This Dark Wolf (Soul Bitten Shifter #1) - Everly Frost Page 0,9
pours off this man, making me flush hot from my face all the way down to my toes.
My wolf’s vision explodes with cobalt fire before it extinguishes like a burnt fuse and her energy recedes fully. Her silhouette disappears, leaving me completely vulnerable in my human form again.
As my attacker rears up over me, I finally catch a glimpse of him. He can’t be older than mid-twenties. Strands of raven black hair fall across his crisp green eyes. They’re bright in the emerging moonlight and so darkly rimmed that the contrast is startling. His chin is shadowed with growth that accentuates his strong jaw. As he rises up to his full height, his muscled silhouette reveals that he’s tall, leaner than Peter Nash, but bulkier than Dawson or Cody, every muscle in perfect harmony with his movements.
A tattoo of a snarling wolf’s head stretches across his left shoulder and chest. The image of a snake slides through the wolf’s eye sockets, its body curling down his side and back up again like a noose. The snake’s open mouth rises up beside the wolf’s head, both creatures baring fangs and teeth. It’s a startling image. Like the snake is killing the wolf—an enemy—but also fighting beside it like a protector.
He’s also completely naked and doesn’t appear to give a fuck about it.
Ignoring his warning to stay down, I rise cautiously to my feet, meeting the fierce gaze of the most beautiful man I’ve ever seen.
Chapter Two
He appraises me as I stand, his rapidly narrowing gaze giving me goosebumps that make me icy and hot in rapid flashes.
He told me to stay down, but I’m not his to command.
I lift my chin, defiant, my hair swishing around my hips. I prepare for him to retaliate like any other alpha would—to show me my place with his fists.
I’m surprised when he remains where he is despite the tightness around his eyes and the twitching muscle in his jaw. I don’t know who this man is, or what his intentions are, but the power I sense in him tells me he has to be the missing seventh alpha.
His perfectly sculpted chest glistens with sweat, a sheen that indicates he ran up the mountain, taking the slope much faster than the others.
I guess he was late to the party.
Peter Nash remains several paces away, poised where he must have dug in his heels.
His focus is now on the newcomer.
“Tristan Masters.” Peter growls. “You finally decided to show up.”
Tristan Masters.
I shiver. I can’t stop myself from taking an involuntary step back. At the side of the clearing, my father has left his position and moved closer, but not so close that Peter Nash will retaliate. Even without the fearful tension in my father’s posture, I know that my situation just became a thousand times more dangerous.
Facing Peter Nash is one thing. Taking on Tristan Masters, the most ruthless of all alphas, is definitely another. If he killed his own father, he won’t hesitate to end me.
For some reason, he chose to barrel into me at full speed when I was about to take a swipe at Peter—a wolf I have no respect for and will never obey. Tristan either intended to stop me from doing something stupid—or he wants to be the one to destroy me.
Either way, as far as I’m concerned, every alpha in this clearing is my enemy.
Tristan casts a sideways glance at me. My body heats when his assessment lingers on the rips in my shirt, but I refuse to cross my arms to cover myself. It’s hard to tell how much I’m flashing everyone right now, but I know I’m bleeding where Dawson’s claws caught my skin across my stomach and ribs, along with the cuts across my shoulder from Cody’s attempt to mark me.
Tristan swings back to Peter.
Tristan’s mouth shapes into a grin that makes my blood run cold. His eyes crinkle at the corners and his incisors peek through his lips. “The welcome party you sent me is lying in a ditch, Peter. I left a few of them alive to crawl home. I hope they weren’t your strongest wolves.”
My eyes widen as the meaning of Tristan’s statement sinks in. Peter must have sent men to kill Tristan on his way here. That seems like a particularly dangerous and reckless thing to do at the time of a Conclave. It would explain why Tristan’s late.
Peter’s jaw clenches, his eyes narrowing. He takes a heavy step forward, but his voice lowers.