Rose POV
Rose's eyes snapped open to sunlight.
Everything hurt. Her muscles ached like she'd been hit by a truck. Her head was pounding. The sheets under her were ripped to pieces, tangled around her body like she'd been thrashing in her sleep. She looked down at her hands. There was dirt under her fingernails. Her fingernails. Not claws anymore. Just regular fingernails, but dirty and broken.
She was human again.
The memory hit her like a wave. The pain. The burning. Her body changing into something that wasn't her. The howling outside in the night. Her father on the phone, his voice terrified, saying words like "compound" and "warn them" and "she's not supposed to be this strong."
Rose stumbled to the mirror.
The girl looking back was still her. Same face. Same eyes. Same everything on the outside. But something underneath had shifted. She could still feel it. Like there was another version of herself sleeping just under her skin, ready to wake up again at any second.
A knock on her door made her jump.
"Rose, we need to go. Right now." Her father's voice came from the hallway. He wasn't asking. He was telling.
She opened the door and he was already dressed, already packed. There was a duffel bag in his hands and fear all over his face.
"Go where? Dad, I don't understand. What happened last night? What am I?" The questions came out fast and desperate but her father was already moving down the hallway, already heading for the stairs.
"We'll talk about it in the car. We don't have time." He grabbed her wrist and pulled her toward the stairs. She was still wearing pajamas. She hadn't brushed her teeth. But none of that seemed to matter anymore.
"My clothes, I need to change, I don't understand what's happening," Rose said but her father was already pushing her toward the door.
"There's clothes in the car. We have maybe twenty minutes before they figure out where we are and come looking for you. That smell last night, Rose. Every shifter within a hundred miles probably caught it. We need to move."
Shifter. He'd called her a shifter. Like it was a normal thing people were. Like it wasn't the most insane thing she'd ever heard.
They were in the car five minutes later. Her father drove like someone was chasing them, which maybe they were. Rose didn't know. Everything felt like a dream that was turning into a nightmare.
The drive was three hours.
Her father barely spoke. He kept his eyes on the road and his hands tight on the steering wheel. Sometimes he'd glance at her like he was checking to make sure she was still there, still human, still his daughter. Sometimes he'd open his mouth like he wanted to explain everything but couldn't find the words.
Rose watched the city turn into suburbs turn into forest. The trees got bigger and closer together. The roads got smaller and less crowded. They passed fewer and fewer cars until there were no other cars at all, just forest on both sides of the road, dark and deep and endless.
"I'm sorry," her father said finally, about an hour in. "I should have told you. Your mother wanted me to wait until you were older but she got sick and I wanted to protect you and I kept waiting and then there was never a good time and..."
"My mom knew?" Rose asked. Her mother had died when she was twelve. Rose had barely any memories of her.
"Your mom was like you. A shifter. An omega from a pack two states away. She met me in college and we fell in love and her pack said we couldn't be together but she left anyway. And then you happened and we tried to hide it because if the packs knew about you, if they knew she'd had a child with a human, they would have come for you."
Rose's head was spinning. "I don't understand any of this. What's a pack? What's an omega?"
"You'll learn. They'll teach you. The people at the compound, they'll explain everything." He said it like the compound was inevitable, like there was no other choice, like her life wasn't hers to decide anymore.
The gates appeared suddenly.
They were tall and black and made of iron, with barbed wire running along the top. Armed guards stood on either side. Real guards with real weapons. Her father pulled up and rolled down the window and the guards nodded at him like they were expecting him.
The gates swung open.
They drove through into a compound that looked like a small village hidden in the forest. There were cabins scattered around. There were training grounds with people doing exercises. There was a main building that looked expensive and official. Everything was surrounded by more forest, more walls, more security.
Rose felt like they'd driven into another world.
Her father parked and took a deep breath. "Stay close to me. Don't talk to anyone. Just let me handle this."
They got out of the car.
The air smelled different here. Wild. There were scents Rose couldn't identify. She could smell animals. She could smell sweat. She could smell something underneath it all that made her nervous. Something that smelled like power.
A man appeared from the main building.
He was tall. Really tall. His shoulders were broad and his face was hard like someone had carved him from stone. He wore dark clothes and he moved like he owned the entire world around him. When he walked, people moved out of his way without him even having to ask. They just knew to do it.
Rose's father nodded at him.
The man nodded back.
Then he looked at Rose.
His entire body went rigid. It happened in a second. One moment he was standing there normal and the next he froze like someone had hit pause on a video. His nostrils flared. His jaw clenched. His eyes went to a color that wasn't quite human. They were darker. Wilder. Like a wolf's eyes looking out of a human face.
He was smelling her.
Rose felt her heart start to race. She wanted to run. Something inside her was screaming that this man was dangerous. But her legs wouldn't move.
He started walking toward her.
Not like he was walking across the courtyard. Like he was being pulled toward her against his will. Like he couldn't stop himself even if he wanted to. His eyes were locked on hers and they were doing something to her, something that made her breath come faster and her skin feel hot.
Her father stepped between them.
"Chase, she just shifted last night. She doesn't know anything. She's scared and confused and I need you to give us time before you..."
"Get her inside." Chase's voice was low and rough. It sounded like it came from somewhere deep in his chest. "Now. Before the whole pack starts arriving."
He was still looking at Rose over her father's shoulder.
She was still looking at him.
And something was happening between them. Something Rose couldn't name or understand. It felt like an invisible rope was connecting them, pulling them toward each other, and no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't cut it.
"Come on," her father said quietly, pulling her toward the building. "Don't look at him. Just come on."
But Rose couldn't stop looking at him.
Chase was still standing in the courtyard, his entire body tense, his nostrils still flared, his eyes still locked on hers as she was dragged away. He looked like he wanted to follow. Like something inside him was fighting to come after her. Like only his willpower was keeping him rooted to the ground.
The moment before they disappeared into the building, he took a step toward her.
Her father pushed her inside and the door slammed shut behind them.
Rose's heart was pounding so hard she thought it might burst through her ribs. She could still feel him. Still smell him. Still sense him on the other side of that door like he was about to break through it.
"Who was that?" she whispered.
Her father wouldn't meet her eyes.
"That's the Alpha. The leader of this pack. And Rose, we have a very serious problem because you just made him smell exactly what the legends say isn't supposed to exist anymore."
"What do you mean? What did he smell?"
Her father finally looked at her and there was something like despair in his expression.
"A mate. And not just any mate. Something much rarer. Something much more dangerous."
Behind them, on the other side of the door, she could hear the Alpha breathing heavily, like he was trying to control himself.
He sounded like he was losing the battle.