This Dark Wolf (Soul Bitten Shifter #1) - Everly Frost Page 0,117
tucked behind her ear on the other, her brown eyes sparkling, her cheeks full of color.
Gripping the photo, I spin to the abstract painting hanging on the wall. My heart lurches into my throat. It depicts a forest by the ocean, the sun rising in the background.
The ocean is pink… the sunrise is violet… the forest yellow… and the grass… orange.
I sink into the chair in front of the dressing table. “Pink ocean… orange grass… violet sunrise… yellow forest…”
I need Ella’s list more than ever, but it sticks in my throat now that I know where it came from—from her life before. Jemimah said that Jace looked outside of Tristan’s pack for his mate, but I never dreamed he would look to Baxter Griffin’s.
I’m too frozen to react when Cody appears in the open doorway behind me. He pauses there, filling the space with his big body before he steps inside and shuts the door behind him.
“Tristan didn’t tell you about my sister, did he?”
Helen’s voice whispers in my mind. A little bit of knowledge can get you killed.
Cody can’t know that I’ve met Ella. Hidden House is hidden for a reason. It protects women whose safety depends on not being found. Cody wouldn’t know that I’ve been there. He wouldn’t know where it is. He might not even know that Ella is there. Probably doesn’t even know that Hidden House exists.
I shake my head. “What’s her name?”
“Ella,” he says.
“She’s beautiful.”
“She’s dead.” Cody crosses to the painting and stands with his back to me. “Tristan got her killed. It’s the source of the war between our packs.”
I close my eyes, telling myself to breathe. I whisper the question that Helen taught me not to ask. “What happened?”
“She fell in love.” Cody’s shoulders are tense, his voice rough, but he remains where he is. “You’ve met Jace. He and Ella formed a true mate bond. Nobody wanted to get between them—not even my father—but Tristan’s father was gaining a reputation for violence and bloodshed. We heard stories that would give anyone nightmares. My father tried to convince Jace to join our pack, but Jace refused to leave Tristan.
“So one night, Tristan himself shows up here. He tells us that he’s going to challenge his father. He promises that Ella will be safe. He says it can be a new beginning between our packs, an end to any discord.”
I remain silent while Cody turns to me, his fists clenched. “Ella went with him that night.”
“What happened to her?” Again, the question sticks to my tongue like a betrayal of everything Helen taught me. But I need to know why the war between Tristan and Baxter began.
Cody shakes his head. “We heard nothing from her. Every attempt to contact Tristan or Jace failed and we went crazy with worry. A week later, we heard that Tristan’s mother was dead. Stories finally started filtering through. Apparently, his father went on a rampage. He killed Tristan’s mother and took Ella into the forest. We don’t know what he did to her before he killed her.”
Cody’s lips form an angry line, the pain in his eyes making me shudder. “Tristan failed to keep her safe like he promised. He let his own mother die. It was another two years before he finally killed his father.”
Ella’s photo suddenly feels brittle in my hands. Tears burn at the back of my eyes. I want to tell Cody that she’s alive, but I can’t reveal where she is and I can’t tell him how broken she is. It will only add fuel to his anger.
“You gave me the wrong directions to this room because you wanted me to know about her, didn’t you?” I ask, unable to look up in case he sees my damp eyes.
“I wasn’t sure how much Tristan told you about the history of the war between our packs,” Cody says.
I give a shake of my head, biting at my bottom lip while I hunch over Ella’s photo. “Tristan didn’t tell me any of it.”
Pieces are falling into place. The reason for the deep hatred between Baxter and Tristan is clear. The reasons for Tristan’s frustration and rage, his inner turmoil are clear. His deep need not to lose another member of his pack, and his deeper need not to become like his father.
But what I still don’t know is the role of the three-headed wolf in Tristan’s past.
Swallowing, I raise my head. “What do you know about the three-headed wolf?”