Carpathian 17 - Dark Celebration

tried valiantly to control the tremble in her voice. Gabriel!
    Francesca ! She called her family to her, a shattering cry that swept across the night.
    They're coming . She was pinned down under a heavy branch, her legs trapped, one hurting so much she had to fight back nausea.
    Baby. We are coming. Hold on . That was Gabriel, his voice strong and vibrant, a rock to lean on.
    You're hurt . Francesca's tone was gentle and soothing. Tell me how bad .
    They were trying to reassure her, distract her, but Skyler felt danger surrounding her, pressing in on her with a suffocating presence. Her leg was bleeding, spilling bright red blood across the snow. If she moved, bones rubbed together with excruciating pain, radiating through her entire body until she broke out in a sweat.
    Something moved in the bushes quite close to her. She couldn't turn around to see what was creeping up on her. Hot breath exploded on the back of her neck and she cried out, trying to fling herself out of reach. Fur brushed her face as a huge wolf pushed through the maze of branches to inspect her wound.
    Skyler froze, held her breath as the animal turned to look at her. The eyes were a brilliant ice-blue, startling in the midst of thick black fur. "I know you," she whispered aloud, her heart in her throat. "I've seen you before, haven't I?"
    The wolf shifted. The heavily muscled, furred body gave way to a tall, broad-shouldered man with shining black hair streaming down his back. His face was harshly sensual, a carving of stone with lines etched deep and a strong jaw and masculine mouth. His eyes were so blue they seemed to burn over her.
    "Why would they allow you to come out alone?" he asked. "It was foolish of them. If they do not guard you better, I will no longer allow you to stay with them."
    As he spoke, his gaze held hers, but she could see he had separated himself from his body, becoming a strong dominant spirit. She felt his presence the instant he entered her body. She wanted to scream, to fight, to evade his spirit. He moved through her with speed and purpose, repairing the damage to the nick in her artery, the bone, and lastly the flesh.
    All the while she shared his mind. Knew his memories, his implacable resolve.
    Dimitri. Relentless hunter of the vampire. Protector of wolves and lifemate—to Skyler.
    "No!" She shook her head vigorously in denial. She wouldn't be anyone's lifemate, least of all this man with his burning eyes and his dominant nature. She couldn't conceive of being with a man so hard, so utterly certain of himself. Emotions poured into her, colors vivid and bright, so bright she feared she might go blind—or maybe it was his fear, his colors, his emotions. She couldn't separate herself, as if by entering her body to heal her, he had wrapped himself around her insides, burrowing deep to find her soul.
    His mind opened to hers, a dark place of haunting sorrow and hundreds of years of dealing death without remorse. He acted swiftly, violently—with absolute resolve. If those deaths were a part of his aching loneliness and terrible sorrow, she couldn't tell. This was not a man to be swayed from his path. He followed his enemies with tenacity and ruthless, unrelenting persistence. Violence was his world and she would never— never —go back to that kind of life. She wouldn't survive. As it was, just brushing his mind and finding the darkness, the coiled demon waiting—and willing—to strike, was so terrifying she wanted to retreat to that safe place inside her where no one else could go.
    "You will not." He made it a decree, pulling out of her body and back into his own. "You need blood."

    She shook her head. "Gabriel and Francesca will give it to me."
    He turned his ice-blue eyes on her, his look so cold it burned her skin. Skyler shivered, unable to look away from him, so frightened—of what—she wasn't certain. That this man would change her life for all time. That he would consume her, swallow her whole. That he was harsh and unyielding, a man without compromise. Skyler had fought hard to belong, to come back to life when she had retreated so far. Dimitri wasn't evil, not like her father, but he was a man of violence, of strong emotions and passions, yet capable of turning it all off so that he felt nothing at all.
    She shrank away from him when he reached for her mind. Skyler felt the steady, relentless pressure and tried to build a wall, thick and made of steel, impenetrable, but he was too focused and too