Forbidden Journey

by Willa Hart

  Forbidden Journey

  Harem of The Mindslayer Book 2

  Willa Hart

  Happily Ever After, Inc.

  About This Book

  I have a secret; a secret that could get me killed. I’m a Dreg, but that’s not the secret; that’s obvious. I live in the Ninaku Slum where a Dreg life is worth less than nothing. I’ve always known my life has little value ever since the day my parents sold me and my sister Huali to Dribble, the Dreg that owns the Ninaku Laundry. But my secret is a secret that could get not only me, but also my sister killed—I have The Curse.

  Mindpowers.

  Only the highest of the high; the Eliterrati are gifted with Mindpowers; for a Dreg having any ability of the Mind is known as The Curse. Only the Roya Aristocracy is allowed to read the thoughts of others; any Dreg thought to have The Curse suffers a cruel and painful death. Not only is the Dreg killed; but their entire family dies as well.

  I’ve heard the thoughts of others since I can remember. I must find a way to contain my powers; keep any knowledge of my abilities away from the Dregs and also the Eliterrati. Which would’ve worked if I could control my temper. An angry outbursts alerts the Roya Tripsett; Sarkany, Leo, and Taraz, who are on the cusp of becoming the Kings of The Realm to not only my illegal abilities but also the fact that I may have more ties to both the Eliterati Aristocracy and the Wolveskin than anyone could’ve ever imagined. The Roya Tripsett needs their Queen and the Kingdom needs their Unifier and it’s a surprise to me, but I might just be both the new Queen and the fulfillment of a prophesy long ago spoken and forever hoped for.

  Forbidden Journey: Harem of the Mindslayer is book 2 in the Harem of The Mindslayer Series.

  Get Book 1 Forbidden Power: Harem of The Mindslayer HERE!

  Find the FREE PREQUEL, Forbidden Mindslayer on your favorite ebook retailer HERE!

  Contents

  About This Book

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Excerpt from Forbidden Union

  Also by Willa Hart

  Afterword

  About the Author

  Chapter One

  Meela

  Keep moving and you will die.

  I jerk my head up and stop limping. I’ve been dragging my wounded leg behind me through the Dark Forest for hours. Blood drips onto the white snow. My pants are red and wet and I no longer feel the chill of the wind on my face. In the black of the Dark Forest I see nothing. Pain and confusion pulse through my brain, cluttering my mind and making it difficult to think. There is the presence of a mind that is unfamiliar to me and yet…not unknown.

  My heart beats rapidly. I concentrate on taking slow deep breaths. Short breaths only feed my fear and fear will get me killed.

  Who are you? I think. I’ve fought off the Royal guards, limped for hours in the Dark Forest, and lost my fated-mate, Sarkany, and his brothers, Leo and Taraz. I’m alone, cold, and bleeding to death. Who are you? I send out a mind-tendril again.

  A laugh pulses through my mind. Rough and soft like sandpaper on wood, but not unkind. I have little patience for laughter. I need only a safe place to tend to my wound and rest so that I can find Sarkany and Taraz and—

  I’m no one that you remember, but I’m your only hope of survival.

  I start to turn, instinctually knowing that whomever is entering my thoughts is behind me. Not a Mindslayer sent by Vlissimal, because if it were a Mindslayer, I’d already be dead.

  Stop. Do not turn around. You are coming with us.

  With who? Then, through the darkness, bright and nearly silver eyes appear. Attached to giant heads with mouths full of bared teeth. These wolves are so giant, their heads are as high as my shoulder.

  I…I… I take one step back, and the grey wolf on my right lifts her lips, exposing teeth bigger than my hands.

  Grrrr…

  Tayala requires that you do what I say.

  Who are you? And where is Taraz?

  The wolf to my left, lighter in color, lifts his front paw to his mouth. Red, the color of blood, stains his fur. A third wolf steps forward and sniffs at my leg where blood trickles from the gash and onto the snow.

  You will come with us, or you shall not live to see the end of this night.

  I swallow. My lips are cracked; thirst dries my mouth and throat. Pain shoots through my leg and I can barely stand. The world dims in front of me, and the six enormous grey wolves swim together in my vision. Is this the end of my days? Taken by the Wolveskin? I stumble forward. I can walk no more. I cannot think…I cannot—

  “Get away from her!” a voice yells through the forest.

  I know this voice. I swallow and try to force my eyes to focus. Who…?

  “Get away from her, you filthy beasts!”

  Taraz? I look through the night and there is Taraz, bleeding from his head, his arm pressed to his side at an unnatural angle. Taraz please. I send out a tendril to his mind, but we are not linked. He has lost as much blood as I have and has a giant gash in his head.

  Is this your Taraz? the soft voice asks.

  Taraz, please, I beg. We must…we must… The world is fading again. The snow around me, the trees, the stars above…my knees are weak. From behind me a wolf, black as the night, circles and nudges my side. I stumble forward and grasp his shoulder.

  The pain in my leg pulses. Bigger than the other six wolves, the black wolf’s eyes are silver and blue and appear lit by the moon. In his eyes there is…something familiar, as though he and I know each other.

