Embers Under the Skin

**Chapter One**

The wolfsbane always burned worst at dawn.

It seeped into my veins like ice and fire braided together, numbing my limbs while setting something furious alight deep inside my chest. I woke before the alarm, curled tight beneath thin sheets, teeth clenched to keep from making a sound. The Blackwood house was already stirring—pots clanged downstairs, a door slammed, boots crossed the hall. Morning meant work.

I pressed my palm flat against my sternum and breathed the way I’d taught myself over the years. Slow. Controlled. Human.

Whatever lived beneath my skin responded with a dull, aching throb.

*Quiet,* I begged it silently, though I didn’t know who—or what—I was speaking to. The wolf had never answered me. Not once in eighteen years.

Sunlight crept through the narrow window, catching in my hair where it spilled across the pillow in a riot of fire-red curls. I hated my hair. It was too wild, too noticeable. Too much like everything else about me that never quite fit. Against my pale skin, it made me look like a bruise that refused to fade.

“Up,” a sharp voice snapped from the hallway. “The floors won’t scrub themselves.”

“Yes, Mrs. Blackwood,” I called, forcing steadiness into my voice.

Beta Elena Blackwood never used my name anymore.

I dressed quickly in plain clothes—soft from overuse, faded from too many washings—then tied my hair back so it wouldn’t be in the way. When I opened the door, the familiar scent of wolfsbane slapped me in the face. It lingered in the walls, the furniture, even the air vents. They burned it into oils, mixed it into teas, dusted it over my food.

*For your own good,* they’d said when I was younger.

Now they didn’t bother pretending.

I descended the stairs with my head bowed. The Blackwood family sat at the table: Beta Marcus at the head, his mate Elena beside him, and between them their *real* daughter—Lydia. Golden-haired, warm-eyed, wrapped in love like a birthright she’d only reclaimed three years ago.

No one looked up as I entered.

“Elena,” Marcus said, not sparing me a glance, “after she finishes the floors, have her take the laundry to the river.”

*She.* Not my name. Never my name.

“Yes, Marcus,” Elena replied. Her gaze flicked to me, sharp and cold. “And don’t forget the wolfsbane tea before you go.”

I nodded. Always nodded.

The cup waited on the counter, steam curling upward in delicate tendrils. I swallowed it in one go, ignoring the way my stomach twisted, the way something inside me recoiled like a wounded animal. The wolf—if that’s what it was—pressed once against my consciousness.

Then retreated.

By midday my hands were raw, my back aching. I escaped only when Elena sent me to the river, basket heavy against my hip. The woods opened up around me, and for the first time all day, I could breathe.

That’s where she was waiting.

“You’re late,” Ember said, hopping down from the rock where she’d been perched. Her grin was all sharp edges and sunshine, her dark braid swinging over one shoulder. “They work you like a dying mule.”

I dropped the basket and laughed softly despite myself. “That would imply they care if I survive.”

Ember’s smile faded. “One day,” she said fiercely, “I’m going to claw their eyes out.”

I glanced around instinctively, then shook my head. “You can’t say things like that.”

“Why not? You think they don’t deserve it?” She crossed her arms, eyes glowing faintly amber. “You’re eighteen now. A full adult. They can’t legally keep you.”

“Legally,” I echoed. “Practically is another matter.”

We sat together on the warm stones, our shoulders brushing. Ember smelled like pine smoke and freedom. She always had.

“I’ve been thinking,” she said quietly. “About you leaving.”

My heart stuttered. “You have?”

“There are packs farther north. Smaller ones. Less… obsessed with bloodlines.” She met my eyes. “You could disappear. Start over.”

Start over.

The words ignited something inside me—an ember flaring to life beneath years of ash.

“I don’t even know what I am,” I whispered. “My wolf—if I have one—it’s… broken. Repressed. I can’t feel her. I don’t shift. I don’t hear anything. What pack would want me?”

Ember reached out and squeezed my hand. “The one that sees *you*.”

A breeze stirred the leaves. For a heartbeat, the world went very still.

Deep inside my chest, something stirred.

Not pain.

Not fear.

Heat.

I gasped, pressing my hand to my heart as the sensation flared and vanished, like a spark struck in darkness.

Ember’s eyes widened. “Did you feel that?”

I nodded slowly, pulse racing. “Yeah.”

Somewhere far beyond the trees, a howl echoed—low, powerful, answering something I didn’t yet understand.

And for the first time in my life, the wolf did not feel silent.

She felt awake.