Chapter three

SAMANTHA'S POV

It was finally time for the initiation, and I just walked into the crescent moon.

The Crescent Moon Hall was a circular room carved directly into the bedrock beneath the Academy, with walls that looked less like stone and more like dried blood.

In the center, a slab of black rock shaped like a crescent moon, and above it, a glass ceiling that showed the sky just beginning to darken, the first hints of red bleeding into the clouds.

There were maybe forty first-years in the chamber, and all of them were wolves, and they were all watching me.

I felt their eyes like hands on my skin, measuring and weighing, deciding whether I was prey or just pathetic.

Principal Vex stood at the head of the room, next to the Crescent Stone. She raised her hand, and the chamber went silent before she began.

"Tonight, you shed your first blood on Nightshade ground, and tonight, the Moon Goddess sees you, and she decides if you are worthy to be here or not." She spoke, her voice soft but firm.

A murmur rippled through the crowd. I didn't feel any excitement or fear; all I felt was just a strange, hollow calm.

"Now, every one of you is going to approach the stone in accordance with the pack; the Frost Fang pack will go first," she spoke further, with her face, which held no expression.

Karl stepped forward, and of course, he moved to the stone, pulled a blade from his belt matching the one he'd given me, I noticed, and drew it across his palm.

Blood welled up in his palm, dark and thick, and it dripped onto the black rock.

Just then the stone sang, and I heard it. A low hum that vibrated in my teeth, the blood soaked into the rock like water into sand, and for a moment, Kael's eyes blazed gold. A full wolf, beautiful and terrible.

"The Frost Fang heir is accepted, so the other can proceed now," Vex said, and immediately there was loud clapping in the room.

And one by one, the wolves approached. One by one, they bled, and one after the other the Stone accepted them, and within a few minutes it was finally my turn.

"Samantha Carter, the scholarship student, step forward. "I heard the principal say with a loud voice, loud enough for anyone at a distance to hear.

The murmuring got louder, and I heard someone laugh as I slowly took a few steps away from where I had stood.

“She is just a human that got in by mistake; I believe she will definitely get rejected or probably even die at the spot." I heard them laugh as I walked closer to the stone.

Felt their eyes on me, and immediately my heart started to beat rapidly. What if they were right about me dying on the spot? This thought rang in my head as my palm became sweaty immediately.

I could hear my heartbeat in my ears as I pulled out the knife Karl had given me and pressed the edge to my palm.

“Don't hesitate; just do it,” I told myself, and finally I drove the blade into my palm, cutting it.

The pain was sharp and immediate, and blood spilled down my fingers, hot and red and so alive it almost glowed, as I pressed my palm to the Crescent Stone.

Just then everything went wrong; the stone screamed instead of singing like it did with the other.

A sound that wasn't sound, that ripped through the chamber and sent wolves to their knees.

The black rock cracked, not the stone itself, but something under it, something ancient and sleeping and suddenly, violently awake.

I tried to pull my hand back, but I couldn't. My blood was pouring into the stone now, faster than it should, faster than was possible.

And then I smelled it; for the first time in my life, I smelled myself.

Moonflower and storm wind: something old and dark and powerful that made me want to run and never stop.

And just behind me, someone gasped, making me turn, still stuck to the stone, still bleeding, and just then, I saw them.

Four boys, four wolves, and four heirs, by the looks of them, and every single one of them had their eyes locked on me with an expression I finally understood.

Karl Blackwood was the closest. His gray eyes were pure gold now, his wolf rising to the surface, as he took a step toward me like he couldn't help himself.

"No," he breathed. "No, that's not possible." He said, making me stare at him in confusion.

"What's not possible?" My voice came out strangled.

A red-haired boy I hadn't met yet shoved past Karl; his eyes were the color of embers. "She imprinted on all of us, and I can feel it. Can't you feel it too?" He asked and gazed at the others.

The third boy hung back, with his dark hair and darker eyes, watching me like I was a puzzle he'd been waiting his whole life to solve.

The fourth blond, with golden eyes and with hands that were already glowing with healing light, just stared at his palm. At the mark that was forming there was a mate mark.

They all had it, spreading across their skin like fire, and principal Vex's voice cut through the chaos.

"Silence," she spat.

The chamber went silent, and even the Stone stopped screaming.

Vex walked to me with a puzzled expression and looked at my palm, still pressed to the rock, still bleeding, then looked at the four heirs; she looked at the marks blooming on their skin.

"Well," she sighed softly; her voice was very calm. "This hasn't happened in a thousand years." She added, still staring at the marks in their hands.

I finally wrenched my hand free, and just then the wound on my palm started healing, closing up like it had never been cut at all.

"What's happening to me?" I said in a whisper as I stared at my palm once more.

Vex looked at me, and for the first time, the principal's expression cracked.

"You're not human, Samantha Carter; you never were." She said, making me stare at her in confusion, trying so hard to understand what she meant by that.

Behind me, the four alphas took a collective breath; their wolves were straining against their skin, wanting and needing me.

"The Moon Goddess doesn't make mistakes," Vex continued.

"Which means she put you here for a reason and she gave you to them for a reason." She paused and gestured to the four boys.

"By dawn, every pack in the territory will know what happened tonight, and they will call it an abomination, a glitch." She spoke further.

"But it's not a glitch," I said before I could stop myself.

Vex smiled. It was not a nice smile. "No," she agreed. "It's not a glitch; it's so real." She added and slowly turned to address the other people watching all this while.

"The Initiation is over, so all first years, return to your dorms," she announced.

The wolves filed out in stunned silence, but the four heirs didn't move; they stood in a loose circle around me, bound by something none of them understood.