Page 81 of Forbidden Wolf

He scowled at me as if it was my fault he dipped him finger into that mess. “How long have you been studying these hellspawn?”

I shrugged. “For the past few months. We worked out that the lycans and vamps were being killed by the same means. It didn’t take a genius to determine that there had to be a common enemy. Capturing them was the tricky part.”

Castus tapped the glass of the pool with the tip of a pointed fingernail. They didn’t like noise or stimulus and became aggressive easily. “How do we know that this isn’t just a ploy for you to create an alliance?”

I barked out a laugh. “No offence, but we would never have forged an alliance otherwise. What benefit would you bring to our packs?”

The outline of a sucker appeared on the glass. My lips twitched imagining the irate little critter floating about in there annoyed at probing fingers and fingernails tapping his enclosure. I took a discrete step back in the pretence of speaking to one of my wolves at the door. My gaze never left the pool.

Castus tapped the glass and another circular sucker appeared.

The wolf at the door hit the side of my boot with his foot, his eyes trained on the pool. I shook my head and stayed well back.

The top of the water rippled and Castus arched over to peer into the muddy water. A long tentacle reached out of the liquid and wrapped around Castus’ neck. He tried to step back, but the deep red tentacle tugged him toward the pool.

Dominic watched the interaction carefully, his crimson gaze studying everything that happened. He moved back, probably fearing another tentacle emerging from the murky depths. He was right considering they tended to flail about and attack everything they could reach.

Castus’ hands moved to his neck to try and drag the tentacle off, his eyes bulging. His mouth opened and closed but no words came out. Sharp, ragged teeth emerged from the water as if scenting the air. The option of standing here and watching his face being ripped off definitely held a certain appeal.

“Lock it down,” I instructed, and a metal shutter flashed across the pool, severing the tentacle. Fun fact about these evil minions from hell—give them enough time and they regenerated limbs, especially the aquatic ones.

The tentacle flailed about, spurting black blood all over Castus while no one moved to help. He wasn’t my responsibility. The suckered limb wrapped around his neck like a snake trying to strangle him. Could vamps die from strangulation? Even detached from the host, the limb continued to attack Castus. Our scientists should really study this phenomenon, or maybe it disliked the vamp as much as I did.

“Um.” My guard coughed discretely. “Are you going to help him?”

“Nope.” Technically, I already had since I closed the cover and kept the biting part away from him.

Dominic cautiously stepped forward and poked the disarticulated arm.

“It feels warm to the touch even though the pool is cool.” He scratched the surface of the tentacle. “Firm with a strong muscle tone.”

My guard and I shared a raised eyebrow look. Dominic obviously had no intention of helping Castus either. My fingers twitched when I saw his knees give way and he slumped forward, his head hitting the side of the pool. Dominic crouched down, pushing the bottom of his long coat back to continue to study Castus.

“Interesting,” Dominic said. “Most limbs have muscle disorientation after they are severed. This does not. It continues to attack as if still connected to the synapses.”

His eyes met mine and a small sadistic smile played on his mouth.

He tugged the tentacle until a sucker was revealed and pressed his fingertip to it a few times to test the strength on the grip. “Very interesting. Have you tried reattaching the limb or attaching it to another subspecies?”

“That would be a definite no,” I replied, appalled by his suggestion. We only knew the limbs could regrow because some of the hellspawn had fought with each other and lost limbs. A few weeks later they were complete again. The thought of some of those bigger scarier monsters on the loose with tentacles made my stomach clench in apprehension.

“A pity, that would have been extremely interesting.”

My eyes widened when he pulled a silver dagger from up his sleeve and cut through the tentacle, which left Castus gasping in breath and covered in more black slimy blood. How the hell did he get into my facility with a silver weapon and how many more of his vampires were also concealing them?

I nudged my guard and he nodded once and prowled off to alert his peers to the fact that the vampires were carrying silver weapons.

Feigning nonchalance, I leaned against the doorframe. “So, what do you think of the hellspawn?”

Dominic lifted the still twitching tentacle end from Castus’ chest, holding it up to study it with his fangs showing below his top lip in excitement.

He grinned darkly and I began to wonder about the sanity of the coven leaders.

“Your demonstration has convinced me of the threat at our borders. It certainly explains the swamps and the sudden increase in vampire deaths. You have my alliance in this fight. What do you want in return?”

“Our people are working together to form operational teams. I don’t see the point in disturbing that at the moment.”

That, and there was no way Tasha was walking out of this facility without me at her side. She was my mate and that was a bond that was stronger than physical need and desire. That tiny vampire was everything I wanted in this crazy world. Her soft skin and hair that got every-freaking-where was my future.

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