A Shifter's Curse, Raven Steele [the top 100 crime novels of all time .TXT] 📗

Tonight was my initiation into the Silver Claws pack. It had taken long enough. For the most part, the pack was excited, but there were a few who were apprehensive, probably because I had yet to lose a fight.

I was hanging out in one of the entertainment rooms, propping my feet up on the coffee table when Ryder walked up to me. "Can I join you?"

I smiled and eyed the seat next to me. I liked the boy. A few years younger than me, he was different from the rest of the pack. He didn’t have many friends and always hovered on the fringes of our get-togethers. In, but not a part. With how he acted toward us, he should’ve been a lone wolf, but he needed the pack’s protection from the Greybacks. I still didn’t know why he had left the same pack his family belonged to. Something real bad must’ve happened between them.

He dropped next to me, a can of PBR beer in his hands. His eyes were already glazed over; he must’ve been hitting the hard stuff earlier. “Do you think you will pass the initiation?"

"Flying colors, I expect." I patted his knee, but something in his eye, a flash of fear, had me frowning. "What?"

"The initiation, it's not your typical hazing."

"So they're not going to make me drink ten shots and run through town naked? Damn."

He squeezed my knee, his eyes full of sorrow.

My smile disappeared as I studied his serious face. “What the hell are they going to make me do?"

His Adam's apple moved up and down, and the veins on his neck grew thick. "I can't say for sure, but it will be bad. Real bad. Your time with Luke, shaking down local businesses? That’s nothing.” He gripped the beer can tighter until it dented. “They made me do something so terrible, I still have nightmares about it."

“That bad, huh?” I rubbed the back of my hand, wondering what I would have to do that could be worse than breaking faces.

He nodded solemnly. “They need to test you, beyond what you’ve already seen and done. They’re going to make you choose—the pack or something else close to you.”

I let out a sigh of relief. “Not a problem then. I don’t have anyone or anything close to me.”

He stared at me, his blue eyes searching mine. “They’ll find something.”

I swallowed the heaviness growing in my throat. “Why are you warning me? I’m sure it’s against pack rules or something.”

“Because you’re different. I don’t know what it is, but you don’t belong here.” He glanced over my shoulder beyond the glass doors leading to the patio where the rest of the pack partied. “And I think you know it too. It makes me wonder, why are you here?”

“I could say the same to you.” I followed his line of sight, watching a couple grind to the music blaring over the wireless speakers. They were all getting pretty hammered. “You’re hardly one of them, and yet you stay.”

His eyes briefly flared yellow. “I wanted to become a lone wolf, but when I tried to leave the Greybacks, my dad tried to kill me. Where I come from, you don’t leave the pack. Ever. I had to turn to the Silver Claws for protection. They are the only thing standing between my father and me.”

“Your dad?” I tried to hide the shock I felt.

He nodded.

“How could he do that? How could he have the power to do such a thing?”

He stared at me so intensely, I shivered. “Because he’s their Alpha.”

His confession nearly knocked me over. “Your father is the Greybacks’ Alpha? Well, piss on me.”

“If you think the Silver Claws are bad,” he leaned toward me conspiratorially, “the Greybacks would eat their own babies if they thought it would benefit the pack.”

“Baby-eating is messed up. Good on Dominic for letting you join the Silver Claws, but can I ask how? I’d think bringing in the son of a rival shifter pack would be too dangerous.”

“Not when they promise to give up all of their competition’s secrets. How do you think the Silver Claws took over Rouen so quickly?”

My eyebrows lifted. “It’s because of you that Dominic was able to take out the Greybacks’ territory?”

He took a sip of his beer. “Yep.”

“You’ve got some serious brass.”

“It was the only way they’d let me in. And truth be told, I thought Dominic would be better. Hell, anything should be better than staying with the Greybacks, and it was, in the beginning. But, power reveals the monsters in us all.” Guilt bled into his voice.

“And now you’re trapped.”

It was a simple statement, a truth that bound him to this place where not a single fuck was given for him. Until now.

I grabbed his hand, letting my full wolf come to the surface. My chest heaved up and down as I kept her at bay. It was a difficult task when she was this close.

She was strong as hell.

I only showed her to those I felt I could trust. By telling me about the initiation and sharing his past with me, Ryder had shown me he could be trusted. He had risked his delicate position in the pack to do it. In return, I showed him my true strength. Something Dominic would try to kill me for, if he knew.

My power overwhelmed the room, and Ryder tried to mentally pull away. But I held him firm.

“I’m going to help you. This place will not always be your prison. Be my eyes and ears, and I swear to you, in time, you’ll be set free.”

He nodded dumbly, his mouth agape.

“Swear it.” My nail grew into a long, sharp point, and I used it to slice open my palm. He held out his hand to me.

As the old oath went, I sliced his palm, a shallow cut, and clasped my hand to his, binding our blood together. We were connected now. If he were ever in trouble, I would sense it.

This pact was not something I had planned on doing tonight, or ever for that matter. So why now?

I looked deep into his eyes, finding the pain and anger I often found in my own. He was worth it.

A clock in the corner struck midnight.

“It’s time.” Ryder slid his hand away from me and straightened. “If you survive tonight, I’m with you a hundred percent.”

The patio sliding doors opened and Dominic appeared, followed by Silas, Gerald, and the others. Only Luke was missing, and my uncle, who had been sent away on a delivery to another town. I wasn’t sure where Luke was.

The smiles and laughter the pack sported only moments ago had been replaced with serious expressions. They filled the room until they made the large space feel small and suffocating.

Dominic stood ahead of the crowd. “Briar Jacobs, rise.”

I obeyed, willing myself not to squirm under the intense gazes.

“Tonight, you have an opportunity to become a full member of the Silver Claws. We do not give this honor to just any shifter. They must prove their worthiness and have the nomination of at least three pack members to be allowed to go through the trials.”

Three? I risked a quick glance wondering who the third wolf could’ve been to nominate me. Luke, Vincent and… my eyes