Kaia

The library air was suffocating. Silence pressed against my eardrums. I sat across from Selene, my eyes locked on her hands. They were steady as she smoothed a piece of yellowed parchment over the mahogany table. 

This wasn't a fairy tale. It was a cage with better lighting.

Selene's glasses caught the dim overhead glow as she traced the heavy black lines on the map. She didn't look up.

"Five territories, Kaia," she said. Her voice was flat, like she was reciting a grocery list. "Five packs. Five alphas. All of them answer to one man."

Her finger landed on the center of the map. Kentrikos.

"Your father," she whispered. "Alpha Narcisse. He owns it. All of it."

I stared at the thick ink. My stomach did a slow, sick roll. "He owns it? Like a king?"

Selene's mouth twitched. It wasn't a smile; it was a ghost of a bitter thought. "We don't have kings here."

"Then why do people call me Princess?" I asked. I tried to make it sound like a joke, but my voice cracked in the middle.

She finally looked at me. The pity in her eyes made me want to scream. "I don't know. There is almost nothing about you in the records."

My heart skipped. I could feel the heat rising behind my eyes. "Almost nothing? So there's something."

She adjusted her glasses, her gaze flickering toward the dark, locked shelves at the back of the room. "Every pack has a ledger. A history. Yours is mostly blank. It says your mother and brother died when you were born. It says you were the only one who lived."

The word felt like a slap. Lived. I wasn't living. I was a science experiment. I thought about the needles they pushed into my skin and the way my bruises faded before I could even cry about them. I was a freak.

"How does he do it?" I asked, my voice coming out as a growl I didn't recognize. "How does he keep them all in line?"

"He controls the Alphas," she said. She leaned in closer, and I caught the scent of old paper and peppermint. "The strongest males. Then the Betas and the Gammas. Your father has warriors in every corner of this country. Watching. Waiting."

I looked toward the library door. A man stood there in a black suit. He looked like any other guard, but now I saw the way his shoulders stayed rigid. I saw the way his eyes never stopped moving.

"The guards," I whispered. "They're his army."

Selene nodded once. "They protect his interests. They protect the White Moon."

"The White Moon," I repeated. The name felt heavy on my tongue. "So he's the Alpha of the White Moon pack."

"Yes," she said. She tapped the map again, harder this time. "Alpha at the top. Beta and Gamma below him. And the Luna at his side."

I felt a spark of something. Not hope, just a desperate curiosity. "What does the Luna do?"

Selene paused. She looked at me for a long time, her expression turning hard. "She is the mother of the pack. She supports the Alpha. She ensures the bloodline continues."

The blood drained from my face. I felt a cold, sharp ache in my gut. A mother. A mate. A breeder.

"How does a man become Alpha?" I asked. I needed to distract myself from the heat crawling under my skin.

Selene didn't look at me. Her eyes drifted toward the heavy oak door. "Birthright. Or blood."

"Blood?"

"One pack kills the other," she said. Her voice was thin, like a wire about to snap. "They slaughter anyone who stands in the way. They wipe the line clean."

A chill raced down my spine. I thought of my father's house. The silent guards. The rows of warriors. The total absence of women. It wasn't a home; it was a graveyard where no one talked back.

"And the Luna?" I whispered.

"The mate bond," Selene said. She finally looked at me, her eyes glassy. "It is a tether. You feel their heart inside your own chest. If they bleed, you taste copper. If they die, a part of your soul just goes black."

The weight of it pressed on my lungs. It sounded like a death sentence.

"How are they picked?" My hands were shaking now.

"The Moon Goddess." Selene's voice turned thick with a kind of sick worship. "She carves your names together before you're even born."

I dropped my head into my palms. My brain felt like it was swelling against my skull. Then, a sharp, white-hot blade of pain sliced through my gut. I gasped, doubling over. It wasn't just a cramp. It felt like something was trying to claw its way out of my stomach.

"Selene," I choked out, clutching my middle. "I-I don't feel well. I need to go."