  If you are to live, you must come with me now. Both of you. You’ve lost much blood. We’ve tracked the two of you for a long while.

  I stare into the black wolf’s eyes. It is you that is in my mind, I think.

  It is, he responds. I am Rex.

  I won’t leave Taraz. I will not be able to fight off the wolves, but I may be able to slay them with my mind.

  His fate is sealed.

  A horrible oily feeling pulses through my belly. My knees tremble, and the black wolf presses to my side, breaking my fall. My body pressed against him, he is the only thing that supports me, that keeps me from lying in the snow, closing my eyes, and praying to the Goddess that she take me now.

  You can come of your own will, or I shall incapacitate you and bring you with us. It’s your choice, but you will come with me.

  I close my eyes.

  Sarkany…where are you Sarkany? I send a mind-tendril to my fated-mate, the man I’m bound to, but was ripped from my side by their uncle, Vlissimal, immediately after our mating ceremony.

  Nothing. No response. No words. No thoughts. Nothing.

  Taraz, Taraz, I call to my fated-mate’s brother. Please come with us, Taraz. There is no response from Taraz’s mind. The pack growls. I reach my mind out to the wolf. You must save Taraz, you must make them bring him with us…he…he is my fated-mate’s brother and a Roya Prince…you must—

  There are no Princes on Wolveskin land. I must do nothing.

  I unclench my fists to let go of the black wolf’s fur. I must save Taraz. I can’t leave him, but before I can get off the giant wolf, a surge of heat pulses through my body
as though he sends me energy. A low growl comes from him, as a grey wolf walks up to my side. She opens her mouth, and giant teeth come toward my limp leg.

  “No! No, no, no!” I scream. Another wolf closes in on my other side, keeping me from jumping off. She pins me to the black wolf’s back.

  Meela, stop! The voice pulses in my mind through my fear and my screams. Her saliva will clot the blood and prevent sickness. Stop now!

  The wolf is beside me with giant teeth, thirsty for blood, mouth open.

  But what if she takes my leg! What if—

  She will not. Trust me.

  And because I have no more energy to fight, because I am barely alive, because I have nowhere else to turn, I do. I surrender. I close my eyes and lay my cheek against the back of the black wolf.

  Her tongue presses against my wounded flesh, and a sharp hot sting stabs my leg. She slides her tongue into the gash in my thigh. Her mouth sears my wound. I clasp the black fur in my hands even tighter and press my mouth to the black wolf and scream into his back.

  My sweet Meela, you shall be better soon.

  The wolf’s tongue presses along the edges of the wound, probing and licking and slurping. Does she enjoy the taste of my blood? The pain?

  “Owww, oh my Goddess, ow!” I scream into the black wolf’s shoulder. I turn my head away. I cannot watch the wolf clean my wound. My vision swims and my hands unclasp, and I feel my body start to slide off the black wolf’s back when another body presses against mine. A tongue slides across my cheek.

  Wake, Meela. Wake. You must be awake to ride with me.

  The grey wolf cleaning my wound steps back and licks her chops, then licks the blood, my blood, from her paws. I swear I see her smile.

  Heat pulses from the wound in my leg and travels up through my body. The oily feeling in my stomach and the thirst in my throat subsides.

  You feel the salveskin entering your body? It will give you strength and lessen your pain for a short while.

  I tighten my hands into the wolf’s long silken fur and lean forward. My legs clasp tight around his broad back, my entire body presses against the length of him.

  Yes, my Meela, yes, just like that.

  Heat flushes through me. A desire for this wolf.

  You are Wolveskin, I think. My heart hammers in my chest. Deadly. Powerful. Human and wolf. Wolveskin are the terrifying creatures that inhabit stories parents tell their children to keep them from going too far into the woods.

  I am more than you have ever known, the black wolf thinks, and then faster than a bullet he leaps forward into the darkness of the night. His muscles ripple beneath me. The pack runs beside us. I lean even closer against his back and clamp my legs even tighter.

  Awwwwoooo!

  The pack howls around us as he leaps onto a rock and over and across a ravine. Six wolves bound around us. The wind whips my face, and the heavy snow pelts my skin. I pull his fur up, in front of my mouth and nose, a warm protection against the blast of cold wintery air.

  The trees whip by and we come to the edge of a cliff. I take a deep breath and bury my face deep into his neck.

  Please, oh my Goddess…

  Oh my sweet Meela, his says voice in my head. He springs over the side of the cliff with three wolves on either side and we hang in the air high above the earth. I look out and there is the moon, full and silver. A grey wolf soars by us. The snow beneath us, the edge of the mountain, trees to my left. I swallow and close my eyes. Let death come easily, I think.

  I press my face deep into his fur, then his front paws touch the earth. With a jolt comes his back legs, and with a swift turn to his right, he is running again through the trees and through the night.

  I pull my head up and look ahead. My goddess, I am still alive.

  Have some faith, Meela. We shall have you to our den very soon. You shall be safe, and you shall be warm. I shall make you well and you shall be mine.

