Prologue
Through the frosted windowpane of my bedroom, the waning moon cast silvery shadows across my trembling hands. I, Luna Blackwood, had always known this day would come,my eighteenth birthday,but nothing could have prepared me for the storm brewing beneath my skin.
They say a werewolf’s first shift is like being reborn. What they don’t tell you is that rebirth feels like every bone in your body is trying to shatter and reassemble at once. Another wave of burning pain surged through my veins, and I bit down hard on my pillow, muffling the scream that threatened to wake the entire Silver Creek Pack compound.
“Focus, Luna,” I whispered to myself, clinging to the breathing techniques my mother had taught me before she disappeared three years ago. The irony of my name wasn’t lost on me, Luna, named after the moon that now seemed determined to tear me apart from the inside out.
A soft knock at my door nearly made me jump out of my skin.
“Luna? Sweetheart, can I come in?”
It was Sarah, my stepmother, her voice laced with a concern that never quite reached her eyes.
“I’m fine!” I called back, though the words scraped my throat like broken glass. “Just… just need some time alone.”
But solitude wasn’t in the cards tonight. My door swung open, revealing not just Sarah, but my father, Alpha Zade Blackwood himself, and behind him, a figure who made my heart stutter despite the agony wracking my body.
Cayden Stone. The pack’s Beta. My childhood friend. My supposed mate.
At least, that’s what everyone had always assumed. The Alpha’s daughter and the Beta, a politically convenient match. Too bad my wolf had other ideas, because the moment our eyes met, instead of the soul-deep recognition that should have ignited between us, I felt… nothing.
The realization must have shown on my face because Cayden’s expression shifted concern giving way to confusion, then to something darker. My father’s sharp intake of breath told me he understood too. In our world, mate bonds were instant. When true mates met during or after their first shift, the connection was undeniable.
“This isn’t possible,” my father muttered, his Alpha authority making the very air grow heavy. “The prophecy was clear…”
Ah yes, the prophecy, the one that had dictated every step of my life before I could even walk. The one that spoke of a union between two powerful bloodlines that would usher in a new era for werewolves. The one that was apparently… completely wrong.
Sarah’s perfectly manicured hand flew to her mouth, her green eyes widening with what looked like shock but felt suspiciously like satisfaction. “Oh dear,” she breathed, the corners of her lips betraying the tiniest upturn.
Another spasm ripped through me, stronger this time, and I could feel my wolf clawing to break free. But something was wrong. The power building inside me didn’t feel warm and natural, like I’d always been told it would. It felt ancient. Primal. And somehow… different.
Cayden stepped forward, reaching for me, but my father caught his arm. “Don’t,” Alpha Zade ordered, eyes blazing with an emotion I’d never seen before, fear. “Something’s not right.”
He was right. As my body began its first transformation, the room filled with an eerie blue glow radiating from my skin. This wasn’t normal. Normal werewolves glowed with a gentle golden aura during their first shift. Normal werewolves didn’t make the shadows in the room writhe like living things. And normal werewolves definitely didn’t cause every electronic device within a hundred feet to short-circuit, plunging the entire east wing into darkness.
Through the haze of pain and power, I caught fragments of urgent conversation:
“—just like her mother—”
“—should have known when the marks appeared—”
“—have to contain this before—”
“—call the Council—”
But I no longer cared about their words. My wolf was emerging, and with her came knowledge, ancient, terrible knowledge that rewrote everything I thought I knew about myself. I wasn’t just a werewolf. I wasn’t just the Alpha’s daughter.
I was something else entirely.
Bones cracked and reformed. Fur white as moonlight spread across my skin. And in that moment, I understood why my mother had run. Why she had tried to take me with her. Why my father had hunted her down.
The last thing I saw before my human consciousness faded was Cayden’s face, caught between awe and horror. Behind him, Sarah was already on her phone, likely calling the Werewolf Council. My father stood frozen, staring at me as though seeing a ghost.
As my wolf took full control, one thought burned brighter than the pain: everything I’d been told about my destiny was a lie. The betrayal ran deeper than mate bonds and prophecies, it was woven into the very fabric of my existence.
And now that I knew the truth, nothing in our world would ever be the same.
