Chapter One

Aria’s POV

It is crowded inside, kids laughing so loud that I am overwhelmed with the urge to press my hands against my ears. Red cups hang in the air, sharp eyes scanning the space, the music blasting through the walls.

This isn’t my space.

It has never been.

Still, I push through the slim entrance, the smell of liquor hitting the minute I walk into the large living room, with couches moved aside and sweaty bodies pressed against each other.

The Blood Ridge Pack.

I have read a lot about them from the Hunters’ library, but it isn’t the same thing as being near them. As being in the same room as them. Their energy…there is something about it that makes me halt in the middle of the space.

“Get out of the way,” someone screams. I move just in time before I get run over by a drunk college kid in roller skates. His laughter travels down the hallway with him, and I move in that direction.

Searching for something.

Anything.

The hallway is the same as the living room, seemingly devoid of anything special. My father will be expecting some kind of information tonight, and I cannot return to the cottage without something.

I can already picture the look of disappointment that will be etched into his features. And then the subtle words, “Why can’t you just be like your sister?” hitting me. But it is never subtle, especially not in the way it seems to tear me into bits.

But it will be different this year. It is the promise I made to him earlier today, when we first set foot into the Blood Ridge Pack.

I am going to deliver the whole pack to the hunters, even if it is the last thing I do. And my name is going to be in that room of honours, just like my sister.

But suddenly, a loud clang sounds to my right, and my head snaps in that direction. With my hands on the handle of my wolfsbane dagger, I take a slow step towards the sound. The door is slightly cracked open, the kitchen island catching my attention. 

A girl with copper hair comes into view,

She is petite, currently standing on her toes, and yelling at someone standing in front of her. Someone easily towering over her. If the situation were any different, I would have burst out laughing.

“Listen to me, Isla,” the male voice booms. He places a hand on her shoulders and pulls her to him harshly. That must have hurt, but she doesn’t cry out. Instead, she tries to fight against him, her hands helplessly hitting his chest.

“I didn’t cheat on you with her, I promise!”

“You are lying!” She cries, her hair flying all over the place.

“Don’t you fucking think you can lie to me, Jere. All through the semester, I tried to believe you even when your attention was divided. Because time after time, you made me feel like I was the problem. Like being the Alpha’s sister already sets me worlds apart from you.”

“Because it does!” He snaps, letting go of her shoulder. “Don’t you get it, Isla? I will never be enough for you.”

“And then you decided that my best friend was just right, yeah?”

“Isla,” he whispers.

She pushes away from him, just as I back into the darkness, still watching.

“I never want to talk to you again.” Her voice breaks, and strangely, I am filled with the urge to step into the kitchen, to pull her into my arms. To protect her from him.

But I shake my head in the dark, as if trying to dispel the thoughts. They are the very people I am trying to destroy. Their scent clings to every surface. I try to get irritated by it, just like my sister, Anna.

But for some reason, I can’t.

Pulling away from the dark, I make my way up the stairs, into a larger hallway lit up by dim lights. The floors are covered with dark rugs, and my eyes fall on the lettering at the far end of the wall.

Blood Ridge Packhouse.

Wait, what?

This is when the scent hits, raw and imposing. My eyes dart around the space, searching for where it is coming from. It smells like smoke, but oddly like the damp earth. Something settles in the pit of my stomach; something warm and fuzzy.

Something strange.

I hear voices coming from the door at the far end of the hallway, one of them easy and calm, and the other…. Intense.

The handle twists slowly, and the scent becomes much more insistent, as if pulling me to it like a haze. My limbs threaten to move in its direction, but I change course, backing into the room behind me instead.

My heart thuds against my chest as I press against the wall, waiting.

Their footsteps get closer and their voices clearer. Their words are ingrained in my being.

“Wait,” the intense voice says. The sound travels through me, and my eyes flutter close on their own accord.

“What?”

“The veil.”

“What happened to it?”

“Someone has breached it.”

I peek through the little space, careful to keep my body out of view. I can’t see the one with the dark hair, the one who seems to have a particular aura oozing off him. He is standing with his back turned against me, his eyes trained on the other person.

I focus on him instead. He looks stunned, his eyes widened, and his lips parted. “That is impossible,” he mutters, shaking his head. “That veil hasn’t been breached in years. Who could have…”

“Only one breed,” he drawls. “Hunters.”

“Shit!”

I didn’t think they were going to figure it out so fast.

My breath hitches in my throat when he angles his head a fraction, when everything suddenly stops, as if he can sense me.

His friend’s eyes dart around the door I am hiding behind. “What is it, Darius?”

Darius.

That name…

“Nothing,” he murmurs after a beat. Still, I don’t release my breath until I hear their footsteps resume, walking down the hallway.

And just when I think I am in the clear, the door suddenly pushes open. He is here, right in front of me, stalking over with dark eyes that fill me with dread, laced with a tingle.

My back hits the wall, and my lips part open as he leans in. “You do a shitty job at hiding.”