This Dark Wolf (Soul Bitten Shifter #1) - Everly Frost Page 0,19
press of his hand against my shoulder and the heat of his thigh against mine suddenly warm my body. “Then… why?”
He leans closer to me and the power I sensed in him before fills my head, making me sway like I’m drunk, an overwhelming sensation. My blood is smeared all over his shoulder from where he held me while he was running, blurring in my vision like a crimson stain.
“Because your power will drive my enemies wild,” he whispers.
Rage rushes through me. “Wild enough to kill me. I guess that means you want me dead.”
Tristan’s gaze burns across my face to my lips. His murmur makes me shiver. “Once I’m done with you, there’s only one thing any man will want to do with you.”
I draw back with a sharp breath, searching Tristan’s eyes, not wanting to acknowledge his intentions. That anyone could want to use me that way. I guess he’s known as the most ruthless alpha for a reason. Nobody is safe from him.
“You owe me your life now, Tessa,” he says, giving me a satisfied smile. “You will do everything I tell you and when the time is right, you will destroy my enemies.”
I struggle to breathe.
If I thought for a second there was a chance Tristan might give me my freedom, that hope is gone.
My father is dead. I have nobody to love. Nobody who loves me.
My life is no longer my own.
I’m now Tristan’s pawn.
Chapter Five
The night lights in downtown Portland are more beautiful than I ever imagined, but I can’t focus on them. The whole trip takes nearly two hours. After leaving the dirt road, we exit onto the highway and finally enter the eastern side of the city. The tension inside the vehicle rises as we pass through Baxter Griffin’s territory. Tristan pulls a gun case out from under the seat, loads two pistols, and hands one of them to Jace before he rests the other in his lap.
I don’t breathe easily until we pass across the river, taking the Morrison Bridge into Tristan’s territory. As we approach the first buildings after the bridge, two groups of men and women dressed all in black peel away from the sides of the buildings, alert and watching us from among the other passersby on the street.
“Your guards, I presume?” I ask.
“I control every bridge,” Tristan replies.
That’s when Jace hands his pistol back to Tristan, who returns both weapons to the gun case.
Earlier in the trip, I refused Tristan’s offer of help to dress my wounds, snatching the first aid kit from him and cleaning out the cuts across my shoulder and stomach as best I could by myself. But my biggest problem is the wound that isn’t bleeding—the blow that I took to my head when Dawson hit me before I subdued him.
By the time the SUV turns into a leafy street filled with immaculate homes, my head is throbbing so badly that I can hardly see straight. I’m not sure where we are. We’ve left the city itself behind and entered suburbia, but we’ve also traveled steadily upward so that now I catch glimpses of the city in the distance.
A garage door opens on the right and Jace quickly swerves inside, driving the SUV down into a small parking garage. It contains two other dark gray SUVs, both identical, parked in a row.
The vehicle doors finally unlock, but I’m too exhausted to fight my way free. The garage door has already descended behind us, shutting us inside.
When Jace pulls the SUV into the parking bay beside the other cars, Tristan promptly opens his door and gets out, leaving me in my seat.
I squint through my pain, watching him round the vehicle and stride rapidly toward a tall woman with dark hair and gentle gray eyes who waits nearby. She stands in front of an elevator, which seems odd, since I’m sure this house doesn’t have more than two floors, let alone the fact that most homes don’t have elevators.
I struggle to move. Along with my aching head, my muscles have cramped up and the cuts across my stomach are sharp and painful. The curtain of my hair falls over my face. It will hide the bruising from the hit I took to my head. I tell myself I’ve survived worse wounds, but it doesn’t make it hurt any less. It doesn’t take away my father’s death.
I’m not sure if I should prepare myself to fight again, but for now, I’m conserving my energy.