She shakes her head violently. “I won’t. I can’t lose you. I won't.”
I try to protest, but the words die in my throat. Her face hardens with a desperate resolve. Her lips pull back and I see her canines lengthen, sharpening into fangs that should not exist. Terror surges through me before I can even move. Then she lowers her mouth to my throat and bites.
Agony rips through me, white-hot and merciless, igniting every nerve until I can no longer tell where flesh ends and fire begins. It is more than pain. It is fire and ice colliding inside me, ripping me apart cell by cell, leaving nothing untouched. My scream tears free, guttural and animal, echoing off the walls as if the sound alone might rip my lungs open. It’s as if I can feel her blood mixing with mine, metaphorically speaking, hot and metallic, my heartbeat lurching, faltering, then hammering wildly as if it might burst through my ribs.
I thrash against her hold with every shred of strength left in me, desperate to tear free. I fight against her grip, against the crushing weight of fate, against the very tide dragging me under, my body convulsing in raw terror and defiance.
She whispers frantically, her voice thick with tears. “Live, Sadie. Please, live.”
The fire consumes me. It short circuits through every nerve, a furnace and an ice storm clashing inside my blood. My nails gouge the concrete. My body convulses as if somebody has thrown a switch and is rewiring me in real time; cells reboot and ache with bright, alien pain. I fight, but the pull is brutal and absolute, as if gravity itself has tilted and is drawing me into something I can't hold against.
Darkness scrapes at the edges of my vision. I fight, but the tide is too strong. My last glimpse is Cassidy’s tear-streaked face, her golden eyes shimmering with both love and guilt.
And then darkness prevails.
Galveston, Texas
A Few Days Later
When I come to, I am lying in the guest bedroom of my sister’s house, weak and disoriented. The slant of afternoon light across the room and the faint pull of a small scar at my chest tell me days have passed, though I have no memory of them. My body feels foreign, thrumming with an energy I don’t understand. The bullet wound is gone, yet my skin crawls with instincts that are sharp, restless, and dangerous.
Cassidy sits vigil beside the bed, her hands trembling as she touches my face. “You may hate me for this,” she whispers, voice ragged. “But I couldn’t let you go.”
Her words strike harder than the bullet ever could. I lie there, dazed and trembling, unable to grasp what she has done or why I am still breathing when I should be gone. It feels like salvation and betrayal twisted into the same breath, leaving me torn between clinging to her as my only anchor and recoiling from her as if she has destroyed me.
Somehow, I know, my world has changed. I didn’t choose it. And I’ll never be the same again. Somewhere inside me, a new hunger stirs.
Slowly and quietly my sister explains what she has done to me. When she begins speaking, the words are too fantastical to believe. I cannot accept them, cannot wrap my mind around her claim that I am no longer human, that I am a wolf-shifter.
At first I laugh, the sound brittle. “You’ve lost it, Cass. Wolves don’t bite people back to life. That’s a fairy tale, or maybe a horror movie.”
Her eyes glisten but she doesn’t look away. “I wasn't in wolf form when I did it, but I know you saw my fangs. You felt it, Sadie. Deep down, you know I’m not lying.”
My pulse spikes. I push up on my elbows, anger sparking hot. “No. What I felt was pain. What I saw was my sister sinking her teeth into me like an animal. And now you’re telling me I’m one of you? How many of you are there? Rush? All of TeamW? Do you want me to believe that you and I are some kind of monsters?”
Cassidy flinches, but her voice is steady. “I had no choice. In order to save you, I had to transition you.”
Rage surges through me, sharp enough to cut. “Shouldn't you have asked me?"
"You were dying. You begged me not to let you die."
"I didn't know this was what you would do. You didn’t save me—you turned me into something I never asked to be.”
Tears spill down her cheeks. My sister’s desperation condemned me to a life I don’t understand, a fate I never wanted.My transformation isn’t salvation—it’s a death sentence dressed in fur, teeth, and secrets I was never meant to know.
Loose ends don’t die quietly.
CHAPTER 1
SADIE
The first thing I notice is the sound. Too much sound. The tick of a clock ricochets like a hammer in my skull. The refrigerator hum modulates under everything, a low motorized thrum that rides two notes like a faulty metronome. The fabric of the sheets whispers against my skin, threads catching in a dry, papery rustle that claws at my nerves. My eyes fly open, and the sunlight streaming through the window burns across my vision, blinding and relentless.
I jerk upright in the bed, clutching the sheets to my chest. Cassidy’s guest bedroom. I recognize the carved headboard, the too-perfect arrangement of flowers by the window. My sister always did have a flair for presentation. It should feel familiar, safe. Instead, every detail needles me, too sharp, too bright, too much.
“Easy,” Cassidy says from the armchair in the corner. Her voice is soft, but to me it booms. I flinch. She winces at my reaction. “Sadie, you’re safe.”
“Safe? My body feels like it’s been hijacked by an alien rave.” My throat rasps with dryness. I push a shaky hand through my hair and glare at her. “Start talking. I want more than to be kept alive. I want my choices back.”