  Chapter Two

  Taraz

  I am not a warrior like my brother Sarkany, and I’m not a politician like my brother Leo. No, I’m a scientist. With a stick. In the Dark Forest. Facing a pack of wolves each the size of a horse and with a giant boulder pressing into my back. I’m sure my right arm is broken, and there is a gash in my scalp. I have no water and no food. I have no weapons—other than this stick—and a giant black wolf just escaped with my brother’s fated-mate. As a rule, I’m opposed to hyperbole, but as a scientist looking at this situation objectively, I’d say I’m fucked.

  Objectively.

  I turn to my left and then to my right, jabbing with the tree branch that is approximately five-feet-long. The five wolves in front of me snarl and growl. I won’t last long. Their teeth are bared, and their growls are vicious. They slowly close in around me. I jab wildly to my left. To my right. Think, think, think! There is a solution to every problem. Think! I jab and turn. Jab and turn.

  Taraz! Taraz…please!

  Meela? Meela, where are you? They took you; I could not get to you—

  You must come with the Wolveskin.

  These are Wolveskin? I pause my jabbing and lean forward, attempting to get a better look. The Wolveskin are real? How fascinating, I— Just then, a beast snaps at my face.

  Taraz! Stop. You are surrounded by a pack of Wolveskin. I am on the back of their Alpha. You must put down your stick and come with them.

  Put down my stick? The grey wolf to my right, the biggest one, lunges and I point my stick at her. Ha! Even I, who doesn’t fight and was nearly decapitated when we were forced to take weapons classes as boys, knows that putting down my stick right now is a bad idea.

  Keeping the stick and provoking the pack is even worse, Meela thinks.

  Noted, I think. I have no way of communicating with them…how do I know that they won’t simply eat me alive…if I put down the stick? I turn my head and let my gaze land on each of the wolves. While they are giant, I’m unsure of their sentience. I want to believe you, Meela, that if in fact I choose to put down my branch that I will remain alive. However, at this moment, the facts as they are currently presented to me do not support your hypothesis.

  I am on the back of their Alpha, Meela thinks. He assures me of your safety.

  Oh he does, does he? Well, then that makes me feel entirely safe to put down the only weapon that I have. Might have stuck around and had a chat with his pack and told them!

  He says, Meela thinks to me, that if you do not lay down your weapon, they’ll attack you and force your submission. Because of their size it’s quite possible, although accidental of course, that they will break your neck when they force you to submit.

  Purely an accident, I think, of course. I jab the stick toward the light grey wolf on my right. An aggressive beast, she keeps moving forward. I believe she is their leader.

  Sharalla. Meela thinks. Her name is Sharalla. She is in contact with Rex.

  And Rex is? I think.

  Their leader and the wolf I ride. Speak her name so that she knows you can hear me.

  Really? I think.

  Really. Do you want to live Taraz? Please, I do not wish to see another Roya brother die.

  My heart drops to my toes. Meela is right. I’m unsure, but I may have lost both my brothers tonight.

  “Sharalla,” I shout. “Sharalla!”

  The grey wolf on my right pauses. She takes two steps back, her growl stops, and her snarl lessens. The rest of her pack remains on point with snarls and growls.

  “Sharalla,” I yell again, “I am putting down my stick.”

  Her snarl increases.

  I don’t believe she understands human, I think.

  She understands her name in human, Meela thinks. Put the stick on the ground and she will bring you to us.

  I take a deep breath. The last thing I want to do is put this branch down. It is the only thing that is between me and a pack of snarling wolves. All the size of my horse.

  Please, Taraz, please, Meela pleads through her thoughts. I wish to see
you again. Please do not let me lose my only connection to Sarkany.

  If Sarkany is in fact dead, it is my obligation as his brother and a Roya Prince to protect his fated-mate. I can’t protect Meela if I’m dead or a midnight snack for a pack of Wolveskin. I may be able to protect Meela, if I can get to her, and the facts indicate that the best way to get to Meela now is to put down this branch and trust that Sharalla will do what her Alpha has demanded that she do.

  There are more uncontrolled variables in this experiment than any scientist would be comfortable with, and that makes me very uncomfortable with this scenario. More than uncomfortable. I’m downright terrified and nearly convinced that this entire experiment will result in failure and I’ll be dead in a matter of seconds.

  There are no other options.

  Take the risk. Put down the branch. Possibly get a ride to where Meela is OR keep the branch, continue to enrage the enormous Wolveskin, and have them attack me and either break my neck in the attack or rip me to shreds.

  “Sharalla,” I call to the giant grey wolf on my right. “I am putting down the branch,” I yell. Slowly, I kneel toward the ground and lay the branch onto the snow.

  My eyes meet Sharalla’s eyes. Her growl stops and so does her snarl.

  “Are we good, Sharalla?” I ask. “What do we do now?” I reach out my hand as one might to pat a dog, or at the very least let the dog smell you.

  Her lips pull back again to show me her teeth. Obviously, this was not the right tack to take. I step backwards and look around me. There are five giant heads, all with giant teeth, coming toward me.