SAMANTHA'S POV

Today was the day I never saw coming. I didn't know how to react right now because I knew what I was getting into even though I didn't want to.

Getting a scholarship into Nightshade Academy has always been my parents' dream, even though I was just a mere human without scent.

When I got the letter, I didn't want to come here knowing that I might be the only human in the academy, but my parents were so happy, so I just couldn't just tell them I didn't want to go and ruin their happiness.

I thought as I pressed my forehead against the cold window of the driving bus and watched the trees close in like teeth.

The ancient oaks had trunks wider than my entire apartment back home and branches twisted into shapes that looked less like nature and more like warning signs.

The kind of dark that didn't just hide things it breathed.

"You're blocking the view," I heard someone mutter behind me, making me sigh softly, realizing what she was trying to do.

I didn't bother to move, nor turn to her; I just spoke. "There's no view, just more trees trying to eat the sky, so I don't have to move; besides, this isn't your first time seeing trees," I said, softly, hoping she won't speak any further.

A sharp laugh came from behind me, not friendly but filled with mockery. "First-year student and a human, I guess?" I heard someone say.

I turned slowly, and my eyes met with that of a guy in the seat across. A sharp jaw, sharper eyes, and something underneath his skin. He had a smirk on that made me frown and feel like hitting him, but I had to control myself.

"Both," I said softly, trying not to sound rude, just like him; besides, I couldn't think of fighting with a werewolf when I was just a mere human without a scratch.

He chuckled. "You really can't smell anything, can you?" He asked me, while I just stared at him in disgust.

I could tell he wasn't willing to back out just yet.

"I smell pine, dirt, and whatever cheap cologne you doused yourself in to cover up the fact that you probably don't bathe enough." I spat at him, with my face twisted into a frown now.

The bus went quiet for a while, and six other students, all wolves and all heirs to something important if the scholarship packet was telling the truth, stared at me like I'd just slapped the Moon Goddess herself.

The guy's jaw tightened, and immediately I could see anger pulsing through his veins. For half a second, something gold flickered across his eyes, and then he laughed, this time meaner.

"I would have reacted, but I don't have to, because I know you're going to get eaten alive at Nightshade Academy." He said coldly, with his deep voice echoing.

"So I've been told," I said coldly, turning back to the window.

I watched his reflection in the glass as he leaned back in his seat, still staring at me. Still testing me with his eyes, trying to figure out what I was.

That was the problem. I'd learned it the first week after the acceptance letter arrived, when I'd made the mistake of googling "Nightshade Academy werewolf" at 2 AM in my parents' kitchen.

Google told me that humans can't attend Nightshade, and Nightshade is for pack heirs only.

No human has ever been admitted to the elite training grounds of the four great packs.

And yet, here I was, on the bus with the scholarship certificate burning a hole in my backpack and absolutely no explanation for how any of it happened.

My parents had cried when I got the letter, happy tears, they said, but I'd seen the way my mother's hands shook and the way my father checked the locks that night, twice.

They knew something they weren't telling me. I'd spent the last three weeks trying to figure out what that was but couldn't, so I had to give up.

Just then the bus came to a stop, snapping me out of my thoughts.

Nightshade Academy rose out of the fog like something that had been there before the forest, before the road, and before the idea of humans ever crossed this continent.

Towers that speared into a bruised sky. Windows lit with silver fire, not electric, not gas, something that pulsed like a heartbeat.

The kind of architecture that didn't ask for permission to exist. It just was impossible; just then, the gate opened.

The bus pulled through the iron gate that had no hinges.

"Holy shit," I whispered, with my eyes widened in disbelief, seeing the building before my eyes.

"Language," the driver said.

This was the first time he had spoken the whole trip, and he didn't look back at me. "You need to keep your words to yourself; the wards don't like humans." He added, making me frown inwardly.

The other students filed off in a practiced flow; they knew where they were going. They had grown up hearing stories about this place, probably.

Their parents had gone here, their grandparents, and other generations of wolves sharpening themselves on Nightshade's grindstone, so it wasn't new to them, unlike me.

I grabbed my one bag, all I owned that mattered, and slowly stepped off the bus.

The cold hit first, not normal mountain cold; this was alive, and it curled around my ankles like it was taking my measure and deciding if I belonged.

Then the smell hit. I could smell things, but just not whatever they were smelling.

All my life, I'd had this weird thing with scents that came and went and flavors that didn't match what anyone else tasted. My mom called it my "wolf nose" as a joke.

Here, the world exploded, and strangely, I smelled them, the wolves each one carrying something different. Pine and smoke and cold metal and something sweet I couldn't name.