She reached out, her face blurring. "Kaia?"

I didn't wait. I pushed off the chair, my legs feeling like lead. I stumbled out of the library, hitting the walls of the hallway as I ran. By the time I hit my bedroom, I was sobbing.

I made it to the bathroom and ripped my clothes off. My breath hitched. Blood. It was everywhere. Dark, thick, and hot. I scrambled into the shower and turned the handle. I sat on the cold tile, watching the red swirls circle the drain. I stayed there until the water turned to ice and my skin went blue.

The curtain pulled back with a sharp snap. Astra stood there. She didn't look shocked. She looked like she'd been waiting for this.

She pressed a glass of water into my hand and four bitter white pills. "Painkillers. Swallow them."

I swallowed the pills. I was too tired, too hollowed out to fight her. Astra wrapped me in a thick towel and tucked me into the sheets like I was still a child. As the dark pulled at me, one thought looped in my brain: Was this the change? Was I finally becoming a monster, or was I just breaking into pieces?

The next morning, I was still just Kaia. No claws. No fur. Just a girl who couldn't punch her way out of a cardboard box.

My father didn't give a damn about my pain. He only cared about the clock. An hour later, I was flat on the gym mats with Cain grinding my face into the rubber.

"How is this helping?" I spat. My mouth tasted like sweat and floor cleaner. "You're just hurting me, asshole!"

"You're holding back, Princess," Cain growled. He shoved his knee harder into the small of my back. "Get up and fight like you actually want to live."

I snarled. The sound was deep, vibrating in a way that didn't feel like me. I threw my weight to the side, rolled, and managed to clip his calf with the heel of my boot. I scrambled up, my lungs burning for air.

"Better," he said. He moved toward me, his face a mask of cold boredom. "Again."

"Give me a sec-"

Cain froze. His whole body went rigid. A low, vibrating thrum started deep in his chest. His eyes bled from brown to a terrifying, electric yellow. The pupils swallowed the iris until he looked like a predator staring into the sun.

"Cain?" I stepped back, my skin prickling. "What's wrong?"

He didn't hear me. He was sniffing the air, his chest heaving with deep, jagged breaths. He spun toward the door.

Selene was standing there. She held a stack of books, her blonde hair falling over her shoulders in a soft mess. She looked vulnerable.

Cain moved faster than my eyes could follow. He was across the room in a heartbeat. He slammed his hands against the doorframe on either side of her head, pinning her there. He leaned in, burying his face in the curve of her neck. He inhaled so deeply his ribs shook.

Selene didn't scream. She didn't run. She let out a small, broken whimper and tilted her head back, exposing the pulse of her throat to his teeth.

"C-Cain, stop," she panted. Her fingers were already buried in his dark hair, pulling him closer even as she told him to quit.

I felt like dirt under their boots. My chest burned with a jealousy I couldn't put a name to. I was a ghost in the hallway, the girl no one bothered to see. I ducked my head and scrambled past them, my shoulder brushing Cain's leather jacket. He didn't even flinch. He was too busy tasting her skin.

I slammed the bathroom door and turned the lock. My breath came in ragged bursts. I leaned over the sink and splashed cold water on my face, staring at the girl in the glass. Then it hit me.

A white-hot blade sliced through my brain.

I screamed, but the sound died in my throat. My knees hit the tile so hard I heard them crack. The world tilted, the edges of my vision bleeding into black. It wasn't just a headache. It felt like my skeleton was a cage that had suddenly grown too small.

My humerus snapped first. The sound was like a dry branch breaking in the woods. I arched my back, my spine popping and stretching. I could feel my skin pulling so thin I thought it would burst. Every pore on my body screamed as thick, white fur pushed through the surface.

I was being eaten from the inside out by something stronger than me.

My jaw unhinged with a wet thud. My nose and mouth pushed out into a heavy snout. My teeth sharpened into daggers that sliced through my own gums, filling my mouth with the metallic tang of my own blood. I tried to grab the sink, but my fingers were gone. In their place were heavy paws and curved, black claws that tore deep grooves into the floor.

