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“The first time I shifted was the night of the Choosing.” There was no use in lying or trying to hide the truth. “After he’d…when he was finished with me, he brought the knife to my throat. I could feel the heat of the silver before it touched my skin. One moment, I was ready to meet the same fate as all the others, andthe next, this beast surged forward in my mind, snapping my control. It felt like I was me, but I wasn’t. I could see everything, feel everything, but once I shifted, my body was driven by pure instinct.”
“The instinct to survive,” Hunter murmured softly. “It’s the strongest instinct shifters and humans have.”
“I remember my jaw clasping around his arm. He nicked me with the silver knife, and it forced me to let go. Then I ran, and they gave chase. Curtis was the first one to catch up to me. He pinned me against a rock face. I had nowhere to go unless I went through him. He taunted me. Told me all the ways he was going to fuck me before he let Damien slit my throat. Then he lunged, and I buried my teeth in his neck and pulled. He was dead before he hit the ground.” There was no anxiety as I told the story. No sobbing or regret. There was nothing but apathy, my mind dissociating itself from the events. “That man I mentioned earlier, Jediah? Curtis is his son. His heir.”
Hunter’s arms wrapped around my waist, and he pulled me into his embrace so our chests were flush with one another. I buried my face in his neck, willing myself to keep the memories at bay. He smelled of pine and citrus.
“You did what you had to do to survive.” His assurance was like a balm over my open wounds. “Don’t feel guilt for killing a man who wouldn’t have given your death a second thought.”
He was right. Curtis would have brutalized and murdered me, just like he’d done to Susan. Like they had all done.
“Another question, Little Red, before I fuck you again.” My cheeks burned at his crude admission. He smirked when he saw the surprise on my face. “I told you that if I caught you, I would fuck all your holes. You still have two left.”
Fuck. My ass cheeks clenched at his words. I’d never been fucked there before.
“You can’t…that’s…” Now I sounded like a moron.
His smirk deepened. “I can and I will,” he assured me. “Now, tell me something. Why did neither of the men have a scent to them?”
Huh? Hunter must have noticed my confusion. “When we arrived, the only scents we could track were Granny’s and yours. Which was surprising, because when we first found you at the river, you didn’t have a scent either.”
Say what now? Everyone had a scent. Even me. Although now that I thought about it, I’d never noticed it until a few days after I left the hospital.
“What do you mean they didn’t have a scent? They smelled like sour milk.”
“Sour milk?” Hunter repeated.
“Yeah,” I told him, nodding. “Jediah’s smell was more pungent than the other one. It’s how I recognized who he was at first. I didn’t know his name, but all the High Council members and even some of the Elite have that scent to them. Most of them bury it under perfumes and cologne.”
“Who are the Elite?”
“They’re what we call the upper echelon of the pack.” I broke down the hierarchy for him. “The High Council is made of the five founding families. Like the Elite, they all have the ability to shift into their wolf forms. The Elite are just below them. They hold the second most powerful positions in the pack. Doctors, lawyers, scientists. While the shifters who don’t have the ability are designated to the trades. Teachers, janitors, things like that. Menial work.”
Hunter stared at me like I had just told him the moon was made of Swiss cheese. Weren’t there other packs with the same type of hierarchy? My old pack couldn’t have been the only one that utilized weaker wolves for menial tasks.
“You’re telling me your old pack has other wolves that can shift like you?”
“Yes…” I told him hesitantly. “That’s why they hold better positions. Their ability to shift means they’re pure, untainted. Don’t the packs you know of have that?”
Hunter growled. “You’re the first wolf I’ve known to fully shift in over a hundred years.”
Well, that seemed impossible. I’d seen members of the High Council shift into their wolves. It hadn’t been a pretty sight, with how their bones snapped and their bodies gave way to the new form. It was the very reason they rarely shifted in the first place. I’d seen one of the Elites shift for the first time when I was thirteen. The transformation had killed her.
I told Hunter as much.
“Something’s wrong there.” His face contorted slightly as he thought about what I’d told him. “All the texts that have been found about shifting say it should be seamless. Effortless. Transforming into your other self shouldn’t be painful. Definitely not terminal.”
“That’s just what I’ve seen.” I shrugged.
“Something doesn’t add up,” he murmured, more to himself than to me. I couldn’t disagree with him now that I had seen the outside world. So much of what went on in the compound was wrong. The way we divided ourselves and turned against one another with ease. How we simply accepted the fate that was given to us. Now it made me wonder about all those who had disappeared over the years. What if they hadn’t moved on to a better place to set down roots for a new pack? What if they’d been executed?
But why? Because they disrupted the status quo? Maybe there was something darker lurking beneath the foundation of the pack. Something that only the High Council and the Elites knew about.
Something that, sooner or later, I would have to confront.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Hunter didn’t fuck me again like he promised. The news that there were others like me, who could fully shift, bothered him. Muttering that he needed to inform Wolf of what I’d told him, he’d lifted me into his arms and run toward the safe house I’d woken up in.
