Fated for Her Wolves - Tara West Page 0,56

exhaled slowly. The Hoia Baciu could turn them into hideous creatures or kill them, but they’d have no life without their mate and brother.

“They’re not responding,” he said to Klaus. “We have to go in.”

Klaus rubbed his white, bushy beard. “Do you understand the risks?”

Constantine said, “I do.”

Tor Thunderfoot stepped forward, brother Van, who’d just arrived with the Alaskan trackers, by his side, their brown fur matted and bloody from battle. “We will go with you,” Tor said.

“No.” Klaus lifted a staying hand. “It’s too dangerous.”

Tor let out a snarl that would’ve made a lesser protector back down. “That’s our daughter in there.”

“No offense, sirs,” Constantine said, “but I thought the older the wolf, the worse the effect of dark magic.” He remembered the stories his fathers had told him after their mother opened the portal in Alaska. Tribal elders believed that since they were both portals to hell, it had a similar atmosphere to the haunted forest. The older the shifter, the worse the disorientation. Constantine didn’t want to have to deal with the burden of babysitting Tor and Van while also searching for his brother and mate.

Klaus gave Tor a pointed look. “Isn’t that what happened in Alaska?”

Tor let out a mournful howl that made Constantine’s soul ache.

Taking a risk that the largest protector in the Amaroki might pummel him, Constantine grasped Tor’s shoulder. “I swear to you, sir, we will do whatever it takes to bring her back.”

Tor clasped his hand and nodded. He slumped to the ground with a thud, and Van sat beside him. When they both stared into the veil with hollow looks in their eyes, Constantine was even more painfully aware of the gravity of the situation.

You ready? Constantine thought to his brothers.

They howled in response.

Klaus clasped his back, his eyes creased with worry. “May the Ancients guide you.”

Too choked up to answer, Constantine silently nodded before expelling a breath. He looked to his brothers once more. The veil burns. We have to run through.

“They can’t go in!” a familiar voice exclaimed behind him. “Even if they manage to come back, we will have no choice but to kill them.”

Constantine bridged the distance between him and Atan Albescu in a few long strides. Atan glared at him in protector form, his family flanking him. “You son of a demon!” He shook a fist in his face. “Not if I kill you first.”

The scar above Atan’s lip was more pronounced, looking like a big welt splitting the bottom half of his face in two. He stepped closer to Constantine. “Do not threaten me, pup.”

Constantine was about to slam his fist into his face when Klaus got between them, pushing Atan back.

“You forget, Eilea has the power to break the demon’s curse.” Klaus wagged a finger in Atan’s face. “If you harm any of my grandchildren, you will face swift justice.”

Atan let out a bitter laugh. “How do we know she can cure them?”

“Because I have cured werewolves before,” Eilea said, her white robes swirling as if they were made of mist.

Constantine gaped at her. Where had she come from, and why did she walk like she had wings on her feet?

“Nobody needs to go in.” She sent Constantine a severe look. “I will draw them out. Step aside.” She snarled up at Atan, her fingers crackling with magic. “Or I will move you myself.”

Atan and his family had the sense to do as she asked.

Marius trailed Eilea, holding Constantine’s newest baby brother. The child was wrapped in several layers of furs. Marius flashed Constantine a sideways grin before shrugging his shoulders.

Constantine and his brothers jerked back when Eilea held up her hands and electric currents jumped off them.

When she whispered “Lumen,” the currents transformed into bright, pulsing lights, fracturing into hundreds of rays that breached the wall of mist.

Great Ancients! Eilea was her own personal lighthouse.

Once he found his nerve, he stepped closer to her. “What are you doing?”

She kept her gaze centered on the veil. “Leading them home.”

AFTER WANDERING IN the forest for what felt like several days, Tatiana and Dimitri finally gave in to their fatigue. Carving a seat in a log, he held his arms out to her. She sat on his lap in human form while he remained a protector. They should’ve found their way out by now, but it seemed they were walking in circles, seeing the same trees, the same gray dirt, and the same blinking red eyes.

“I don’t think we’re going to make it out of here,”