Then, the agony vanished.

I lay on the cold tile, panting. My heart beat like a war drum. I looked up at the mirror. A beast stared back. I was huge, covered in fur as white as a fresh kill in winter. But it was the eyes that got me. They were a piercing, glowing aquamarine.

'Selah.'

The name vibrated in my skull. It wasn't a thought; it was a roar. She was me, and I was her.

A frantic scratching sound came from the corner. A small goat stood there, tied to a pipe. Its pulse was a rhythmic throb I could see in its neck. The scent of its fear was the sweetest thing I had ever smelled.

Hunger didn't just hurt. It took over.

I didn't choose to move. I was a blur of white fur and teeth. I hit the animal hard, my weight crushing its ribs. My jaws snapped shut over its throat. The hot, copper spray of blood hit my tongue, and I felt a rush of pure, uncut power. I tore into the meat, my instincts screaming for more. This was what I was made for.

"She's further along than we expected, Sir."

The voice was muffled, coming from behind the two-way mirror. Astra.

"Her body burned through the medicine faster than we thought," she continued, her voice trembling with a sick kind of excitement. "Her wolf is awake."

"She must learn to control it," my father's voice replied. It was cold enough to freeze the blood on my muzzle. "Her transformation will be confirmed in two nights. The pack ceremony follows in two weeks. Call the other Alphas. I want them here for the first moon."

I froze. A piece of raw flesh hung from my teeth.

They weren't proud of me. They were just taking my measurements. I wasn't a daughter to him, and I never had been. I was a weapon forged for the White Moon. I was a pawn he intended to parade in front of the other Alphas to see who would bid the highest.

I turned back to the mirror, locking eyes with my own reflection. Crimson blood dripped from my white muzzle, staining the pristine fur. My father thought he could own this. He thought he could control the beast. But he didn't feel the liquid fire in my veins. He didn't know Selah.

The girl I used to be was dead. I was a predator now, and I wasn't going to let them put a leash on me.

Kaia

The metallic sting of blood was the first thing to hit me. It coated my tongue, thick and heavy like honey but with a sharp iron kick that made my stomach lurch.

'Kaia.'

The voice was a ghost of a memory. Soft. Safe. Like a mother's hug before the world went to hell.

"Mom?" I tried to ask. My jaw felt unhinged, too heavy to move. No words came.

"Kaia, I said wake up!"

The softness shattered. The voice was loud now, vibrating against the concrete walls. I blinked, the overhead lights searing into my retinas. I went to rub my eyes, but I didn't have hands.

I had paws. They were huge, heavy, and matted with white fur. Only the white was gone. It was replaced by a deep, crusty crimson that bled into black. I looked down. A goat lay in a heap of shredded meat and white bone. My stomach did a sick flip, even as my nose twitched, craving more of that earthy, raw scent.

I licked a patch of red off my fur. It tasted like life. It tasted like the best thing I'd ever had.

"Kaia," the voice barked again.

I stood, my claws clicking and sliding in the puddle of gore. I tried to run toward the sound, but a heavy jerk nearly snapped my neck. I looked back. A thick steel chain was bolted to my rear leg, anchoring me to the center of the bloodbath.

'You need to turn back,' Astra's voice crackled through the speaker in the ceiling.

"How?" I tried to scream. A sharp, pathetic bark was the only response.

'Focus. Picture your skin. Picture your bones moving back. Do it now.'

I closed my eyes and tried to remember being a girl instead of a monster. I thought of my blonde hair and my hands.

Then the world broke.

My ribs snapped inward, grinding against each other. My skin felt like it was being scorched off by a blowtorch. I screamed, but it was half-howl, half-sob. The sound of my own bones reshaping was like dry wood snapping in a fire.

Then, silence.

I lay on the cold floor, gasping. My skin felt raw and sensitive, every inch of it pressed against the freezing concrete. I was naked, shivering, and smelled like a butcher shop.

