Fated for Her Wolves - Tara West Page 0,67
they returned to Alaska, she hoped the lingering darkness that had bothered her since returning from the forest went away, for she couldn’t go on feeling this way. Dimitri felt it, too. She sensed his depression whenever they were alone.
Hopefully, it was nothing more than PTSD. That they could manage.
JOVAN PACED THE EDGE of the veil in human form, trying to remember what had brought him here and why. Slowly, memories started to trickle in like his brain was on slow drip. Bunic Klaus had assigned him to keep guard at the edge of the haunted forest in case the demons should try to escape. Then he’d heard his late wife’s cry for help. He knew it to be a ruse, so what kind of magic had lured him here, to the veil?
Reaching for what he thought was her shadow, he’d stuck his hand in the mist, coming to his senses when demon burn scalded his skin. But in that brief moment, the shadowy beast had seized on his weakness and latched onto him, trying to pull him through. He’d had to shift into protector form to fight off the demon.
He fell back, falling on his ass with a grunt and cradling his injured arm. It burned like it was still on fire. The flesh was covered with red, raised welts, and buried in the burn were two distinct holes. Had the demon driven its fangs into his wrist?
He shoved his hand in the snow to stop the throbbing. The ice numbed the pain but did little to ease the confusion in his brain. Why had he wandered too close to the veil?
Because I tricked you. The sibilant hiss resonated in his brain.
He jumped to his feet and looked around for the source of the voice, but there was nothing there. Even the shadowy figure had disappeared.
You will not find me out there. I’m inside you now.
Jovan woke from slumber with a scream. The dream had been so real, a retelling of what had happened to him when Klaus had sent him to guard the veil. Jerking the blankets off the bed, he pulled the overhead chain and examined his hand in the glow of the solitary lightbulb hanging from the ceiling of the bedroom that had once belonged to his sons.
He felt a stab of fear when he saw two small puncture wounds on his wrist, surrounded by fading pink welts. He fell to his knees, shaking. Had it been real then? Had a demon possessed him? Was the beast’s influence why he was at odds with his brothers and unable to forgive his mate? Ancients save him!
Chapter Seventeen
“AUNTIE TATI!”
Squealing, Hrod and Alexi ran into Tatiana’s arms the moment she walked into her brothers’ house. She fell to her knees, holding them tight, doing her best not to cry. How she’d missed them. Now that they were going to live in Alaska, she’d never have to part with them again. Hopefully, her children would grow up playing with her nephews. The thought of her having children seemed strangely foreign and yet exciting. She’d put off her mates for so long, she was starting to believe she’d never have a family. Now all of her dreams were within reach. So why did she still feel a darkness seeping into her soul, like a tipped tanker leeching oil into the ocean?
No longer trusting herself with the children, she stood, unable to shake them off as they clung to her legs. Her sister-in-law, Amara, a pretty blonde who seemed to have a baby permanently attached to her hip, was with Tatiana’s mates, laughing and hugging each of them. Amara had mated with Tatiana’s brothers and now Tatiana would be mating with Amara’s brothers. She would be her sister-in-law in more ways than one.
She felt a strange sense of detachment as her gamma brother Rone peeled the kids off her legs, and Rone and Drasko each hugged her. Closing her eyes, she was unaware of who was holding her. They both smelled the same.
“Tatiana?”
Her eyes flew open and she looked up at her second-alpha brother Drasko frowning at her.
“Are you all right?” he asked.
“I-I don’t know,” she stammered, clutching her roiling gut. “I don’t think I’m fully healed.” She recalled Eilea saying Amara needed to put her hands on her. Perhaps that’s what she needed.
Before she knew what was happening, her brothers brought her upstairs and laid her across their big bed. When Amara followed them into the room, she had enough sense