This Dark Wolf (Soul Bitten Shifter #1) - Everly Frost Page 0,24

whisper, tears burning behind my eyes.

I fight them, refusing to let them form and fall.

“There’s nothing I can say to lessen the pain of losing your father, Tessa, but please know that Hidden House is a safe place to feel whatever you need to feel. However long you need to feel it.”

“Ha.” I bark a sarcastic laugh. “However long that is before Tristan comes back for me.”

Helen’s eyes gleam. “He won’t set foot here until I tell him you’ve learned control. And I don’t have to tell him a damn thing until you’re ready.” She gives me a sudden and unexpected smile. “Like I said, Tristan doesn’t run this house. I do.”

I blink at her in surprise. “You’d do that for me?”

She exhales softly, her lips forming a gentle line. “Tristan has good reasons to come for you, Tessa. Reasons he’ll have to explain himself. But I will do everything I can to help you while you’re here.”

“What reasons could possibly explain his intentions toward me?”

Her only answer is the sudden compression of her lips, which indicates she isn’t going to elaborate.

Only time will prove whether or not she’s telling the truth about keeping me safe.

Helen returns to my back, spending another half an hour working around me. Once she’s finished, she places her wand in a holder at her waist. Then she takes a clean shirt from the cupboard and hands it to me.

“I’ll find you some new clothes, but this will have to do for now,” she says. “Come with me. I’ll show you to your room.”

Pulling on the soft, gray T-shirt, I follow Helen down the corridor, uncertain what awaits me next.

Chapter Six

Instead of an elevator, I find a set of stairs at the end of the corridor.

“Wait…” I backpedal with a confused frown. “What happened to the elevator?”

Helen gives me a smile. “The elevator is the only way to access the garage, which is the only exit from Hidden House. You won’t see it again until it’s time to leave. Come on.”

She takes a few steps down the stairs before pausing and reaching her hand out for me to follow her.

I eye her warily, my defenses rising again. She said that she controls this house, but I didn’t imagine she meant she changes its form at will. A damn good witch, huh?

Refusing her hand, I follow her reluctantly, watching my step as we turn the corner at the landing. Another softly-lit room comes into view at the base of the stairs.

“Hidden House has many floors,” Helen explains as we descend. “Some floors contain sleeping quarters. Others have workout rooms. There’s also a garden on one. The staircase will learn your routines so that a single flight of stairs should lead you to whichever floor you need to access at any given time.”

When we reach the bottom of the stairs, she tips her head to the side. “There’s a bit of an art to it, though, especially at first. I apologize in advance if you have to climb two flights of stairs a few times until the house becomes accustomed to your needs.”

The room we enter at the bottom of the stairs is homely and welcoming. One entire wall is filled floor-to-ceiling with bookshelves full of books. Multiple lounge chairs appear well-used with soft rugs and cushions scattered across them. A wide window on the far side reveals the city lights, indicating that we’re still quite high up.

“This floor contains sleeping quarters,” Helen says. “Your room is this way.”

She waves me along the corridor past numerous closed doors. I attempt to inhale the scents of the women in the rooms we pass by, but my senses are frustratingly silent.

Helen pauses outside a door at the end of the corridor—my new room.

“Your senses will be dampened to maintain the privacy of the women who shelter here,” she says. “You won’t be able to sense their movements, catch their scents, or detect their supernatural status. The dampening effects will also ensure that your scent is controlled. This is important because many of the women here are extremely powerful and could be affected by you.”

Helen knocks softly on the door but doesn’t wait for an answer before she pushes it gently open.

I swallow a gasp as I step inside.

The room has no walls.

A forest extends in every direction, filled with the same lush green trees that grow on the mountain where I lived. Soft moonlight filters through the branches onto the floor, which is covered in moss. Even though I