CHAPTER 1: HER SCENT
My name is Amara and I heal too fast.
Yesterday I cut my palm open on Mama Nandi's herb knife. Blood everywhere. This morning? Nothing. Just a thin pink line. No scar.
Mama says I'm blessed by the forest spirits.
I believe her. Because Mama Nandi is the most beautiful, kind woman I have ever seen. Ten years ago, she found me starving in a poor village outside Durban and brought me to her cottage deep in the Karkloof Forest. She gave me food, a bed, taught me herbs.
Everyone in the villages fears the forest. They say wolves howl there. They say the Nightfang Pack lives there. The pack cursed by the Moon Goddess.
I thought they were just stories.
Until today.
"Amara, go to Howick market. Sell these," Mama said this morning, her voice like honey. Her skin glowed. She always glowed. Too beautiful to be a 60-year-old witch. "Don't talk to strangers. And come back before dark. The wolves are hungry this moon."
I laughed. "Mama, I'm 19. I'm not scared of dogs."
She smiled, but her eyes didn't. "You should be scared of what loves you the most."
I took the basket and left.
Howick market was busy. I was counting coins — R200, good — when the wind changed.
I smelled pine, smoke, and rain. And then I heard it. In my head.
_Found you._
I froze. I didn't hear it with my ears. I heard it inside my skull.
I turned.
Three men stood at the edge of the market. All of them staring at me like they had seen a ghost.
The first one was huge, scarred, tattoos up his neck. His eyes were amber. Pure amber. He was sniffing the air, shaking.
The second one was softer, brown hair, Beta aura — I didn't know what Beta aura was yet, but my body knew to feel safe near him.
The third one... the third one was the most beautiful boy I had ever seen. Silver hair, soft eyes, tall but hunched like he was always trying to make himself smaller. An Omega. My chest hurt looking at him.
The scarred one walked to me. People moved out of his way without him saying a word. Alpha power.
He stopped one foot away from me and dropped to his knees. In the middle of the market.
"Alpha," he whispered, voice breaking. "We found you. After nineteen years."
The whole market went quiet.
"I'm... I'm sorry? I think you have the wrong person," I said, stepping back. "My name is Amara. I'm... I'm a herb girl. I live with my mother in the forest."
The soft one, the Beta, knelt too. "No. Your scent. White wolf. Female Alpha. You are the prophesied one. The one who will break the Moon Curse."
I laughed nervously. "White wolf? Prophesied? Sir, I think you smoked too much weed from Mama's garden."
The Omega boy hadn't moved. He just stared at me, tears in his eyes. Then he whispered through our *mindlink* — a voice only I could hear:
_Mate._
My knees buckled. My stomach flipped. I didn't know what that word meant, but my soul did. My body knew him.
"What are you?" I whispered.
The scarred Alpha looked up, eyes glowing gold — actually glowing — and said:
"Your pack, my Luna. We are your pack. And we have come to take you home before the witch who stole you as a pup harvests your wolf tonight on the full moon."
My blood went cold.
Mama Nandi had told me to be back before dark. Tonight is the full moon.
And for ten years, every full moon, she locks me in the root cellar and says "It's for your protection, little wolf."
Little wolf.
She has always called me little wolf.
The Omega boy suddenly grabbed my wrist. His touch burned. My skin where he touched glowed faintly white.
He gasped. "She's awakening. Her wolf is awakening. Kael, her scent — she's about to have her first shift!"
The scarred one, Kael, growled. A real growl, not human. "We need to get her out of here. Now. The witch can smell her fear. And the Blood Fang Pack is already at the forest border."
I yanked my hand away. "Don't touch me! My mother is Mama Nandi! She saved me! She is not a witch who —"
I didn't finish.
Because from the forest, a howl ripped through the sky. Not a dog. Not a wolf.
A two-headed wolf.
And it was screaming my name.
*AMARAAAAA!*
