Page 1

A nnabella

Ten years ago

The rabbit’s heartbeat thumped so loudly that I could almost see it pulsing under its fur. I crept forward, trying not to make a sound. My bare feet squished in the wet grass, and I winced.

Just a little closer.

We needed this so bad. Mom hadn’t eaten yesterday.

She’d claimed she wasn’t hungry, but I’d heard her stomach growling as she’d fallen asleep after working two back-to-back cleaning shifts.

Nobody wanted to hire the woman who’d birthed a half-witch abomination, but they’d let her scrub their toilets when desperate.

My tummy hurt from being empty for so long, but I was used to it. My hunger I could handle. Mom’s hunger, I couldn’t.

The rabbit twitched its nose, sensing danger. I froze, not even breathing. And that’s when the scent hit my nose—wet earth and that special smell that meant “keep out.” My heart dropped into my stomach.

Witch’s fangs! I was in the Alpha’s private hunting area.

Stupid, stupid, stupid!

How did I miss the markers? This was the worst place to be caught—only the Alphas, their enforcers, and their families were allowed here. Everyone else got punished bad for trespassing. Someone like me…

I needed to leave. Like now.

But the rabbit was right there. Maybe I could catch it quick and run?

I leaped, reaching out—

“Well, look who we have here.” A cold voice sliced through the quiet morning. “The little witch-bitch trespassing on our hunting grounds.”

I landed hard on the ground as the rabbit bolted, disappearing into the bushes. There went food for Mom.

I spun around to see Lucas Fallow blocking the path.

The Alpha’s son. Seventeen years old with shoulders twice as wide as mine and hands big enough to wrap around my whole arm.

His dark hair was buzzed on the sides but left longer on top—the same cut all the hockey players at school had gotten after winning regionals last month.

And he was staring at me like I was something gross he’d found on his shoe.

He wasn’t alone. Four of his friends stood with him, all wearing those leather jackets with the Ashridge Pack symbol.

Tara, Lucas’s girlfriend, with her annoying tinkling laugh that everyone somehow thought was cute and that silver-blue cell phone she was always filming stuff with to post online later.

Melissa stood next to her, chewing gum with her mouth open, the wet smacking sound loud in my ears.

Behind them, Parker, with his too-long arms and that weird trophy ring he wore from winning the junior fighting championship three years in a row, and Matt, who always smelled like cigarettes and Wolfsbane energy drinks.

This was not good. This was so not good.

“I—I’m sorry,” I stammered, stepping backward. “I didn’t know I crossed the boundary. I was just—”

“Stealing food from your own Pack?” Lucas stepped closer, his face all scrunched up with anger. “You think your half-breed stomach deserves what belongs to us?”

My heart raced so fast I thought it might explode. “No! I was just—”

“Just what?” Tara stepped forward, wrinkling her nose like she smelled something gross.

Her nose was small and perfectly upturned—a “button nose,” Mom would call it—with three little freckles in a triangle on the bridge.

“You’re a half-breed who can’t even tell where territory lines are.

You’re useless. Which makes you completely worthless to our Pack.

” She leaned closer, whispering like we were sharing a secret.

“And now you’re stealing? That’s almost…

entertaining. Like watching a rabbit hop right into a wolf’s mouth. ”

“I was going to hunt in the regular areas,” I said quickly. “I got turned around, that’s all.”

Lucas’s face got darker. “Liar. You knew exactly what you were doing.” He came closer, smelling like fancy cologne and anger. “Do you know how insulting this is? A half-witch nobody thinking she can take from the Alpha’s family?”

“I’m sorry,” I whispered, backing up until I hit a tree.

Trapped. “Please, just let me go. I have to get to school. I have a presentation today.” I was rambling; I knew it, but I couldn’t seem to stop.

“I worked on it for weeks.” It was true.

I’d never worked so hard on anything for school.

It was my project on our Pack history. I’d stayed up late every night working on it.

“Ms. Pierce said it could be worth extra credit, and I need—”

“Shut up,” Tara ordered.

My mouth clicked closed.

“You know what I think she needs, Lucas?”

Lucas stared at me, breathing hard. “A lesson in respect.”

I didn’t see his fist coming. It hit my stomach, knocking all the air out of me. I doubled over, trying to breathe. Tara’s hands grabbed my hair, yanking me up.

“That’s for lying,” Lucas growled. Then he grabbed my arm and twisted.

Pain exploded through my arm as the bone snapped. A scream tore from my throat. It echoed through the trees, sending birds flying from branches. My vision went white for a second, and I couldn’t breathe.

