Page 52 of A Wolf’s Wound

Hannah

“Can’t you tell? Look at you, sweating and disgusting after our little jog together. And look at me.” He sweeps a hand, gesturing to his relaxed form. “I’m stronger, faster, better , in every way. And if you interrupt me again, human, you’ll wish you’d never been born with a tongue.”

I’m too morbidly fascinated to even be bothered by his insults. Now that he spells it out, it makes sense. I should have been able to outrun him, or at least disappear into the woods. But he’d been inhumanly fast with a keen sense for tracking.

Now I know why.

“I could tell you were a shifter,” Ryder says. “As soon as I got out of the car.”

Brian turns to him, and Ryder glares at me again. He’s trying to build a rapport with Brian, but I can tell it’s all a lie even if Brian can’t. He’s not impressed with Brian’s status as a shifter, even though he’s trying to sound like he is. He wants me to run.

He’s wanted me to run away this entire time, but I just can’t make myself.

Brian is obsessed with him. What if I run off for help and I’m too late?

I have no doubt that Brian’s seemingly friendly mood will flip if a human appears to have bested him.

I can’t leave him alone with Ryder. Especially not when Ryder looks like he’s just been gut-punched.

He’ll have a better chance taking Brian down with my help than without it.

If I can manage to distract him at the right time…

Ryder seems to follow my train of thought and shakes his head, warning me off. I stand back for now but keep watching for an opportunity. I might not have shifter strength, but I don’t need it. I have Ryder. And as long as Ryder has me, we can tip the scales on this son of a bitch.

“I could smell you,” Ryder says, and Brian preens like it’s some sort of compliment. “But I don’t understand how . There’s been a shifter biting people out here, and I’ve seen some of them turn. It doesn’t usually end pretty. How are you still alive? Do you have a mate?”

At that, Brian roars with laughter so loudly he nearly falls. He mimes wiping a tear away from his eye.

“Oh, that would be rich. No, no mate. Just a lot of research. A lot of planning. Shifters keep to themselves, but you haven’t hidden yourselves away entirely. That would be impossible. There are whispers online, if you know where to look.”

Ryder looks troubled that anything is written about shifters online. They work so hard at keeping a low profile, but from my time at the university, I know that entire professions are dedicated to eradicating the evidence of supernaturals.

It’s not an easy job. The best they can do is muddy the waters, submit enough false stories to overwhelm the few true ones that make it through. And with everything being on camera these days, there’s an increasing number of true stories making it through.

“There’s a lot of bullshit online,” Ryder says.

Brian nods. “Sure. It took some wading through, but I was patient. I tried a few methods—drinking from the same cup you used, drinking potions with your hair. Eventually, I realized that I needed to be bitten. Most people don’t survive it, even in the bullshit stories online, but I found one guy who did. ”

“And how did you even know he was real?”

“Oh, I tracked down all the storytellers.” Brian’s face darkens. “Believe me, I have plans for the liars. They’ll pay for their audacity soon enough. But eventually I found a guy not too far from here. He didn’t want to meet with me, told me it was all a story, but I knew better.”

“How? How did you know for sure he was a shifter?”

“I watched him turn.” Brian shrugs. “I tried to get him to turn me, but he refused. He said it was wrong, talked about it like it was some sort of violation. The human world has made us so ashamed of ourselves, of our own nature. That’s when I knew for sure I needed to change things.”

“And how did you plan on surviving? He must have told you it was dangerous. How did he survive?”

“Luck, probably. Willpower, mostly.” Brian looks proud of himself. “You have to be strong enough. You have to want it more than anything you’ve ever wanted in your entire life, and I did.”

Ryder rubs the back of his neck with his hand, and Shadow perches on his other shoulder. “But that’s the thing I don’t get. Besides surviving, how the hell did you convince someone to bite you?”

“Oh, that.” Brian’s so smug I want to slap his grin off his face.

“Well, first I got him really, really drunk. It took a lot of work because he could drink . But I got him wasted, and then we went back to a hotel he sometimes crashed at when he didn’t want to go back to the compound and drank even more. ”

Ryder freezes.

At first I think that Brian’s still talking about the shifter he met online, but the way Brian’s looking at Ryder…

Cold spreads from my stomach to my limbs. I want to think I’m wrong, but Ryder’s face tells me I’m not.

“Maybe I could have gotten someone else to do it, but I could feel that we had a connection. It’s like I was sent here to save you.

Don’t you see it? You were getting wasted every night, fighting with everyone.

Taking girls home and forgetting their names the next day.

I could tell you were miserable. And I could tell why.

Because humans had forced you to live a fucking lie.

Of course you were losing it. You were denying your true nature. Anyone would.”

Ryder shakes his head.

Brian studies him with such sympathy I almost believe him—or at least I believe that he believes himself. Whatever he’s done, he truly believes he’s done it for Ryder’s own good.

“I asked you to bite me, but you were such a good boy. Didn’t want to piss off Gavin.

Right? So I pretended to leave, but I didn’t close the door all the way behind me.

I snuck in, right, and pulled a mask over my face.

You thought I was there to rob you, and I pulled out a gun.

It wasn’t loaded. I’d never hurt you, man.

I just needed your instincts to take over.

You were too drunk to fight in your human form, but as a wolf… ”

Ryder clutches his hair. He looks like he might throw up. I cover my mouth, just as disgusted. Brian was Ryder’s friend, someone he trusted enough to bring into his home. And he was betrayed in the worst possible way.

“You did. You shifted just enough to bite me, and then I took off the mask and screamed. It was a risk. You had every right to just devour me. But it was worth it. I knew it was worth it. God, I could feel the power from your bite as soon as your teeth sank into my flesh. I knew I’d finally done it. ”

Brian laughs at the horror on Ryder’s face. From the look of it, Ryder’s remembering everything. Shadow snarls at Brian and nuzzles against Ryder, but that only makes Brian laugh even harder. I want to hold Ryder, to tell him that none of this is his fault, but Brian looks over his shoulder at me.

“But just wait! That’s not even the best part!”

My stomach sinks. Between Ryder’s expression and the glee in Brian’s, there’s definitely something more.

And it’s definitely worse.