Prologue

Eight Years Ago

‘Wake up, Athena...’

My eyes flutter open, and I sit up, confused. ‘What was that?’ I think to myself, rubbing my eyes in a sleepy haze. As my eyes adjust to the darkness in the room, I realize I’m alone.

“Hello?” I whisper, my heart beating faster as the full moon shining through my window creates scary shadows on the walls.

Pulling my blanket up to my nose, I call out, “Mommy? Mommy, was that you?”

‘It’s okay, Athena, I’m here now,’ I hear a soft voice say.

I scream in fear and hide under my blanket. “Who... who said that?” I call out as I cry.

‘I’m Enyo. I’m your lycan, Athena,’ she tells me, and I realize the unfamiliar voice is in my head.

“What’s happening?” I ask her. “How are you here?”

‘We’re shifting!’ She says excitedly, and I gasp.

“But... No! I’m not old enough!” I panic. “I’m not ready for that!” I cry harder.

‘The Goddess wouldn’t make you shift if you weren’t ready, Athena!’ Enyo says, trying to calm me down.

I suddenly feel an intense pain in my back, and I scream in agony as my back arches and my bones crack, making me fall off the bed and onto the floor with a thump.

“Athena! Is everything okay?” My mom asks as she rushes into the room and turns on the light. I try to answer her, but I can’t control my body as my muscles continue to contract and spasm, and I scream as she looks down at me in shock.

I hear my mom gasp, and she runs from the room. “HECTOR! SHE’S SHIFTING!” I hear her yell out to my dad.

My dad runs into my room a minute later, my mom right behind him, and when he sees me hunched over in pain on the floor, his face turns white. “This can’t be happening!” he yells. “She’s only ten years old!”

I scream again as my spine cracks and breaks, and it feels like my skin is ripping apart, like my bones are tearing through my skin.

“Elena, go get a cool washcloth,” Dad tells Mom as he rushes over to me, gently lifting me from the floor and placing me back on my bed. Then he pulls the blankets off my bed as he mind-links someone in the pack.

‘We can do this, Athena! But you need to focus on what’s happening,’ Enyo says, trying to calm me down again. ‘Your body knows what to do. You just need to let it happen.’

“It’s okay, sweet pea. Just try to focus on your breathing,” Dad says as Mom comes back. She sits on the floor next to my bed and wipes the cool washcloth over my face and arms.

“What’s your lycans’ name?” Mom asks. “Has she told you?”

“Enyo... her name... is... Enyo,” I say between sobs.

“What a beautiful name,” Mom smiles. “Why don’t you ask her what she looks like? It can help you focus on your shift,” Mom says.

Before I even ask, Enyo describes to me what she looks like. ‘We’re beautiful, Athena! Our fur looks like the night sky, black with silvery flecks through it that make us shimmer like stars!’

I close my eyes and try to focus on what Enyo described, but the pain is so bad that I can’t picture her.

I hear the front door of our house open and footsteps coming up the stairs. A few moments later, the pack doctor and Beta Damon come into my room.

“Are you sure she’s shifting?” Beta Damon asks my parents. They both nod, and I feel pain in my fingers as they extend, and my mom cries out in pain. I look down and see blood coming from her hand where my new claws have cut her.

“I’m sorry, Mommy! I didn’t mean to do that!” I sob and pull my hands away from my parents, so I don’t hurt them.

“Shhh. It’s okay, honey,” she says as Doctor Apollo comes over to my bed and looks at her hand, but she’s already healed.

He kneels next to my mom on the floor and opens the small doctor’s case I’ve seen him carrying around. “I’m just going to check on a few things, Athena. Just try to relax,” he says and smiles at me.

He checks my temperature, then shines a light into my eyes. He frowns as he puts the light away. “Hello there, young lycan. You’re here early, it seems,” he says, then turns to Beta Damon and nods. “She’s shifting all right. Her eyes are dilating, her lycan is trying to come through,” he says.

“Have you ever heard of this, Apollo? I thought pups could only go through their first shift when they turn sixteen?” Beta Damon asks, his arms crossed as he leans against the doorframe.

“It’s unusual, but it happens,” Doctor Apollo says as he watches me with his eyebrow raised. “Not usually this young, though,” he says, rubbing his chin in thought.

I sit up and lean forward onto my hands and knees as my bones break more, trying to shift into my lycan form. I cry out as I feel the muscles in my back tear and then go back to normal again, then I feel the bones in my feet trying to move and change into a paw. But just as it feels like the bones might be in place, they snap back to normal.

“I can’t do this, Daddy!” I scream. “Make it stop!” I beg him as I cry. The pain is unbearable, and I lean over the side of the bed and vomit from the pain.

Three Hours Later

“There must be something wrong. Why hasn’t she shifted yet?” Mom asks the doctor.

“Some lycans can take hours to shift their first time. This isn’t unusual,” he explains to her.

I feel so tired as I lie on the floor on my side, hugging my knees to my chest. Enyo has been trying to talk me through the shift. She even tried to take over and force the change, but my body still refused to shift all the way.

“Mommy,” I whimper.

