her alpha mates were angry with her.
“Your foolish decision to battle them alone put many lives in danger, including our son’s,” Jovan snapped. “I wasn’t even there for his birth.”
“I’m sorry, Jovan,” she pleaded as overwhelming guilt threatened to consume her. “I didn’t mean for this to happen.” Turning his back on her, he strode to the courtyard entrance. “Jovan?”
He stopped, not bothering to turn around as he spoke to Boris. “I’m going back to the veil. Our sons have already gone in search of Dimitri and Tatiana.”
Boris grimly nodded. “May the Ancients guide you, brother.”
Jovan left without so much as telling her goodbye.
Eilea’s heart felt as if someone had thrown it down an elevator shaft. Forcing her tears back, she turned her attention to the shifter Marius brought her. A tree branch was impaled in his foot. How he’d managed that, she didn’t know, but she was about to recite a healing spell when she was taken aback by a powerful vision that spun in her head like a cyclone.
She saw Dimitri as a protector. Battered and bloody, he lurched through a petrified forest, carrying a human Tatiana. They both had dazed looks on their faces, as if they’d just woken from a deep slumber.
“How many days have we been wandering?” Tatiana asked him.
“Two or three,” Dimitri mumbled.
“What if we never find our way out?”
Eilea thought she saw a flash of red in Dimitri’s eyes. “We have to and soon, or we’ll die.”
Strong arms went around her, and she slumped against a hard chest. Eilea looked into Boris’s concerned eyes. Still in protector form, his heavy brow was knitted.
He ran a callused knuckle down her cheek. “Are you okay?”
She was momentarily dumbstruck. Normally she couldn’t have visions without Artem’s help.
Her mind reeled as she tried to make sense of the vision. “Dimitri and Tatiana are in trouble. I need to help them.”
TATIANA NO LONGER CARED that her paws and the tip of her tail stung from the hot earth and were covered in blisters. They’d been wandering the forest for what felt like days and they hadn’t found their way out. The fog in her brain was thick, almost as thick as the heavy air, making it difficult for her to think, so she simply followed Dimitri, whimpering whenever her tail caught on a flaming rock. Dozens of red, glowing eyes blinked at them from behind petrified trees, and she wondered if they would only stare at them or if they were planning their attack.
She was beginning to feel complacent in this forest, the black fog in her brain seeping into her mind like shadows that ever darkened. What was this place doing to her?
Dimitri roared, and she jerked fully awake, startled when a winged creature flew overhead, blowing a stream of fire. Dragon! She collapsed to the ground, ribs aching when Dimitri landed on top of her. She smelled burned flesh. Dimitri yelped, rolled over, and jumped to his feet. That’s when she noticed the dragon circled to return, and it had already burned a line of fire down Dimitri’s back.
The creature’s black wings spanned at least the length of two protectors, but it was smaller than Dimitri. With black, beady eyes and fur framing its short snout, it looked part bat. Whatever it was, she was certain it was demon.
Dimitri ripped a branch from a tree and swung at the creature when it made another pass, knocking it off course.
The dragon faltered, then catapulted into the trees. Dimitri raced after it, talons raised.
Tatiana followed, finally getting a look at the red-eyed creatures and wishing she’d held back. They were hideous, demonic rats with long snouts, dripping fangs, razor-sharp claws, and wormlike tails.
They could probably eat their flesh in a matter of seconds. Luckily, they scurried away when she got too close, but she knew without a