The door creaked open. Astra didn't look at the mess. She just draped a heavy wool blanket over my shaking shoulders. She didn't say a word as she hauled me up and led me to the elevator. The hum of the machine felt like a heartbeat against my bare feet.

I remember my bed. I remember the smell of clean sheets and Astra pulling pajamas over my limp limbs.

"Just sleep, Kaia," she whispered.

I went under before my head even hit the pillow.

A fist pounded on my door, echoing like a gunshot.

"Kaia? Your father is waiting."

I bolted upright. My head throbbed with a rhythmic, dull heat. My pajamas were soaked in sweat, clinging to my skin. I looked at my hands. They were clean. No blood. No fur.

Was it a dream?

I swung my legs out of bed. The carpet felt strangely sharp against my toes. The air felt heavier. I could hear the hum of the ceiling fan like it was a jet engine, and the scent of the guard outside: stale coffee and cheap spice. It hit me like a physical wall.

"Miss Kaia? Now."

"Coming," I croaked.

I threw on a sweater and jeans, my skin itching with a restless energy I couldn't explain. I walked down the hall, and for the first time, I felt the house watching me. I could smell every guard in every corner: their sweat, their leather holsters, the oil on their guns.

My father's office was a tomb. Dark wood, cold air, and the massive Lykaois crest carved into the wall. No photos of me. No photos of Mom. Just the symbol of the wolf.

"Sit," he said. He didn't look up from his desk. He never did. "You're late."

I sat on the edge of the hard chair, my heart drumming against my ribs. I tried to give him the fake, polite smile I'd spent years perfecting, but my muscles felt tight. Aggressive.

"Now that you've shifted, Kaia," he said, finally looking up. His eyes were like two pieces of flint. "You must choose a mate."

Mate.

The word didn't just hit my ears. It hit my blood. Deep inside, something that wasn't quite me growled in recognition, pacing behind my ribs, waiting to be let out again.

"Mate? What do you mean?" I tried to keep my voice steady. "Like a friend?"

I knew I was playing dumb. I just wanted to see him blink. He didn't.

"No," he said. His voice was like a blade. "A soulmate."

I stared at him. The silence in the room felt heavy, pressing into my lungs. The man who had kept me locked in this house for years, treating me like a prisoner, suddenly wanted me to find love?

"You want me to date?" My words were sharp, dripping with sarcasm. "How am I supposed to do that? Is there an app I don't know about?"

I thought of Cain and Selene. The way they had pressed their faces into each other's necks last week. The raw, animal hunger in their eyes. Was that how we did it? Just sniffing each other like dogs?

My father's eyes darkened. His fingers began to drum on the desk. Tap. Tap. Tap. "Don't be ridiculous, Kaia. Your wolf is white. You need a black wolf mate."

I felt a chill. Great. My dating pool just shrank to nothing.

'Mate.'

The word echoed in my skull. It wasn't my father's voice. It was deep, vibrating in my marrow. I looked down at his hands. His nails were jagged, his skin spotted with age. That voice didn't belong to him. It felt like a dream I'd forgotten.

'Selah?'

'Yes.'

Her voice was a low vibration in my skull, restless and sharp. My heart hammered against my ribs like a trapped bird. I dug my nails into the leather armrest, the material popping and tearing under my grip.

'You're really in here?' I whispered into the dark corners of my mind.

"And as your father," he cut in, his voice snapping the thread of my thoughts, "I won't let your mate be anything less than an Alpha."

My stomach turned. This wasn't about love. It was a transaction. I felt a sick flicker of pride that he thought I was worth an Alpha, but it was drowned out by a wave of dread.

"Father, I don't-"

"I've already made the arrangements," he said, his voice rising to drown me out. "The future Alphas of the four packs will each have their chance to claim you."

The room tilted. I gripped the chair to keep from sliding off. I was a prize. A piece of meat dangled in front of four predators.

