Shifter Crown: Valley of Truth and Denial (The Shifter Crown Series Book 1)

by Desni Dantone

  In a matter of seconds, the living room has been destroyed. Tables are crushed. Upholstery is shredded. Glass covers the floor, along with a considerable amount of blood. It’s impossible to know who it is coming from, but I can take a good guess.

  The wolves are outmatched, even three-on-two.

  I squeeze my eyes shut, and send a silent, but urgent, plea to the wolf in my head. I need her, now more than ever.

  Not a damn thing happens.

  Luca needs my help, but I can’t give it.

  Something cold snakes around my ankle, startling a scream out of me. I look down to find Rhonda’s fingernails digging into my flesh as she peers up at me.

  “This isn’t over,” she rasps. “You’re not safe. You will never be safe. Someone else will come. They will find you . . .”

  She gurgles on what I hope is her dying breath, and I pry her lifeless fingers off of me. I don’t have time to worry about her last words to me. No one will have to come for me later if I don’t get out of this mess now. Not only me, but everyone. I suppose that even includes Jill, considering what she did for us.

  But these grizzlies aren’t going down easily. It’s going to take all of us to fight our way out of this, but I still can’t shift. No matter how hard I concentrate. No matter how hard I try.

  I open my eyes with a frustrated groan when, once again, my wolf abandons me.

  Suddenly, my dad is there. He stands at the bottom of the stairs—obviously not doing what I told him to do.

  He raises the shotgun in his hands like he’s acting out a slow-motion scene in one of those cheesy Western movies he loves so much. He takes aim at one of the grizzles.

  But the wolves are in the mix, too. They’re moving too fast. It’s too chaotic.

  “Dad, no!”

  A grizzly roars. It charges.

  Not me. My dad.

  I scream.

  The boom of a shotgun pops my ears.

  Blackness swallows me.

  Chapter 26

  I wake in my bed.

  Every joint and muscle in my body protests when I roll over to look out the window. The sun is high in the sky, and a warm breeze stirs the curtains. It’s a beautiful summer day.

  I sit up with a grimace. The sheet covering me falls, revealing that I am, once again, wearing nothing but a thin T-shirt. At least, it’s one that I recognize.

  “This is becoming a bad habit,” I grumble under my breath.

  Bruises cover my arms and legs, but I have no recollection of how they got there. The last thing I remember . . .

  I bolt from the bed with a gasp. “Dad!”

  I yank open three dresser drawers in a flurry of panic before I remember which one houses my underwear. I quickly pull on a pair, and follow with some shorts I find lying on the floor.

  When I turn around, Luca is standing in the doorway.

  He takes one look at me, and the easy smile on his face drops. He walks toward me slowly, palms out and arms extended like he is approaching a wild animal. “Easy, Sav. It’s okay.”

  “Where is he?” I cry.

  “Your dad is fine,” Luca says in a soothing voice. “He’s downstairs. I’ll get him, but I need you to calm down first.”

  I breathe in. Out. For the first time since I woke up, my head begins to clear. I piece together some of the jumbled mess floating around in there, but I don’t know where reality ends and imagination begins. It all seems like one unbelievable dream.

  “Luca, what happened?”

  One corner of his mouth lifts. “You shifted.”

  “I did? Well, I kind of figured something happened, because I woke up in my bed naked, but . . .” I gape at Luca. “How? What exactly happened?”

  “Your dad shot one of the bears,” Luca explains. “When the other one charged him, you shifted. You saved him.”

  “I saved my dad?” I blink.

  “You saved all of us,” Luca adds. “Your wolf has some spunk.”

  “Everyone is okay?” I beam. “Ryse? Ryder?”

  “They’re fine,” Luca assures me.

  “Jill?” I wonder belatedly, and Luca nods. “What happened to the bear?”

  “The Bianchis ran him off,” Luca tells me. “He’s gone, and he won’t be coming back. Their pack will make sure of that.”

  I grin. “You’re working with the Bianchis now?”

  “Much of the valley is their territory.” Despite his lighthearted words, I detect a hint of concern in his tone.

  My stomach clenches in anticipation. “What aren’t you telling me?”

  “Shifters require less magic with time and experience,” he starts. “I don’t need much to shift now, but I’ve been doing it for years. You’ve done it once—now twice. I don’t know how you pulled it off.”

  “Is that a problem?”

