Heidi sits stiffly in the back seat. Her spine is too straight, her hands are clenched around the strap of her backpack as though, it might stop her from breaking down. Fidgeting doesn't calm her down, but worsen the beads of sweat piling her forehead.
The silence is oppressive and it's not just her new reality. It's Sierra Castell.
She is seated beside Heidi like a queen on her throne, legs crossed just so, phone in one hand, sunglasses on her nose, and her white-blond hair in a high ponytail. She also hasn't spoken since they left the Castell estate.
Heidi is almost grateful for that. Until now, that is.
Sierra sighs sharply and lowers her phone as she disdainfully asks with a fake gurgle, "You're not actually wearing that, are you?"
Heidi sizes herself up. "Wear what?"
Sierra's gaze flicks over Heidi's outfit, which is an old hoodie and a pair of black jeans with a rip over one knee.
"Wear… that." Scoffs Sierra.
Heidi doesn't reply right away. But that hoodie is the last thing she has of her old life, and she intends on keeping it. She straightens, instantly defensive.
"Yeah," she says. "I am."
Sierra lifts her sunglasses just enough to hit Heidi with an intense glare. "Do you want people to think you crawled out of a bin? I mean, gods, Heidi. This is Duskwind. Not a soup kitchen."
Sierra is the pompous daughter of the family the pack assigned to Heidi. Spoiled, proud, and arrogant, that's her. Apparently, apart from raving about the Alphas, she's taken a hobby in talking down on Heidi.
Her fingers twitch, but her face stays blank. It's better that way. Emotion only gives people more to bite into.
From the front seat, Lucan Castell, Sierra's older brother who is by the wheel, adjusts the mirror. His expression is as present as his words. He has the same icy gray eyes as Sierra, the same sculpted cheekbones, but none of the venom. Still, he hasn't spoken since she got in the car.
Heidi sometimes wonders if Lucan even remembers she's here.
Sierra tosses her phone into her designer bag, then pivots to face Heidi. "Let's set some ground rules. Rule one: You don't talk to me. Not in the halls, not in class, not even if you're choking and need CPR. Honestly, especially not then."
Heidi scoffs. "That's… unnecessary!"
"Rule two: don't look at me. I mean it. I don't care if you trip and fall face-first into my orbit, avert your eyes. People already know you're living in our house. That's enough damage control for one century."
Heidi opens her mouth, closes it, and opens it again. She doesn't know if she wants to protest or to laugh, but right now? She's got no balls to do either. This is Sierra's world and territory, not hers.
She is but a newly gifted omega who was human yesterday, and wolf today, assigned like property to one of the wealthiest families in the pack. Chosen by the Moon Goddess, but treated like a stray.
These supernatural terms, all of which are new to her, she's come to understand. From what she's gathered in her one-week stay so far, to survive in the Duskwind pack, it'll do her, and frankly others like her, a lot of good to learn and adapt fast.
Real fast.
She gives Sierra the kind of smile she's learned to wear when people expect tears. It usually unsettles them.
"Should I crawl into the walls too?" she throws her hands in the air. "Or just eat my lunch out of the garbage?"
Sierra's eyes narrow. "Ugh. So you still have the guts to be sarcastic when you're a literal beggar leaching off my family?!"
Heidi doesn't respond to her. In a way, Sierra is right. Her grip on her backpack tightens.
"You know," Sierra continues, flicking an unseen lint off her plaid skirt, "people here aren't going to pity you just because the Moon Goddess decided to drop some freaky magic on your basic little human DNA."
Heidi flinches, but not visibly. She's been called worse.
"You're not special. You're just… a necessary evil. For now," Sierra finishes, perfectly calm.
Lucan shifts slightly in the driver's seat. His eyes flick to the rearview mirror for a split second, long enough to meet Heidi's. Then, he looks away.
Then, the black gates of the school appear ahead, in metal woven with vines and hand carved wolves snarling. The name; Duskwind Pack Academy is written above them.
As the car slows, Heidi takes a sharp nasal breath. This is it—she thinks.
The gates open with a mechanical groan that feels almost alive, like the school is sighing at the arrival of the new blood. The SUV drives forward onto a driveway that snakes through perfect flowerbeds.
Everything here glistens. She hates it.
Lucan pulls into a reserved spot near the entrance where a crowd of well-dressed students already loiters like they own the world. Heidi grips the door handle like it's going to bite her. Her knees wobble when she moves, her heartbeat tapping in her ears.
This is it… the very new beginning. The one she has loathed its arrival since the day she was brought into this godforsaken pack.
Sierra flips down the visor and checks her reflection. "Last chance to back out," she says, not looking at Heidi. "You could always crawl back to wherever they scraped you up from."
Heidi rolls her eyes. "Just go, Sierra."
