This Dark Wolf (Soul Bitten Shifter #1) - Everly Frost Page 0,8
Cody with a strike hard enough to knock his son face-first into the grass. Cody’s fists clench and his shoulders tense, but he doesn’t retaliate as he rises to his feet, blood dripping from his nose.
Closer to me, Peter Nash demands my attention as the sun finally slips beneath the horizon and darkness begins to fall.
“It’s just you and me now, bitch,” Peter growls, his thick lips curving into a smile. “I’ve been waiting for an excuse to kill you.”
He and I are left in the middle of the clearing, and now I have a choice to make. Up till this point in the fight, I’ve only released my wolf’s energy to the extent necessary to make myself stronger in my human form.
But Peter’s going to kill me anyway.
I’m a dead woman.
I can count what remains of my life in minutes.
I seek my father across the distance. He gives me an urgent shake of his head, but I won’t obey him this time.
I’d rather die with my wolf at my side.
With a deep exhale, I release her energy.
Her shape materializes in the dark, a sapphire silhouette that stands beside me—the side of her chest connected to my thigh, as if she’s nudging up against me. Her energy pulses like flames around my body, turning the air electric blue, an eerie sight. Her fur appears as pulsing ribbons of light and her eyes are bright, keen, but full of all the power and violence that I need right now.
If I shift fully, I will merge with her shape. I will become a wolf like any other shifter except that my fur will flicker and glow with the same cobalt light that surrounds her silhouette right now.
This is my version of a partial shift. My wolf standing at my side.
The alphas at the edge of the clearing startle, their heads jerking back. Peter Nash takes a quick step away from me, his eyes widening.
“What the fuck?” He recovers quickly, his head lowering, stepping toward me again. “I should have killed you the day I became alpha.”
My wolf’s energy surges inside me and a reckless smile grows on my face. My shirt hangs off me in tatters, barely concealing my torn bra. Blood drips down my arm. I’m a mess of cuts and blossoming bruises, but I narrow my eyes at Peter Nash, determined to challenge him.
Instead of backing away from him like he expects, I step forward with a snarl. “You call yourself my alpha, but you’re nothing to me. Take your best shot, asshole.”
Another shock ripples through the watching alphas. I sense their hushed inhales and startled glances. Several of the men lean forward, anticipation growing on their faces, while the woman leans back, her arms folded across her chest. Baxter Griffin watches with keen eyes, his lips pressed together.
Ignoring the watching shifters, I break into a quick stride, closing the distance between Dawson’s father and me.
His eyes darken with deadly intent.
I clench my fist, thrumming with my wolf’s energy, preparing to take a swipe at him, even if it’s the last thing I do.
Oomph! A heavy weight hits me from the side.
I register a large, furred body before the air is knocked from my chest and my feet leave the ground. I barely have time to be shocked—not only from the hit, but from the fact that I somehow missed the approach of this larger-than-average wolf.
Air rushes around me before I hit the ground and roll in a dizzying spin, caught up in his arms, legs, claws, furred limbs—I can’t even tell which—as we roll through the grass.
My attacker shifts so fast from man to wolf and back again that I barely catch his animal’s scent before I thud onto my back, dazed, my head spinning, the impact jarring through me.
I’m frighteningly stunned and unable to move. His heavy body—in human form now—presses down onto mine so completely that I can’t breathe.
Naked—very naked—skin presses against my breasts and stomach, heating me where my shirt is torn. As my senses return to me, I try to see who attacked me, but I can’t even see his face because he has already bent his head to my ear.
His growl makes me shiver. “Stay the fuck down.”
The wild hair falling across his face brushes my cheek, a soft tickle compared to the sharp graze of his stubble across the corner of my lips as he lifts off me.
Released from beneath his weight, my chest expands, and I can finally inhale.