"Four?" I breathed. "I didn't even know I was a wolf until a week ago."

"You will meet every candidate," he said, his face a mask of stone. "And then you will choose."

I raised an eyebrow. There was always a catch with him. I could feel Selah pacing inside me, her claws scratching at the walls of my consciousness.

"For a normal wolf, the bond is simple," he said. A spark of something like life finally touched his eyes. "But you are like your mother. You aren't ordinary. You have to engage with all of them before the choice is made."

My breath hitched. He never spoke about her. Never.

"Engage?" I asked. "What does that even mean?"

"I'm sending you away." He stood up, looming over me like a judge passing a sentence. "You'll spend one month with each pack. Voreios, Anatolikos, Notios, and Dytikos."

The thought of leaving this cage made my blood sing, but I knew him too well to trust the gift.

"And do what?"

His lips twitched. It wasn't a smile; it was a threat.

"Study them. Their history. Their strength. Figure out which Alpha is powerful enough to hold you. Then, you pick."

A punch to the gut would have been kinder. He was selling me for my utility, not my heart.

"Strength?" I asked. A spark of heat flared in my belly. "You mean I'll be training?"

He nodded, clasping his hands behind his back. "Selene and Cain were supposed to take you. But they're... occupied. You'll go alone for the first month."

"Occupied?"

"They're mating," he said. He sounded annoyed, as if they were late for a meeting instead of drowning in a primal bond.

My skin flushed hot. I thought of the "bleeding episode" from last week. The heat in my blood that wouldn't die down.

"I'm not going alone," I whispered. The thought of the open world without a single person at my back felt like a death sentence.

I didn't look away. I watched his spine stiffen as I spoke.

"I don't know what I'm doing," I said. My voice cracked, but I hardened it. "Cain is my trainer. I'm not going anywhere without people I trust."

My father's eyes were chips of ice. "In their current state, they are unstable. Distracted. They're useless to you."

"Those are my terms," I snapped.

I took a breath and immediately regretted it. His scent-bitter and overbearing-filled my lungs. I'd been a prisoner in this house for seventeen years, and the idea of the road felt like peeling back a fresh scab. I didn't know Selene well, but she was the only one who didn't treat me like a broken tool. And she wouldn't go anywhere without Cain. They were a single, pulse-pounding unit.

"Fine," my father said. His voice was flat. "You're dismissed."

He didn't order me out like a servant. He just let me go. I walked out with my heart thumping against my ribs, the taste of a small, terrifying victory like copper in my mouth.

That night, sleep was impossible. The shadows in my room felt heavy, pressing down on me. I pulled my laptop into bed, my fingers hovering over the keys. If I was going to be around real wolves, I needed to know what was coming.

I found a site crowded with stories. Millions of hits. My eyes skimmed the titles, and a flush started at my chest and crept up my neck.

Alpha Maximus. 23 million reads.

I clicked. My breath caught as I read the first page.

"Tell me, kitten, how badly do you want me?"

The words felt like a physical weight. The description of his scent, the way his muscles moved, the raw, predatory hunger. My skin prickled.

"My mind screamed to run, but my body betrayed me. I was slick with arousal."

"Arousal?" I whispered to the empty room.

I tried to look away, but I couldn't. I read about his hands knotting in her hair, his teeth grazing the sensitive skin of her throat. Then his hand moved down to his fly.

"Skip," I muttered, my face burning. I shut the tab so hard the laptop groaned.

I tried another one. Alpha Noah. The cover was a guy with no shirt, his veins bulging as he gripped a girl.

"No!" she screamed as his hand crushed her throat. "You. Are. Mine."

He ripped her clothes open. He talked about her body like it was a piece of meat he owned. He told her to get on her knees.

I felt sick. My stomach did a slow, greasy roll as I clicked through title after title. The Alpha's Pet. The Alpha's Toy. It was all the same. Brutal men. Forced touches. Women who screamed 'no' until their bodies betrayed them and forced a 'yes.' They were narcissistic, territorial, and cruel.

