Chapter 1

Chapter one

"Tonight, under the full moon, the goddess has given us this day for our younglings to be gifted their wolves."

The voice of High Priest Malachi resounded across the clearing. He stood at the front of the Moon-Altar, holding a heavy black bowl high above his head. Inside, the dark red blood of ten teenagers swirled, it reflected the giant, glowing moon that was like a silver eye watching us from the sky.

I looked down at my right hand, the cut on my palm was deep and stinging. I squeezed my fingers into a fist, feeling the warm, sticky blood leak through my grip. My knees were shaking so hard I thought I might collapse right there on the grass.

There were ten of us lined up and we were all eighteen today. I stood at the very end of the line, the ninth person, with only one girl at the other end of me.

We were all wearing the same thing, a thin, white gown that felt like nothing against the cold night wind. The fabric was so light it was almost see-through. I felt naked. I felt exposed. My heart was thumping really fast, I struggled to take breaths, this was the night that every single wolf looked towards to as a child. It was the night that I had grown up hearing that it defined my entire life.

I looked over at the crowd. My father, Alpha Silas, was standing at the very front. He wasn't just my father tonight, he was the leader of the Silver Mist pack. He stood with his arms crossed over his chest. When he caught my eye, he gave me a small smile. It was a proud look, he expected me to be the strongest wolf in the line. He expected his daughter to lead one day. Next to him, my mother, the Luna, held her hands over her mouth, from where I was I could see that her eyes were shiny with tears of joy. She looked at me like I was already a queen.

"The moon reaches its peak!" Malachi shouted. He dipped his fingers into the bowl of blood and began to paint red marks on our foreheads. When he got to me, his fingers were cold. The smell of the blood was thick and metallic, making my stomach turn.

He stepped back and raised his arms to the sky, his voice very loud as he started to chant, "Blood of the ancient, spirit of the wild, wake the beast inside the child. Bone shall break and skin shall tear, let the wolf emerge to breathe the air!"

I closed my eyes and whispered to myself. Please. Please let me be a strong wolf. Please let my father be proud. I remembered the stories my mother told me late at night. Stories about the kids who never changed. She called them "The Hollow." She told me how they were no longer considered people, how they were stripped of their names and chased into the dark forest to die alone. They were hunted like prey by the very families that once loved them.

A cold shiver ran down my back. That won't be me, I am royal blood, I am an Alpha's daughter, definitely the goddess wouldn't do that to me.

I looked at the sky. The moon was so big it felt like it was falling toward us.

"Three... two... one!" Malachi cried out.

Suddenly, a sound like a dry branch snapping filled the air.

Jax, the boy at the start of the line, fell to the grass. He screamed so loud that my ears started to ring. He hit the ground hard, his entire body was jerking and twisting. I watched, my eyes wide, as his bones began to move under his skin, I could see his spine arching and elongating, his ribs popping out of place and reshaping. It looked like his body was being broken and put back together. Grey fur burst through his white gown, tearing the silk to rags. In seconds, a large, panting wolf stood where the boy had been.

One down.

The change moved down the line like a wave. The girl next to Jax started screaming. Then the boy next to her. One by one, my friends were hitting the dirt. The sound of bones breaking was everywhere, a wet, grinding noise of joints shifting and skulls stretching. 

I started counting in my head, my panic growing with every second. Five. Six. Seven.

The girl to my left, Sarah, was the eighth person. She let out a choked sob as she fell forward, her spine arching until it looked like it would snap into two. I watched her fingers lengthen into claws, her jaw stretching forward with a sickening crunch as she turned into a beautiful brown wolf.

Now, it was my turn. I was the ninth person.

I stood perfectly still, I waited for the heat. I waited for the pain that everyone said felt like fire in your blood. I waited for my bones to shift.

Nothing happened.

I felt only the cold wind on my skin. My heart stopped as I heard grunts from the tenth girl next to me, I looked to my right. 

Suddenly, her body jerked, her bones snapped loudly and she collapsed, fur sprouting across her back as she shifted into a golden wolf.

The transformation had skipped me.

The clearing went deathly quiet, the only sound was the heavy breathing of the nine wolves lying on the grass.

What the hell is going on?

I looked up at the moon, it was moving. The bright silver light was starting to fade as the moon passed the center of the sky.

I looked at my father, his smile was gone. His eyes were narrowed, boring into mine, demanding that I change. My mother’s hands dropped from her face. She looked like she had seen a ghost.

"No," I whispered, my voice shaking. "No... wait!"

I grabbed my own arms, digging my nails into my skin until I drew blood. I tried to pull at my own muscles, trying to force them to break. I gripped my stomach and tried to force my body to shatter. "Change!" I screamed at the moon, my voice breaking into a desperate wail. "Please! Break my bones! Make me shift!"

I fell to my knees, clawing at the dirt, sobbing so hard I couldn't breathe. I was shaking my head, my hair flying everywhere. "I am the Alpha's daughter! Look at me and DO SOMETHING GODDESS!" I squeezed my eyes shut so hard that spots danced in my vision, praying for the pain, begging for the agony of the change. But the only thing I felt was the grass beneath my knees and the shame washing over me.

Malachi walked over to me, he didn't look at me with respect anymore. He leaned in close, his breath smelling like old herbs. He looked up at the sky and saw that the moon was gone.

"The time is up," Malachi said. His voice wasn't a whisper to me, it was a roar that everyone could hear.

I saw some of the Elders in the back, they were whispering to each other with small, mean smiles on their faces, were they waiting for the Alpha's daughter to fail?

"Princess Aurora," Malachi said, his lip curling in disgust. "Actually, I shouldn't even call you that, you don't deserve a title. You don't even deserve a name."

The crowd let out a loud gasp. My heart stopped.

"You have no wolf," he spat. He turned to the crowd. "She is an empty vessel, a weak, useless human living among us!"

"No!" I shouted, stepping back. My legs were shaking were I stood. "No, I'm just a late bloomer! Give me another hour! Give me another night!"

I looked at the villagers, people I had known my whole life were now looking at me like I was a monster. They were sneering. Someone threw a small rock that hit my shoulder.

"Mother!" I cried out, reaching my hand toward her.

My mother started to run toward me, her face covered in tears. "Aurora!"

But my father’s hand grabbed her arm so hard she winced. He jerked her back, pinning her to his side. He didn't look at me, he looked at the trees behind me, his face full of pure shame. He wouldn't even meet my eyes.

"As of this moment," Malachi announced, "this girl is no longer part of the Silver-Mist pack, she is banished!"

I heard the sound of heavy boots on the grass as four soldiers stepped out from the shadows. Two of them were the men who used to guard my bedroom door. Now, they were holding long, silver spears pointed directly at my chest. Their faces were blank.

"Father, please!" I sobbed. "Help me! Tell them to stop!"

My father didn't move. He didn't say a word. He slowly turned his back on me and began to walk away into the dark, pulling my mother with him.

The soldiers moved closer, the sharp tips of the spears inches from my throat.