The Fifth Howl

I've been invisible for nineteen years. Not the cool kind of invisible that Kade Nocturne does, where the shadows actually peel off the walls to hide him. The pathetic kind. The kind you learn when you grow up wolfless in a pack of wolves who can hear your heartbeat stutter. My name is Elara Vane, and I am the only student in the history of Aeternum Academy who got in without a wolf. Everyone says I'm lucky. "Oh my goddess, you're Alpha Darius's adopted daughter! You got in without an Alpha bloodline! You're SO lucky!" Yeah. Lucky. I stare at my reflection in the cracked mirror of what is supposed to be my dorm room. Except it's not mine. It's Seraphina's. She has the four-poster bed, the balcony that looks over the Obsidian Courtyard, the closet the size of my old room in the Hollow. I have a cot shoved against the heater that hasn't worked since 1890. My file in the Academy system doesn't even say Student. It says: Attendant to Heiress Seraphina Vane. The uniform is supposed to be a white blouse, purple plaid skirt, blazer with the Aeternum crest. Mine is Seraphina's hand-me-down. It smells like vanilla and entitlement. "ELARA!" And there's my alarm clock. Seraphina Vane stands in the doorway, already perfect. Golden hair curled, golden eyes bright, her Ebon Pack scent - honey and amber - filling the room. Her wolf Liora is so strong I can feel her even when she's not shifted. She throws her blazer at my face. "Steam this. You left a crease yesterday. And my boots. You missed a spot. Do you want me to tell Father his little charity project can't even clean shoes right?" I don't answer. Rule number one in the Ebon Pack house: never talk back to the real daughter. I take the blazer. She smiles, sweet and sharp. "Good girl. Remember, at the Academy, you represent our Pack. So try not to act like a blank." Blank. That's what they call wolfless girls. No scent. No wolf. No soul. Inside my skull, something scratches. It started on my nineteenth birthday. A month ago. The night the moon turned violet. The abnormal moon. The Violet Eclipse. I woke up burning, my bones feeling like they were snapping and reforming. Since then, there's been a voice. Let me out. I ignore it. I've gotten good at ignoring things that want to kill me. I walk across campus with her books stacked up to my chin. Aeternum Academy isn't a school. It's a gothic nightmare built on a sleeping volcano. Spires that stab the purple-black sky, stone wolves that weep water from their mouths, lanterns that never go out. Every student here is born from Alpha lines. You can smell their power - pine, smoke, frost, blood. I smell like nothing. That's why they trip me. "Oops." A Beta from Crimson Pack sticks her foot out. I go down hard. Books explode everywhere. Seraphina's precious, signed copy of Lineages of the Twelve lands straight in a mud puddle. The whole courtyard goes quiet. This is better than breakfast for them. "Goddess, the pet can't even walk," someone laughs. Seraphina doesn't help me. She looks down at me with practiced disappointment. "Elara, seriously? Father said you were clumsy, but this is embarrassing." My knees are bleeding. The blood is bright red against the grey stone. And the scratching turns into a snarl. LET ME RIP THEM. No. THEY DREW OUR BLOOD. I said no. Not here. Not now. If Seraphina knew - if anyone knew - that for a month I've been hearing a wolf, that my eyes flash violet when I'm angry, that last week I melted my straightener just by holding it too tight when Jaxon Wilder's name was mentioned in class... she would call Darius. And Darius Vane doesn't adopt wolfless girls out of kindness. I push myself up, grab the muddy books, and keep my head down. The crowd starts to move again, bored. That's when the air changes. It's like all the oxygen gets sucked out of the courtyard at once. The birds stop. The chatter stops. Even the wind stops. Because the Quads have entered the courtyard. You feel them before you see them. Kade Nocturne first. Tall, black hair, grey eyes like dead ash. Black blazer even though the dress code is white. The Head of the Disciplinary Council. Power: shadows. He can step through them. He once made a boy choke on his own shadow for cheating on an exam. Jaxon Wilder next to him, brown hair messy, knuckles still bleeding from the Pit last night, grinning like a feral dog. Power: violet fire that doesn't burn what he wants to keep. Rhys Sterling, blond, perfect, terrifyingly calm. Heir of the Sterling fortune. Power: he hears your thoughts. Erases them if he wants. And Silas Crowe, silver hair, silver eyes that never blink. He never touches anyone. Power: he sees how you die. All four born in the same hour, under the same abnormal Violet Eclipse nineteen years ago. The same night I was found abandoned in the Hollow. They walk right into my path and stop. Seraphina instantly lights up, flipping her hair, pushing forward. "Kade! Rhys! Oh my god, what a coincidence, I was just-" No one looks at her. Four pairs of eyes - grey, amber, blue, silver - are locked on me. On my bleeding knees. On my shaking hands. Jaxon inhales sharply. His amber eyes go wide, his wolf flashing. "You... you smell like..." he whispers, taking a step closer. "No way. You were scentless yesterday." Kade's nostrils flare. His shadows, which always cling to him, suddenly recoil from me like they've been burned. Rhys stumbles. Actually stumbles. His perfect mask cracks. "I... I can't hear you anymore. Why can't I hear you?" And Silas - Silas Crowe who never, ever touches anyone - reaches out. His cold, pale hand brushes my bloody knee. The second his skin touches mine, the world explodes in violet light. And the voice in my head that I've caged for a month finally breaks its chains and howls