Chapter 1: Traces of the Spark
Serena watched the barista hand her coffee, studying him as he offered his practiced smile. No prominent veins. No deathly pale skin. No flash of fangs when he smiled.
Her shoulders relaxed slightly, and she returned his smile with one of her own.
“Thank you,” she muttered before turning her attention to the handful of people scattered throughout the café, enjoying their meals.
She watched them sip their coffee and take bites of their food, searching for any sign that they were pretending to be human. Most people looked for a friendly face in a new town. Serena looked for the monsters who had torn her father apart.
Six months had passed since the attack, but she still couldn’t bring herself to trust anyone.
Her phone buzzed, startling her from her thoughts. She snatched it up, checking the screen before her heart could convince her something terrible had happened.
A text from her mother.
Stop hiding. Come meet the pack.
Serena bit the inside of her cheek.
She had no intention of meeting other werewolves, but her mother clearly had other plans. After a moment of glaring at the message, Serena typed a simple response.
I’m coming.
She paid for her coffee and left before she could change her mind.
The house was enormous.
Serena parked where her mother had instructed her and walked the remaining distance, taking in the sprawling property and the people gathered outside. Several stood in small groups, chatting beneath the evening sky, while others lingered beside their cars.
As she approached, a few offered her polite nods and welcoming smiles.
She returned none of them.
The sooner she found her mother, the sooner she could get through this evening.
Laughter drifted from somewhere inside the house.
Serena stopped.
She couldn’t remember the last time she’d heard her mother laugh like that.
Following the sound, she made her way toward the kitchen, slowing as she reached the doorway. Her mother stood beside a man who appeared to be around her age, smiling up at him as though the weight she’d carried for the past six months had momentarily lifted.
Something tightened in Serena’s chest.
Her fingers curled into fists.
Perhaps they sensed her presence, because both turned toward the doorway. The smiles that greeted her were warm, sympathetic, and utterly unbearable.
“Serena, honey.” Her mother crossed the kitchen toward her. “I told you not to go out on your own, especially at night! You’re new to this town, so it’s much easier for you to get lost.”
She handed Serena a cup of cider, concern still etched across her face.
Serena accepted it hesitantly, wrapping her fingers around the warmth before taking a small sip.
The man beside her mother offered a friendly smile.
“Hey, kiddo. Name’s Isaiah. I’m the alpha of this pack, so if you ever need anything, you know who to bug.”
Serena recognized the attempt to lighten the mood. She even appreciated it, somewhere beneath the exhaustion and grief.
But she couldn’t bring herself to smile.
She simply nodded, lowering the cup from her lips.
Her mother glanced at Isaiah, silently apologizing for her daughter’s indifference. He waved away the concern, seemingly unbothered, before raising his voice to announce that the firewood was about to be lit.
Serena followed the gathering crowd outside.
The moment she stepped into the backyard, her senses came alive. Voices mingled with the rustling leaves, and the cool evening breeze swept across her skin. Beneath it all lingered the familiar scent of the forest.
For the first time that evening, something inside her loosened.
The forest smelled like home.
She closed her eyes for a moment, letting the breeze brush against her face. Then she opened them and moved away from the gathering, stopping at what she considered a safe distance from everyone else.
She watched the treeline in silence.
Old habits were difficult to break.
A twig snapped.
Serena flinched, her fingers tightening around the paper cup until the warm cider nearly sloshed over the rim. She spun around, her pulse quickening as a man approached with an easy smile.
He was tall, broad-shouldered, and built like the stereotypical werewolf. His flannel shirt hung open halfway over a tank top, and he carried himself with the casual confidence of someone who had never needed to question whether he belonged somewhere.
He smelled like rain and cedar.
“You look like you’re waiting for an army to charge out of those trees.”
His voice was deep and warm, pulling her attention away from the forest.
Serena said nothing.
The man offered another smile, this one genuine enough to reach his eyes.
“I’m Declan, by the way. And as the son of the alpha of this pack, I can tell you with certainty that both you and your mom are safe here, Serena. The pack’s boundaries are secure. Nothing gets past our patrols.”
She wanted to believe him.