I'd never noticed before, but now, surrounded by creatures who navigated the world by smell, I understood what they meant.

"Samantha Carter?" I heard someone called to me, snapping me out of my thoughts.

A woman stood at the bottom of the academy steps. She was tall, with silver-streaked hair pulled back so tight it looked painful.

Her eyes are the color of old pennies; she wore black from throat to ankle, with no jewelry and no expression.

"That's me," I finally responded after a while with a low and calm voice.

"I am Headmistress Morwenna Vex." She introduced herself; her voice holds so much authority that I have ever seen in my entire life.

I have been acting tough all this while, but standing before such an authority made a chill run down my spine.

"You are the scholarship student, I guess?" She asked me while I opened my mouth to speak, but nothing came out. My hands had suddenly become numb, so I managed to nod my head in response.

"Follow me; the Blood Moon Initiation begins at sundown. You will not be late." She said with a low voice and an expressionless face.

She turned and walked up the stairs; she didn't look back to check to see if I was following.

She didn't give any explanation of what a blood moon initiation was or why a human scholarship student needed to be there. But I was new here, so I couldn't be disobedient on my first day.

I hitched my backpack higher on my shoulder, tightening my hands against it as I followed silently behind her.

The doors of Nightshade Academy closed behind me with a sound like a cage locking. Now I was here, the only human in the midst of wolves. How was I really going to survive here? As Palm suddenly became sweaty.

SAMANTHA'S POV

We entered a dormitory, and she stopped suddenly and faced me, making my heart skip a beat.

Everything about the lady frightens me, and I don't seem to understand why.

“This is your dormitory,” she announced, with a cold voice.

“You can unpack here,” she added coldly as she turned around and walked towards the door.

“Remember, you are to report to the Crescent Chamber at 7 PM; the blood moon initiation, mandatory for all first years, will be taking place there,” she said with all seriousness.

“Failure to attend will lead to forfeiture of enrollment,” she added, her voice low now as she moved closer to the door.

"Also remember to bring your own blade, human,” she blurted out coldly; her last word made me feel a chill run down my spine.

What was she going to do with the blade she had requested that I bring alone? This question rang in my head, as panic started kicking in.

The lady was already gone, so I made my way towards my bed.

I sat on the edge of the bed and pulled out my phone from my bag, as I felt the urge to call my parents and let them know that I had arrived here safely. But there was no signal, making me feel even worse.

Maybe I shouldn't have accepted the admissions. I thought within me, as my heart raced with the possibility of what could be done with the blade she had asked me to bring.

I was still dwelling in my thoughts when a knock on the door interrupted me.

I immediately stood up and adjusted my shirt. I tried to look like someone who actually belonged here, but it was so hard now.

I opened the door, and just then my eyes met with the one guy I have heard so much about.

I recognize him immediately. He was Kael Blackwood, the Frost Fang Alpha heir, a cold and dangerous alpha heir with the heart of stone.

According to what was told about him, he was mean and didn't mind killing just anyone who went up against him, and right now I was standing before him.

He was tall, 6.2 ft, or maybe 6.3, with dark hair that fell across his forehead, like he had been running his hands through it all day.

He had gray eyes, the color of storm clouds, and a scar, thin and white, cutting through his left eyebrow.

He was also wearing the exact same expression I had seen on every wolf so far.

Confusion and disgust, and underneath it, something that looked almost like hunger, and coldness.

"You're the human," he said, with his eyes widened in disbelief, while he stared at me.

"Y…yes," I stuttered on my words, with my heart beating rapidly inside my chest.

His lips twitched, not quite a smile, but a chuckle. "Have you gotten any warning yet?" he asked me with his cold and deep voice.

"Yes, many actually," I responded to him while he stared at me for a while without saying any word.

He slowly stepped closer, just one step, but it was enough, and I felt the air change. I felt my heart hammering in my chest as I blinked my lashes rapidly while taking a few steps back.

"I don't know how you got in," he muttered with his deep and cold voice as he finally stopped seeing the anxiety in me.

"I don't know why the Moon Goddess would let someone like you step foot on this ground, but I think I know what will happen tonight at the Blood Moon initiation." He spoke, grinning.

"Please enlighten me," I said, hoping to get a little hit of what I was up against.

"Every first year cuts their palm over the Crescent Stone, and the blood activates the wards, and the Moon Goddess decides who belongs here." He explained and let that hang in the air between us.

"You're saying the moon goddess will reject me?" I asked him, with my eyes widened in confusion.