I shoved the laptop away, my breath coming in shallow hitches. I stared at the ceiling, my heart a frantic bird beating against a cage. Was this what Cain was behind closed doors? Was this the version of reality waiting for me out there in the dark?

"Is that what it's like?" I whispered to the empty room.

I pressed my palms to my burning cheeks, trying to rub away the heat. I didn't sleep. I just lay there in the silence, shivering, wondering if I was finally leaving my cage just to walk straight into a wolf's den.

Kaia

The heavy thrum of a headache pulsed behind my eyes, the kind that came from sleeping too long in a room that felt like a cage.

"Wake up."

Selene's voice sliced through the haze. I felt her hand on my shoulder, a firm shake that rattled my bones. My eyes lurched open, stinging against the dim light.

"What?" I croaked. My throat felt like I'd swallowed sand. I pushed myself up, my hair a knotted mess. "Selene? What's going on?"

A floorboard creaked near my desk. "We don't have all day, Princess."

Cain was leaning there, arms locked over his chest. He looked bored, but his eyes tracked the way my shirt slipped off one shoulder. A sharp, mocking glint danced in his gaze.

"What are you doing in my room?" I rubbed my face, trying to scrub the sleep away. "Looking for another chance to throw me on the floor?"

He clicked his tongue, a slow, predatory sound. "Tempting. But not tonight."

"Tonight?" I glanced at the clock. I'd crashed after the morning run, falling into a black hole of exhaustion for four hours. "What happens tonight?"

"Confirmation," Selene said. Her voice was stripped of its usual warmth as she hauled me out of the sheets. "Move. Now."

I stumbled, my legs heavy. "Should I change?" I looked down at my wrinkled T-shirt and the gray sweatpants hanging off my hips.

"Don't bother," she muttered, gripping my elbow and steering me toward the door.

As we hit the hallway, Cain's pace matched ours. He didn't look at me. Instead, his fingers grazed the underside of Selene's arm. The spark was instant. Her eyes caught his and softened, a private heat passing between them that made my stomach twist. I felt like a ghost haunting my own life.

We stopped outside my father's office. The heavy oak door was cracked just enough for the cold air to bleed out. Then came the voice-Thorne's. It was a low, gravelly rasp that made the hair on my arms stand up.

"So... she's white," Thorne said. He sounded like he was discussing the coat of a prize horse.

"Yes, Thorne," my father replied. His voice was a blade of ice. "Pure as snow. Selah."

"Is she ready?" Thorne asked, a dark edge to his words. "The warriors are already losing their minds over the links. The future Alphas won't be able to keep their hands off her."

I knew Thorne's type. He was a mountain of scarred muscle and blind loyalty, the man who did the dirty work my father didn't want to get his hands on. He'd spent decades breaking bones for the Kentrikos pack, and he enjoyed every snap.

"She doesn't have a choice," my father stated. There was no emotion in it, just the flat finality of a death sentence. "You're heading up security. Take thirty warriors with you."

"Thirty, Alpha Narcisse?" Thorne let out a jagged laugh. "That's overkill for-"

"That is an order," my father snapped. "Thirty-one, including you. The rogues are circling. I've smelled them. I'm not losing my investment."

Cain's eyes shifted to me. He didn't move a muscle, but he pressed a single finger to his lips. 'Stay quiet,' his look warned.

"I'm no babysitter," Thorne grumbled. "My place is here, breaking the new recruits. Send Gamma Rook instead."

My eyes drifted to the corner of the room. Rook stood there like a statue carved from shadow. He was a man who existed in the silences, loyal and lethal.

"Rook is occupied with the Notios borders," my father said, his shadow falling over Thorne as he leaned forward. "Unless she picks Notios first, you are going, Beta. I want my interests protected in Voreios and Anatolikos."

He didn't mention Dytikos. The omission hung in the air like a bated breath.

"Yes, Alpha," Thorne spat, the words sounding like they cost him a tooth.

