Chapter 1 - The Only Human at Ravenwood Academy

Rae

The Ravenwood Pack had one human.

That human was me.

Most wolves didn’t bother remembering anything else. Not my name. Not how long I had lived on their territory. Only the simple, inconvenient truth that I didn’t belong in their world.

Humans didn’t live inside wolf packs.

Somehow, I had spent most of my life inside the Alpha’s home.

When my mother died, Luna Sonya Kingston took me in without hesitation. She had been my mother’s closest friend, and she honored that bond even after the rest of Ravenwood quietly questioned why a human child should be raised beneath the Alpha’s roof. Alpha Harold supported her, and between the two of them, the matter was settled.

At least inside the house.

The rest of the pack had never stopped forming opinions.

That was why I woke before dawn every morning.

The house remained silent as I slipped downstairs, with the last of the night pressed against the kitchen windows. I tied my hair into a loose braid and moved through the room quietly, wiping down the counters and rinsing the dishes left beside the sink.

Technically, none of it was my responsibility. The Alpha house had staff, and Sonya had told me more than once to leave the morning cleaning alone.

I still did it.

Living beneath someone else’s roof meant proving you deserved the space you occupied. It meant being useful before anyone decided you were a burden.

The coffee finished brewing as the sky began to lighten. I poured it into the insulated carafe and placed it on the dining table where Alpha Harold would find it after his morning run.

When I reached for my bag, the chain around my neck caught against the collar of my sweater. I freed it carefully and let the moonstone pendant settle against my chest.

The pale blue stone had belonged to my mother. Sonya said my mother had fastened it around my neck shortly before she died, and she had spent the last thirteen years reminding me never to remove it.

Whenever I asked why, she gave me the same answer.

Because your mother wanted you to have it.

It was one of the few things I had left of her, so I had never pushed for anything more.

I tucked the pendant beneath my sweater and lifted my bag from the bench.

Upstairs, the house remained quiet.

Which meant Grant was still asleep.

My hand lingered on the back door.

There had been a time when mornings belonged to both of us. We used to race downstairs together, steal food from the kitchen, and disappear into the forest before anyone caught us. Grant had always been faster, but he never let me lose by much.

Before the rest of the pack decided what I was, Grant had simply been Grant.

My best friend.

My favorite person.

The only place in Ravenwood that had ever felt completely safe.

Back then, I believed we would grow up together. I believed that no matter what the pack saw when they looked at me, Grant would always see Rae.

Then he gained his wolf.

Grant had been twelve when he shifted for the first time. The whole pack celebrated, and I ran outside to congratulate him.

I still remembered the way his expression changed the moment his wolf looked at me.

The warmth vanished.

He stepped back as though he had suddenly realized I was dangerous, even though I was the only person in the clearing without claws or fangs.

After that night, the distance between us grew year by year. The other pack children followed his lead as they gained their wolves, and invitations that once included me gradually stopped coming.

Before Grant shifted, I had been the strange girl living in the Alpha house.

Afterward, I became the human.

The outsider.

I stepped into the cold morning air before the memories could tighten any further around my chest.

Today was my first day at Ravenwood Academy.

Even thinking the words made my stomach twist.

The academy trained future pack leaders. Alpha heirs, Betas, Gammas, and Deltas came here to study before returning home to fill the positions waiting for them.

Humans were not permitted to attend.

Usually.

Alpha Harold and Luna Sonya had forced an exception through the council because my mother had been a wolf. That technicality earned me a place, although it had done nothing to convince anyone I deserved it.

Somewhere, a wolf who had expected to attend Ravenwood Academy had lost her seat because of me.

I didn’t know her name yet.

Everyone else seemed to.

I only needed to survive four years.

Graduate.

Leave Ravenwood.

Build a life in a human city where my lack of a wolf would stop being the first thing anyone noticed about me.

Ravenwood Academy was never going to make me part of the wolf world.

It was my way out of it.

The academy buildings rose from the forest ahead, their stone walls wrapped in ivy. Students crowded the courtyard, hauling luggage toward the dormitories or gathering beneath the archways in laughing groups.

I kept my gaze forward and headed into the dormitory lobby.

A large board covered the far wall, packed with room assignments. It took me two passes to find my name.

Aurelya Rivers, Dorm B, Room 214.

Whether they wanted me or not, my name was on the board.

I carried my bag upstairs and found the door to Room 214 already open. Someone stood near the window, stacking books across one of the desks.

She turned at the sound of my footsteps.

Her entire face lit up.

“Rae!”

