Prologue

Years ago, when Grayson found out about his mate, he knew their nature would become a huge problem... Not only for them but for their kids as well.

Grayson Knight, the alpha of the Stone Moon pack, was mated to Hailey, a vampire.

It was not easy for Grayson and Hailey to come up with the terms of their different needs and nature, but once it was solved and they accepted each other wholeheartedly, it took no time for them to clear the tension in the pack.

But deep inside their heart, the fear for their kid still resided in their heart. The fear of them becoming a hybrid. A werewolf and a vampire hybrid. The most dangerous mix in the supernatural world.

To avoid condemning multiple children to a fate of suffering, they decided to have only one. But fate had other plans. Where Hailey was supposed to have only one child in fifty years, she conceived two in two years. Instead of one, they were blessed with two—Damien and Aliyah.

When Damien’s eighteenth birthday arrived, everyone held their breath. Would he be a werewolf? A vampire? Or something in between?

Relief washed over the pack when he shifted into a werewolf. No vampire in him. No conflict. Just an Alpha-in-the-making. His transformation brought hope—maybe Aliyah would be the same.

For the next two years, Grayson and Hailey prayed. If Aliyah had to endure the shift, let her be one or the other. Let her escape the curse of being both.

Aliyah was excited, happy, nervous, and hell-sweaty on the day before her eighteenth birthday. The ticking of the clock was making it more difficult for her to breathe but instead of pacing around and increasing tension in her house, she chose to close her eyes and pray to the moon goddess to choose what was best for her.

Then, the pain struck.

A sharp, searing agony tore through her body. Her breath hitched as she clutched her chest, eyes darting to the massive clock on the wall. The packhouse fell silent. Every eye was on her.

Damien had been fine. He had shifted without complication. Surely, she would too.

Grayson, who had spent years reassuring his daughter, now found himself trembling. He stepped toward her, his hands shaking, “Princess… let’s go outside.”

She barely nodded her head and ran out of the packhouse while others followed her footsteps.

She reached a clear field in just a few seconds and screamed at the top of her lungs. Her head fell back and she fell to the ground.

Grayson, Hailey, Damien, and everyone from their pack stood at a distance from her and watched her first shift.

"Damien was fine...Our princess will be fine too," Liam, Grayson's brother assured his younger brother.

Aliyah kept screaming in pain on the ground for a good two hours but instead of worrying about her, everyone seemed over the moon and howled in excitement...

Light brown fur had already started to appear on her hands and legs, and her human body was halfway through a werewolf shift.

"She is going to be a werewolf!" Anna, Liam's mate said in excitement.

"I hope so..." Hailey said with tears pooling in her eyes.

Another passing hour turned Aliyah into a beautiful light-brown wolf, and she stood on her ground, tall and proud. She gazed at the sky and with hazy eyes, she started to howl.

She ran in the opposite direction to where her whole family was waiting for her to join them for her first run as a wolf and kept running far away from them while shaking her head, ignoring the voices of her family that she was hearing in her head.

She ran far away from them, to a place where no one could see her... She was so fast that even her parents and brother lost her.

They were trying to track her through their bond while her eyes fell on a small pond that they had in their pack and without thinking that anyone would see her naked, she shifted back into her human form and went to the pond.

Her gaze went straight into the pond. She stared at her reflection in the water and the moment her eyes fell on her reflection's eyes, she fell to the ground.

"I will fucking kill you..." She heard a yell filled with hatred in her head.

Growls and Hisses started to take place in her head and she yelled with a sudden burst of anger and pain in her head.

She was both.

A hybrid...

Stella and Aneria, her cousins, reached her first. They gasped, their eyes wide in horror as they draped a white shirt over her trembling form.

“Asher… call Asher,” Aneria whispered.

Asher, the future King of Werewolves, arrived within moments. His golden eyes flickered as he took one look at her and announced the truth.

“She’s a hybrid.”

"Aliyah... Come back..." Asher, the future werewolf king, and Aliyah's cousin ,commanded Aliyah to return to the packhouse.

Everyone's joy was cut short when Asher announced that she was a hybrid. The happiness that their hearts held was long gone and was replaced by worry and sadness.

Everyone witnessed that Aliyah was a wolf, but one look at her blood-red eyes, hitched their breath in their throat, and shivers ran down their spine.

"A vampire and a werewolf in one body... If we didn't make it right, we... we might lose her," Anna whispered with tears in her eyes.

"Nothing like this would happen to my baby!" Grayson growled and told them to prepare for the ritual.

As stated by the old witches and Grayson's uncle Edward, a ritual needed to take place right after her shift so she could choose one kind and live with it forever.

