Chapter 1

• I sneakily found my way down the vast hallway, keeping my back pressed against the wall. I could hear them in the kitchen and I had a fairly large open doorway ahead, so if I were to get by unnoticed, I would have to time it right.
• Peering around the corner, I noticed the group of teenagers facing away from me. So, taking a deep breath, I braced myself before leaping across the two-meter gap. Catching myself from stumbling, I internally cursed when the clothes I wore rustled as I staggered. I held my breath in anticipation and just as I thought I had got away with it, a pair of black shoes came into my eye-line.
• Gulping, I looked up to find the snooty grimace of Lizzie. She slicked her dark Black hair back against her head into a straightened ponytail, blue eyes sneered down at me as she chewed on the gum in her mouth. Her curvaceous hip was poised, arms folded with her phone loosely in her grip. She was stunning, an accurate picture of everything a werewolf woman should be and the future “mate” to the Alpha. But she hated me, with every single passion. The two girls and three random guys behind her had the same feelings towards me, too.
• “Oh my gosh, it's you.” She squealed. “What are you doing? Think you can sneak around, huh?”
• Her voice was sultry as her lipstick-encased lips parted in a chuckle. “Well?”
• I stayed where I was on the floor, looking away from her eyes to stare at the floor. “I-I… I just wanted t-t-to go to my room.”
• “I-I-I just wanted t-t-t- what? I'm sorry I couldn't hear you through that rubbish.” Her current best friend, Lucia, chortled.
• Lizzie pouted at her, an action that may seem innocent to others, but I knew different.
• “Aw, Lucia, don't be like that. It's not Embers fault that she was never taught proper English after being abandoned.”
• They all laughed in unison before Lucia grasped me by my Auburn hair. I winced as a few hairs snagged in her grip but chewed on my lip, knowing if I made a sound, I would get hell from her group. I stood in time with her, her gum smacking against her tongue as she titled her head at me.
• “Now… I just got my makeup and nails done all pretty, so why don't you run along and go hide in your room for the rest of the day?”
• I nodded, my emerald green eyes meeting hers warily. “Oh-okay.”
• Her hand tightened on my roots before she dropped me. I turned to scamper off when a well-manicured foot encased in Chanel darted out beneath me. I tripped, smacking into the floor with a groan. They all burst out laughing, and I glanced behind me to see Lizzie just smirking at me as she examined her nails, walking away.
• “Oh, my gosh, did you see the way she stuttered?” Her other follower, Lulu, giggled.
• Tears brimmed as I hurried my way into my room. Slamming the door shut behind me, I collapsed into my bed, crying once more for the people who constantly made my life miserable. Today I got off well, but who knows what is coming late.
• *******
• Floating in a river, my body marred with marks and burns. I have no recollection of how I ended up in that river and clinging to a tree branch, but Alpha Darien and his men were out on patrols when I washed into their sand bed.
• After hearing that a resistance pack took down a pack in the mountains, he immediately took me in. I never did, and still never, know the full extent of the situation. I was told that there was no longer a pack there. Otherwise I would've gone exploring a long time ago.
• People did not accept my type well. I was an outsider who took up Alpha Darien’s time, so he left me in the trust of an omega family. My adoptive parents were lovely, but even they did not realize the extent of the torments I awaited just for existing. It didn't help that I was twenty years old and still haven't shifted.
• Most female wolves shift when they turn fourteen, usually after they have gone through human puberty. Male wolves turned at sixteen years old, since they went through puberty later than us. It was always a celebration when a normal wolf shifted; a hunt typically followed by a BBQ and a night of partying.
• When I turned eighteen, no one seemed to care apart from my parents. We weren't exactly sure of my age, so we went with my “GOTCHA” day for my birthday celebrations. They estimated me to be shy of three when they took me in, so we just went with it. Along with being an outsider, I had not shifted, hence the bullying. In a pack's eyes, I was not normal, and most did not want me here.
• Alpha Darien has two children, a daughter called Rose, and a son called Stephen who had yet to take over since he had not found his mate; a soul mate, that is.
• Every single wolf had a soul mate, another half made just for them. We find our soul mates at eighteen years old, and a wolf born into alpha status like Steven cannot take the position until they have a mate or the old Alpha dies. They can challenge the position, but that is to the death. That is why Lizzie is his to-be mate. If he does not find his true mate by twenty-five, he gets betrothed to a female worthy of the position. Pack politics.
• (Copyright – Amelia Blackmore)
• The elders always said that a wolf's true potential is achieved through mating. That's why he cannot take over his father's leadership. He was twenty-four now, still mateless. His sister Rose was turning eighteen this week, hence why the wolves were running about cooking and cleaning. It's not every day your alpha pup turns eighteen.
• Strolling through the woods, I followed the stream I was lost in so many years ago. If I had just kept drifting, maybe I would've found a better pack that accepted me more. One that didn't harm me, both mentally and physically.
• I rubbed the faded white marks that adorned my skin. The burns I had received as a child were so severe that even enhanced wolf DNA could not shift the scarring. I was thankful that the pack doctor could skin graft and save what he could, but most of the scars were on my arms and legs. I must've been crawling through the fire or something; nothing about my childhood makes sense. But I remember the pain and the needles, and I have hated hospitals ever since.
• I longed to find out my history and my heritage, but it was all burnt to the ground and destroyed. From what I was told, no pack inhabited that land anymore; they left it for nature to take over.
• Glancing at my worn watch, I was astounded to find it was six-thirty am already, so I made my way back to the pack house in my constant daydream. Most wolves were up at eight for breakfast and training, so I hurried so that I could confine myself away from their hate-filled glares.