This Dark Wolf (Soul Bitten Shifter #1) - Everly Frost Page 0,18
live with my own kind. If I shift, I’m sure I can outrun them all.
The second I think about veering off course, Tristan barges into me, lifting me off my feet again. Before I can fight back, we break through the final line of trees at the bottom of the forest, and the dirt road appears.
A dark gray SUV waits right in front of us.
Tristan swings so that he hits the vehicle with his back, gripping me against his chest and protecting me from the impact. Jace skids to a stop, wrenches open the driver’s side door, and slides in. Flipping a set of keys out of his pocket, he starts the ignition.
Tristan opens the passenger door. He doesn’t bother ordering me to get in, dropping his hand onto my head so I don’t headbutt the side of the vehicle before he pushes me inside.
I immediately slide to the other side of the SUV, ready to wrench open the door and slip out that side, but Tristan slams his door shut and the doors lock just as my hand touches the handle.
“Let me out!” I scream at Tristan before I’m propelled back against the seat when Jace accelerates. The SUV jumps forward, rapidly picking up speed. I clutch the door handle with one hand and the edge of the seat with the other to stop myself being thrown around as we approach the first bend in the road.
A glance through the back window reveals Cody running from the trees behind us. He skids to a stop in the middle of the dirt road, but he doesn’t try to follow. He rises up to his full height, the moonlight casting around his muscular silhouette as he watches us go.
We turn the corner and he disappears from view.
Running away kept my thoughts focused on survival, but now my fears and grief are bashing at my heart.
“I have to get back to my father.” My voice catches as I spin to Tristan, who was also momentarily thrown back against his seat. “I have to—”
Tristan slides across the seat, his unsettling green eyes focused and intense as he takes hold of my shoulder in one hand and my face in the other. “Did Cody Griffin mark you?”
I jolt, my movements stiff, unable to escape Tristan’s grip. “Fuck you.”
His fingers curl around the shredded material still clinging to my shoulder, pulling it apart so he can study my skin. Dim lights along the doors give us enough light to see each other. Even without it, his wolf will allow him to see in the dark.
His thumb skims across the top of my breast above the edge of my bra. I shiver as his palm softens against my neck and face.
He’ll see scratches, but no bite mark.
“Good,” he says, releasing me.
From the front seat, Jace glances in the rearview mirror at me, then at Tristan, but he doesn’t say anything before he focuses on the road again. He maintains our speed along the treacherous road. We’ll be lucky if we don’t crash.
I want to pull my knees up to my chest, curl up and protect my heart from the loss of my father, but I need my feet planted on the floor to keep myself from slipping around the vehicle. I consider the merits of putting on my seatbelt as Jace continues to take reckless chances driving along the twisting dirt road.
Tristan moves around the back of the vehicle as if the sudden changes in direction don’t bother him. He reaches under the seat and pulls a box from it. Lifting the lid, he retrieves a bandage, along with a bottle labeled disinfectant. After saturating the bandage with disinfectant, he slides across the seat so close to me that his thigh presses against mine. He raises the makeshift swab toward my bleeding shoulder—the one he just inspected.
I flinch away from him, pressing against the door. “What are you doing?”
“You’re bleeding,” he whispers, his voice slipping across me like a threat. “You need to stop.”
“Why?” I snap. “Because my scent is affecting you?”
His lips rise into a smile while his green eyes harden. His pupils begin to dilate, but he blinks the effect away. “Your scent is the reason you’re still alive, Tessa.”
I glare back at him. “You want to mark me?”
He shakes his head, a definitive and certain movement. “The woman I mark will be mine forever. I don’t expect you to live longer than another year.”
His blatant statement makes me run cold, even though the