Chapter 1 The Lowest Point
The training grounds smell like blood and pine, but mostly like my shame.
I watch from the bleachers; the only place I'm allowed; as wolves twice my size practice their shifts. Their bodies ripple with power, bones cracking into new shapes with the ease of breathing. Graceful. Lethal. Everything I'm not.
The transformation is seamless for them, like their wolf forms are just another skin they slip into without thought. I've watched this scene play out a hundred times, and it never gets easier.
My hands clench in my lap. I force myself to breathe, to stay seated, to not draw attention.
Invisibility is my superpower. If I can be invisible enough, maybe people will forget I'm the alpha's cousin who doesn't have a wolf.
That's never going to happen.
"Still dreaming, Kaida?"
I don’t need to turn to know it's Lima; the alpha's sister, my personal nightmare. She slides beside me with the confidence of someone who's never doubted their place. Everything about her is sharp: her jawline, her smile, her dark eyes that cut through people like knives. She's beautiful in the way predators are beautiful;dangerous, untouchable, perfect.
I hate her for it.
"Just watching," I mutter, keeping my gaze fixed on the training ground where my brother, Liam, practices with our pack’s best fighters. He's good. The kind of good that makes me wonder if the wolf gene skipped me entirely.
"Of course you are." Lima’s laugh is like breaking glass. "What else can you do? You can't be out there. Can't shift. Can't hunt. Can't do anything except sit and watch like a useless human."
The word hangs between us like a slur. Human. In our pack, it's worse than an insult; it's a diagnosis.
Born to a werewolf mother and the alpha's cousin as her father, I should have been powerful. Instead, I'm this.
Powerless.
I should be used to it by now; years of waiting for my body to remember how to transform. Years of hoping I’d stop being the family shame.
It never works.
"My brother says your parents are talking about sending you to the human territories," Lima continues. "Says your father's embarrassed. Can you imagine? An alpha's relative, wolfless. Useless. Pathetic."
My chest tightens. I hadn’t heard that. No one tells me anything important. I’m the ghost at every family dinner, the silence at every pack meeting.
Exile to the human territories. A slow death.
"Ignore her," comes a softer voice.
I look up to find my best friend Ivy approaching, her red hair catching the afternoon sun like fire. She’s not wolfless, but she’s also not a fighter; a healer, which makes her almost as much of an outsider. She sits beside me like a shield.
"I'm just being honest," Lima says, standing. She leans close, her wolf scent rich and powerful. "You'll never be one of us, Kaida. You're not pack. You're not wolf. You're just damaged."
Lima leaves before I can respond. Bullies always get the last word.
Ivy squeezes my hand. "Don't listen to her. You're stronger than…."
"I'm not." My voice is flat. "I'm not strong, Ivy. I'm not a wolf. I'm not anything she said I wasn’t. She's just being honest."
We both know it’s true. My parents flinch when people ask about me. The council meets to discuss my future like I’m a problem to solve.
The sun starts to set, painting the sky in orange and red. Wolves shift back to human form, their bodies steaming slightly as they cool.
The transformation always looks effortless, like their wolf waits beneath their skin, ready to emerge.
I've never felt that. Never felt the rush of power.
There's just me. Just Kaida. Just human.
That night, I pull out the journal I’ve kept since I was twelve. The pages are filled with drawings of wings, maps of human cities, sketches of a life without this pack. I add another drawing: a girl at a cliff’s edge, looking out at something free.
An escape route.
That’s what I need; not acceptance, not a wolf form. Just a way out before I disappear completely. I want to be the main character of my own life.
Then I hear it. a sound outside my window. Not thunder. Something predatory. Ancient.
Then the screams.
My journal falls from my hands. That scream is Misha, one of the patrol wolves. Terror fills the air.
I rush to the window. The pack’s territory is burning. Flames consume the eastern border, orange and hungry against the night sky.
Our wolves are transforming, rushing toward the threat. I’ve never seen the pack move with such panic.
Something powerful has breached our lands.
I grab my hoodie and run downstairs. My parents are in the living room, my father’s face thunderous, my mother’s hand over her mouth. Liam is half-shifted, bones cracking as he prepares for battle.
"What's happening?" I ask, though no one ever answers me.
"Stay inside," my father growls, heading for the door. "Protect the young ones. Lock the doors."
"Kaida, go to your room," my mother says. "Lock the door. Don’t come out."
They leave. The house feels like a coffin.
I could obey. I should. But something pulls me toward the back door. Curiosity? Desperation? The need to see something real?
The night air is thick with smoke. I creep toward the trees, staying low. My heart pounds as I reach the edge of the clearing.
Our pack fighters; at least thirty; surround something. Someone. A wolf larger than any I’ve seen, silver-gray with midnight undertones.
He’s outnumbered but unstoppable, tearing through them like they’re nothing. Every strike is calculated, every movement elegant. It’s like watching death dance.
But he’s losing.
Then our alpha, Dante, appears—massive and black as midnight. The stranger’s head snaps up. For a moment, the world holds still.
Then they collide.
Two alphas locked in combat. The stranger fights like someone with nothing left to lose. His howl isn’t just pain; it’s heartbreak.
Then a silver arrow glows through the dark, embedding in his ribs. Poison.
A coward’s move. A pack move.
He collapses, transforming violently into human form. Tall, scarred, bleeding, he crashes to his knees.
"Stand down!" Dante roars, and the wolves obey.
I should run. I should hide. But I can’t.
The man lifts his head, and our eyes meet. Ice-blue. Ancient. Full of rage and sorrow so deep I feel it in my bones.
Something shifts inside me. The world tilts. Every nerve screams a sin
gle word I don’t understand yet but somehow I know.
Mate.
It feels like coming home; and losing everything at once.