Chrissy Fredricks crossed the room and wrapped her arms around me before I could set down my bag.

A startled laugh escaped me. “You’re my roommate?”

“Obviously.” She pulled back, her strawberry-blonde curls bouncing around her face. “Did you think they’d put you with some Alpha princess who hates humans?”

Chrissy had been my only real friend in Ravenwood for years. As an Omega, she had never fit neatly into pack society either, though she had earned her academy seat without anyone’s help. She had graduated as valedictorian from the preparatory school.

Seeing her here made the room feel less like another place I needed to survive.

“You think this was arranged?” I asked.

Her smile became slightly sheepish. “The Alpha and Luna may have suggested it.”

“That sounds like Sonya.”

“She worries.”

“She interferes.”

“She can multitask.”

I set my bag beside the unclaimed bed, feeling some of the tension leave my shoulders.

Chrissy grabbed my arm before I could begin unpacking.

“Ready to face the wolves?”

I looked toward the open door and exhaled. “Not remotely.”

“That’s close enough.”

She pulled me into the hall before I could argue.

The courtyard had grown more crowded while we were upstairs. Students filled the space between the dormitories and the main building, their conversations rising beneath the morning sky.

Chrissy had just started pointing out where our first class would be when a voice cut across the courtyard.

“Well, look who decided to show up.”

My shoulders tightened.

Quinn stepped away from a group gathered near the fountain. Her long dark hair fell perfectly over one shoulder, and her expression already carried that familiar mixture of amusement and disdain.

Rebecca and Stephanie followed close behind.

“Didn’t realize the academy was opening enrollment to humans this year,” Quinn said lightly.

Nearby conversations softened.

I adjusted my grip on my bag and tried to step around her.

She moved into my path.

“You know, this school was built for wolves.” Her eyes traveled over me before returning to my face. “It wasn’t built for strays.”

Chrissy shifted closer to my side. “Move, Quinn.”

Quinn’s smile widened.

Rebecca passed close enough to bump my shoulder. The shove knocked me half a step sideways, and Chrissy caught my arm.

“Rae,” she warned quietly.

I understood.

Keep walking.

Don’t give them anything.

Then another shove struck between my shoulder blades.

My bag slipped from my shoulder. My hands hit the stone first, followed by one knee, and pain shot through my palms as laughter broke across the courtyard.

“Careful,” Rebecca said. “Humans break easily.”

The embarrassment reached me before the pain did. Heat flooded my face as I stared at the rough stone beneath my fingers and listened to people laugh as though watching me fall had improved their morning.

Quinn stopped beside me.

“You should really learn your place.”

My fingers curled against the ground.

I had spent years learning my place.

At the edges of pack gatherings. At the quiet end of the Alpha’s table. In rooms where everyone else belonged without having to earn every inch they occupied.

I planted one foot beneath me and started to rise.

“That’s enough, Quinn.”

The voice moved through the courtyard with quiet authority, and every nearby wolf fell silent.

I looked up.

Grant Kingston stood several feet away.

He had grown broader over the summer, his academy jacket stretched across shoulders built through years of combat training. His steel-blue eyes moved across the scene before settling on Quinn.

Then he looked at me.

For one suspended heartbeat, our eyes met.

Warmth spread beneath my collar.

I inhaled sharply and pressed one hand against the moonstone hidden under my sweater. The heat disappeared almost immediately, leaving the pendant cool beneath my palm.

My face was burning. My heart was racing. The stone had been pressed against my skin all morning.

There was nothing strange about it.

Quinn’s entire attitude transformed as she crossed the space between them.

“Grant,” she said sweetly, slipping her arm through his.

The sight hurt more than the fall.

Grant’s gaze left mine.

“Let’s go,” he said.

Quinn gave me one last satisfied look before allowing him to guide her toward the main building. He didn’t ask whether I was hurt or offer to help. He simply walked away with the girl who had watched her friends shove me to the ground.

Three more figures stood behind him.

Julien Bennett.

Brax Weston.

Lincoln Adler.

Ravenwood’s future Beta, Gamma, and Delta.

Together, they would one day help Grant control nearly every part of pack life.

Grant had stopped Quinn.

Then he had left me on the ground.

A bitter thought settled inside me as the crowd began to move again.

If these were the wolves who would one day run Ravenwood, people like me would always remain beneath them.

I reached for my fallen bag and started to push myself upright.

A shadow crossed the stone.

A hand appeared in front of me.

I looked up.

Julien Bennett stood there, his forest-green eyes studying me quietly.

“Need a hand?” he asked.