  “I don’t know. Your wolf seems to be a little . . . power-hungry.” He pauses briefly before adding, “She didn’t let you shift back. Maybe you weren’t ready to shift back, but I’ve never seen—”

  “How long?”

  He hesitates. “Five days.”

  “I lost five whole days?” I shriek. “How is that . . . why would I . . . what . . . how?”

  “Easy.” Luca puts his hands on my shoulders, grounding me. “I think the shock of seeing your dad in danger triggered your wolf. She has a protective nature.”

  “But five days . . .” I murmur under my breath.

  “That’s extreme,” Luca confirms. “You will need to learn how to control that.”

  “How am I supposed to do that?”

  I don’t expect an actual answer, but Luca’s mouth drops open like he has one ready. He hesitates.

  “Luca, what is it?”

  “You could . . . learn at the academy.” He offers with a shrug.

  “The academy for rich royal shifters?” I grimace. “I don’t belong there.”

  He absorbs my response with a nod directed at the floor. Then he looks up to meet, and hold, my gaze. “But it’s what you need.”

  “I can’t leave my dad,” I counter. “Not after this.”

  A response comes from the doorway. Not from Luca, but from Dad.

  “Yes, you can.” He steps into my room. “Luca, I’d like a word with my daughter.”

  “Yes, Sir.” Luca backs away with a nod directed at my dad. To me, he says, “I’ll be outside.”

  “Just give us a minute.” My dad pats him on the shoulder as he leaves, and my heart nearly explodes from happiness. Once Luca is gone, Dad directs a scowl at me. “You could have told me about him.”

  I shrug sheepishly. “I was going to . . .”

  “I know.” Dad smiles. “He’s a good kid. I’m glad he was there for you.”

  “So you’re not going to run him off with the shotgun?” I tease.

  “I suppose I’ll give him a chance. He does seem to have your best interest at heart.” Dad takes my hand in his and guides me to the bed, where we sit side by side. He turns to face me. “And that is why I want you to attend the academy in the fall.”

  My mouth hangs open. “How do you know about that?”

  “When you refused to shift back, I was worried,” Dad explains. “Luca told me that there is a place you can go to learn—”

  “I don’t need—”

  “You do,” he insists. “It’s my fault, for hiding the truth from you all this time. I put you at a disadvantage, and I put you at risk. You need to know what you are, and what you can do. It’s not safe for you here.”

  I gape at my father. “You knew?”

  “Your mother told me everything. Well, not everything,” he amends. “She was running from something, but she never explained what. I long suspected that her death was not an accident, and I wanted to protect you from the same fate. She had always spoken highly of the Caspans, so I sought them out after her death. We decided to keep your identity a secret, in the hopes that you could live a normal life.” He shrugs. “I realize now that it’s not that easy. You need
to embrace who you are.”

  Tears fill my eyes. So many emotions course through me, I can’t begin to process all of them. Not only did my dad confirm that my mother’s death was not an accident, but he has known what I was all this time. On one hand, I want to be angry at him for not telling me the truth. On the other hand, I can’t help but appreciate his attempts to protect me.

  Either way, he is right about one thing. I do need to embrace who I am. The academy can help me do that, but . . .

  “What about you?” I sniffle. “I don’t want to leave you here alone.”

  “It’s not like you won’t be able to visit,” Dad reasons. “Besides, I won’t be alone. Jill will keep me busy enough that I certainly won’t be bored.”

  “Jill . . .” I distinctly remember her killing Rhonda before everything went crazy. I feel bad that I haven’t thought to ask about her well-being until now. Surely, she’s struggling with the realization of what she did, though I am grateful she did it.

  “She’ll be okay,” Dad offers. “She doesn’t know what happened, and it’s better that way.”

  There is only one explanation. “They wiped her memory?”

  “She saw and heard too much. She had blood on her hands,” Dad explains. “She was given the choice and chose to forget. Luca’s friends arranged for it to happen. As far as she is concerned, her mother was killed in a car accident. We buried her yesterday, for Jill’s sake.”

  My heart sinks. “I’m sorry, Dad.”

  “Not one this is your fault.” He smiles, and while it looks genuine, I’m not convinced he is handling the unexpected turn of events as well as he wants me to think.

  Rhonda may have been a conniving wench, but he loved her. He bought her lies. He thought it was real—same as Jill. Same as me.

