Chapter 1

Skylar’s POV

“Am I a maniac too?” I thought to myself as tears rolled down my cheeks.

I’ve never been like the others. From as far back as I can remember, when the rest of the pack’s kids started changing, growing into their true forms, I stayed the same. When everyone else shifted fur, claws, eyes glowing under the full moon I was stuck as me. Just me.

I was four when it started. I watched my cousins, siblings, friends all of them running wild, howling in the woods, their bodies transforming as if by magic. Their parents smiled proudly. It was the beginning of their real lives as werewolves, and everyone celebrated them. I should have been celebrating too. But instead, I was left behind.

No one said it out loud, but I could feel it. The stares, the whispers behind my back. They called me “the lost pup,” “the one who never grows.” I heard it, even if no one dared say it to my face. I was the anomaly. The one who didn’t belong.

At first, I thought maybe I just hadn’t discovered my power yet. Maybe I was a late bloomer. I waited. I watched. But year after year, the gap between me and the others grew.

By the time I was ten, the difference wasn’t just noticeable it was impossible to ignore. All the kids my age shifted like it was second nature, but I stayed human. No fur sprouted on my skin. No claws tore through flesh. No howls echoed from my throat. Just silence.

I tried not to let it bother me, but it did. Deep down, I wondered if there was something wrong with me. Something broken that no one wanted to fix.

School was no refuge. I was the target for every joke and insult. Kids who should have been friends pushed me aside. They whispered, laughed, mocked me for being the “weak one.” Some days, I hated going altogether.

But I wasn’t alone. Mila Donovan was always there. Mila was my best friend, the one who saw me for who I was not what I wasn’t. She never cared about my inability to shift or the way others looked at me. She laughed with me, fought for me, and made me believe I was worth more than the whispers and the sneers.

Even with Mila, though, the days were hard. The nights harder.

Home wasn’t easy either. My sister, Elena, was a constant thorn in my side. She had the kind of sharp tongue that cut deeper than any claws. Sometimes she teased me just to get a reaction, and sometimes it was worse she’d drag me down in front of others, mocking me for being “less than.” I wanted to hate her for it, but she was family. I craved her approval even when she refused to give it.

My parents? They didn’t say much. Maybe it was better that way. Their disappointment was a quiet thing, but it filled every room. They expected more from me, but never explained what.

I didn’t blame them, not really. They were caught up in the politics of the pack the endless games of power and alliances. Maybe they thought if they ignored my failure to shift, it would just go away. Maybe they were scared of what it meant.

I was scared, too.

I’d spend hours alone, usually at night when the moon was full and the pack was out howling. I’d sit on my bedroom window ledge, staring up at the moon, willing myself to hear my own howl, to feel the change in my bones. But it never came.

I thought about running away sometimes. Escaping this cage made of expectations and whispered judgments. But where would I go? Who would want someone who couldn’t even be what they were born to be?

The only place I ever felt close to normal was with Mila. She didn’t care about my bloodline or my inability to change. She saw me as her friend, not some project or failure.

We met when we were kids, both of us awkward, both of us outsiders in different ways. 

She’d drag me out for ice cream after long days, remind me to laugh when I felt like crying, and tell me I was stronger than I knew. Sometimes, I believed her.

Even so, there were days I wished things were different. Days I wanted to shout at the moon and demand answers. Why me? Why was I the one who couldn’t be like them?

At school, I avoided the popular packs and stuck to classes with Mila. We kept to ourselves, laughing at dumb jokes and planning futures that felt impossible.

One afternoon, as I walked across campus, a group of kids from the rival pack sneered at me. “Hey, human girl,” one called out. “Lost pup wandering again?”

I clenched my fists but didn’t say a word. Mila was right behind me, stepping between me and them. “Back off,” she said, her voice low and steady.

They laughed but moved on. Mila squeezed my arm and smiled. “You don’t have to face them alone.”

I nodded, grateful but ashamed. Why couldn’t I be brave like her? Why was I always the one needing protection?

At home, the tension was no better.

Elena’s smirks were constant. One night, she barged into my room uninvited.

“Still can’t shift?” she teased, plopping onto my bed like she owned the place.

I ignored her, focusing on the textbook open on my lap.

“Why don’t you just admit it?” she pressed. “You’re weak. You’ll never be anything but a disappointment.”

The words cut deeper than she knew. I wanted to fight back, but I didn’t have the strength. Not yet.

I didn’t know it then, but those struggles were just the beginning. The world of packs was more dangerous than I imagined, filled with secrets, lies, and power plays that even I, with my rare bloodline, couldn’t escape.

I was just a girl stuck between worlds human and wolf, truth and deception.

And so

on, everything I thought I knew about my life was about to change.