My wolf is supposed to wake up today.
That's what everyone keeps saying.
"She'll feel it by sunset," the healer muttered this morning, pressing cold fingers to my wrist. "If the Moon Goddess hasn't completely forgotten her."
Very reassuring.
Now I'm standing in the middle of the Nightfall Pack's training grounds, bare-armed in the chill evening air, with a hundred wolves circling like they're waiting to watch me fail.
Again.
"Shift, Aria," Beta Rowan calls out, bored. He's seen this show before. "Close your eyes. Reach for your wolf. Same as always."
Same as always means: absolutely nothing happens.
I suck in a breath.
Close my eyes.
Reach.
In my mind, there should be a pulse. A spark. A presence brushing against my thoughts.
For eighteen years, all I've felt is a locked door.
I will reach for it again now.
My heart pounds. My palms sweat. Somewhere nearby, someone snickers.
"Maybe the Moon Goddess wants a refund," a girl whispers.
Laughter ripples through the crowd.
I grit my teeth and push harder, imagining claws bursting from my fingers, fur racing across my skin, bones reshaping into something powerful.
Come on.
Please.
Anything.
A headache blooms behind my eyes. The door in my mind stays closed.
I get… a faint tingle in my spine. Like static. Then it's gone.
Useless.
"Nothing," Rowan announces to the crowd, as if I'm not standing right here. "Again."
"I almost felt something," I protested, opening my eyes. "Just now. A flicker."
From the edge of the ring, a familiar voice cuts through the noise, smooth and lazy.
"That's what she said the last three years," Mira drawls. "And she still can't even grow a single fang."
More laughter.
Mira's dark hair is braided in intricate loops, her body lean and strong in a fitted training top. Future Luna material, everyone says. Powerful bloodline. Early shifter. Full control.
Everything I'm not.
I roll my shoulders back, forcing myself to meet her gaze.
"One more time," I tell Rowan.
He sighs like I'm wasting the entire pack's oxygen. "Fine. Last time. Then you need to get ready."
Right. The ceremony.
My stomach flips.
The mating ceremony starts in less than two hours.
I'm turning eighteen tonight.
The age when a wolf finally feels the pull of their fated mate. When the bond snaps into place and you just know.
At least, that's what I've heard.
Personally, I've never felt a single thing from my so-called wolf, let alone some magical bond from the Moon Goddess.
But a tiny, pathetic part of me still hopes.
Maybe I'll never shift.
Maybe I'll be the pack's shame forever.
But if I at least have a mate… maybe that will mean the Goddess didn't completely abandon me.
"One more time," I repeat, closing my eyes.
The ground is cold under my bare feet. The scent of pine and damp earth fills my lungs. I tune out the whispers, the bets being placed on whether I'll faint again, the low, amused chuckle I know belongs to Mira's current favorite, a warrior who once called me "human with extra steps."
I reach inward.
Door. Lock. Darkness.
I press my palms against it, not with fear this time, but with fury. During the years of training I wasn't allowed to join. At the pitying glances. By the way my own parents stopped meeting my eyes when I turned sixteen and still couldn't shift.
"Open," I whisper in my head. "Just once. Just give me something."
The air hums.
Heat flashes along my spine.
For a heartbeat, I feel it, a presence, ancient and furious, pacing behind the door. Not small. Not weak. A low growl rolls through my mind, so powerful I gasp.
"There," I choke out. "She's there… I can feel her"
Then the lock slams back into place.
The presence vanishes.
I stumble forward, grabbing my head as pain lances through it.
The crowd's reaction isn't awe.
Rowan makes a note on his clipboard. "No visible shift. No partial manifestation. Again, nothing."
"I said I felt—"
"She always says she felt something," Mira interrupts sweetly. "It's cute that she still believes it."
My cheeks burn.
Rowan waves a dismissive hand. "Enough. Go. Clean up. Your aunt wants you at the hall early to help with decorations."
Because if I can't fight, the least I can do is hang fairy lights for the real wolves.
"Happy birthday, wolfless," someone calls as I push through the crowd.
"Maybe your mate will be human," another voice adds. "Then he won't be disappointed when you can't shift. Just… disappointed in everything else."
The laughter follows me all the way back to the pack house.
I don't cry.
I did enough of that at sixteen.
Now, I just feel… tired.
Tired of wanting something that clearly doesn't want me.
Tired of pretending I can't hear the whispers.
Tired of being Aria Hale, the girl the Moon Goddess forgot to finish.
I slip through the back door of the house, weaving through the chaos of the kitchen. Omegas rush around carrying trays, shouting about late deliveries and burned bread. My aunt Lila stands in the middle, directing everyone with military precision.
"There you are," she snaps when she spots me. "You're late. Again."
