Free Wolf Tales 12 by Kate Douglas

for a long time or I would have sensed it before now.” She shook her head, laughing softly. “Oh, Anton! That little girl is really going to keep you on your toes.”
    “Don’t I know it.” He felt the warmth in the rock, the slight vibration as if the stone lived. “I think I know how this works. Once my hands are in position, I need to picture where I want to go. This should open a gateway into that particular place. Is that correct?”
    “It is. I believe Eve still exists in the same domain where I once lived, though if you think of Eve, you should be transported to wherever and whenever she is. Do you want me to come with you?”
    Anton stepped back from the wall and placed his hands on Liana’s shoulders. Her belly was round with the child she carried. This would be the third for her and Adam—a second daughter—due in just over a month. She was breathtakingly beautiful. Strong and calm and the perfect mate for Adam Wolf.
    “I would love to have you beside me, but you are going back to your husband and your children, and I’m going after my wayward daughter by myself. Thank you, Liana. For more than you will ever know.” He kissed her, marveling at how warm and alive she felt. Nothing at all like the cold goddess who had once held him captive as nothing more than a sex slave to her needs.
    They definitely had history between them, one Anton wouldn’t change for anything. Once Liana had been self-serving and even cruel, but she was the link, the one who had sent him on his original quest to discover his lost heritage.
    And now he was off on another quest, this time in search of his future. Lily. She was unbelievably special, and in so many ways represented all that he hoped for, all that he wanted for every one of them.
    She truly was touched by the Goddess, but no matter.
    She was still a little girl. Still his.
    Anton turned away from Liana and again placed his palms against the stone. He slipped his fingers into the perfectly carved indentations, and thought of Eve. Thought of the woman who had once been Adam Wolf’s mate, the woman who had been there for all of them in so many ways before she’d died her untimely death.
    He thought of Eve and put his fears for Lily out of his mind. He felt the stone grow warm beneath his palms, blinked at the brilliant colors of the world that opened to him as the dark cavern beneath his Montana home faded from view.
    And without a backward glance, Anton stepped through the gateway, into the shimmering light and timeless beauty of the astral plane.

Chapter 6
    “What do you mean, you don’t know where she is? You’re the goddess, Eve. Damn it! You’re supposed to know everything!” Anton glared at the woman who stared at him out of those damned swirling eyes as if he was the one who was crazy. Gray to green to amber, her irises spun in a mesmerizing pattern guaranteed to make him nuts.
    Calm as a damned stone statue with just as much compassion, she merely smiled at him and sighed. “Lily is on a quest, one critical to all Chanku—those we know and those yet to be found. She is fated to do so much, Anton. You must accept that she is a special child.”
    Anton clenched his hands and tried not to snarl. “Eve. Lily is six years old. She’s still a baby. She has no business going on a quest. She’s not even allowed to leave the fucking meadow without her parents’ permission.”
    When Eve continued smiling, Anton had to forcibly hold himself back from taking a swing at her. Her quiet reply had him shaking with rage.
    “Lily Milina is an old soul, and I mean that in a very literal way. Her body may be that of a child, but she has the mental strength of an adult. She carries the hopes and dreams of the Ancient Ones—the monks you met years ago—within her soul.” Eve’s smile disappeared in the beat of his heart. Now her look was one of frustration, as if he was the helpless child, not Lily.
    “I know you’re going to have a hard time accepting this,