The Golden Claw Read online

  The Golden Claw

  K.A. Faul

  Laurie Starkey

  Michael Anderle

  BrixBaxter Publishing

  Contents

  Description

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Continue the Saga

  Author Note

  About Seven Sons

  About The Author

  Copyright

  Description

  Seeking companionship, the lonely First Shifter gave some wolves souls and minds.

  Disappointed with his creation, he disappeared, leaving humanity vulnerable to animals who could hide among them.

  Some chose coexistence; others chose violence.

  Thousands of years later, none of that matters to stubborn Mina. With her Rite of Passage coming up, she’s more concerned about convincing the skeptical wolves of her clan she’s worthy of respect than interspecies politics.

  The world is not a place of peace, even for werewolves who don’t want to fight.

  Some in her clan believe Mina is the culmination of a prophecy related to the First Shifter. Others worry she’s a dangerous element who might bring them back to the dark days of wolf-on-wolf bloodshed.

  But Mina only wants to protect her friends and family.

  When enemies threaten her Rite of Passage, Mina realizes that werewolves can’t hide from the rest of the world, and she can’t dodge her responsibilities.

  The ultimate strength of the wolf is the pack.

  But what happens when one wolf might be a risk to her pack?

  Chapter 1

  Mina sprinted through the dense undergrowth. She looked down for a second, a mistake. When she raised her head, she ducked with a yelp to avoid the branch wanting to knock her on her ass. The howls of the two wolves behind her fueled her run. Close. Too damn close.

  “Unfair,” she huffed between breaths. She ducked a branch and jumped over a log in her way. “How the hell am I supposed to outrun two wolves?” She ducked another limb. “That’s four times as many legs!”

  The complaints made her feel better, even if she knew they wouldn’t do any good.

  Her strained lungs, aching legs, and outraged sense of fairness didn’t matter. The hunters pursuing her weren’t about to give her a time-out and go to commercial break.

  No. She wouldn’t let herself think that way. She would show those two fools.

  Mina spared a glance over her shoulder. The rays of the noon sun penetrated deep into the forest. She could only imagine trying to avoid the wolves at night.

  She was sure those sons of bitches were enjoying this far too much. Still, the flutter of birds in the distance marked their approach. The wolves didn’t exactly bring their stealth game to the hunt.

  Her watch beeped. Relief flooded through her like a powerful anesthetic. Her painful breaths and burning muscles didn’t matter anymore. She grinned. She only needed to survive for one more minute.

  Mina ignored the growls growing closer, instead searching the area in front of her. The words of her rather annoying trainer Thomas floated into her mind.

  Always use the environment. You have a mind, not just instincts, so use it.

  Flowers. Bushes. Downed logs. Lots of trees. The forest might have a lot of resources, but Mina didn’t see anything of immediate tactical or escape use.

  A fox poked its head out of a hollowed-out log ahead, eyeing her like she owed him money. For a second, she almost thought she could feel a combination of curiosity and fear radiating off the animal.

  The wolves were now close enough that she could hear them tearing through the bushes. The fox darted into the log, and Mina realized he was afraid of the wolves, not her.

  She looked up and spotted her salvation: a branch.

  Mina didn’t slow and continued barreling through the forest. Her gaze flicked to a stump, two trees, and several low-hanging branches. It was time to put her opposable thumbs to use and attempt something she’d only seen on YouTube.

  Well, kind of. She’d seen something similar, if you replaced trees with buildings, but she was sure it would work. Mostly. Okay, at least thirty percent sure. Twenty-five maybe when she took the light breeze into account.

  The loud growls of the wolves signaled they would be able to pounce any moment. She ignored them and concentrated on timing her escape.

  Not yet, not yet. Go!

  Mina leapt toward a stump coming up on her left. She pushed off on contact to launch herself toward the thick trunk of a nearby Douglas fir. One final leap sent her sailing toward a branch on another tree. Her momentum carried her forward, and she swung on the branch.

  The rough bark scraped her hands, but she didn’t care as one final jump brought her to a higher, thicker tree limb. Joy exploded through her as she landed atop the branch.

  After taking a second to settle her position, Mina glanced down in time to see one of the wolves, a brown-coated one, attempt to mimic her motion. She snickered.

  “Yeah, go for it, Garett!” Mina shouted.

  The wolf slammed into the trunk of the Douglas fir with a yelp and fell to the ground. The other, a light-coated wolf, didn’t bother. Instead, he stared up at her, growling.

  Mina’s watch beeped again, and she waved her arms at the wolves.

  Both circled below her now, growling and glaring at her with baleful amber eyes.

  “Time’s up, losers,” Mina shouted. “And did you see that jump? That was ridiculous.” She laughed. “I can’t believe that worked. But I think my favorite part is when Garett thought he could do it in wolf form.” She waved at the brown-coated wolf who’d tried to copy her. “Hope you didn’t break anything important.”