“That’s for trespassing.”

Parker was next, his trophy ring catching the sunlight. His boot slammed into my ribs with a sickening thud. The force lifted me off my feet and sent me crashing face-first into the dirt. Blood and pine needles filled my mouth as I gasped for breath.

“And that’s for existing, freak.” Parker hocked a loogie and spat it onto my hair. I felt the warm, sticky glob slide down toward my ear as Tara and Melissa started giggling.

I curled around my broken arm, sobbing. My wolf pushed inside, desperate to come out, to protect us, to heal.

“Hold her up,” Lucas ordered.

Matt and Parker pulled me to my feet. I swayed, dizzy with pain, barely able to stand. My eyes flickered to my backpack, lying in the dirt a few feet away.

Lucas saw me looking. “Oh, right. Your presentation. Tara, babe, grab it.”

Tara kicked my backpack. The zipper broke, spilling everything onto the ground. She picked up my report—each page in my neatest handwriting with little drawings I’d made using colored pencil stubs I’d collected from school trash cans when no one was looking.

“This?” She held it up, looking at Lucas.

He nodded.

“Please don’t!”

She smirked and then ripped it down the middle.

“No!” I cried, watching three weeks of work get destroyed.

Tara ignored me, ripping it again and again until my project was just tiny pieces scattered across the ground.

I crawled across the ground, using one hand to pick up the pieces and shove them into my backpack. There must be a way to fix it. There must be.

“We’re not done,” Lucas said, grabbing my good arm. “You’ve been hunting on Alpha territory. That’s serious. Everyone needs to see what happens.”

My heart sank as I realized what he meant. “No, please!” I sobbed. “Just let me go. I won’t come back, I promise.”

“Too late for that.” He leaned close, his breath hot on my face. “Everyone needs to see what happens when a witch-bitch thinks she’s equal to real wolves.”

Lucas grabbed my hair, pulling so hard my scalp burned. “Move,” he growled, dragging me forward.

My legs gave out, but he didn’t stop. He just pulled harder, making me crawl before I could get up. My broken arm hung useless, every tiny movement hurting so bad I wanted to throw up.

“Please,” I gasped. “I can’t—”

“Shut up,” Tara hissed, shoving me from behind. “Nobody wants to hear you whine.”

Parker and Matt flanked us, shoving me sideways into trees when I managed to stay upright for too long. Each impact jarred, sending fresh waves of nausea through me.

“Almost there,” Melissa sang, skipping ahead.

I could hear the school now—kids talking and laughing. Normal morning sounds that I’d been looking forward to just an hour ago. By the time we got out of the trees, the first bell had rung. Students were heading to the entrance, but they all stopped when they saw us.

Lucas dragged me up the front steps and threw me onto the concrete.

The impact rattled through my broken arm and sent lightning bolts of pain shooting up my legs as my knees and palms scraped raw against the rough surface.

For one horrible second, everything went silent.

I could hear my own ragged breathing, feel dozens of eyes burning into me.

Then, like a dam breaking, the whispers erupted all at once, washing over me in a wave.

“OMG, did you see that?”

“She’s so pathetic!”

“I heard she can’t even Shift.”

I tried to make myself smaller, to disappear into the concrete as blood from my scraped palms mixed with tears on the steps. I could smell their excitement—the same smell the Pack got during full moon hunts. The heavy thud-thud-thud of their heartbeats filled my ears.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Tara take out her phone and point it at me.

“Listen up!” Lucas shouted. “The half-breed was caught stealing from Alpha territory this morning! She thought she could take what belongs to my family. This is what happens to thieves in our Pack!”

I looked around desperately for a teacher, someone who might help. I saw Ms. Pierce at the edge, but when I caught her eye, she turned and walked back inside like she hadn’t seen anything.

That was when I realized that no one was going to help me.

“Don’t ever, ever think you can take what’s rightfully ours,” Lucas said. “You want to be part of this Pack, but I don’t think you’re even a real Shifter. You want to be a werewolf like us, not some half-breed witch-bitch? You want to hunt in our grounds? Prove you’re good enough. Shift. Now.”

My heart stopped. No. Not this. Anything but this.

“I—I can’t,” I whispered.

Lucas raised his eyebrows. “Can’t? Or won’t?” He looked around at the crowd. “She won’t Shift because she knows her wolf is as twisted and wrong as the rest of her!”

My mom’s warnings echoed in my head: “Never Shift in front of them. Never. Promise me, Annabella.”