"I'm saying," he said, leaning in, close enough that I could see the gold flecks in his gray eyes.

"That if the wards don't recognize you, they will burn you out, because human blood doesn't mix with moon magic," he explains, making me swallow the leap that had formed in my throat.

My palms became sweaty immediately hearing him say that, but I wasn't going to show him I was frightened, so I immediately placed my hands behind me as I faced him fully again, trying hard to hide my fears.

I couldn't afford to be weak before him, because that's what they were all expecting of me, but I won't give them their desires.

"Then it's a good thing I'm not here to mix; rather, I'm only here to learn," I said loudly, satisfied that the words came out of my mouth just as I hoped.

He stared at me for a long moment, and then he did something unexpected; he laughed.

Not mean, like the guy on the bus; genuine and surprised. “Hmm,” he exhaled.

"You're either very brave or very stupid," he said, with a smile plastered on his face, and his gaze still fixed on me.

"Can I be both then?" I asked him, my voice low but steady.

"That's the worst combination I know of," he said, while I just kept calm for a moment, not knowing what to say at this point.

He straightened up, suddenly businesslike, then straightforwardly held out his hands to me. "I'm Karl, by the way. Kael Blackwood, the Frost Fang Alpha heir." He said and paused to catch his breath before he continued.

"This is my pack's dormitory, which means you're my responsibility until the initiation." He added, his hands still stretching forward to me.

"Lucky me," I said, taking his hands now, while his smile deepened as we disengaged.

He turned and started walking away, but I didn't bother to move; I just stayed where I was when he stopped suddenly.

"The initiation is in a few hours, so come with me. You need a blade, and you also need to know the rules before you accidentally challenge someone to a death match," he said.

“Okay, give me a minute,” I said as I rushed back inside my room.

I grabbed my jacket before rushing back out. “Are you ready?” He asked me, with a face that held no emotions, while I nodded as he continued walking as I followed behind him.

I counted three flights of stairs, two secret doors that Karl opened by pressing specific stones in the wall, and one skeleton that I was pretty sure was just for decoration as we walked on.

"The packs keep their own weapons," Karl explained as we walked. "Frost Fang is in the north tower, and Ember Claw is in the east. Shadow Prowl in the catacombs. Dawn Pack in the infirmary; they're healers, mostly," he explained further.

"What about humans?" I asked him while he stopped walking and turned to face me.

"There are no human weapons here; there has never been a human student before you," he explained, making me swallow hard.

"So what am I supposed to cut myself with?" This question rang out of my mouth before I could stop it.

Karl reached into his jacket and pulled out a knife, small and elegant. The blade was silver and something else. Something that seemed to drink the light instead of reflecting it.

"Moonstone steel," he said, holding it out to me. "It can cut through anything and also heal anything, and it's been in my family for three generations." He said, placing it in front of me.

I looked at the knife and looked at him. "Why are you helping me?" This question rang out before I could stop it.

"I'm not helping you." His jaw tightened as he continued.

"I'm making sure that when the Moon Goddess rejects you, she does it cleanly; a bad cut with a bad blade could kill you, and I don't want a human death on my pack's territory." He responded to my question.

I finally took the knife, and it was lighter than I expected. "Thanks," I blurted out, grinning, while I scanned the knife with my eyes.

"You don't have to thank me; the initiation starts in an hour, so be ready." He said coldly, and with that, he turned around and walked away.

When he was gone, I looked down at the knife in my hand. The blade pulsed once softly, almost like a heartbeat.

What the hell have I gotten myself into?

SAMANTHA'S POV

It was finally time for the initiation, and I just walked into the crescent moon.

The Crescent Moon Hall was a circular room carved directly into the bedrock beneath the Academy, with walls that looked less like stone and more like dried blood.

In the center, a slab of black rock shaped like a crescent moon, and above it, a glass ceiling that showed the sky just beginning to darken, the first hints of red bleeding into the clouds.

There were maybe forty first-years in the chamber, and all of them were wolves, and they were all watching me.

I felt their eyes like hands on my skin, measuring and weighing, deciding whether I was prey or just pathetic.

Principal Vex stood at the head of the room, next to the Crescent Stone. She raised her hand, and the chamber went silent before she began.

"Tonight, you shed your first blood on Nightshade ground, and tonight, the Moon Goddess sees you, and she decides if you are worthy to be here or not." She spoke, her voice soft but firm.

A murmur rippled through the crowd. I didn't feel any excitement or fear; all I felt was just a strange, hollow calm.

"Now, every one of you is going to approach the stone in accordance with the pack; the Frost Fang pack will go first," she spoke further, with her face, which held no expression.

