Page 17 of Mortal Shift
“You don’t know when to submit to your betters, do you?”
“No,” I bit out. “And I’m never going to learn, so you might as well give up.”
“One thing you will learn is that I don’t give up. And I’m going to enjoy teaching you.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “You’re not going to enjoy it half as much as you think, asshole. And if you don’t let me go, I’m going to castrate you in your sleep tonight.”
He threw his head back and laughed loud at that, and his laughter was echoed around the room.
“You’re welcome to try, princess. But don’t forget you have to sleep there too, and I don’t think you’d enjoy my retaliation.”
He canted his head and gave me a smile that was all teeth and bad intentions, then released his grip on me and stepped back.
“Someone pour the human a drink,” he called without looking away from me. “If she wants to run with the packs, then she can prove she’s worthy.”
I didn’t want to run with the packs, not even remotely, but before I could voice that objection, a cry went up round the room.
“Initiation!”
A few of the gathered shifters threw their heads back and howled—not a wolf’s howl, just a human approximation of it, but one that still managed to chill me deep to my bones.
Cole held his hand out, and someone slapped a strip of black fabric into it. He shook it out and held it up in front of me so I could see what it was. A blindfold. I shook my head and he nodded his with a sadistic smile, then wound it round my head, plunging me into darkness. My hand twitched up toward it and he caught my wrist, spinning me round and twisting it up behind me.
“Uh-uh,” he said. “No cheating.”
He leaned closer so I could feel his breath in my ear, and added, “You don’t want to find out what they do to people who cheat, princess.”
He was right about that. I could feel the anticipation crackling in the room, and when he peeled his fingers from my wrist, one at a time, I let my arm drop slowly to my side.
“Good girl.”
He steered me forward, and I had no choice but to trust that he wasn’t going to walk me straight into a wall, or let me trip over something and land on my face. Joy. I justlovedmy fate being in Cole’s literal hands.
I made it half a dozen tentative steps before his hand on my shoulder brought me to a halt. I opened my mouth to ask him what was going on, but before I could get a word out he spun me around in a tight circle several times. My question escaped as a yelp, much to the amusement of the gathered shifters, if the snickers were anything to go by.
He kept spinning me until I lost all sense of direction and a wave of dizziness rushed over me. I staggered a step and crashed into something warm and solid that felt inescapably like a certain guy who seemed bent on making my life hell. Someone loosed a catcall and my cheeks burned red as I tried to right myself.
“There’s more to being a shifter than just turning into an animal,” Cole intoned from beside me. “That’s a pretty big part of it, though,” he added, and an amused cheer went up around me that sent a shiver down my spine. Because Icouldn’tturn into an animal, and that meant I didn’t have much chance of passing whatever dumb test Cole was about to set.
“Still,” he said, raising his voice above the din, “it takes more than just a fur coat to be one of us, don’t you all agree?”
Judging by the cheer that went up, they did. Just great.
“You must be strong. Fast. Fearless. And you must trust your instincts…and your senses.”
The room grew quiet and curiosity burned at me, my hands itching to pull off the blindfold and let me get a look at what was going on, but I curled them into fists and locked them into place at my sides, my fingernails biting into my palms.
“Every shifter here has passed this trial, and now it’s Cali’s turn.”
I swallowed hard, the instinct to pull off the blindfold growing stronger by the second.
“Hold your hands out in front of you,” Cole commanded me, and I hesitated a moment before slowly lifting them, and forcing my hands to unfurl. A pair of hands—Cole’s, I thought—took hold of my wrists and twisted, so that my thumbs were pointed up. I became aware of people pressing in close around me, their body heat and the sounds of their breathing crowding my senses.
“Hold these,” Cole ordered, and pressed what felt like a shot glass into each of my hands. A wave of relief rushed through me. It was a drinking game. They wanted me to get drunk. This was going to be no worse than any other pledge at any normal college.
I should have known better.
“There’s no backing out now, princess,” Cole purred in my ear. His voice rose again, so everyone could hear him as he addressed me. “One glass is filled with water. The other with a deadly poison. Drink one.”
