Seraphina's POV
My hands won't stop shaking.
I stare at myself in the mirror, trying to force air into my lungs. The white dress Mira picked out feels like a funeral shroud. Maybe that's fitting. Tonight, I either shift for the first time, or I officially become the pack's biggest failure.
Twenty-three years old. No wolf. No future.
"Stop that," Mira says behind me, grabbing my trembling fingers. "You're going to be fine."
"Fine?" The word tastes bitter. "Mira, if my wolf doesn't come tonight, Alpha Marcus will demote me to omega status. I'll spend the rest of my life cleaning toilets and raising other people's pups."
"Then Kael keeps his promise." She squeezes my hand hard. "He swore he'd marry you either way, remember?"
I touch the silver necklace at my throat—Kael's sixteenth birthday gift to me. Even if your wolf never comes, you're mine, Sera. Always.
Seven years ago, those words saved my life. Gave me hope when everyone else called me defective. Broken. Wrong.
But seven years is a long time to wait for something that might never happen.
"What if he changed his mind?" The fear claws up my throat. "What if seeing everyone else shift for years made him realize I'm not worth—"
"Sera Ashwood, shut up right now." Mira spins me around, her brown eyes fierce. "Kael loves you. He's loved you since you were eight years old. One stupid wolf isn't going to change that."
I want to believe her. I do. But the whispers follow me everywhere. Defective. Weak. Human. Even the pups avoid me, like whatever's wrong with me might be contagious.
"Come on." Mira pulls me toward the door. "The ceremony starts in ten minutes. If we're late, Alpha Marcus will have your head."
My stomach twists as we leave the small cabin I've called home since my parents died. Fifteen years in this pack, and I still feel like a guest who's overstayed her welcome.
The full moon hangs fat and silver in the sky. Under its light, the ceremony grounds glow with hundreds of candles. The entire Silver Creek Pack has gathered—over three hundred wolves, all dressed in ceremonial whites, all waiting to watch me fail.
Or succeed. Maybe succeed.
Please, Moon Goddess. Please let tonight be different.
"There's Kael," Mira whispers, pointing.
My heart lurches. He stands near the ceremony circle in traditional Alpha heir clothing—simple but elegant. His dark hair catches the moonlight. He's beautiful. Strong. Everything I'm not.
And he chose me anyway.
I start walking faster, desperate to reach him. To feel his hand in mine. To hear him promise one more time that I'm enough.
But something makes me stop.
Kael isn't alone.
A girl stands beside him. Vivienne Lockhart, the Beta's daughter. Her blonde hair shimmers like gold. Her wolf emerged at sixteen—powerful, graceful, perfect. Everything the pack expected.
Everything I'm not.
They're just talking, I tell myself. It doesn't mean anything.
Then Kael takes Vivienne's hand.
The world tilts sideways.
"Sera?" Mira's voice sounds far away. "Sera, wait—"
I can't move. Can't breathe. Can only stare as Kael—my Kael, my best friend, my promised mate—laces his fingers through Vivienne's like it's the most natural thing in the world.
Like he's done it before.
Like he's been doing it for a while.
"Maybe it's nothing," Mira tries, but her voice wavers. "Maybe she's just—"
Kael leans down and whispers something in Vivienne's ear. She giggles. Touches his chest. Looks up at him with adoration so obvious it makes me sick.
And Kael?
Kael smiles at her the way he used to smile at me.
"Seraphina Ashwood!" Alpha Marcus's voice booms across the ceremony grounds. "Approach the circle!"
Everyone turns to stare. Three hundred pairs of eyes lock on me—the defective girl, the failure, the charity case they've tolerated for fifteen years.
My feet move on autopilot. One step. Another. The crowd parts like I'm diseased. I hear the whispers:
"Poor thing. This will be humiliating."
"Why does Alpha Marcus even bother? She's clearly human."
"Waste of a ceremony, if you ask me."
I reach the edge of the circle. Kael finally looks at me.
For one heartbeat, I think I see regret in his eyes. Guilt.
Then his expression goes carefully blank.
"Kael?" My voice cracks on his name. "What's going on?"
He drops Vivienne's hand. Steps toward me. Takes my trembling fingers in his.
His touch is cold.
"We should talk," he says quietly. "After the ceremony."
"Talk about what?" But I already know. Deep in my bones, I already know.
The ceremony master begins chanting. The magic rises, thick and electric. The full moon's power presses down on my shoulders.
This is it. My last chance.
Kael squeezes my hand once, then lets go and steps back.
Away from me.
Toward Vivienne.
The Moon Goddess's light floods the clearing, silver and ancient and merciless.
And for the first time in twenty-three years, something inside me wakes up.
Heat explodes through my veins. My bones crack and reform. Pain—brilliant, excruciating, beautiful pain—tears through every nerve.
I'm shifting.
Oh gods, I'm actually shifting.
My scream becomes a howl. My skin ripples with silver-white fur. My body stretches, changes, transforms into something powerful and wild and right.
When it's done, I stand on four paws in the center of the circle.
The silence is deafening.
Then someone gasps. Another. Soon the entire pack is staring at me in shock.
I don't understand why until I catch my reflection in the ceremonial pool.
My wolf is massive. Beautiful. Silver-white fur that glows under the moonlight. And my aura—it presses outward with so much force that wolves twice my age drop their heads in submission.
I did it. I'm not defective. I'm not broken.
I'm powerful.
Joy explodes in my chest. I did it! Finally, finally, FINALLY—
Then I feel it.
A golden thread snapping into place. Tying my heart to someone else's. Binding my soul to another.
The mate bond.
I spin around, searching for Kael. Hoping. Praying.
He stands frozen, his face twisted with something that looks like horror.
"No," he whispers.
The bond flares between us, undeniable and perfect.
I take a step toward him, my wolf whimpering with need.
"Kael?" I try to say his name, but it comes out as a confused whine.
He stumbles backward. Away from me.
His eyes meet mine.
And in them, I see disgust.