Karl stepped forward, and of course, he moved to the stone, pulled a blade from his belt matching the one he'd given me, I noticed, and drew it across his palm.

Blood welled up in his palm, dark and thick, and it dripped onto the black rock.

Just then the stone sang, and I heard it. A low hum that vibrated in my teeth, the blood soaked into the rock like water into sand, and for a moment, Kael's eyes blazed gold. A full wolf, beautiful and terrible.

"The Frost Fang heir is accepted, so the other can proceed now," Vex said, and immediately there was loud clapping in the room.

And one by one, the wolves approached. One by one, they bled, and one after the other the Stone accepted them, and within a few minutes it was finally my turn.

"Samantha Carter, the scholarship student, step forward. "I heard the principal say with a loud voice, loud enough for anyone at a distance to hear.

The murmuring got louder, and I heard someone laugh as I slowly took a few steps away from where I had stood.

“She is just a human that got in by mistake; I believe she will definitely get rejected or probably even die at the spot." I heard them laugh as I walked closer to the stone.

Felt their eyes on me, and immediately my heart started to beat rapidly. What if they were right about me dying on the spot? This thought rang in my head as my palm became sweaty immediately.

I could hear my heartbeat in my ears as I pulled out the knife Karl had given me and pressed the edge to my palm.

“Don't hesitate; just do it,” I told myself, and finally I drove the blade into my palm, cutting it.

The pain was sharp and immediate, and blood spilled down my fingers, hot and red and so alive it almost glowed, as I pressed my palm to the Crescent Stone.

Just then everything went wrong; the stone screamed instead of singing like it did with the other.

A sound that wasn't sound, that ripped through the chamber and sent wolves to their knees.

The black rock cracked, not the stone itself, but something under it, something ancient and sleeping and suddenly, violently awake.

I tried to pull my hand back, but I couldn't. My blood was pouring into the stone now, faster than it should, faster than was possible.

And then I smelled it; for the first time in my life, I smelled myself.

Moonflower and storm wind: something old and dark and powerful that made me want to run and never stop.

And just behind me, someone gasped, making me turn, still stuck to the stone, still bleeding, and just then, I saw them.

Four boys, four wolves, and four heirs, by the looks of them, and every single one of them had their eyes locked on me with an expression I finally understood.

Karl Blackwood was the closest. His gray eyes were pure gold now, his wolf rising to the surface, as he took a step toward me like he couldn't help himself.

"No," he breathed. "No, that's not possible." He said, making me stare at him in confusion.

"What's not possible?" My voice came out strangled.

A red-haired boy I hadn't met yet shoved past Karl; his eyes were the color of embers. "She imprinted on all of us, and I can feel it. Can't you feel it too?" He asked and gazed at the others.

The third boy hung back, with his dark hair and darker eyes, watching me like I was a puzzle he'd been waiting his whole life to solve.

The fourth blond, with golden eyes and with hands that were already glowing with healing light, just stared at his palm. At the mark that was forming there was a mate mark.

They all had it, spreading across their skin like fire, and principal Vex's voice cut through the chaos.

"Silence," she spat.

The chamber went silent, and even the Stone stopped screaming.

Vex walked to me with a puzzled expression and looked at my palm, still pressed to the rock, still bleeding, then looked at the four heirs; she looked at the marks blooming on their skin.

"Well," she sighed softly; her voice was very calm. "This hasn't happened in a thousand years." She added, still staring at the marks in their hands.

I finally wrenched my hand free, and just then the wound on my palm started healing, closing up like it had never been cut at all.

"What's happening to me?" I said in a whisper as I stared at my palm once more.

Vex looked at me, and for the first time, the principal's expression cracked.

"You're not human, Samantha Carter; you never were." She said, making me stare at her in confusion, trying so hard to understand what she meant by that.

Behind me, the four alphas took a collective breath; their wolves were straining against their skin, wanting and needing me.

"The Moon Goddess doesn't make mistakes," Vex continued.

"Which means she put you here for a reason and she gave you to them for a reason." She paused and gestured to the four boys.

"By dawn, every pack in the territory will know what happened tonight, and they will call it an abomination, a glitch." She spoke further.

"But it's not a glitch," I said before I could stop myself.

Vex smiled. It was not a nice smile. "No," she agreed. "It's not a glitch; it's so real." She added and slowly turned to address the other people watching all this while.

"The Initiation is over, so all first years, return to your dorms," she announced.

The wolves filed out in stunned silence, but the four heirs didn't move; they stood in a loose circle around me, bound by something none of them understood.