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I slipped out the back door just as the cake came out.

Sure, it made me feel a little bad. It was Kit’s first birthday with the pack, and he’d been so excited to see me when I arrived.

I was excited to see him, too, but Kit was quickly overwhelmed with the sheer number of people that had come to celebrate the son of the Alpha, and his attention was elsewhere in moments.

Samson and Kiera were equally busy as hosts, and while Gwen had stayed at my side for a little bit of time, she’d found a group of friends from her job at the coffee shop and was chatting with them.

Which left me utterly, awkwardly alone.

As the cousin of the Alpha, I automatically held a bit of respect within the Saltfang pack, but I quickly wore out my welcome most of the time.

I didn’t blame my fellow pack members—I’m sort of an abysmal wolf, and where everyone else loves to gossip about pack business and hierarchies, my interests were a lot more mundane.

I was the tech genius, computer whiz, anime, and art-loving weirdo that Alpha Samson took under his wing. I turned out to be an awesome assistant for him, but none of the other wolves saw me in the same light as Sam and Kiera did. And Gwen, too, I guess.

There was someone else whose approval I craved above others, but I quickly put that thought out of my head. Things were complicated enough without thinking about him.

With everyone else occupied and giving me weird looks as I stood alone, my outfit over-the-top as usual, the uncomfortableness I struggled with started to creep back in.

It was then that I decided to make my escape, just as everyone else was distracted by the arrival of the two-tier chocolate cake.

I didn’t want Kit or his parents to know I was leaving mid-party, but I didn’t want to stick around, either.

As much as I longed to fit in with the Saltfang pack, I was still an outcast in a lot of ways, and there was comfort in being alone.

I cringed as the screen door to the backyard creaked, but everyone was talking so loudly that no one noticed. If I’d had more social graces, I’d have made a quick excuse instead of simply disappearing, but grace is not my strong suit, social or otherwise.

Summer was sliding into fall, so the party had spilled into Samson’s massive backyard.

I could smell grilled meat and hear the sounds of children squealing as they chased each other in the twilight—Kit and his classmates, no doubt.

Despite having been homeschooled by Kiera for the first seven years of his life, Kit had managed to fit in and make fast friends with everyone at the pack school.

I was almost envious of how easily he fit in, which was ridiculous, considering he was eight.

I paused and considered hanging around, just for a little bit longer. The party was beautiful, really. Warm and chaotic and full of love…but that was exactly why I had to leave. I was socially awkward, sure, but the party also reminded me of everything that I’d lost.

I padded down the porch steps, my Doc Martens crunching slightly on gravel as I headed toward the edge of the yard.

The shadows there were deeper, quieter, and there was a trail that led to the back edge of what used to be my parents' property. The soft sound of the forest at night was easier to take than the rising chatter of people who didn’t know what to say to me unless it was about pack business or why I’d decided to wear a skull-and-flower print dress to an eight-year-old’s birthday party.

They meant well. Most of them, anyway. But I always ended up saying something too honest or too weird.

Like earlier, when I tried to explain the scientific inaccuracies of the television show Gwen’s work friends were talking about, before I caught on to the uncomfortable looks and laughs.

I’d excused myself to “go check on Kit’s gift,” which was a total lie.

I’d given my little cousin a gift card to the local arcade that morning, long before the party had even started.

I’d just been desperate for a reason to get away.

I was used to it. I’d learned how to wear my awkwardness like a second skin—messy curls, weird fashion, unasked-for trivia, and all. These days, it doesn’t sting quite the way it used to.

Not like it had right after my parents died, when the thick skin I had built dissolved completely away, leaving me more vulnerable than ever before.

My chest tightened, even though it’d been almost three years. I didn’t think it’d ever stop hurting, and while the sharp knife of my grief had faded, letting me live my life once more, the dull ache remained.

My parents had always been my rock. They’d always supported me and my strange hobbies, making me feel proud where other wolves might have tried to encourage more pack-friendly interests. Because of my parents, I was allowed to grow into the woman I was meant to be, never having to hide myself.

