by Raven Steele
"When will the truck be here?" Luke looked over the piles of bags.
"In about an hour.” The man went back to the stack of money and pushed it into a counting machine. “It should only take my men eight hours to get to Coast City. Victor’s men are waiting for us there."
Coast City was a huge metropolis up north. I’d heard rumors that the local government and police force had lost control, and the city was pretty much run by the mob. If the Silver Claws were working closely with them, then Rouen might soon share the same fate as Coast City.
Leaning against an empty table, I watched Luke. He moved around the room, still talking to the man in the suit, as he eyed every other person. Most of the women gave him a friendly face, and he winked at them, smiling. He seemed familiar with the operations as he talked with the man, going over their schedule for the next week.
It was rare for shifter packs to be involved with drugs or any kind of illegal shit. It usually drew too much attention to our kind, but those who dared risk it were mostly small packs and ran even smaller operations, just a way to make extra cash, but the Silver Claws were something different. They were deeply involved in making and selling, not just in the city, but across state lines. This scared me.
And just thinking about Luke being involved made any attraction toward him grow cold. Even my wolf snubbed her nose at him.
It took another twenty minutes for Luke to finish up business. This gave me time to analyze the workings of Dominic’s operation. Not only were there a few shifters, but there were also a couple of vampires mingled in with the humans. They didn't seem at odds with each other, which could only mean one thing: they were making some serious cash.
I stood up. Luke watched me intently as I crossed the room.
"I'm going to catch some air,” I said to him in passing.
I was out the door before he could respond. I made my way up the stairs and through the racks of clothes, guilt eating at my insides. Could I really do this? Was I willing to watch drugs being tossed into the streets, just because I needed revenge?
Outside, I sucked in a deep breath and leaned against the brick building. The air was humid, and moths and insects buzzed around street lights. I looked up, searching for my lone star, but it had disappeared. Instead, inky blackness stared back at me. It was vast and threatened to swallow me whole.
I felt small and insignificant in a grimy world. It felt ugly. And I, even uglier for being a part of it. I wanted to scrub the mess from me.
Instead, I waited patiently for Luke. It wasn't long before he joined me.
He didn't say anything as he leaned against the brick wall next to me. His arm brushed across mine, but this time I felt nothing. We were both quiet for a moment, staring at the tagged buildings across the street. One of the words read, “Hypocrite.” Appropriate.
I finally broke the silence. “Do the humans know who they are working with?”
He shook his head. “To them, the Silver Claws are just another gang. A scary as hell one. Still want to join the pack?"
I played with the hem of my shirt. “I haven't decided."
He glanced at me sideways, and his hair fell into his eyes. “It’s okay if you’re not cut out for this. I get it.”
“I didn’t say that.”
“It’s not a bad thing, you know.” He inhaled a deep breath. “In fact, it’s probably a good thing to be repulsed by what we do.”
Turning, I faced him. “Why do you do it?”
His eyes met mine. “For a bigger cause.”
I groaned, disgusted. “Don’t tell me you believe in that pack crap.”
“I won’t.”
I raised my eyebrow. “Then, what?”
Grabbing my arm, he pulled me closer. “Tell me why you want to join.” I opened my mouth, but he interrupted me. “The real reason. I’m not buying that other bull.”
I didn’t, couldn’t, answer him. You didn’t go around telling people that their Alpha killed your whole family. Instead, I looked away, and I slowly pulled my arm out from his hold.
He sighed. “Yeah, I didn’t think so.”
“Some secrets aren’t meant to be shared. I have my own, just like you have yours. It's better we keep it that way."
He didn’t answer right away. When I looked back at him, my face firm, he stood up and nodded to his bike. “Come on. I'll give you a ride home. You can decide tomorrow."
The ride home was different from before. He didn’t zip through the streets. In fact, he drove slowly and my hold around his waist was lighter. I couldn’t involve myself in his secrets. Especially if they kept me from getting my revenge. I distanced myself, determined to untangle any feelings toward him.
I had to keep things simple and couldn’t get distracted.
I had to focus on killing the men who slaughtered my family.
When we pulled up to my house, I slid off the bike and didn’t say anything as I made my way toward the house.
“Briar.”
I turned around. The look he gave me made my chest constrict. He looked sad, and a little vulnerable. I didn’t want to see him that way so I glanced behind him, focusing on the house across the street. When I finally glanced back, his expression was harder, and his hands gripped the bike handle. He took in a breath and I stilled, waiting to hear what he would say.
“Not everything is as it seems.”
Before I could react, he sped off, shooting down the road as if he was running from the devil himself.
I ignored the suffocating feeling in my chest and pushed my feelings deep into a place where they couldn’t easily surface. I didn’t have any room to complicate my life. Especially with a man who was complicated himself.
Turning back toward the house, I shuffled down the walk toward the porch steps when I heard my name. I swiveled around, glaring into the darkness beyond the yard. My wolf eyes saw the outline of a man standing at the tree line.
“Who is it?” I growled this out, the hairs standing at the back of my neck. “Show yourself.”