God, she wanted to.
But the moment he mentioned the pack’s defenses, her father’s face flashed through her mind. She remembered the confidence with which her father had once spoken about their own boundaries, the certainty that nothing could ever breach them.
He had been wrong.
The memory of that night rose unbidden, bringing with it the screams, the blood, and the monsters that had slaughtered her entire pack.
Boundaries didn’t stop monsters.
Serena swallowed hard, forcing herself to look at Declan.
“Thanks. I’m just… still adjusting to the move.”
The lie came easily enough. Explaining the truth was another matter entirely.
The images in her mind grew sharper, pressing against the fragile control she struggled to maintain. Her fingers began to tremble, and she tightened her grip on the cup, willing her hands to stop.
Declan noticed.
Before she could protest, he reached for her hands, gently steadying the cup between them.
Warmth spread through her skin at the contact.
For one impossible moment, the tightness in her chest eased. The noise of the gathering seemed to fade, and the memories that had haunted her for six months receded just enough for her to breathe.
Serena looked up at him.
This time, her smile was genuine.
Then the moment shattered.
A familiar scent drifted through the evening air, so unmistakable that nausea twisted in her stomach.
Ash.
Copper.
Serena and Declan turned toward the forest.
Shadows shifted between the trees, emerging from the fog as though the darkness itself had begun to take shape.
Then they came alive.
Screams erupted from behind them as pale figures blurred through the clearing, moving with a speed no human could hope to match.
Vampires.
“Serena, stay behind me!”
Declan’s roar cut through the chaos. His body convulsed as his bones cracked, his wolf surging toward the surface.
Serena barely had time to react before an explosion of dirt and claws tore through the space between them, sending her stumbling backward into the darkness.
Her own claws unsheathed instinctively.
A figure materialized from the fog.
He was breathtakingly beautiful.
And utterly lethal.
His skin was pale beneath the moonlight, his features almost unnaturally perfect. Dark, tormented eyes stared back at her, their irises burning with a predatory crimson.
A vampire.
He raised a silver blade, its deadly edge catching the moonlight.
Serena’s breath caught.
She closed her eyes, bracing for the strike that would end her life.
But the blow never came.
Confused, she opened her eyes.
The vampire was staring down at her, his weapon trembling in his hand.
Something had changed.
The ruthless killer she’d expected to see was gone, replaced by an expression of sheer disbelief. Beneath the blood-red eyes and the deadly weapon, he looked impossibly young. Perhaps her own age.
He looked less like a monster and more like a man who had just seen a ghost.
Serena couldn’t understand it.
He was supposed to kill her. She could see it in the weapon he held, in the way he stood over her, in the violence unfolding around them.
And yet he didn’t move.
Their gazes locked.
Something invisible snapped into place between them.
A sudden, burning heat flared in Serena’s chest, so intense that she gasped. It felt as though an unseen thread had pulled taut between them, binding her to a stranger she should have feared.
The vampire’s crimson eyes widened.
He felt it, too.
“What are you?” he breathed, his voice barely audible above the screams and snarls surrounding them.
Serena tried to answer, but no words came.
Before she could find her voice, a deafening roar ripped through the trees.
A massive gray wolf slammed into the clearing, its jaws snapping mere inches from the vampire’s throat.
Declan.
His hazel eyes blazed with a terrifying, territorial rage, a stark contrast to the gentle smile he’d worn only moments before.
The vampire blurred backward, moving with unnatural speed. His boots skidded through the dirt as Declan threw himself between them, a wall of fur and muscle shielding Serena from the hunter.
The wolf bared his teeth, his chest heaving as he stood guard over her.
Then, for the briefest moment, his head turned.
His hazel eyes met Serena’s.
Beneath the fury, she saw something else.
Confusion.
He had seen them staring at each other.
Across the clearing, the vampire stood motionless. He paid no attention to the snarling wolf before him, his crimson gaze fixed on Serena through the shifting fog.
For one suspended moment, their eyes met again.
Then he vanished into the darkness, leaving Serena with a burning sensation in her chest, the sound of a dying battle around her, and the unsettling certainty that her life had just changed forever.
