The Human Who Fights Like A Wolf

The tires screeching. The glass shattering. The smell of gasoline and burnt rubber.

And then silence.

I jolt awake with my hands fisted in my sheets, chest heaving. Same nightmare. Two years and it never changes.

My bedroom door slams open before I can even breathe properly.

Jace doesn't knock. He never has.

He's in sweats, hair a mess, looking like he teleported from his bed to mine. He doesn't say a word, just lifts the blanket and climbs in next to me like we've done since we were kids. He pulls my head down to his chest and his heart is already doing that slow, steady wolf rhythm that always knocks me out.

"Again?" he mumbles, half asleep.

"Again," I whisper.

He just tightens his arms. "You're good. You're here."

This is my life. I'm Kira Reyes, 19, human, and I live in a house full of werewolves.

Two years ago, my parents died in a car crash on Highway 9. The same crash I survived with only scratches. No one from my extended family wanted a 17-year-old with trauma and no trust fund. Except one person.

My mom's best friend from college - Beth.

Only, Beth isn't just Beth. She's Luna Beth of the Silver Ridge Pack. She and Alpha James took me in without blinking. Gave me a room, a family, a pack that didn't have to accept me but did.

For two years I learned how to live like them. How to train like them. How to think like them. I can't shift. I can't mindlink. I don't have super hearing or speed.

But I can fight. God, I can fight.

I out-train half the junior warriors. Human strength, wolf mentality. That's what James calls me.

"You ready to tell me why you're actually awake at 5 AM?" Jace says, his voice more awake now.

"Because today's the Summit letter day," I say.

He goes stiff.

Jace is the future Alpha of Silver Ridge. My best friend. My brother in every way that matters. Born three hours apart in the same hospital because our moms planned it that way. Everyone - and I mean EVERYONE - waited for our 18th birthdays to see if we were fated mates.

We weren't. Thank God. The thought makes us both want to gag. He's my twin, my emergency contact, my nightmare cure.

But now his Alpha training is starting for real. And I'm... leaving.

I got accepted to State for Business Management. I want to take over the self-defense and yoga studio my mom and Beth started twenty years ago. It's the only thing left of my mom that still feels alive. Beth has been holding it for me, but I need to learn how to run it myself. In the human world.

"You don't have to go," he says for the hundredth time.

"Jace, I can't stay here forever and be the pack charity human who hangs around because she has nowhere else to go. I love it here. But I'm not a wolf. I'm never going to find a mate. I'm never going to have a rank. I need to have my own life."

"You have a rank," he growls. "You're mine. That outranks everything."

"You're so possessive, it's disgusting."

"You're stuck with me, Reyes. College or not."

We get up and go downstairs. Luna Beth is already in the kitchen, and like always, she's made enough food for an army. Pancakes, bacon, fruit, eggs - all my favorites.

"You slept again?" she asks, looking at me and then at Jace, and she doesn't need to ask what she means.

"I'm fine," I say, shoving a pancake in my mouth.

Jace snorts. "She had the dream again. And I almost died getting to her room fast enough. You know she's heavy when she panics."

"I am not heavy! I train the same as you!"

"Yeah, but you eat like a bird and then steal all my fries. Makes no sense."

This is how it always is. Normal. Safe. Exactly why I need to leave.

Then Alpha James walks in holding a thick black envelope with a silver wax seal. The Council seal.

His face is serious.

"Kira. Jace. Sit."

Jace and I look at each other.

James drops the envelope in front of me.

"The Alpha Council has requested Silver Ridge send a representative to the Alliance Summit next week. They specifically asked for our... human integration program to be showcased."

My stomach drops.

"They asked for you, Kira. By name."

Jace's hand slams on the island. "Absolutely not. That Summit is full of old, traditional Alphas who think humans shouldn't even know we exist. Kade will be there."

Kade.

Alpha Kade of Dark Moon. The most feared Alpha under thirty. The one who openly says taking a Luna makes an Alpha weak. The one who says he'll never take a mate.

The one whose pack is our biggest rival.

Beth looks at me, worried. "You don't have to go, honey. We can decline."

But I pick up the envelope. My hands are shaking, but I open it.

Inside is a sing

le card, handwritten:

Bring the human girl who thinks she's a wolf. Let's see how long she lasts.