  The wolf growled louder, then stopped as the other wolf tilted and shook his head.

  “Come on, Thomas,” Mina said. “You have to admit that was pretty awesome. That was practically some Hunter crap there. Though imagine what they could do in a forest like this. It’d be pretty impressive.” She chuckled, trying to envision it.

  The bodies of the wolves shuddered and folded, their fur, muscles, and bones twisting. Low growls escaped both wolves. Paws stretched and split, turning into hands. Their snouts shrank, along with their teeth.

  Mina sighed and stared at them. No matter how much she wanted to tease them, messing with a werewolf while they were shifting was an asshole move. They might be a few years older than her and could shift in under twenty seconds, but she doubted shifting hurt any less for them.

  Two men replaced the wolves, a brown-haired man in his mid-twenties and a younger-looking blond-haired man. Even if it could be hard to tell the age of werewolves, Mina knew Thomas was barely twenty.

  Thomas might be kind of cute if he didn’t always wear a scowl on his face that made him look constipated. That, and the way he acted like being a couple of years older than her made him so much wiser. He was overcompensating for something. She snickered at the thought.

  Once the Rite is over, at least some of that garbage will be
over. I hope.

  After a few seconds, Mina frowned, realizing something. “You’re not naked.” She held up a hand. “Not that I’m not grateful for being spared the sight of you two in the buff.”

  Garett reached under his T-shirt and yanked out a small bronze amulet inlaid with gemstones. Mina couldn’t see the details from the tree, but she was sure a bunch of strange runes had been carved into the amulet.

  “Preservation amulets?” she asked. “They are handing those out for training exercises now? Since when?”

  “I had concerns you’d do something stupid, so I asked for them,” Thomas said.

  Mina jumped down from her branch to the one beneath her before falling to the ground. She dusted off her pants before speaking. “Stupid?”

  “For all we knew, you’d hop in a truck and barrel toward non-clan friendly humans. So I had to make sure we could shift without losing our clothes and drawing too much attention.”

  Garett grunted in agreement.

  Mina rolled her eyes. “Oh, yeah, because there are just so many random humans wandering around here who aren’t clan relatives or don’t already know about werewolves. That makes perfect sense.” She tapped her bottom lip. “But you know, that’s a great idea. I think next training exercise, I’ll just go on social media and start streaming it with, ‘Jerk werewolves chasing dark-haired hottie. You’ll never guess what happens next!’”

  Thomas crossed his arms and narrowed his blue eyes. Mina shrugged. Garett looked like he wanted to punch her.

  Mina almost wanted him to try. She was getting a little tired of everyone underestimating her just because of who her father was. Thomas always seemed to forget that it wasn’t like she’d only started receiving training when he’d been assigned to her.

  Thomas let out a long sigh. “Your Rite of Passage is coming soon, Mina. You need to take this seriously. If you fail, you’re not going to get a chance for another year. And how do you think that’ll look for your father?”

  Mina narrowed her eyes. “Don’t bring him into this.”

  “Good, I hope she fails,” Garett said. “Then maybe she’ll learn some respect.”

  “For who?” Mina asked. She pointed at him. “You’re not my father. You’re not my king. You’re not my alpha. You’re not my beta. I’m not even in your pack. I don’t have to give you any respect. You have to earn it.”

  Garett gritted his teeth and stepped forward.

  Thomas threw his arm in front of the other man. “Calm down.” He shot a nasty glance Mina’s way. “And nothing he said changes what I said.”

  She shrugged. “Contrary to what you seem to think, Thomas, I don’t plan on failing my Rite of Passage.” She gestured toward the tree. “And you seem to be forgetting that I passed your training exercise. I avoided both of you, on two legs, for the time limit.” She crossed her arms and leaned against the tree. “I seem to recall you saying something like, ‘You will fail this test, Mina. It’s a test of character. Try not to embarrass yourself by pouting later.’”

  “You only passed because of a lucky stunt,” Thomas said.

  “You’re the one who told me to take advantage of my environment. Looks like I have both good character and a good mind.”

  His face twitched. He opened his mouth to say something when a loud, shrill cry sounded from above. Mina’s head jerked up.

  A shadow passed over them, the source a huge circling raven. After a couple of seconds, the bird dove straight toward Mina.

  Thomas groaned, and Mina grinned.

  The raven blurred and twisted into a small woman in a near instant, landing right beside Mina on two feet, her arms outstretched.

  “Hey, Linh,” Mina said. “Did you see it? Please tell me you did.”

  The short and slender girl lowered one arm and waved with the other. Despite her youthful face, she was nineteen, a year older than Mina. “Oh, yeah. That jump was beyond awesome.”

  Mina couldn’t help but be jealous of how wereravens could shift so quickly. A raven couldn’t heal like a wolf, but fighting wasn’t exactly on top of their to-do list anyway.

