Chapter 1 - The Weakling's Shame

Aveline's P.O.V

"Shift, Aveline! Or do you want to embarrass us again?"

My stepmother's sharp voice cut through the cool night air like a blade. Around us, the Silver Moon Pack had gathered in the sacred clearing, their eyes gleaming in the moonlight as they watched me with barely concealed disgust. My hands trembled as I stood in the center of the circle, feeling the weight of their judgment pressing down on my shoulders.

The full moon hung overhead, casting everything in an ethereal silver glow. This should have been a moment of power, of connection to our wolf spirits. For everyone else, it was. The air buzzed with anticipation as pack members prepared for the monthly shift, their wolves already stirring beneath their skin.

But not mine. Never mine.

"I'm trying," I whispered, closing my eyes and reaching deep within myself, searching for that spark of wildness that every werewolf was supposed to possess. Come on, I pleaded silently. Please, just this once.

Nothing. The familiar hollow emptiness greeted me instead, cold and mocking.

Alpha Marcus stepped forward, his massive frame blocking out part of the moon. His dark eyes held no warmth, no understanding, only contempt. "Trying isn't enough, girl. You're eighteen now. Every wolf in this pack shifted by fifteen at the latest."

"Some by twelve," someone called out from the crowd, earning a few cruel chuckles.

"I know that, Alpha," I said, hating how small my voice sounded. "But I can feel something inside me, I swear. It's just..."

"Just what?" He took another step closer, and I had to crane my neck to look up at his face. "Just that you're defective? Broken?"

The words hit me like physical blows. Around the circle, I could see pack members nodding in agreement. Some looked at me with pity, which somehow hurt worse than the outright mockery. At least hatred was honest.

"She's cursed," Mrs. Brennan whispered to her neighbor, though her voice carried clearly in the still night. "Mark my words, nothing good comes from a wolf who can't shift."

"A cursed pup," agreed Mr. Davidson, shaking his graying head. "Probably should have been abandoned as an infant."

My chest tightened, making it hard to breathe. The Moonstone pendant hanging around my neck, the only thing left from my real parents, felt heavy against my skin. It had been warming steadily since the moon rose, but now it seemed almost hot.

"Enough," Alpha Marcus growled, though I wasn't sure if he was addressing the muttering pack members or me. "Aveline, step back. Let the real wolves show you how it's done."

Real wolves. The phrase echoed in my head as I stumbled backward, my cheeks burning with shame. Around me, the pack began to shift. Bodies stretched and contorted, bones cracking and reforming as humans became wolves in a symphony of controlled transformation. It was beautiful and terrifying, everything I'd dreamed of being part of.

Everything I was apparently too broken to achieve.

"Look at them," my stepmother, Linda, hissed in my ear as she appeared beside me. Her perfectly manicured nails dug into my arm. "Look at what you can never be."

I watched as my stepsister Emma completed her shift, her golden fur gleaming in the moonlight. She was everything I wasn't; strong, confident, whole. When she looked at me with her wolf eyes, I saw the same disappointment that lived in everyone else's gaze.

"You're pathetic," Linda continued, her grip tightening. "Do you know what the other packs say about us? They mock the Silver Moon Pack for harboring a defective. They question Alpha Marcus's leadership because he hasn't cast you out yet."

"I didn't ask for this," I said, my voice barely above a whisper.

"No, but you got it anyway. And now we all have to suffer for it."

The slap came without warning. Linda's hand cracked across my cheek with enough force to snap my head to the side. Gasps echoed through the clearing as the pack turned to stare. Some wolves had paused mid-shift, caught between human and wolf form, to watch the spectacle.

"That's for the shame you bring to this family," Linda snarled. "And this pack."

My cheek stung, tears blurring my vision. I pressed my hand to the burning skin, feeling utterly humiliated. This was supposed to be a sacred ceremony, and instead it had become another public display of my failures.

"I can't watch this anymore," I choked out, and before anyone could stop me, I turned and ran.

I bolted from the clearing, ignoring Alpha Marcus's sharp command to come back. My feet pounded against the forest floor as I crashed through the underbrush, branches catching at my clothes and hair. Behind me, I could hear the sounds of the pack continuing their ceremony, their howls rising to greet the moon.

Howls I would never be able to join.

I ran until my lungs burned and my legs gave out. When I finally collapsed against an ancient oak tree, I was deep in the forest, far from the judging eyes and cruel whispers. The moonlight filtered through the canopy above, dappling the ground with silver patches.

"Why?" I gasped, looking up at the moon through tear-blurred eyes. "Why did you make me this way?"

The Moon Goddess was supposed to watch over all werewolves, to bless us with our wolf spirits. But what kind of blessing was this? What kind of life was I supposed to live as an outsider in my own world?

"I try so hard," I whispered, my voice breaking. "I want to belong so badly. But I'm just... empty. Broken. What did I do wrong?"

The Moonstone pendant grew suddenly hot against my chest, so hot it almost burned. I gasped, pressing my hand over it, and that's when I felt it, something stirring deep inside me. Not my wolf, but something else entirely. Something ancient and powerful and completely foreign.

"What's happening?" I breathed.

The pendant was practically glowing now, pulsing with warm light that seemed to sync with my heartbeat. The sensation spread from my chest outward, like fire racing through my veins. It was overwhelming, intoxicating, and terrifying all at once.

Then the pain hit.

I screamed as something burned across my left shoulder blade, a searing sensation that felt like a brand being pressed into my skin. I clawed at my back, trying to reach the source of the agony, but it was impossible. The pain was so intense that my vision started to blur.

Through the haze of torment, I caught a glimpse of strange markings glowing beneath my skin, intricate symbols that pulsed with the same rhythm as the Moonstone. This wasn't a wolf mark. This was something else entirely.

Something impossible.

As the pain reached its crescendo, my strength finally gave out. I collapsed to the forest floor, my body convulsing as the mysterious mark completed itself across my skin. The last thing I saw before darkness claimed me was the moon above, seeming to pulse in acknowledgment of whatever had just awakened within me.

The mating mark. But that was impossible – I didn't even have a mate. Did I?