Chapter 0: Teaser
Chapter 1
Poor Unfortunate Soul
I reached over and slammed my hand against the screen of my phone. Unsurprisingly, this did nothing to silence the shrieking coming from the speaker but it made me feel slightly better. After finding the correct button, the shrieking stopped and I rolled to my back, staring up at the ceiling and dreading the day to come.
Maybe dreading wasn’t the correct wording. When my brother starting showing the signs of being a wolf nearly a year ago, I told him I was happy for him. I’d meant it then and I meant it now. I was happy for him. His twelfth birthday had been something he’d been looking forward to since his wolf had started talking to him a year ago and now that it had finally arrived, he’d been nearly unbearable to live with due to excitement.
“Evie! Breakfast!” My mom’s voice called from the dining room down the hall. It had been nearly four years since she’d first met her mate, Valen Adamas, the Alpha of the Diamond Edge Werewolf pack and our lives had changed forever. Most of those changes were for the better, such as Valen in our lives and my mom’s newfound happiness. The house they’d bought together just a mile from the mansion-like Pack House was another of those better changes. Some of those changes, however, hadn’t been so great. While Valen and his pack had welcomed our family with open arms, other packs hadn’t been so accommodating. The Cedar Falls pack, made up mostly of half-hinged Rogue Werewolves and a handful of bloodthirsty maniacs, and the River Blade Pack, made up of a power-hungry Alpha and his minions, had attacked shortly after us joining Diamond Edge. We’d been at war with them ever since.
Valen and my mom did their best to shelter my brother Jonah and I from the worst of the violence, but they couldn’t hide everything. Now that Jonah was hours away from joining the ranks of the Werewolves in the pack, I had a feeling we’d learn even more about what was going on around us.
“Evie? Are you ok?” My mom’s voice was just beyond my door now and she sounded hesitant. I’d done my best to show my complete support as Jonah had undergone the many changes associated with becoming a full-fledged werewolf over the past year. I truly was happy for him. However, his shift later this evening would make me the official outcast of the family, with no wolf of my own. My mom and I had had several conversations about it over the many months leading up to this point, and she’d assured me time and again that nothing would change, but I wasn’t born yesterday. Some things had to change. The Pack went on monthly runs, leaving only the warriors on duty to guard the perimeter, the elderly, and the children too young to shift behind. And me. None of that was anyone’s fault, and I tried not to complain too much.
The fact remained, however, that I was the only non-wolf in the family. Well, in the immediate family. Anabelle and Tommy, my cousins on my dad’s side, weren’t wolves either. Up until this past year the four of us had spent those nights roaming the Pack House, exploring every possible area we could. Then Jonah had started showing the signs that he was a werewolf, something rare but not unheard of, and Valen had allowed him to start getting deeper into the somewhat secretive world he shared with my mom. Anabelle and Tommy still had each other, but I didn’t have anyone.
“I’m ok, Mom, I’m coming!” I said, trying to make my voice bright. There was a slight pause as my mother decided whether to call me out on my fib. To my relief, however, she merely sighed before saying,
“See you in ten.” And moving away from the door.
