Prologue

7 years ago…

AVA

I was a nobody, or at least that’s what they told me.

They told me I was a nobody and therefore worthless; I deserved to be bullied, because being bullied would make me stronger, more resilient. I know now that it was bullshit, but when you say that to a kid time and time again, they start to believe it.

All day everyday, the heirs to the pack, both the Alpha and Beta twins, and even a lot of the girls my own age made a point of making my life miserable. To begin with, it was just verbal, but in my early teens, it became physical too. I had scars all over my back and the tops of my legs that would never heal properly because they were from before I shifted for the first time.

Considering I shifted for the first time early... that says all you need to know.

I got my wolf early, but they didn’t know that. I never smelled like a wolf because my wolf, Artemis, could hide her scent. Even before they can shift, wolves have a distinctive smell that identifies them; all wolves smell like the woods, with their own unique scent overlaying that.

Whilst being able to hide my scent was a nifty trick that I was told would be great for my safety whilst out and about when I grew up, it did mean the girls at school assumed I was human and so would never have a wolf, which just made the bullying worse.

I’d been able to speak to Artemis since I was seven or eight, and she was a chatty wolf. Thanks to Artemis, I knew more about my birth family than most people would if they were adopted.

I knew that Artemis was special, and that I was heir to the Eclipse Mountain pack. I knew that my parents were killed trying to protect me, and that I’d been smuggled out for my own safety. I knew that one day, Artemis and I would have both a Lycan and a wolf form.

But even with all that, I wanted nothing more than to leave when I turned 18. The bullying made me miserable, and I never had the confidence to truly do anything about it. I just needed something to happen, something to be the catalyst to give me that boost, so that I didn’t feel the need to hide in the background anymore. I got that boost... but not until I was older.

I had a place ready to go in my maternal aunt’s pack, I was just counting down the days until I could finally set out on my own.

If I'd known that everything was going to change before I turned 18 and in fact all the legends Artemis had been telling me over the years were actually true, I wouldn't have even bothered getting the place ready in my aunt's pack, but hey, what can you do?