  Unlike with Thomas and Garett, Mina wasn’t surprised that her friend landed in her clothes, dark jeans and a dark T-shirt for some band she’d never heard of before. The few ravens that lived in Golden Oaks all had preservation amulets.

  “You shouldn’t be here, Nguyen,” Thomas said, pursing his lips. “This is a wolf training exercise.”

  Mina rolled her eyes. “She’s lived in Golden Oaks a lot longer than you have. And she’s a Messenger. So stop with the calling her by her last name crap.”

  “She’s still not a wolf or a member of our clan. And she’s only an apprentice Messenger.”

  Garett grunted and nodded his agreement. Mina sometimes wondered if he had to concentrate to speak full sentences.

  “It’s okay, Mina,” Linh said, a cheerful smile on her face. She stuck her hands on her hips. “How do you know I’m not here on Messenger business?”

  Thomas heaved a weary sigh. “Okay. Are you?”

  Linh laughed. “Nope.” She high-fived Mina.

  “Mina cheated,” Garett said. He nodded toward Linh. “She had the raven giving her information. The point of the exercise was that she escaped by herself.”

  Mina and Linh exchanged glances.

  “The timing is suspicious,” Thomas said. “Not saying that you did, but still.”

  Mina pointed with her thumb at Linh. “Oh? And how did we pull that off?” She looked over at her friend. “I guess my mastery of bird calls has come far along.”

  Linh bobbed her head, forcing such a serious expression on her face that Mina had to resist another laugh. “Oh, yeah, yeah. I liked how you squeaked out, ‘Give me active tactical position reporting on the two wolves after me, over,’ and I was all ‘CAW, CAW, CAW,’ and you squawked back, ‘Thanks for the position report that the two pursuers are exactly twenty-four yards behind me, over. Prepare coordinates for artillery firing solution.’” She shrugged, a warm smile lingering on her face.

  “What this is really about is how you two,” Mina said, pointing to Garett and Thomas with separate hands, “can’t handle that my Rite Initiate ass managed to avoid both of you. Not my problem you underestimated me. I’m getting a little tired of it to be honest.”

  “Just because you’re the king’s daughter doesn’t mean shit,” Garett said, his voice a near growl. “And just because you have some red streak in your hair don’t mean you’re special.”

  Mina narrowed her eyes, clenching her hands into fists. She couldn’t help who her father was. Not that she minded. He was awesome, after all.

  Her stomach knotted over the other comment. She’d spent most of her life dyeing the red streak to match her naturally black hair and had only stopped after her first shift the previous year. She knew what everyone said, that red hair, fur, or feathers in a shifter marked direct descent to Rogan, the First Shifter. She wasn’t even sure if she believed in that crusty-ass superstition.

  Even if she could bring herself to believe it, the red streak had never done her much good. It had mostly brought her to the attention of idiots like Garett.

  “You’re right,” Mina said, unclenching her hands. “None of those things are important. The fact that I beat you on two legs does mean I’m special, though. Or you can’t hunt worth crap. Take your pick.”

  Garett growled. “You think I won’t hit you—”

  “Enough!” Thomas shouted. He shook his head at Garett. “We have our orders from the alpha on training Mina.”

  Garett gave her one last glance before stomping off back toward town.

  Mina resisted the urge to flip him off. She almost wanted to brag about her glorious self-control. Garett had a good five years even on Thomas, and yet he was still having to take orders from the younger man. It said something about Garett that a relative newcomer to his pack was the beta.

  Thomas pinched the bridge of his nose. “Why do you insist on pissing him off?”<
br />
  “I don’t insist on anything. I just say things, and some people choose to get offended.” Mina turned to Linh. “Have I pissed you off today?”

  Linh shook her head so hard, her long, dark hair swirled around her face. “No, not at all.”

  “I’m not going to ask you, Thomas.” Mina shrugged. “I know I piss you off. Even though—yeah, I want to beat this point into the ground—that I defeated two way more experienced werewolves in a hunting evasion exercise.” She rubbed the back of her neck. “But you keep acting like I’m doing terrible when we spend hours every day doing exercises, and I’m doing damn well at all of them.”

  “Hours doing exercises?” Thomas snorted. “You got something better to do? Your Rite of Passage is coming up, so you should get over it. You should just be happy to receive additional training.”

  “It’d be more useful for me to know about the actual Rite than run around in the woods making Garett look stupid, let alone all that survival crap you have me do.”

  “Says the girl who has never eaten a freshly killed meal in wolf form.”

  Mina grimaced. He had her there.

  The man shook his head and started toward town. “You’ll be doing a hunting exercise tomorrow as a wolf. And we’ll be doing combat training later tonight.” He stopped to look over his shoulder. “And it’d be nice if your raven friend didn’t tag along.” He continued walking.

  “I love you too, Thomas,” Linh said, blowing him a kiss. She waited a few moments for the man to walk farther away before turning toward Mina. “What crawled up his ass and died?”