This Dark Wolf (Soul Bitten Shifter #1) - Everly Frost Page 0,125
tell me what I mean to him.
I’m surrounded by enemies and my only ally is determined to end himself. But I won’t let that happen.
The watching guards are a threatening force. Ford Vanguard and his mercenaries are waiting in the shadows. Cody is pacing back and forth, and Tristan…
He snarls up at me. “You were meant to be my end, Tessa.” His fists unfurl to reveal that his claws have raked across his palms and bloodied them. “You were meant to kill me and take control of my pack.”
Our territory, he’d said. I remember the anger in his voice when he told Helen that he didn’t have any heirs, no alpha-in-training, that I was the last hope for his pack. I never imagined he envisaged that I would lead them.
A tear slips down my cheek before I can stop it.
Tristan watches its path. His voice becomes a rasp. “You were meant to be their future, not mine.”
Baxter is suddenly gleaming as he observes Tristan’s reaction and the confirmation of my claim that Tristan has bonded with me.
I swipe the tear from my cheek. “Taking me away from Tristan will destroy him,” I say to Baxter, my heart pounding in my chest. “Keep me here away from Tristan. In return, I ask that you leave him and his pack in peace. You will stop sending shifters across the bridges. You will let Tristan’s pack deal with their alpha as they see fit.”
A victorious smile grows on Baxter’s face. I’m offering him the chance to rip Tristan’s true mate away from him.
It’s the truest revenge he could take.
It will hurt Tristan. Maybe tear him down.
But it will give me the time I need to find a way to keep Tristan from his father’s fate.
“I accept your offer.” Baxter drives the dagger into the nearest tabletop. “But you won’t stay here.”
What? My instincts reach screaming point when Baxter grabs my arm, his hand clawing around my bicep, scratching me as he yanks me away from Tristan.
Tristan jumps to his feet with a vicious snarl. He kept his rage in check when Cody patted me down, even when I flirted with his enemy, but his power rises now, telling me that he won’t let Baxter take me away without a fight.
Sobs threaten to leave my lips. Tristan wouldn’t fight for his own life, but he will fight for mine. I want to scream at him, hate him, loathe him, but I can’t because I understand him. I understand his fear and his motives.
Baxter’s descending incisors flash at me as he hauls me through the opening between the fallen tables and around the side of the room. He shouts at the guards, “Shoot Tristan dead if he tries to stop me. Wound Cody if he tries the same!”
Both Tristan and Cody growl behind me, snarling like caged beasts as Baxter drags me toward the door.
Baxter said he wouldn’t let me stay here, so I assume he’s going to throw me in a vehicle and take me somewhere else.
My heart jolts when he drags me toward Ford Vanguard, who peels himself off the wall, an expectant gleam in his eyes. Beside him, the ice jotunn glowers at me while a slow grin grows on the warlock’s face.
There’s a crash and Cody shouts from behind me. “Dad! No! You can’t give her to that butcher!”
Two gunshots make me spin, my heart in my throat, but they were warning shots. One was at Cody’s feet—I can see the chip in the marble—and the other at Tristan. A bullet hole smokes in the table that he vaulted.
Tristan halts only a few paces away from me. He’s partially shifted, his teeth sharp and his claws descended, snarling at the guns pointed at him. His face is cut and bruised, his chest dripping with blood, and all of his rage washes over me, a final lifting of his walls.
I will fight my way to you.
“It has to be this way, Tessa.” Baxter growls at me as he wrenches me forward so fast that I stumble. “You won’t suffer if you stay here. My son would treat you too well.”
With a final push, Baxter shoves me at Ford. “She’s all yours.”
I smack into Ford’s chest. He catches me, his overly warm hands closing around my arms, strands of his not-quite brown hair falling across his not-quite hazel eyes.
He leans back to take in my torn dress, the welts across my chest, and the drip of blood slipping down my stomach and thighs.