Sierra finally looks at her. "One last thing: if you embarrass me today, especially in front of the Alphas, I swear I'll make sure the Moon Goddess regrets ever choosing you. Capisce?"
The Alphas, The Alphas, The Alphas. Heidi is so tired of hearing Sierra ramble about them like they're some kind of Greek gods. Heidi herself has done some research on them and found that they are the literal kings of this Academy.
What she can't figure out is why Sierra and every possible girl on the pack's website won't stop gushing about them. Before Heidi can answer Sierra, a bunch of voices rises nearby.
"Sierraaa!"
"Oh my gods, you look so hot today!"
"Who's the troll in your back seat?!"
Heidi freezes. That troll… is she.
"Ugh, we've got one at home too. I hate these Moon Goddess's experiments!"
A group of girls with long legs, sharp cheekbones, and judgmental smirks is waving at Sierra like she's royalty. Sierra sighs dramatically, then slides out of the car gracefully. Her plaid skirt swishes and her heels hit the pavement with a little clank.
Heidi stays in the car for a while. It's safe in here. Quiet, but Lucan opens the back door for her. She blinks up at him. He doesn't say a word. He only looks at her with those emotionless glacier eyes, then turns and walks off across the courtyard, hands in his pockets like this is any other day and she's just background noise.
She watches him go. Watches Sierra melt into the arms of her friends, laughing and flipping her hair like she didn't just verbally gut someone five minutes ago.
Heidi steps out and exhales. The air is too clean. Her hoodie feels heavy. Everything here sparkles. The students shine. And then there's her: dull, plain, like a smear on a glossy surface.
She's not the only one.
To her left, a girl with frizzy curls and nervous eyes fumbles with the zipper of her jacket. Ahead, a boy in too-short pants trips over the edge of the curb. A few others linger nearby, all wearing the same shell-shocked expression. New meat. Freshly plucked humans "blessed" by the Moon Goddess and dumped into this flawless predator palace.
And they look it. They don't carry themselves like the others. Their movements aren't dapper and their expressions aren't nonchalant. They stand out like red stains on white.
Before Heidi can second-guess her existence any further, a loudspeaker crackles overhead.
"New omegas," says a cool, bored voice, echoing across the courtyard, "report to Assembly Hall B for orientation. That's the black building to your left. Move quickly. We don't like slow learners."
Heidi jolts. A few others blink up at the speaker with questioning expressions. She starts walking, or at least, she tries to. The moment she turns, a shoulder slams hard into her from the side.
"Oof…!"
She stumbles back, nearly tripping from the impact.
A boy in the school uniform towers above her. His eyes are gold. His grin is mean and mischievous. A few more senior students stand beside him like backup dancers.
"Watch it, rat," he spits.
His voice is informal, but there's something hungry behind it. "Didn't anyone teach you how to walk upright yet?"
Heidi swallows hard. Behind her, someone else yelps. Another newbie has been cornered by two sneering girls who keep poking her with the edge of a notebook like it's a weapon.
"Oh my God, her scent is like… weirdly floral," one says. "Is that a human thing?"
"Maybe it's fear," the other giggles. "Gross."
Heidi turns to help, but a hand catches her wrist. It's the golden-eyed boy. "What's your hurry? Orientation can wait. We're just trying to welcome you."
There's laughter after his words, and it's not the good kind.
Heidi pulls her wrist back. "Let go."
"Ooh," another senior murmurs. "She talks."
Then comes chaos. One boy grabs the frizzy-haired girl's backpack and tosses it into a bush. Another nudges a boy's foot out, sending him sprawling to the concrete.
Heidi watches it unfold in slow motion. This is more than bullying. It's a display. It's a pack flexing its teeth at the newcomers. And no one is stopping it. The teachers are nowhere. The guards are unbothered.
Heidi crouches to help the boy on the ground who's had his knees scraped as his eyes are wide with humiliation—but a hand yanks her up by the collar.
"Aw," says Gold Eyes, "is the little human gonna cry?"
Heidi tries to twist free. "Get. Off."
But she's not strong enough… yet. The others gather close, jeering and shoving at them. Then someone hits her with an open palm across the face. The sound rings out sharp and bright like a bell. Pain blooms across her cheek. Her knees wobble, but she doesn't fall as she channels her entire energy into steadying herself.
She clenches her jaw, but another hand shoves her right back against a stone pillar. She sees pained stars swirling across her field of vision and prepares herself for impact when suddenly, everyone jumps in fear.
Except this fear doesn't come from the newbies, but from the seniors themselves. Heidi doesn't understand why until she hears the sound. It's heavy and confident footsteps.
Four shadows stretch across the cobblestones. The seniors step back, not all at once, but enough to break formation.
Huh? What's going on? Heidi wonders, lifts her head, and sees them.
Four boys. Four kings. The sons of the Alpha. And every single one of them is… looking straight at her.