"Training ran long," I say.
She looks me up and down, taking in the sweat, the dirt, the failure.
"And? Did your wolf finally appear like a birthday surprise?"
I open my mouth.
Close it.
Her expression softens just a fraction. "Never mind. Go shower. Put on the blue dress. It's the only one that makes you look remotely put together. The Alpha wants everything perfect tonight. If you embarrass us…"
She doesn't finish the sentence.
She doesn't need to.
"I won't," I say quietly.
I hurry upstairs to the tiny room at the end of the corridor that passes for my bedroom. It used to be a storage closet. When my parents died in a rogue attack when I was twelve, the pack took me in.
Pack, in this case, meaning my mother's older sister.
Aunt Lila kept the inheritance money "for my future" and gave me the smallest room.
Some future.
I lock the door behind me, slump against it, and exhale.
In the cracked mirror above my dresser, a girl stares back at me.
Dark curls escaping their tie. Honey-brown skin smudged with dirt. Faint circles under her eyes from too many late nights washing dishes after everyone else is done celebrating.
Her eyes, though… for a second, they shimmer gold.
I blink.
The shimmer disappears.
"See?" I tell my reflection. "You're hallucinating now. Great."
Still, my heart beats faster.
I felt something on the field. I did.
A presence. A growl. A pressure so strong it scared me.
If my wolf is sealed, like some of the elders whispered when they thought I couldn't hear… sealed doesn't mean gone.
The seal can be broken.
I shove the thought aside before hope can sink its claws in.
Hope is dangerous.
Hope makes you think maybe tonight, at the ceremony, someone's eyes will meet yours and light will explode in your chest and—
No.
I strip quickly and step into the shower, letting lukewarm water beat against my skin until my muscles stop trembling.
When I'm done, I pull on the blue dress. It's simple but pretty, hugging my waist and flaring at my hips. Aunt Lila might complain, but she knows how to dress people. The color makes my eyes look brighter, my skin warmer.
By the time I make it down to the grand hall, the sun is starting to sink, painting the forest in gold.
The hall is already buzzing.
Fairy lights strung across the ceiling. White cloth draped along the walls. Tables set with simple flowers. Wolves in their finest clothes, laughing, flirting, buzzing with nerves.
Tonight, the Moon will rise full.
Tonight, I'll stand in a circle with every other eighteen-year-old and wait to see if anyone looks at me and feels the bond snap tight.
Maybe no one will.
Maybe I'll stand there and watch everyone else be claimed while I remain unchosen, unwanted.
I swallow hard and carry a tray of drinks across the room, pretending my heart isn't trying to beat its way out of my chest.
Then the door at the far end opens.
The room goes quiet in a wave.
He walks in like he owns the floor, the walls, the air.
Liam Blackwood.
Future Alpha of Nightfall Pack.
Tall, broad shoulders, dark hair pushed back carelessly, eyes the color of a storm over the mountains. Power rolls off him in waves, thick and heavy, pressing against my skin.
He's flanked by his Beta and Gamma, both strong, both dangerous.
And right behind him, Mira glides in like she's already Luna, smiling sharp as a blade.
"Liam looks insane tonight," one of the girls near me whispers. "If the Moon Goddess gives him to me, I'll never complain again."
"He's not going to end up with anyone weak," another answers. "He needs a warrior. A real she-wolf. Not some—"
Her gaze flicks to me and slides away with a smirk.
I lower my eyes, gripping the tray tighter.
The Alpha stands, raising a hand for silence.
"My son," he says proudly, "comes of age tonight. The Moon has blessed this pack richly. I know she will continue to do so."
Cheers, howls, clinking glasses.
Liam's gaze scans the crowd, expression unreadable.
I tell myself he's not looking at me.
Why would he?
I'm background noise in his world.
Just as the thought crosses my mind, his eyes land on mine.
Everything stops.
Sound cuts out.
The tray slips in my hands.
A force slams into my chest, hot and electric, racing through every vein.
My lungs seize. My knees wobble.
The bond.
I feel it.
I feel it.
The air between us crackles, thick with something ancient and undeniable. My heart screams his name. My body leans forward without my permission.
Liam's eyes widen, just a fraction.
We both know.
Mate.
The word explodes inside me, wild and bright.
The Moon Goddess didn't forget me.
She gave me him.
For one brief, impossible moment, joy floods me so hard I forget every insult, every training failure, every night I cried into my pillow.
Then Liam's jaw clenches.
His eyes harden.
In front of the entire pack, he takes one step forward, looks straight at me, and his lips curl in disgust.
"I," Liam Blackwood says clearly, voice carrying to every corner of the room, "reject you—"
And the world crashes down around me.