The man took a threatening stop toward me. I bent down and swiftly yanked a blade from my boot, my pulse racing.
“If you’re looking for a fight, I don’t mind spilling your blood.”
And I meant it. I was tired of being pushed around today.
Chapter 14
“Stop, please,” a familiar voice said. “I didn’t come to fight.”
He stepped into the faint moonlight—my uncle.
"What are you doing here?” I glanced around nervously, making sure we weren't being watched as I returned the knife to my boot. He might be my uncle, but I still wasn’t sure I could trust him, especially after learning about the Silver Claws’ illegal activity. Anyone involved with them couldn’t be all good.
He motioned me deeper into the forest, disappearing within its darkness. I hurried over to the tree line, but hesitated before following him into the woods. I called upon my wolf to take partial control so she could take in the surrounding area and listen to the heartbeat of the night. She noticed nothing suspicious. I rolled my shoulders back and followed after him.
He didn’t speak for a while but continued deeper into the woods. When we were a safe distance away from the house, he stopped. “You accompanied Luke tonight. What did you think of the Silver Claws’ operations?”
"How do you know about that?"
"I've been watching you all day." He admitted this without any shame. It made my fingers curl into my palm.
"Why would you do that?" My voice remained calm, but my whole body was on alert, ready to take him down if he tried anything. Why would he be spying on me, when I’d saved his ass?
A smile tugged at the corners of his mouth. “Ever since we met, you’ve felt familiar to me. You reminded me of someone, so I had to know. That’s why I followed you.” He was grinning wide now, and he yanked me into his arms, giving me a hug. "My Isabella, how I've missed you! I thought you dead with everyone else! Why did you not find me? Where have you been?"
I squirmed out of his embrace. I had never admitted my true identity to anyone before. To hear him use my real name shook me to the core and made me feel small again.
Inhaling a hitched breath, I squared my shaky legs beneath me. I wasn’t the little Isabella who believed the world was a bright and cheerful place anymore. The world had sharpened me into a deadly weapon. I had fought hard to survive and to find the wolves responsible for my family’s death. I trusted no one and even though it made my life a lonely one, I was okay with it.
But now, with my own family standing in front of me, the realization I wasn't alone anymore washed over me and made me feel emotions long ago forgotten. The wall around my heart cracked a little.
"I thought you were dead,” he said, his voice full of agony. “What happened?”
I stared into his eyes. Eyes that were an exact match to my own. Eyes that searched mine desperately, needing an answer.
Puffing a slow breath through puckered lips, I said, “Those men, Dominic and Silas, they threw me into an abandoned well. Then sealed it up and left me for dead.”
His left eye twitched, and his fingers curled into his palms. It was a long moment before he said anything, but when he did, his voice was laced with rage. “They are monsters. True monsters. To leave a child in such a horrible place, trapped, alone?” His throat bobbed up and down. “How did you escape?”
“I got out only because of my…" The words choked in my throat, and I gasped for breath. I couldn’t admit everything to him yet. I couldn’t admit to him that my wolf had emerged early, giving me strength I had yet to understand. That secret was still my own.
“It took three days to get out, climbing stone by stone. Freezing and starving.”
Tears flooded my eyes and ran down my cheeks. I clasped my hands into fists, still angry. This anger I was feeling, it was the kind that simmered and burned. The kind that called for revenge. Not only for what they’d done to me, but for everything that had happened afterwards.
After I finally escaped the well, I had come home only to discover my whole family slaughtered. Every single one, I’d thought. I couldn’t even say goodbye. I couldn’t touch my mom again, to tell her how sorry I was I hadn’t been there for her. Maybe there was something I could’ve done.
In that moment, I’d wished I was dead with them.
Agony made me run, instead of revealing myself to the cops. I ran and ran, until my feet couldn’t take it anymore. I’d already been in the well for three days without food. I ran until my legs were bloody, and my skin stretched over my bones like thin paper. I ran until I couldn’t take another step. And then I collapsed, right next to the road.
Police found me one day later, barely alive. And I never told anyone. Not who I was, not about what had happened, not who had killed them. I didn’t speak for six months. And in that time, all during the process of finding me a home to live in, I became someone else. Someone filled with rage. Fury fueled my existence. I lived and survived, but only with one purpose.
Revenge.
And when I decided to open my mouth to speak, Isabella no longer existed. By then, I was Briar.
I was vengeance. I was retribution.
I was determined to kill the men who had butchered my family.
And yet, here was my uncle: a survivor. Just like me.
He moaned and pulled me to him in a tight embrace. “I had no idea you were alive. Had I known, I would've searched the ends of the earth for you."
“What happened, Vincent? Why didn’t you know?” I was crying now, and I wanted to hit him. To blame everything that happened on him. “Why didn’t you save them?”
Tears filled his eyes and grief twisted his expression.
“Dominic took me.” His voice betrayed his shame. “He kept me locked up for over a year.”
“Why?”
“They thought I knew where the Abydos was, the sacred blood. Do you remember?” I barely nodded. “They tortured me, asking me all sorts of questions about it.”
