“Wait. Where are you going?”
“Recon. We need more info.”
“Good thinking. Keep me in the loop?”
“What am I? New?” She winked. “I’ll be back in a few.”
As I sat alone in my room, panic built inside of me, making the wolf rise closer to the surface. I closed my eyes and tried to do the breathing Dastien had showed me. I listened to the sound of the air flowing as it entered and left my body. My mind began to wander. I thought about the first time I’d seen Dastien. The intense pull that I felt between us. The day I first saw him. His sexy smile. The day I first heard his voice. I had way too many feelings about him. Mad. Attracted. Angry. Obsessed.
I pictured him pacing in Mr. Dawson’s tiny cabin. Back and forth. Back and forth. His scent—woods, grass, dirt, and something spicy, something just Dastien—filled me. The vision of him grew sharper as my mind focused. His muscles rippled under his shirt as he paced. Heat warmed my body at the sight. Trent and Mr. Dawson were talking at the dining table. Dastien reached the end of the room and paced back toward me.
It took me a second to register the tingle that started in the bottom of my stomach and rippled through my body.
“Tessa?” he said.
Chapter Thirty-Six
I opened my eyes and jumped off the bed.
What the hell was that?
We’d linked. I’d done it again.
I decided that I had to try and lay back down. Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto started playing. It took a second for it to click that it was coming from my cellphone. I grabbed it from the desk, but didn’t recognize the number. “Hello?”
“Was that you? Were you here?” Dastien said.
“I think so. Hey, how did you get my number?”
“From Michael. Tess. Stay on topic. I could smell you. How did you do it?”
This was embarrassing. “I uuhh…I was thinking of you.”
“You were?” I could almost hear his grin.
“Don’t get a big head about it.”
“I’m going to hang up now, and you’re going to do it again. Okay? This time try talking to me.”
“Can’t we just—” My phone beeped. “—talk on the phone?” I rolled my eyes. Seemed we were doing fine talking before he hung up.
I closed my eyes, and thought about Dastien. The way he looked after he chased me through my backyard. The tingles came, threatening to overtake me. This was way too intense.
I reached for my cell phone and dialed. He picked up on the first ring. “I need time to—”
“Just do it, Tessa.” The phone beeped in my ear.
Did he just hang up on me? Again. What a jerk! Why couldn’t we just talk on the phone like normal people?
My stomach rumbled. It’d been forever since breakfast. I caught the scent of bread. In the corner of the room, tucked beside my desk, was a silver mini-fridge. It was fully stocked with all the essentials.
I’d totally forgotten Meredith was going to set me up with it. A smile spread across my face. I actually had a real friend, and now I totally owed her one. Going downstairs to get food would’ve been a pain if the girls were still in the common room. And then there was Jason…
I grabbed a carton of whole milk, and made myself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. And then made three more. I wasn’t quite sure where all the food was going. Rationally speaking, I was pretty sure I physically couldn’t fit three sandwiches and a half-gallon of whole milk in my stomach. But I ate until the cavernous pit was full, and then settled back down on my bed.
I breathed in and out slowly as I thought of Dastien and the way he smelled. The way he made me feel.
Then it happened again. My stomach dropped like I was falling two hundred feet. My body turned into one giant tingling mess and I couldn’t get enough air. The next thing I knew I was in Mr. Dawson’s cabin.