This Dark Wolf (Soul Bitten Shifter #1) - Everly Frost Page 0,104

the night. Every time I close my eyes, I hear the crackle of the warlock’s shotgun, see again the flash as the chamber lit up, sense the magic hitting me and streaming off me onto the ground. I hear, over and over, the white wolf telling me I’m just like my mother. Feel his magic pull closer and closer around my chest until I’m gasping for breath—

“Tessa.” Iyana groans, making me shoot upright.

“What is it?” I ask, urgently leaning across her. “Are you okay?”

“No, I’m not okay.” She moans, throwing her hand over her eyes. “You’re keeping me awake.”

“You’re hurt,” I say. “I won’t leave you alone.”

“I’m a vampire, sweetie,” she says, snorting a little. “I’ve sucked down a dose of mercury. This bruise is nothing I haven’t dealt with before. I’ll be right as night after a solid sleep.” She removes her hand from her eyes and gives me a pointed stare. “Assuming I can get to sleep.”

All of the tension drains out of me.

She’s definitely okay. I lean across and give her a hug.

She smiles against my cheek. “Love you, Tessa. Now go get some sleep.”

“Love you, too.” I scramble up and drag the blanket with me, but I stop when I reach my bedroom door.

The tightness in my chest remains. I thought it was the memory of the white wolf’s power, but now I’m not so sure.

Closing my eyes as I grip the doorframe, I try to take a deep breath and can’t. My chest squeezes. My inhale catches.

I try again.

Fail again.

My breaths come faster and now I’m on the verge of panic.

I can’t breathe and I don’t understand what’s wrong. I’m about to call out to Iyana for help when I sense my wolf’s power inside me. I’m shocked to find her quietly writhing in pain. It’s the same clawing pain I felt moments before Tristan and I melded…

I gasp. “Tristan.”

I spin on my heel and hurry from the apartment, latching the door behind me as quietly as I can, even though my hands are shaking. Jemimah isn’t sitting in the entrance room anymore and the elevator arrives nearly immediately.

I swipe my security card across the scanner and bump the button for the twelfth floor before I slide down the wall of the elevator, attempting to keep myself upright by hanging on to the handrail at the side.

The doors blur as they open and I crawl through the gap, wheezing and gasping for breath, the world spinning as I try to get enough oxygen.

In the distance, Tristan grips the edge of the kitchen table, leaning back from it, a roar growing in his throat. He thumps the surface with his fist, cracking it. His muscles bunch seconds before he upturns the table, flipping it halfway across the room. It slides to a stop, dangerously close to the windows.

I freeze where I grip the elevator’s doorframe.

Tristan’s rage washes over me, a thousand times more intense than the anger I sensed pouring off him when he saw Bridget. It’s his pure rage without walls or boundaries that’s squeezing my chest now.

He jolts upright as he becomes aware of my presence.

Remaining where he is, his voice is a menacing growl. “Get out of here, Tessa. You can’t be around me right now.”

His warning contains raw truth.

I have two choices. I can crawl back into the elevator and try to gasp enough oxygen to breathe until he calms down—at which time I hope I’ll be okay.

Or I can follow my instincts.

I launch myself to my feet, race toward him, and throw myself across the distance, wrapping my arms and legs around him as I knock into him.

He braces as we connect, his arms flying around me, scooping me up so we don’t fall and tumble across the kitchen tiles.

My chest presses to his. My legs wrap around his waist. I arch against him to make sure our chests connect as much as physically possible as we come to a complete stop.

Oh, sweet oxygen.

I inhale my first full breath of air since I returned to the tower. My chest expands and my head clears. But now I’m breathing in Tristan’s rage and all its sharp edges, and it hurts.

His arms clamp around me, his shoulders tense. One hand grips the back of my head like a vise, preventing me from looking up at him. “You can’t be here right now, Tessa. I’ll destroy you.”

I push against his hand, my wolf’s energy giving me the strength to raise my head and meet