Prologue - Dani
The bell rang, its shrill cry scattering the last remnants of afternoon chatter through the narrow halls of Skymist High. Spring sunlight poured through the windows, burnishing the bland, yellowing linoleum almost gold, the scent of freshly cut grass and pollen drifting on the unseasonably warm air.
Dani Taylor leaned against her locker, laughing at something stupid her best friend, Sophie, had said. The sound bubbled out of her easily, as though she didn’t have a care in the world.
That was the trick of it. Here, she was just human. A normal human girl who truly was careless.
Not a shifter who somehow still hadn’t managed to shift at eighteen years old.
“Tell me you’re still coming to the senior bonfire,” Sophie said, shoving loose papers haphazardly into her backpack. “Please don’t say you’re bailing again.”
“I’m not bailing,” Dani lied, trying to aim for casual as she inspected her fingernails. “I just…don’t know yet. I have a lot to do around the house.”
“You always have to do stuff around the house,” Kendra, another of her friends, said with a raised eyebrow.
“Yeah, she’s right,” Sophie whined, the slam of the locker jolting Dani’s nerves. “I know for a fact your parents would want you to be enjoying your teenage years, not holed up inside doing chores! This is the last celebration before graduation. One night of fun won’t kill you.”
Dani grimaced.
Sure, it might notkillher, but half the Nordan Pack would be there. The Volkhov, too. And young alphas plus bonfire plus alcohol…
Unlikely to end well for her.
For Sophie’s sake, she managed a wan smile, no doubt showing too many teeth. “I’ll try.”
Behind them, the hallway was alive with noise, the rhythmic slam of lockers, the laughter of human kids making weekend plans. It was almost normal. Almost safe.
Then the air shifted.
She felt it before she saw them, the faint prickle under her skin, that animal awareness that warned her when shifters were near. The noise around her seemed to dull as a group of boys strode down the hallway, their easy, confident gait making everyone step aside without a word.
She didn’t need to look to know. The scent of pine and snow, of dominance and raw power, rolled off them like smoke. Only two groups of shifters could elicit such an immediate response.
The young Volkhov wolves, led by Dominic and Leonid…
And then her packmates.
The Nordan.
Her shoulders tightened.
She didn’t turn, her legs frozen, but she did risk a glance from under her eyelashes as they passed.
There he was. Arthur Wells. And all his friends.
Her throat tightened.
He was taller than most of them, broader through the shoulders, his presence quiet but commanding. Son of the alpha.
They may have been in the same pack, but they were worlds apart.
Sophie and Kendra were still talking, but Dani barely heard them. Her heart gave one heavy, traitorous thud.
Arthur’s eyes flicked toward her for half a second, quick and unreadable. Then he looked away, as though she were just another face in the crowd.
Her stomach dropped.
He didn’t slow down, didn’t nod, didn’t smile. Just kept walking, his friends orbiting him like moons around a steady sun.