  The shock of discovering that my stepmother has been behind everything is still very fresh. As upsetting as discovering the truth has been, I can’t stop thinking about her final words to me.

  “This isn’t over . . .”

  We may have beat Rhonda, but she was only a pawn in someone else’s game.

  Someone with power, money, and influence.

  My wide, fearful eyes lift to meet my Dad’s gaze. “More will come. Where do you think they’ll look for me first? I can’t leave you here to face that alone.”

  My dad looks far too calm considering the danger he is in. “I am aware that there are forces that I cannot begin to understand,” he reasons, “but you need to understand them so that you can overcome them. You cannot do that if you stay here.”

  “But I—”

  “It’s already been arranged,” Dad says. “You leave for the academy in the fall.”

  My mouth drops open. “How?”

  “The Caspans pulled some strings.”

  “Luca?”

  “His parents,” Dad corrects. “We’re lucky to have them in our corner.”

  “But . . .”

  Am I ready to submerge myself completely in the shifter’s world? Can I embrace a life in the Imperial Kingdom? I think, maybe, I can. With Dad’s blessing, it doesn’t seem as scary as it did before.

  “I’ll think about it,” I offer to get my dad off my back.

  Before I decide, I have a few questions for Luca. After I hug it out with Dad, I go look for him.

  I find Jill first. She’s sitting on the porch swing when I open the front door and looks the other way when I pass her.

  I start down the steps. Then I stop. Turn around.

  She rolls her eyes as I march toward her. I don’t know what I’m doing until I do it.

  In a move that surprises both of us, I hug her.

  Birds stop singing. Chipmunks stop chittering. The clouds part and warm sun shines down on both of us.

  “I’m sorry about your mom,” I whisper into her ear before I pull away. “I know how you feel, so if you ever want to talk . . .”

  Jill gapes up at me for a moment. Then it happens.

  The ice around her heart begins to melt.

  Tears rim her eyes when she finally speaks to me. “Thank you.”

  “Sure.” I hesitate. “You okay now?”

  “Yeah. I think so.” She glances toward the driveway, where I can now see Luca waiting next to my car. “Maybe we can talk later?”

  “Sure. I’ll be here.”

  My eyes are wide when I turn away from her and start down the stairs. A smile slowly takes over, and grows with each step I take as I angle across the yard toward the driveway. I don’t get far before Jill calls out to me.

  I ready myself for the old Jill when I turn.

  “I’m sorry for what I did,” she says.

  It’s so far from what I expect, I can’t respond.

  “For Steve,” she adds.

  “Oh. That?” I glance over my shoulder, toward Luca, with a laugh. “It’s all good.”

  Jill follows the direction of my gaze. “You’re happier now?”

  “Much happier.” I nod. “It worked out the way it was supposed to in the end.”

  I have never believed anything more when Luca greets me with a grin, and I fall into his inviting arms.

  “Hey, girl who’s not my girlfriend.” He kisses my temple.

  “I’m not not-your-girlfriend.”

  “Oh, really?” He looks surprised.

  “Is that a problem?” I tease. “Do you have another girlfriend I should know about?”

  He pretends to ponder my question. “No. My last girlfriend dumped me about a week ago,” he says. “It was brutal. She did it in front of her boss. It was one of the worst moments of my life.”

  I hold back a smile. “I’m sure she feels terrible about that.”

  “I don’t think so.” Luca chuckles.

  “Maybe she was scared,” I offer.

  “Possibly, though she doesn’t have to be,” Luca muses. “She doesn’t know it yet, but there isn’t anything in any realm that she can’t handle.”

  I lean back so that I can see his face, and my smile breaks wide open. “Even a campus full of spoiled, rich, royal shifters?”

  Luca nods. “Especially that.”

  “I hope you’re right.” I lean back into his arms with a sigh. “Because it looks like I’m going to shifter school.”

  I am ready to embrace my future as a shifter and face the unknown that awaits me. With Luca at my side, it’s not so scary.

  After all, I am the heroine in this story.

  About the Author

  Desni Dantone resides in Pennsylvania with her family and enjoys reading in her spare time—anything with romance! When not reading, working, or chasing after her three boys, she enjoys binge-watching new shows on Netflix.

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  The Shifter Crown Universe

  Preorder Now:

  One Night: A Shifter Crown Novella

  Coming Soon:

  Realm of Deceit and Peril

  Court of Fraud and Desire

  Crown of Blood and Glory