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Chapter 1 The offer

**Blackthorn Orphanage – Midnight**

The orphanage always smelled like damp stone and regret.

Akira Vance pressed her back against the attic's slanted wall, her knees drawn to her chest. The acceptance letter trembled in her hands.

**BLACKTHORN ACADEMY** glimmered in raised ink under the flicker of her stolen candle.

*Full scholarship. Room and board. Effective immediately.*

Her throat tightened.

Eighteen years in this rotting house of whispers, and now-*freedom*.

But nothing good came free. Not here.

A floorboard groaned.

She shoved the letter beneath her mattress just as the door creaked open. Sister Marguerite stood in the threshold, her silhouette too tall, her shadow too long.

"You're awake." The nun's voice was a serrated thing.

Akira schooled her face into emptiness. "Nightmares."

Sister Marguerite stepped inside. The air thickened, the way it did before a storm. "Funny. The headmaster called tonight." Her bone-thin fingers brushed the mattress. "Said they've *never* offered a scholarship to an orphan."

Akira's pulse hammered.

A shriek tore through the halls below-not human, not animal. Something *hungry*.

The nun smiled. "Best pack, girl. The dark things are restless tonight."

---

**Blackthorn Academy – One Week Later**

The gates were iron and arrogance, twisted into thorned vines.

Akira gripped her single suitcase, her new uniform scratchy against her skin. The academy loomed ahead-a cathedral of secrets, its spires clawing at the bruised twilight sky.

*Her future.*

"You."

A hand clamped around her wrist. Cold. Certain.

She turned.

The boy was carved from privilege and poison. Golden hair, eyes like frozen mercury, a smirk that promised cruelty. His blazer bore the same crest as her letter-except his was edged in silver.

*Heir. Vanthorne.*

She yanked free. "Do you always grab strangers?"

"Only the ones who don't belong." His gaze raked over her-the secondhand shoes, the too-sharp collarbones. "Kyler Vanthorne. And you're the orphan they let in for *pity*."

Wind lashed between them. The lanterns lining the path guttered.

Akira clenched her fists.

The bulbs exploded.

Glass rained down. Kyler didn't flinch. Instead, he stepped closer, his voice a whisper against her ear:

"Interesting."

Her breath hitched.

He knew.

And the way he looked at her-like she was a riddle he'd waited years to solve-made her wonder if this was salvation.

Or a sacrifice.

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My name is Katia, and I am just trying to survive until my fated mate arrives. Which may be easier said than done. Rejectection is the last straw. Whispering my acceptance of his rejection. I run through the pack house, out across the manicured lawn into the forest. "I'm sorry, my sweet girl," I say to my wolf. I'm sorry you have been stuck with me and have had to suffer everything I have. She whispers," it's not your fault, Katia. We came to a cliff with a waterfall. The hurt keeps pounding at me. I need it to stop. My sweet girl, and I just want peace, I keep running and leap off the cliff. Spreading my arms wide, with tears streaming down my face, I fall, not making a sound, waiting for sweet oblivion where we feel nothing ever again. "I love you, my sweet girl! Until we meet again, "My wolf replied just before we hit the water, "I love you too, Katia. I have never regretted a moment with you." The Snow Moon pack is having their last barbecue of the summer next to the waterfall on their land. The adults are laughing and joking while watching the pups play. The alpha, beta, and gamma are swimming with some of the older children and playing a game of Marco Polo. Someone yells, "Oh my goddess, someone just jumped over the waterfall!" Everyone is frozen as they watch what looks to be a child falling arms spread wide, no one makes a sound. The small body hits the water like a plane crashing into the side of a mountain. The alpha, beta, and gamma, spring into action, swimming towards the area the person went under. The alpha is screaming his wolf is going crazy repeating, "Find her. Find her...find her!" They dive and the beta surfaces with a small person in his arms. Alpha takes the girl from his beta, laying her on the ground. The men are shocked by what they see. She is covered in scars and injuries. Her body is twisted and broken. The Beta asks, "Who could have done this to someone so defenseless?" Alpha drops to his knees, repeating, "MATE...MATE...MATE!"

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