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CHAPTER 1
Dannika
They say I was born on a cursed moon.
A night when the sky glowed red as the blood spilled in Portland. Later, we’d call it “the Great Sacrifice”—because somehow, on those blood-soaked streets, peace was found.
Order had been restored.
Or some form of it, perhaps. That was what we were told. It was certainly how the leaders presented it.
I wasn’t sure who believed it. I wasn’t sure what the truth was. Even with a truce, there was an undeniable strain between the Great Houses. But no one ever mentioned that underlying tension. Not in public, anyway. What I did know was that the world had been irrevocably changed that day.
I’d probably heard the story more times than I could count, because that night was twenty-four years ago today.
“Cheer up,” Adora said. I guessed the firm line of my mouth gave away my gloomy mood, despite the Spice Girls album blasting through my room. Her choice, not mine.
“It’s not like I want to go to this stupid party,” I groused. “Our birthday is literally the day millions of people died. It’s not exactly a day people should be celebrating.”
But they did. Every year. They focused on the peace forged instead of the lives lost that day. Lives like my father’s.
He’d had to defend the pack while my mother had gone into labor, but he’d never come home. She’d found his body. Brutalized. Claw marks had been gouged deep into his chest. There was no doubt it had been another shifter, but there was also no way to know who—not that we could do much about it even if we had identified his killer. What had happened before the Great Sacrifice was supposed to be left in the past.
Even murder.
“It’s also the last massacre we’ve had in twenty-four years,” Rowe pointed out. She sat cross-legged on my bed, her wild, red hair falling out of the ponytail that bound it. “That’s gotta be worth something.”
No. It really wasn’t. Not when shifters had only walked this realm for fifty years, ever since the portal opened in Portland. After that happened, the human governments fell apart. As expected, the people revolted and then they fell apart. Turns out there was a whole other world no one had known about. The supernatural one. Nowadays, that was the only one that existed. All over the world, six giant portals had opened up over the past few thousand years, but they had remained closely guarded. Unseen by humans. Each one led somewhere different.
Ours?
It led to a land of beasts.
Shifters crossed over from it and mingled with the population. My parents were both products of that merging. There were other ways people had turned into shifters. Those that lingered too close to portals sometimes changed, absorbing bits of magic. It leaked into our world like a radioactive hazard. The result? Thousands of shifters basically popped up overnight.
So no, considering our kind had only been on this earth for fifty or so years, the last massacre being twenty-four years ago didn’t impress me. Not when it had all been senseless violence.
The Houses may rule, but that didn’t make them any less corrupt than previous governments.
My silence told them my opinion, and Adora snorted. “Dannika’s a Debbie Downer, Rowe, you know that. When has she ever looked on the bright side?”
At my sister’s jesting, my lips twisted, trying to hide my amusement. Not the easiest thing to do when she was all of a foot from my face, pointing liquid eyeliner toward my lids, flicking it about like a black magic wand.
“I’m not a downer, asshole. I just don’t like to commemorate the day my dad died as one giant party. You know how much Mom has suffered because of it.” Her lips pressed together, and she looked away. Shame turned her cheeks a shade pinker.
With the exception of Adora, all the peacock shifters had been wiped out in the Great Sacrifice. My sister had been found the same night I’d been born, abandoned in the woods but unharmed. No one knew what she was, and that secret stayed safe in our family.
My mom had kept her, knowing she wouldn’t have survived otherwise. Then she’d stepped down as the Alpha Female of the pack to raise us. While Adora was probably older than I was by a few days, we considered today our joint birthday, since we didn’t know hers.
“You know I didn’t mean it like that,” she whispered.
I sighed. “I know.” Now I did feel like a downer, and a jackass to boot. “I just hate that we’re being forced to go to the commemoration because the Alpha Supreme’s son still hasn’t found his mate. It’s ridiculous he’s forcing all unmated shifters to attend when it’s not like he’s stepping down anytime soon. I get that Markus needs to have a kid—the heir having an heir, and all that—but there’s still plenty of time.”
“It only takes a moment for things to change,” Adora said softly. Not somberly, but she was thoughtful in her answer. “You never know what the future holds. It sucks for us, but if something happened to the Alpha Supreme, Markus would need to be ready to take his father’s place—or we’d all be in deep shit.” The ruler of the House of Fire and Fluorite had to be prepared for anything. There were always schemes in play to take that power away. The Alpha Supreme used to fight a dozen challenges every year or so until it had become clear he’d always win. If something did happen, and Markus took over, things would be chaos. But by Markus having an heir—and by extension, a mate—it meant he could actually be powerful enough to handle the transition. If he didn’t, no one in our House would be safe, let alone our pack. The scramble for control would end in bloodshed. I hated that she was right, but I nodded anyway. She frowned, pinching my chin with one hand to hold me still. Oops.
“I wouldn’t be as annoyed if he weren’t such a douche,” I muttered.
“Yes, you would,” Adora said, calling me out. From the bed, Rowe laughed, the sound like a witch’s cackle. “But he is a douche. You won’t hear an argument from me. I feel bad for whoever ends up stuck with him.”