A cold and violent chill made its way with my spine. I pulled out of his arms and dropped onto a nearby stump in shock.
Of course. I should’ve known. All that killing, every member of my family murdered, because they wanted the ultimate power.
“I told them nothing because I couldn’t,” he continued. “I had no idea where it was. I tried to fight them, but I was powerless. They had those witches, the Morgans.” He spat the name out. “Their power is stronger than my own.” He put his hands out, pleading with me, trying to make me understand, "I wish I could’ve saved them. I loved them.” His hands fell to his side. “And all that for nothing. I couldn’t tell them where it was. And they never found it. The torture lasted months until they finally gave up. I'm glad your father never told me its location. I think I would've cracked."
I said nothing, allowing my emotions to roll over me, giving him time to put himself back together. All these emotions weren’t good. It wouldn’t bring anyone back. It couldn’t change the past.
My uncle inhaled a deep breath, his tears now drying. He knelt to the ground, as if he could no longer support his weight. “I swear to you, Isabella. If I could’ve changed anything, I would have. And your father…” An eerie sound escaped his mouth. “It should’ve been me. I was the older brother. I should’ve been the one protecting the blood. It should’ve been me that died that night.” His eyes darkened. “I was the older brother. But I was stupid and reckless in my youth. My father didn't think I was fit to protect the blood. Maybe if I’d have been a better child, your father, the whole family, would still be alive.” He was quiet for a moment. “Every day I regret that I wasn't better."
I touched his hand. “Then you’d be dead. No one could've predicted what Dominic would do."
He looked at me, determined. “Well, now I can. As penance, I joined up with the Silver Claws, pretending they’d won me over. That I wanted to help them find the blood. Instead, I vowed to destroy their network.” He lowered his gaze. “I know it may seem like I haven’t done a lot, but I have caused them damage. It took me a long time for Dominic to trust me on my own. For years, I always had someone with me, watching me any time I was near the pack. But slowly, I gained his trust. And with the money left to me by your father, I've used it to slowly cut off his network. His reach only extends to Coast City and here, of course."
He clasped my hand tight. "What brought you here, to this city of all places? It's not safe for you, especially if they find out who you really are."
"You aren’t the only one who wants revenge. I’ve been hunting him for a very long time. It took me years to discover the names of those who attacked and killed our family. All I had were their faces." I pulled my fingers through my hair, taking in a deep breath. "I don't worry about them discovering who I am. Like you, everyone thinks I’m dead."
“Except the witches may sense something different in you. You must be careful. Especially because of the Abydos."
"What do you mean?" I resisted the urge to swallow a growing lump in my throat. Above all else, the blood must be protected from everyone. It was too dangerous in the wrong hands.
"Do you know what happened to it?”
Keeping my expression even, I lied. “I have no idea. I was only ten at the time. My father never told me where he kept it. It may be lost forever.”
He frowned. "No, I suspect he wouldn't have. The Silver Claws tore apart your place several times and never found it either. I can only hope no one will ever find it again.” He gazed up through the canopy of trees to the darkness above. "I wish there was a way to know for sure, though. It's dangerous to not know its location."
“Honestly, Vincent, that's one burden I don't want to carry. The ones I shoulder now break my back enough.”
He nodded his head as if he understood. A smile tugged at the corners of his mouth, and he touched my arm, as if he couldn’t believe I was real. “I’m so glad we found each other. It means everything to me. Blood between family member
s is unbreakable. You will come before all others. Whatever you need, just ask. And, please, when it’s just us, call me Uncle."
I shifted my weight wishing I knew how to respond. I never had anyone I could count on before, but he didn’t seem bothered when I didn’t respond.
"You must be careful, Isabella. I know you put on a strong front, but you are still a lamb in a pack of wolves.” I didn’t bother to correct him. To tell him that I was the predator among them. “In a few days, I’ll appeal their decision and rejoin the pack. I have no doubt they’ll let me back in. When I do, we’ll join forces against Dominic and the others and bring them down. Together we can do it. We are Morettis, and no one screws with us.”
A slow smile crept across my face. Finally, someone speaking my language. “If we’re going to do this, you’d better start calling me Briar.”
He smiled, and this time, when my uncle embraced me again, I squeezed him back tightly. If there was ever a time for me to get my revenge, this was it. I could feel it.
Finally, I would destroy the Silver Claws.
Chapter 15
I walked into the house and dropped onto the sofa, my chest feeling lighter even though I’d been way too emotional lately. For the first time, I could actually taste victory on my tongue. And it tasted hella good.
"Doesn't anyone sleep around here?"
I turned around. Lynx stood in the doorway, wearing a short, green, cotton robe and holding a steaming mug in her hands.
"I'm part nocturnal. What's your excuse?"
"Couldn't sleep."
"Cop a squat." I patted the couch next to me. She smiled for a moment as she sat down. Silence settled between us. Her eyes were serious, and she focused on the dark liquid in her cup. Not at all like her normal happy self.
"What's on your mind?"
"It's nothing." Frowning, she sipped at her cup.
"I saw you with your mother at the club. Looked like a heated exchange."