Cassie and Claire, the most powerful witches of the royal clan, proceeded with the ritual by making Aliyah sit in a circle made with dry leaves and blood.

The smell of blood made it impossible for Aliyah to control the vampire inside her, but one threatening growl from Noah, the werewolf king, made Aliyah and her wolf control the vampire inside her.

"I was fearing for the same... I knew I couldn't enjoy her first shift until I would see her... I..."

Hailey broke down thinking about how much pain her daughter must be having in every inch of her body at this moment.

Grayson hugged her tightly and sat beside her as she fell to the ground, gazing at his daughter who was struggling to control her wolf and vampire while sitting in the circle.

The chanting began, smoke rising around Aliyah. She clutched her head as the battle between her wolf and vampire grew violent. Claws emerged from her hands, fangs lengthened in her mouth, and her body trembled as both sides fought for dominance.

Aliyah screamed in pain, and the worst enemies in her body made it worse for her to breathe, both of them trying to take control of her body. But a loud growl from far away from the group of people made Aliyah, her wolf, and the vampire shut their mouths.

"Rogues..." Anna whispered while looking at her mate.

"Continue with what you are doing! We will handle this!" Grayson growled and turned around to stop the rogues from entering his pack but he was late... The rogues were already in...

"Why didn't anyone bother to tell us about the attack?" Damien growled at his warriors in the mind link.

"They are more than a hundred, alpha. They just attacked... Not only the Stone Moon pack but they attacked the Dark Moon pack too! We are fighting at the borders," One of his warriors answered.

Aliyah's eyes widened as she saw everyone fighting in front of her eyes and her breaths became heavy.

"What the heck are you thinking? Aren't you an alpha female? Shouldn't you be fighting with your pack instead of becoming a spoiled privileged princess?" Her wolf, Lizzy growled at her.

"Yeah... Fight them... Win or die... Anyways this blood is useless... Oh, I forgot, werewolves are useless," Ellen, her vampire mocked.

"I am not useless! Neither my blood is! I will fight!" Aliyah yelled and stood from the ground.

"Aliyah, you can't leave, we have to do this before the sun rises, or else you will be a hybrid for life," Cassie, her aunt tried to convince her.

"For life...?” Aliyah whispered in confusion.

"Sit down, Aliyah... We don't have much time. Not even two hours," Claire, her cousin said.

"Yeah... Sit down useless bitch," Ellen hissed at Aliyah.

"Fight!" Lizzy growled in Aliyah's head.

"Sit."

"Fight!"

"Sit."

"Fight!"

Unable to take it anymore, she shifted into her wolf and bolted toward the battle. Aliyah jumped on the first rogues that came in front of her.

Ellen blocked all the voices coming into her head and smirked while sitting in the back of her mind. Aliyah wasn't trained... She wasn't trained to fight in her wolf form and the rogues she was fighting were all trained and deadly. If Ellen can't kill Lizzy, the rogues will.

Though she would be dead too, she preferred to die instead of living with a werewolf for the rest of her life.

A rogue bit on Aliyah's back, which made Grayson and Damien growl loudly, and they both ran towards her while fighting all the rogues coming their way.

A group of four rogues surrounded Aliyah and the way they were looking at her told her that her end was near...

The moment two of them jumped on her together was the moment when she escaped from them and started running away from them.

She ran as fast as she could for a while, and when she realized that no one was following her, she halted in her tracks to take a breath of relief.

She was catching her breath when a roar from Asher made her shiver...

'What happened? Is everyone alright?' She thought.

"Maybe some bitch or doggy died," Ellen laughed.

"Shut up!" Lizzy growled and started running back where everyone was fighting.

It took her longer than before to make her way to everyone but once she reached and saw everyone from her family standing on their ground, she took a breath of relief.

Hailey came running to her to check her wound, "This is not that deep, but still, you need to get yourself checked with the doctor."

"What the heck you were thinking? Did we ask you to fight?" Damien growled at her.

Aliyah tried to come up with words but couldn't.

"Leave that for now. Go back into the circle and let Cassie and Claire do their work," Grayson said.

"Sorry, Grayson... Nothing can be done now..." Cassie sighed.

"Why?" Carter, Aliyah's cousin asked.

With a defeated sigh coming out of her mouth, Claire motioned at the sky, and seeing the sun rising above their heads, everyone's mouths hung open and tears rolled down Aliyah's cheeks, "That means..."

Cassie shook her head, “It’s too late.”

The ritual was undone.

Aliyah had made her choice.

Not a werewolf. Not a vampire.

She was a hybrid for life.