"Rook," my father called. The Gamma stepped into the light, his massive frame blocking the doorway. "Before you head out, cancel Kaia's pack ceremony."

Beside me, Selene and Cain went rigid. Their breath hitched, jaws dropping. I just stood there, a cold confusion rooting me to the floor. Cancelled?

"You're dismissed," my father's voice dropped an octave. "We have an audience."

Selene and Cain scrambled back, but I was too slow. Rook yanked the door open. His dark, hollow eyes collided with mine for a fraction of a second-no pity, no heat-before he shouldered past me.

Thorne followed, and he didn't hide his disgust. His lip curled back, baring yellowed fangs in a silent snarl. As he passed, he slammed his shoulder into mine, sending me reeling against the wall.

"Always a gentleman," Cain whispered with a crooked smirk once the hallway cleared.

"Kaia. Cain. Selene. Inside."

I felt like a prisoner walking toward the gallows. I straightened my shoulders and pushed the door open, the others trailing in my shadow.

My father sat behind his desk, as still as stone. But it was the man behind him who caught my breath. He was skeletal, tall and thin with eyes like gray flint. He clutched an ancient, leather-bound book to his chest, his nose wrinkled as if the very air I breathed was tainted.

"Kaia," my father said, nodding toward the stranger. "This is William. Elder of the White Moon."

"Hi," I said, reaching out a hand. It was a reflex, a desperate grab for some kind of normalcy.

William didn't move. He looked at my hand like it was covered in filth and pulled back, his chin tilting up.

"This is highly unorthodox, Narcisse," William said, his voice trembling with disdain. "I strongly advise against-"

"Just do it," my father barked. He looked at me, his eyes two black pits. "Kaia, William is here for your transformation. It's time."

William's cold gaze pinned me to the spot. He flipped the book open.

The tension in the room was thick enough to choke on. William stood behind the desk like a skeletal vulture, his gray eyes tracking my every move with pure, unfiltered disgust. I felt like a bug pinned under a microscope. My father didn't care. He never did. He just sat there, cold and immovable, pulling the strings of a game I was only just starting to see.

William's fingers dug into the cracked leather of his book. He looked like he wanted to spit on the floor.

"This should be followed by a full pack ceremony immediately, Narcisse," William said. His voice was thin and brittle.

I blinked. He'd used my father's first name. No "Alpha," no "Sir." Just Narcisse. I stared at him, wondering who this old man was to speak to a monster as if they were equals.

My father didn't even flinch. He just leveled a stare at the Elder that would have frozen water. "Just do it."

William didn't look away. He held my father's gaze as he began to speak, his voice taking on a rhythmic, haunting quality. "I, William, First-Order Elder of the Kentrikos White Moon, hereby verify you, Kaia Wren Lykandros. Daughter of the blood. Direct descendant of Narcisse France Lykandros."

'Yes.'

Selah's voice purred deep in my chest. She was pacing behind my ribs, her power thrumming through my veins. I didn't understand the legalities of the words, but the way my wolf reacted told me this was the moment my life stopped belonging to me.

"Um... thanks?" I muttered. The word felt small and stupid in the heavy silence.

"Give me your wolf's name," William rasped. He sounded like he was choking on the request.

"Selah," I said. I kept my chin up, making sure he heard the steel in it.

His white brows pulled together, creating deep canyons in his forehead. "And do the witnesses confirm this union? Kaia Wren Lykandros and Selah?"

"Confirmed," Selene and Cain said together.

Their voices echoed in the small office. It felt less like a sacred rite and more like a rushed deal in a dark alley.

"Then it is recorded." William's pen scratched violently against the parchment. He slammed the book shut with a crack that sounded like a bone breaking.

He didn't say another word. He shot one last look of loathing at the back of my father's head and vanished through the door. I looked around, realizing Cain and Selene had already slipped out while I was distracted by the thud of the book.

That was it? Some old man scrawling in a ledger was the big "transformation confirmation"?