And then they’d gone and died in a car crash, and nothing was ever the same.

The two of them were just coming back from a date when a drunk driver hit the side of their car going full speed, knocking both vehicles over a bridge and into the water.

Everyone had died. It happened on a Thursday night, and I’d raged that something so world-shattering could happen so randomly.

That my life could change between one minute and the next, on a mundane weeknight like any other.

I’d fallen to pieces, and thankfully, Samson had been there to pick me back up and put me back together.

I haven’t been back inside my family home since Samson moved me into his huge, empty house—the one I was currently fleeing.

He’d had his wolves get all of my things out and put them into storage until I was ready to reenter the world, and hadn’t complained when I spent over a month locked in one of his guest rooms, grieving.

I’d quit my job as an intern at a major software developer and shut the world away.

Finally, I’d woken up from my grief-stricken stupor and started to rebuild.

It was like my entire life had started over, and just as I was learning to live again, I presented as an Omega and went into my first heat.

Something else had manifested then, too—a spark of magic that was totally foreign to me, but that I welcomed as part of my rebirth.

My heat had also attracted something so shocking, so unexpected, that I hardly dared to believe it at first. A mate. A strong, powerful Alpha. But I, Nayeli Jones, am one of the unluckiest people on the planet. So, of course, he rejected me. The bastard.

My mate was Scott Nevada, noted playboy and thorn in Samson’s side.

Alpha of the Shadowbay pack and owner of the trendiest coffee shop downtown and—evidently—a complete ass when it came to the concept of mating bonds.

He hadn’t even looked surprised when the bond hit.

Just blinked at me with those bottomless brown eyes, shrugged, and said something like, “That’s not going to work for me, sweetheart. ”

Sweetheart. Like I was some kid he’d outgrown.

I hated him. I also hated that I could still smell his scent in the breeze sometimes, warm caramel and coffee.

I knew little of him before our bond popped into existence, but he’d always been an ass.

I’d had maybe four minutes of hope that he could be a light in one of the darkest points of my life, but Scott had quickly proved that he was an asshole through and through.

Whatever. It didn’t matter anymore.

I’d rebuilt. Bit by bit, bad day by bad day.

Samson had given me a job, and I appreciated every minute of work that he gave me, even if he could be a controlling pain in the ass when he forgot I was a grown woman.

At first, I was convinced that he’d invented the position of “assistant to the Alpha” just to give me something to do, but it quickly became apparent that Samson really did need a more organized mind to balance pack business and all of the financial aspects of the properties that he’d inherited.

Then there was my new magic. I started experimenting cautiously, and the magic gave me something to nurture. Even with the loss of my parents and the rejection of my mate, learning about the magic within me helped give the world color again, little by little.

I hadn’t told a single soul about my powers, not even Kiera, who had magic of her own. It was my secret, and I planned to keep it that way until I was in complete control of it.

A gust of wind stirred my hair as I reached the tree line, and I let myself lean back against the thick trunk of an old birch. It was cool and solid against my spine. The moon was full, the power of it singing through my veins, my wolf and my magic both stirring, intertwined, and restless.

I’d conquered so much in the last few years, but socially, I was still lacking.

Without the support of my parents, I didn’t feel unique anymore.

I just felt weird. Samson and Kiera were supportive, but their interests were with the pack.

Gwen had a nerdy streak a mile wide, which is what made us best friends, but her nerdiness didn’t color everything about her like it did with me.

She fit in, and I didn’t. It was okay…but I still wondered what it would be like not to have to sneak out of parties and conversations just to keep from being too much.

I might not be a good fit for the pack, but I had something none of them would understand anyway. My magic, and tonight, with the power of the full moon washing over me, there was no better time to practice it.

I was just about to slip deeper into the woods when a familiar voice startled me back into reality.

“Nayeli! You disappeared before the cake. That’s not like you.”