This Dark Wolf (Soul Bitten Shifter #1) - Everly Frost Page 0,62
out of my control and I’m not sure how I’ll contain my wolf’s energy when I’m surrounded by so many supernaturals without the dulling power of Hidden House. Above all, I have to make sure I’m calm and in control, but right now, I feel anything but relaxed.
Before I can take another step, Jace turns to face me so that his big body blocks the exit, stopping me in my tracks.
Tristan’s arms snake around me from behind, holding me where I stand in the elevator.
“Not you, Tessa,” he whispers into my ear. In the same move, he deftly swipes a card across the scanner below the elevator buttons and presses the button for the twelfth floor.
Jace tips his head apologetically at me as he backsteps out of the elevator, making an obstacle of himself between me and my friends.
Iyana tries to leap around him, her face flushing with alarm just as the doors close. “Wait a second—!”
I freeze, my back pressed against Tristan’s chest, his left arm a firm restraint around my waist. My first instinct is to ram my elbow into his ribs and force him to release me, but I need to pick my battles.
He has plans for me.
I need to know what they are so I can find a way through them and keep myself alive. Fighting him every second will only lead to exhaustion. It won’t help me when the time comes that I really have to fight for my life.
On top of that… a quiet relief rises inside me. Now that the elevator doors have closed, the immediate flood of sensory input from the female shifters disappears, leaving me in control again.
Tristan seems surprised that I’ve remained in the circle of his arms. I turn my head slightly, catching the crease in his forehead as he studies me while I wait patiently for him to let me go.
He doesn’t.
I turn to face the elevator doors again, my heart sinking a little as I take a guess as to the real reason why he’s holding on to me.
I suspect that it’s not to restrain me.
“You need to be sure,” I say quietly, still facing the elevator doors. “Jace told you I’m in control of my power, but the problem is… if I’m really in control of it… that means I could be in control. Not you. And you might not even know.”
I tip my head back against his chest, meeting the hard planes of his upper body. I sense the wildness of his wolf, so foreign to me, and its questing to understand my wolf’s energy. Our wolves may as well be different species.
“That’s what you need, isn’t it?” I ask when he remains silent. “For me to manipulate your enemies? But that also means that you have to fight me. Every step of the way. To make sure I’m not also manipulating you. You need to make sure that you’re still… you.”
He neither confirms nor denies my theory, spinning me roughly as the elevator doors open. The movement is so quick that I barely catch sight of the penthouse suite beyond the elevator doors before I’m facing him again.
A dizzying whirl of furniture passes me by—lounge chairs, tables, desk, a tiled kitchen farther back, and another door that might lead to a bedroom.
Tristan propels me backward through the doors, gripping my waist with one arm, my wrist with his other hand like some sort of dangerous dance. Releasing my waist, he scoops up my duffel bag from the floor and brings it with us, dropping it beside me.
He pulls me to a stop several paces into the room, still holding me close. I settle against his chest, inhaling his subdued power.
My feet sink into plush carpet, the kind I’ll probably love walking on barefoot. Ceiling-to-floor paintings of a forest cover the wall on either side of the elevator, reminding me of my bedroom in Hidden House. What I can see so far of the color scheme around me is relaxing, comfortable. Maybe even cozy.
For a perilous second, Tristan’s head tips to mine, aiming slightly left toward my neck.
I read the challenge in the darkness of his eyes, the shadow across his lips. He wants to inhale my scent the same way he did on the night we met. He needs to test my control and test his resistance. He wants to challenge me to overpower him.
He lets me go just as suddenly as he took hold of me, releasing me without lowering his face to