Big Bad Wolf (The Lycans 1)

She slept on a small bed across from where I stood, her dark hair fanned over the stark-white pillow. The blanket was pulled up to her chest, the perfect swells of her breasts rising and falling evenly as she slept.

But then her brows furrowed low, her body starting to shift under the sheet. She sensed me, knew I was near. But her fragile mind couldn’t understand why she felt this way.

Who was she? Where did she come from? She wasn’t from the village. I knew that just from looking at her, just scenting her. I would’ve known she was here if she lived in Dobravina.

No, she was new, probably having just arrived. I’d have sensed before now if the case were any different.

I had my hands on either side of the cottage, my claws digging into the stone. It crumbled easily under the onslaught. I was doing everything in my power not to crash through that window and throw her over my shoulder, take her back to my castle… back to her home.

Our home.

And then her eyes opened and she glanced at me, the sharp intake of breath coming from her. I groaned anew, rolled my hips again and again, my body swaying back and forth from the intensity of my need for her.

Her eyes. So blue they glowed. The color of mine… of my Lycan’s. I knew she was still deep in sleep, her focus unseeing, her body knowing what I was and being inexplicably drawn to me.

“Sleep, iubirea mea.”

Her eyes closed easily on the command, as if she’d heard me, as if I whispered those words intimately against her ear.

I wanted to desperately go to her. I’d waited three hundred years for this female, and here she was, just feet from me, only that fragile rock and glass keeping me from the one who was meant to be mine.

But I’d only frighten her, the intensity in which I needed her so strong she’d be terrified. And that was the last thing I wanted to do. My sole goal, the only thing my instinct demanded of me, was that I protect her. Make her happy. Keep her safe. Above all else, I needed to make her happy and give her anything she wanted.

So I could wait. I had to. Just for a short time. I’d learn about her and pray that she came to me of her own free will before the full moon. And it was quickly approaching.

Because once it was full and high in the sky, my beast would take over, the need to mate and mark her so strong there would be no denying it.

Gods. She was here. I’d finally found her.

7

Mikalina

I had the strangest dream, although I couldn’t remember the details. But it stuck with me all morning. And no matter how hard I tried to recall it, it was fleeting like mist.

I scrubbed a hand over my eyes as I sat at the table, my breakfast of fruit and tea mainly unconsumed.

Elbows on the table, like the warm tea in front of me, I pushed the plate of fruit away and stood. I walked out the front door and saw Mini working in the garden. I lifted my hand, although she wasn’t even looking at me, too focused on her work.

From last night, I knew Andrei lived out of town in one of the larger cities. He worked as a computer analyst—whatever that entailed—and came once a week to see Mini. Although he’d given me his number in case I needed a translator or anything else, I knew I had to figure out what I was going to do.

What am I going to do now?

My mind was calculating how much money I still had saved versus when I expected to go home. I cringed internally. Going home. Why did that feel so… wrong?

I didn’t know what kind of job opportunities I could possibly have here, what with not speaking the language, not even being a citizen, and not having a vehicle.

God, was this all one huge mistake, even if it felt like the very best thing in the world?

I found myself walking toward the woods, but something had me looking over my shoulder. Mini was standing and staring at me, and then surprising the hell out of me as she lifted her hand and shooed me along. Was she telling me to keep going? Was she telling me to move away? I didn’t know, but my feet must have, because I kept walking forward.

There was a small footpath at the edge of the tree line, and I made my way along it, the sun streaming through the leaves, the sound of birds overhead almost a lullaby.

I didn’t know how long I walked, but the sun felt good through the breaks in the trees, the breeze felt nice on my skin, and the sounds and smells around me had me closing my eyes and just... feeling.