Page 91 of A Wolf's Wound
“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 coulddrink.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 tellwhy.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.
Chapter 53
Ryder
Brian’svoicedronesonin the background, but the memory bleeds through everything else, vivid.Like it’s been waiting for me to call it forward.Guiltily, I understand now that I’ve been pushing it away this entire time.
I haven’t wanted to know the truth, not really.
The first thing I remember is blood.
So much blood.
It’s fuckingdelicious.
“Ryder,” Brian gasps.He tugs at a black mask covering his face, and his familiar face shocks me out of my wolf form.“Holy shit, you actually did it.It worked.”
Shit.Shit.I try to stumble to my feet, but my balance is gone.I’ve never been this wasted in my life, and I have been beyond trashed.
“Sorry,” I slur.“Fuck.I…You…”
He gasps again, smiling.“Don’t apologize.This is exactly what I… Agh!”
We spent the night out drinking and then he drove me to the hotel since he was sober.I thought he left after he coaxed me into taking a few more shots with him here in the kitchen.The front door slammed shut before a bedroom window slid open.I thought this was a stranger breaking into my home, not my friend.
