Mag-log inIANThe loud anxious murmurs greeted my ears before I even reached the tree line.A small crowd had formed at the edge of the woods near the old well. Academy staff. Students from all four packs. A few of the instructors standing in a loose perimeter, faces grim. And in the center of it all, laid out on the grass with a medical sheet already draped over her—A body.Elder Cross was standing over the body with Elder Hart beside him. “Who is it?” I asked.Cross pulled the sheet back just enough.An omega from my pack. She was grey. Eyes closed. Mouth slightly open. The same purple tinge to her lips that I’d seen on Elara—the telltale stain of wolf willow poisoning.“Guards found her ten minutes ago,” Hart said, “She was down in that pit for an hour at least.”What the fuck was going on?First I’d pulled Elara out of that dark hole, and now a dead omega on the grass? Two incidents at the exact same abandoned well in less than twelve hours?“We found this on her desk,” Cross said, handin
IAN“She won’t make it. The poison is already in her central nervous system. It’s a miracle her heart is still pumping, but medically? There's nothing left to do.”I’d summoned Hera here because the Academy physicians were useless, so why the hell was she saying the exact same damn thing.It was morning now. None of the remedies had worked on her thus far.I stared down at Elara. She was lying unnaturally still on the white sheets. Her skin was a sickly, translucent white, her lips bruised a dark purple. Her chest wasn't rising. It wasn't falling. On the heart monitor, the steady beep... beep... was dragging out longer and longer with every passing second.And I couldn’t breathe.I couldn’t watch her like this.Hera looked at me, her eyes full of unwanted sympathy. "Her body can't flush out the poisonous spores. She needs a full, clean blood transfusion. But she isn't a wolf, and she isn't a normal human either. Push the wrong blood type into her veins, and her body will shock itself
AUTHOR’S POVMaren burst into Sheila’s room, her face pale as a ghost."How dare you enter so rudely?!" Sheila sneered, glaring at the shaking girl. "What the hell is wrong with you?""It’s... it’s Elara," Maren stuttered.A vicious smirk spread across Sheila’s face. "What about the Muteblood?"Sheila leaned back against her desk, feeling a rush of nasty triumph. The prank had worked perfectly. Maren had overheard Kirsten talking about Nate earlier, and Sheila had used that tiny detail to craft a clever trap. Sending that fake text had been so easy. When Maren found the forgotten stone well hidden deep in the woods, Sheila knew exactly what to do. Lock the girl down there for a day or two, let her freeze in the dark, and teach her a lesson for getting in their way."Did she cry?" Sheila chuckled, crossing her arms comfortably. "I bet she's down there right now, begging for mercy. You did a good job shoving her in, Maren. Don't tell me you're starting to feel sorry for her now?""N-No!
ELARA“Mama, why was the white wolf bullied?”My mother turned away from the kitchen sink, wiping her damp hands on her apron. She smiled, her warm brown eyes crinkling at the corners as she walked over and knelt right in front of me. She reached out, gently tucking a loose strand of hair behind my ear.“That’s because they were all scared of her, sweetheart,” she whispered softly. “People only try to hurt what they don’t understand—and what they secretly fear.”“Because she was different?” I asked, clutching my stuffed toy tightly against my chest.“Because white wolves are the rarest gift in the world. They carry the bloodline of the Moon Goddess herself,” Mama said, her hand resting over my heart. “Their power is so ancient and pure that the world keeps it hidden. It stays fast asleep inside them until they are marked by their true mate. Only then does their real magic finally wake up.”I blinked down at her, my small voice full of wonder. “Like Sleeping Beauty? Awakened by a true
IANI walked into the large locker room after our little friendly game with the Moonveil, unstrapping my chest pads."Hey boo,” I turned—it was the girl from the bonfire night. She gave me an appreciative look to my bare torso before shooting me a suggestive smile."We never got to see each other, you just left like that, how about I give you my number so we could talk? I’m Helen,”"Not interested. Find someone else."She scoffed, looking stung but she left."Damn," Simon chuckled, cracking open a cold can. The MoonVeil Alpha took a sip, then offered another can to me. Our packs shared a border back home, so Simon and I were sort of close since we did see each other frequently. "I heard you’d changed, but I didn't think it was true. Yet here I am, seeing it myself."I said nothing as I pulled off my ice skates and tossed them to the floor."Reynold’s still spitting blood, you know," Simon said, "First night and you already made an enemy out of the IronFang pack. Couldn't stop yourself
ELARAThe sharp ring of the bell announced the end of Werewolf Studies, kicking us out into mandatory after-school activities. Most of the guys ran off to the Arena. It was the first unranked game of the semester, and the air was practically buzzing with testosterone and excitement.Isodel and I signed up for archery. It was a smart move. An escape from Ian and the twins.Forget everything? Forget six years of torture?I pulled the bowstring back to my cheek and let the arrow fly with all the anger I’d been holding in.THWACK.Right in the exact middle of the bullseye.The loud field suddenly went quiet. Isodel froze, her jaw dropping open as she looked at the target, then back at me. “Elara... are you completely sure you’ve never shot a bow before?”“It was just dumb luck,” I mumbled, pulling a second arrow from the rack.I set it on the bow, pulled back, and let go without even taking a breath.THWACK.The second arrow split the end of the first one right down the middle, pushing it







