Chapter 1

WRENLEY

Rejecting a fated Alpha doesn’t just ruin your life. It rots you from the inside out.

I stare at the bright pink eviction notice taped to my apartment door, peeling the edges with a thumb that is currently trembling. It’s the third notice this month. I fold the paper into quarters and shove it into my hoodie pocket.

Underneath my skin, a violent, feverish heat spikes at the base of my spine. It’s a symptom of the Fade—the biological price of defying pack law. When I ran away from Cassian on the night our fated bond was supposed to seal, I didn't just insult the most powerful Alpha in the territory. I severed a biological tie my body was built for.

Now, the wolf inside me is slowly starving to death. And she is taking me down with her.

My phone alarm blares, signaling exactly twenty minutes until morning swim practice.

"Get it together," I whisper, pressing the heel of my hand against my burning forehead.

If I lose this apartment, I end up on the streets. If I end up on the streets, I won't have a place to hide when the fever spikes, or when my eyes flash gold in the dark, or when the dying wolf tries to claw her way to the surface out of pure desperation. I will be exposed, and Cassian’s trackers will find me.

I walk into the cramped bathroom, grab a roll of waterproof athletic tape, and wrap it tightly around my left ankle. It covers the burn scar—the pack-mark that names the bloodline I ran from. A secret big enough to have already cost my family everything.

I make it to the North Bay University athletic complex with four minutes to spare. I walk onto the damp pool deck still pulling my silicone cap on. Coach Diaz doesn't even look at me. He just taps his clipboard. "Vale. Lane four. We're doing two hundreds on the three."

"Got it."

Lane four is the slow lane. He intentionally put me there in week two, right after I won my first trial easily. I didn't know yet that winning effortlessly is the most suspicious thing a werewolf can do in a building full of humans who’ve spent their entire lives training to be fast.

I dive into the freezing water, and for the first time all morning, my chest actually expands.

The water is my mute button. It’s the only place the fading wolf inside my head goes completely quiet. I am naturally faster and stronger than every human in this building, but I can't show it. Every lap is an agonizing exercise in restraint. I water down my strokes. I intentionally drag my feet on the turns. I let Elise Beaumont, the team captain, pass me and take the credit.

Practice ends the way it usually does: Elise gloating about her times to her group of minions, while I quietly pack my wet gear.

"Hey, weirdo," Elise calls out, intentionally stepping into the narrow aisle to block my only exit.

"What crisis are we manufacturing today?" I ask, my face settling into a tight, bored frown.

"Stay away from my boyfriend," she spits.

"That's unfortunate," I shrug.

She blinks, thrown off. "What's unfortunate?"

"That you thought this conversation was necessary." I adjust my swim bag on my shoulder. "Did the chlorine seep into your brain? I don't want anything to do with Aurel Castell. In fact, watching the two of you warns me to never engage in a college romance."

"Why you little—" She lunges, grabbing my wrist.

The second her nails dig into my skin, the dying wolf inside me violently wakes up. Threat, she snarls in my head, a feral, bloodthirsty instinct demanding I rip the human’s throat out. A dangerous spike of heat flashes through my blood. I have to bite my tongue to keep my eyes from shifting color.

I don't shift. Instead, I grip Elise's wrist, holding back ninety-nine percent of my actual strength, and calmly peel her hand off my arm.

"Don't touch me," I say, my voice dropping to a low, unnatural octave that makes Elise recoil.

I walk out of the locker room before she can say another word. Why would anyone want to be with Aurel Castell anyway? Sure, he’s the hockey team’s golden boy. Sure, he has the kind of broad-shouldered build that makes girls lose their minds. But I came to the human world to survive and make the Olympics, not to play house with an arrogant athlete.

By noon, the fever has settled into a dull ache. I am sitting alone in the dining hall, staring at a dry turkey sandwich, when Tess Nguyen drops her tray across from mine like empty tables are a personal insult.

Tess and I aren't exactly friends. She is just the only person on the swim team who treats me like a human being instead of a threat.

"You look like someone canceled your birthday," Tess says, sitting down.

"I don't have a birthday." I drop my sandwich.

"That's not even biologically possible," she chuckles. "If you don't want to talk, I can go..."

"Sit down," I sigh. "I'm having a bad day. Don't make it worse by looking guilty."

She brightens immediately. "Well, I have just the thing to cheer you up. The hockey team won last night. Which means there's a massive party on Friday at one of the seniors' houses. The whole athletic department is going."

"You're going to have to translate that into a language I care about," I reply, entirely unamused.

"Wrenley." Her voice drops, her relentless enthusiasm cracking just a little. "I've been on this team for three years, and I have never once been invited to a thing like this. You've been here six weeks and you don't even want it. Which makes you the perfect person to go with, because you won't ditch me the second someone shinier shows up."

She picks at her fries, suddenly looking very small. "I need a wing-woman who isn't going to abandon me. That's the whole pitch."

I look at her. I should say no. Parties mean crowds, alcohol, and a higher risk of losing control of the wolf. But Tess is the only cover I have in this school, and right now, she looks desperate.

"Fine," I groan. "But I already regret this."

"Thank you!" She leaps up, grabbing her tray before I can change my mind. "I'm coming to your place at eight on Friday! Don't pretend you're not home, I'll know!"

I watch her leave, rubbing my aching chest. Tess thinks a college party is the highest stakes in the world. She has no idea how little time I actually have left.

Just like every other night since I ran away, I don't sleep. I am staring at the ceiling of my dark studio apartment at four in the morning when my phone screen lights up on the nightstand.

I curse softly, picking it up. It’s an email from Coach Diaz.

Olympic Scouts coming to the invitational in three weeks, the message reads. Real ones. You hold back any more than you already are, and I'll know. And so will they. Decide what you want, Vale.

I drop the phone onto the mattress, my heart hammering against my ribs. To a normal human, this is a dream come true. To me, it is a death sentence.

If I want the Olympic spot, I have to swim as fast as I actually can. But the moment I push my body to its physical limit, I will lose my grip on the dying wolf clawing under my skin. And the second anyone sees what I truly am, I can kiss my freedom and my life goodbye.