I turned to my father, my mouth opening to demand some kind of real answer. "So, what does-"

He raised a hand. He didn't even look up from the papers on his desk. "You're dismissed."

The dismissal stung like a slap.

I turned and bolted out of the office, my heart hammering. I caught up to Selene and Cain a few hallways down, their shadows stretching long against the stone walls.

"Wait!" I breathed, matching their stride. "Talk to me. What just happened in there?"

"The pack officially recognizes your shift," Selene said. She didn't stop walking, her heels clicking a fast, sharp rhythm.

"That's all?" I frowned. My skin still felt itchy from the Elder's gaze. "It felt... fast. Like he hated being in the same room as me."

"It's anticlimactic, I know," Selene whispered. She shook her head, her eyes focused on the path ahead. "I have to get to the library. I need to log this in your family's records."

Cain slowed down, his hand sliding into Selene's. He pulled her closer, his thumb stroking the back of her wrist in a way that made my face heat up.

I looked away, staring at the floor. "But why the rush? Why did it have to be tonight?"

"It means you're on the map, Princess," Cain said. He flashed a grin that was all teeth. "Open for business."

Selene swiped at his arm, though she was fighting a smile. "What he means is that you're officially a werewolf in the eyes of the law. You aren't a rogue anymore. You're registered under the White Moon."

I chewed on the inside of my cheek. The word "registered" made me feel like a piece of livestock.

"More importantly," Selene continued, her voice dropping to a softer, more serious tone, "you're legally allowed to hunt for a mate. Every territory will see you in their records now. The Alphas will start making travel plans for us."

My stomach did a slow, sickening roll. "So the pack ceremony is next?"

She nodded as we reached my bedroom door. "Once that's done, you'll have the link. You'll be able to hear us, and we'll hear you. It keeps things private when we're on the road."

"The link?" I leaned against the doorframe, trying to process the idea of voices in my head. "Like... telepathy?"

I'd read about this in those trashy stories, but the reality was terrifying. The thought of every wolf in this house having a key to my thoughts made me feel naked. They'd already seen me shift; they didn't need to see my secrets, too. Especially not Cain and Selene. I definitely didn't want a front-row seat to whatever was happening between them.

Cain's fingers were tracing slow, lazy circles on Selene's elbow now. She bit her lip, her breathing hitching as they shared a look that was purely carnal.

"Sort of," Selene said, her voice a bit breathless. "It's communication. You learn to toggle it. You can shut it off, just like you do with her."

I looked inward. I had no idea how to shut Selah up.

'As if I'd let you,' Selah teased.

I could feel her mental grin, a warm, fuzzy vibration in the back of my skull. She was loving every second of my panic.

Selah, shut up. This isn't a joke.

I could still feel her laughing as I watched Cain lean into Selene's space, his scent of pine and predatory heat filling the small hallway.

I was pretty sure my head was just a cluttered mess of nerves and static right now.

'I am staying out of that disaster,' Selah muttered.

"That makes one of us," I said. I gripped the cool metal of my doorknob and shoved the door open. "Thanks for the talk."

Selene gave me a small, pitying smile. "Get some sleep, Kaia. Goodnight."

I stepped inside and clicked the door shut. A sharp, bitter pang of jealousy twisted in my chest. Watching them was exhausting. Their bond was so easy, so heated, and so full of a life I didn't recognize. I bit down on my lower lip, the skin sensitive under my teeth.

Outside of Cain and the wall of muscle that made up my father's security team, I'd never actually spoken to a guy. Not for real.

I wondered if anyone would ever look at me like I was the only thing in the room. I wondered if my skin would ever buzz under a touch that didn't feel like a threat or a chore.

Was there actually someone out there who would love me?

I guess I was about to find out.

I tried to keep that thought buried deep where no one could find it, but Selah wasn't about to let it slide.

'Mate,' she whispered. The word felt like a promise and a tease all at once.

You're useless, I thought back.

"So..." I let the word hang in the empty room, my lips tingling as the sound died away.