Her voice wrapped him in intimacy, making him forget for a moment that they were not alone and other couples-including Tatijana and Fen-danced on the same small dance floor. Branislava was lethal and he had no defense against her. If it was possible for a Lycan to fall for a Carpathian, he was well on his way, and it was forbidden, especially for an elite hunter.
He pulled her closer until her body imprinted on his. Hot. So hot. She burned through his clothes-his skin-every muscle in his body until she was branded in his very bones. No, deeper still. Like molten lava she flowed into him through his pores, until her brand found his heart and then his soul. Until he belonged to her. Body. Heart. Mind. And his lost soul.
The music ended and his heart nearly stopped. She smiled up at him and he had no choice but to wrap his arm around her waist and escort her from the floor, back to the corner where he'd first found her talking to her sister. The far corner. Farthest from where the Lycans held casual conversations with the Carpathians.
"Thank you, Branislava," he said. "You certainly can cast a spell."
She blinked several times and he wondered if he'd said something wrong.
He doesn't know about our mage background, Bronnie, Tatijana hastily explained. He means he finds you very attractive.
Strangely, I find him very attractive.
"I really enjoyed dancing with you," Branislava admitted. "Tatijana told me it was like floating. I could hear the music right through my body."
And his heart, matching the rhythm of mine, Tatijana, she added in wonder.
Branislava searched his face. It was a strong face. Lines etched deep, telling her he'd seen war. His eyes fascinated her. They were wolf eyes, pure and simple. They showed his piercing intelligence. There was no disguising the predator in him. When he locked onto his prey he would be merciless and unswerving. Right now, in the room with Carpathian hunters only feet away, those eyes were wholly focused on her.
She should have been frightened, but she was more intrigued. She might be shy around people-she'd never been around them before-but she would defend herself and her family with everything she was, every weapon in her arsenal.
"You're a beautiful dancer," Zev said. "I hope we get the chance to do this again soon."
"Me, too," Branislava said, meaning it.
She slipped away from him, back to her sister. At once the Carpathians seem to close ranks around her. Zev observed her for a few minutes, all too aware Fen was watching him.
"I understand now, why you have chosen to become friends with these people," Zev said with a sigh. "Tatijana and her sister are beautiful women."
"Yes they are," Fen agreed.
"You know it is forbidden. We are to avoid the Carpathian people just for this reason. We can't take the chance of falling in love with one."
Fen not only heard the reluctance in Zev's voice, but felt it as well. "Carpathian men and women don't have the luxury of falling in love until they meet their lifemate," he explained. "A Lycan might fall in love with a Carpathian, but he or she couldn't or wouldn't reciprocate. There is only one."
"I still don't understand."
"I've learned that they are literally two halves of the same whole. The soul of the male contains the darkness needed and the soul of the female the light. The ritual binding words are imprinted on the male before birth. When he finds the woman with the other half of his soul, he recognizes her, says the words and they are bound. There are no others. If one dies the other follows."
"So even if it wasn't forbidden, you're saying she's out of reach," Zev said with real regret. "She's definitely out of my league." He was afraid she'd taken his heart and soul away with her, but then one didn't need those things to kill.
"Let's get you something to drink. You're here to have fun." Fen clapped him on the shoulder and led him back to the rest of the pack and the Carpathians there.
Chapter 16
"Either we have to keep a Carpathian with us at all times so the women can communicate from the air, or one or all of you has to be brave enough to allow them to exchange blood with you," Fen explained for the third time.
It was one thing to eat and be merry with the Carpathians, but a blood exchange was repugnant to every Lycan. They gave one another blood in battle, but to them, that was entirely different than what Fen was asking of them.
"Fine," he said with a small sigh. "I'll have to be the one to do all the communicating with our squads in the air. I'll ask Tatijana to exchange blood with me." They'd done so just this rising when he'd made passionate love to her, but he wouldn't mind the rush before they set off to try to pick off the pack one small unit at a time.
"The woman will take your blood?" Zev asked, his gaze shifting to where Branislava and her sister were laughing together beneath the forest canopy.
"Her name is Tatijana," Fen said, beginning to feel annoyance that he had to continue the charade of being fully Lycan. They were wasting time while the pack could be moving into position to attack.
The women were going up into the air because their energy output was far less than the men's in any shape they chose. Tatijana, Branislava, Destiny and Natalya were all going, each taking a different direction. It could be dangerous if the Sange rau detected them and chose to defend their pack. Fen would be undetectable by any of them, yet he had to keep up appearances. It was frustrating to know Tatijana might encounter trouble.
"Would Branislava be the one taking my blood?" Zev asked.
Silence fell on the pack. His pack mates looked at him as if he'd lost his mind. Convel shook his head, his expression grave. "You can't, Zev. We don't know what could happen."
"What will happen," Fen said, gritting his teeth, "is we can get to work. We have four riders and four groups of hunters. I'm volunteering, but just in case we have another pack discovered, we need someone else able to hear. Destiny and Natalya are communicating with the Carpathian hunters."
Zev didn't continue to argue. He crossed the ground between Branislava and him, hoping she wasn't as mesmerizing as she had been the night before. He could feel the gaze of his pack mates boring holes into his back. The weight of their disproval was heavy in the air. Still, his feet kept moving, striding now, covering the ground faster.
She turned and watched his approach, her emerald eyes a deeper green than he remembered, nearly glowing. And then she smiled and the very air left his lungs in a rush. He couldn't decide if it was her hair, all that fiery red contained now in a fancy braid as thick as his arm, or her amazing eyes that sometimes, like now, appeared to be multifaceted, or her mouth with her full, inviting lips, that drew his gaze the most.