CHAPTER 1 - Emery

The gates of Blackthorn Academy rose out of the fog like something out of a legend. Wrought iron twisted into wolves howling at the moon, stone pillars carved with ancient runes that pulsed with faint silver light as our carriage rolled past them.

I felt it before I understood what I was feeling. A prickle down my arms, sharp and electric, like static gathering before a storm. For one heartbeat, I could have sworn the runes brightened as we passed, just slightly, but enough that I turned to see if anyone else had noticed.

No one had. Lily was too busy adjusting her gloves to look at anything but her own reflection in the carriage window.

It’s just your imagination, I told myself. You're exhausted, you're terrified, and you're hoping for a miracle. That's all this is.

I smoothed my dress over my hips instead of dwelling on it. Navy blue. Simple. The best I could afford. I'd saved for months, skipped meals, told myself I didn't need new shoes when my old ones still had a few months left in them. Because every coin I could scrape together had gone toward this moment. Toward looking like I belonged, even if I never quite managed it.

The dress was snug across my stomach. My thighs. I turned my gaze to the window before the familiar words swallowed me whole. ‘Too much, you're too much.’ The very words I'd been hearing in Lily's voice for so long it had become indistinguishable from my own.

"Is that what you're wearing?" Lily had asked this morning, lips curling as she looked me over. "I suppose it will have to do. You've never had an eye for fashion. Or for anything, really." 

She'd continued dressing herself in her cream traveling gown as she spoke, not sparing me a second glance. 

"Honestly, I don't know why you bothered accepting the admission. Blackthorn Academy is for the best and brightest. For those who have something to offer. You'll be laughed out of the gates before the first week is over."

I'd said nothing in reply. Silence was safer. I'd learned that lesson so many times it no longer needed relearning.

"Your father is waiting in the carriage," she'd said, sweeping past me. "Try not to embarrass us."

Right. My father.

He hadn't looked at me once in the three hours we’d been travelling. He never did anymore. I used to think it was grief for my mother that kept his eyes elsewhere. Now I mostly just accepted it as another door that had quietly, permanently closed.

I'd spent the ride watching the pack lands give way to ancient oaks, their branches so dense they swallowed the sky, until finally the gates rose ahead of us.

In front of me was my fresh start, my escape, the place I'd dreamed about for years without ever quite believing I'd be allowed to go. The carriage rolled to a stop, and my heart slammed against my ribs. This was it.

Students milled through the courtyard in black-and-silver uniforms, laughing, confident, beautiful in the effortless way I'd always wanted to be. 

I stepped out and felt the weight of dozens of eyes land on me at once. I was used to being stared at. But something about this felt… sharper.

"Looks like the rumors were true," someone murmured.

"She's bigger than I expected."

"Ugly too."

I kept my head down and walked faster. I'm used to this. I've survived worse. Zayna stirred inside me, low and steady. 

‘Ignore them,’ she said. They don't know you.’

I knew that. But their words still stung. They always did. 

***

The orientation was held in the Great Hall, hundreds of students filling the space with a hum of excited chatter. I found a seat near the back, tucked against a pillar where I could watch without being watched. 

Headmaster Aldric spoke of tradition, of honor, of bonds formed in this sacred place, and then the Mate Ceremony began. My stomach dropped. 

I'd known it was coming. Every new student was required to feel the pull of the academy's ancient magic as it searched the room for fated matches.

I never expected to find mine.

But when Aldric called the first-years forward, something stirred deep in my chest. A warmth that spread outward, tugging me toward the front of the hall. Toward him.

Kael Moore. The youngest Alpha in history, dark-haired and golden-eyed, surrounded by admirers even before the bond confirmed what my whole body already knew. My breath caught. The thread between us pulsed, warm and undeniable.

Our eyes met.

For one unbearable second, something crossed his face that wasn't disgust. It looked almost like… like… fear, gone so fast I told myself I'd imagined it, the way I'd imagined the runes.

Then he turned back to his friends. Like nothing had happened. Like I didn't exist. Like I wasn’t standing here waiting for him to approach me.

"Did you see that?"

"Eww she's his mate?"

"He completely ignored her."

"She's too big for him.”

“Obviously. He's Kael Moore. He can do better."

My cheeks burned, my hands trembling at my sides. Kael's wolf had recognized mine, there was no mistaking that. The bond hung between us, golden and aching, even with him refusing to look at it.

Maybe he needs time, I told myself. And then immediately hated myself a little for the excuse. I'd spent my whole life making excuses for people who didn't want me. My father. Lily. My pack. 

This was supposed to be different, this was supposed to be fate, the one thing in my life that was supposed to choose me back.

'He felt it too. He knows,' Zayna said quietly.

'Then why did he walk away?'

'I don't know. But we deserve an answer.'

I straightened my spine. I'd spent my whole life being pushed around, told I wasn't enough. Not tonight. Not anymore.

I slipped out of the Great Hall the moment the ceremony ended, before anyone could stop me, and followed the faint pull of the strained bond through winding corridors, past portraits of long-dead wolves, up a staircase to the floor where the most prestigious students were housed.

I stopped at a heavy oak door. Number 47. I could feel him behind it.

I knocked before I could lose my nerve.