“It’s okay, sweetheart. You’re so close. Just try to push through it and visualize what your lycan looks like,” Mom says.

“Doc, she’s exhausted. Isn’t there something you can do?” My dad asks Doctor Apollo.

“She does seem to be struggling more than most do. It may be because of her age,” he says, tapping his chin in thought. “We might need Alpha Niko,” he says, looking at Beta Damon. “He can force the shift with his alpha command.”

Beta Damon nods, and he mind-links with the Alpha of our pack.

I groan as I feel my bones breaking again. My body feels like it’s on fire. Mom tries to rub my arm, but I scream at her to stop. Anyone touching me feels like a knife is cutting into my skin. I roll onto my hands and knees as my back arches again, my spine trying to break and bend into my lycan form. Everything around me seems to fade away as I feel my neck extend, my jaw break, and my muzzle form. This time feels different. It feels like the shift is going to happen. My legs bend and snap, growing longer, and I look down as my arms break and black paws appear in place of my hands. But then, just like every other time tonight, everything starts re-breaking back into my human form, and I cry out in pain.

‘WHY CAN’T WE SHIFT ENYO?!’ I scream at her while crying again.

‘I... I don’t know Athena,’ she whimpers, and I feel her lie down with her muzzle on her paws like she’s given up.

Just as everything goes back into place in my human form, it starts again. “No, not again. I can’t do this.” I sob as my spine breaks and shifts. “Daddy, please! Please make this stop!” I beg him.

Before he can say anything, though, there’s a change in the room. A powerful force that can only mean one thing. The Alpha was here.

“ATHENA! SHIFT!” The powerful voice of Alpha Niko echoes around the room. His Alpha aura washes over me, and it happens. We finally shift. I feel everything click into place and I fall onto my stomach, panting and exhausted. When I finally open my eyes, two black paws are in front of me, and I gasp, but it comes out as a slight growl.

‘Enyo, we did it!’ I say to her excitedly, and I look at my dad.

“I’m so proud of you, sweet pea. Now try to stand. You may feel a bit wobbly being on all fours,” my dad says, giving me a big smile.

Unsure, I look around the room, and Alpha Niko, Mom, and Doctor Apollo are all smiling at me.

I nod my head and try to stand. ‘Wow, this is weird,’ I think to myself. My legs shake, but I stay standing. I look down at my front legs and paws and see the silver flecks in our black fur. ‘Wow, Enyo, our fur is so pretty!’ I squeal in delight.

‘Told you so!’ Enyo says proudly.

I look back at my mom and freeze. Her mouth has dropped open as she looks at me in shock.

‘Why is she looking at us like that?’ I ask Enyo.

‘I don’t know...’

I look at my dad, and he also seems surprised. So do Beta Damon and Alpha Niko. Doctor Apollos’ eyebrows crease as he looks me over.

‘What’s wrong?’ I ask them through mind-link.

“Um, nothing sweety. You’re just... Well, you’re quite big. Even for a Gamma pup,” Daddy answers, looking to Doctor Apollo.

He nods. “This could explain why she was having so much trouble shifting,” he says. “Her wolf is almost as large as an Alpha pup.”

‘Really?’ I ask.

I walk over to the mirror in my room and look at our lycan form. Enyo’s fur is jet black and shimmering in the moonlight coming through my window, and there’s a white spot on her forehead that looks like a crescent moon. I close my eyes as Enyo suddenly pushes herself forward, and I feel the shift complete as our souls connect, and we become one.

I gasp when Enyo opens her eyes, her ice-blue eyes looking back at us in the mirror.

‘Your eyes, Enyo! Why aren’t they yellow?’ I ask her.

‘I don’t know, but aren’t they pretty?’ She exclaims.

‘Mom? Dad? Why are our eyes different?’ I ask them both through mind-link as I turn around, casting a blue glow over the room.

My dad shakes his head and turns to face my mom. Mom clears her throat. “I’m sure it’s nothing, honey. It’s probably just because you’re so young,” she whispers, looking at Doctor Apollo again.

He looks at me with curiosity. “I can honestly say I have never seen or heard of this,” he says as he kneels in front of me. “I’m going to have to look into it.”

Alpha Niko then comes and kneels in front of me as well, and he places his forehead on ours. “Welcome to the pack,” he says with a smile. He pulls back and ruffles the fur on our head. “I think you’re going to keep us on our toes,” he says with a laugh, and Enyo gives him a playful bark.

I see Beta Damon shake his head, looking at us with disgust. “Alpha, you can’t possibly think that this... This... Thing, could be good for our pack?”

Daddy growls and stands in front of him, snarling in his face. “What did you just call my daughter?”

‘Why is Beta Damon being like this?’ I ask Enyo, sadly.

‘Who cares! Let’s go for a run!’ Enyo says impatiently.

‘Okay, let’s go!’ I giggle, and we rush past Doctor Apollo and Alpha Niko, out of my bedroom door and down the hallway. But as we get closer to the stairs, Enyo realizes she’s going too fast. She tries to slow down but ends up slipping on the hallway rug, sliding past the stairs, and crashing hard into the wall with a yelp.