The cold morning air hit my skin like needles when I stepped outside. I pulled my worn hoodie tighter around me and looked at the gray sky above. No sun. Just clouds and silence, like always. Today should’ve been the best day of my life. My eighteenth birthday. The day I was supposed to shift. The day I was finally supposed to feel like a real wolf, part of my pack. But nothing happened.

No fur. No claws. No howling voice inside me.

Just… emptiness.

“Useless,” I whispered, staring at my pale fingers. They trembled as I clenched them into fists. “Still nothing. What’s wrong with me?”

My name is Destinee Shaw. I’m the Alpha’s daughter. The one who never shifted.

I turned and walked back toward the packhouse, my shoes crunching on the frosted grass. The cold ground didn’t bother me. I was used to it. The cold had been my friend longer than anyone else. It didn’t lie. It didn’t hit. It didn’t make promises only to rip them apart.

Inside, the house smelled like bacon and fresh bread. My stomach growled, but I didn’t dare step into the kitchen. That was for the others. The perfect ones. The ones with wolves. I headed down the hallway, past the shiny wooden floors and the giant family portrait hanging above the fireplace. The same fake smiles looked down at me every day.

I paused to stare at it.

Mom, with her kind eyes and sad smile.

Dad, standing proud with his arms folded like a king on a throne.

And me, stuck between them, pretending I wasn’t dying inside.

“Destinee!” My father's deep voice thundered down the hallway like a storm.

I flinched.

No escape now.

I turned slowly, already bracing myself.

He stood there, tall and furious, his fists clenched at his sides. His brown eyes burned holes into me.

“You didn’t shift,” he said, his voice sharp as a whip.

I nodded once. “No.”

“You’re eighteen now. You had one job. One. Do you understand what this means for our family?”

“I didn’t choose this—”

“Don’t speak!” he snapped, stepping closer. His breath smelled like whiskey even though it wasn’t even noon. “You’re an embarrassment. An alpha’s daughter without a wolf? It’s shameful!”

“I tried,” I whispered, feeling my throat tighten.

“You didn’t try hard enough,” he growled.

I didn’t cry. I wouldn’t. That would only make it worse.

“You’ll stay in your room. No food. No contact. You’ll pray to the moon for a wolf. Maybe if you beg hard enough, the goddess will take pity on you.”

“I already did,” I murmured, but he didn’t hear.

He turned on his heel and walked away like he was finished with me. Like I was just some failed project he couldn’t be bothered to fix anymore.

I climbed the stairs slowly. My body ached, but I wasn’t sure if it was from the cold or from something deeper. Something is broken.

My room was small—just a bed, a dresser, and a window that didn’t shut all the way. I sat on the edge of the bed, staring at the peeling paint on the walls.

Why didn’t I shift?

Was there something wrong with me?

I wasn’t weak. I’d trained every morning, every night. I knew how to fight, how to follow orders. I studied every phase of the moon and every old legend about shifting. I waited for the signs—tingling skin, glowing eyes, a whisper in the back of my mind. But nothing ever came.

Not even a whisper.

Maybe the moon goddess hated me.

Or maybe I was never meant to be part of this world.

I lay down on the bed and stared at the ceiling. A spider crawled across it slowly, like it had all the time in the world.

“Lucky you,” I muttered. “No one expects you to be anything.”

A knock sounded at the door.

I sat up fast. “Who is it?”

“It’s me,” a soft voice said. My mother.

I rushed to open the door, and there she was—tired eyes, thin lips, hair pinned back too tightly like always.

She handed me a piece of bread and a cup of water.

“I thought he said no food.”

She gave a weak smile. “I don’t care what he said.”

I stared at her for a second. She looked like she hadn’t slept in days.

“Why do you stay with him?” I asked before I could stop myself.

Her smile faded. “Because leaving him would mean leaving you.”

I didn’t respond. I just stepped back into my room and sat on the bed. She followed, closing the door behind her.

“You’re not broken,” she said, sitting beside me. “You hear me? You’re not broken, Destinee.”

“Then where is my wolf, Mom?”

She looked away. “I don’t know.”

“Everyone else shifted. Even Harper, and she’s a month younger than me. I’ve waited and waited. I prayed every night. I did everything right. Why won’t the goddess choose me?”

My voice cracked at the end. I bit my lip hard to stop the tears, but one slipped free anyway.

Mom reached over and wiped it away.

“I believe in you,” she said softly. “Even if no one else does.”

“Even Dad?”

She didn’t answer.

We sat in silence for a while. She told me stories about her first shift, how scared she was, and how powerful it felt afterward. I listened quietly, even though it felt like she was describing a world I’d never get to live in.

Eventually, she stood. “I have to go before he notices I’m gone. Just… keep your head down today, okay?”

I nodded, not trusting myself to speak.

She slipped out the door, and I was alone again.

I stared out the window at the forest beyond our land. It looked peaceful, but I knew better. That forest was full of wolves who’d never accept someone like me, someone who couldn’t even shift.

I needed air.

I waited until the house was quiet, then snuck out the back. My feet moved fast, almost on their own, as I ran toward the trees. The moment I crossed the border of the woods, something inside me settled. It was like the trees wrapped around me and whispered, “You’re safe here.”

I slowed down and caught my breath near the old creek. The water flowed lazily over the rocks, calm and soft.

I sat on the edge and dipped my fingers in. The cold water bit at my skin, but I didn’t pull away.

A rustle behind me made me jump.

“Don’t panic,” a voice said.

I spun around. It was Kellan.

Oh no.

Kellan Thorne. My childhood best friend. The boy who used to catch fireflies with me and laugh when I tripped over my own feet. Now he was six feet tall and the Beta-in-training. He hadn’t spoken to me in months.

“What are you doing here?” I asked, brushing my hands on my jeans.

“I could ask you the same thing.”

“I needed air.”

“I figured.” He walked over and sat a few feet away from me. “So… it didn’t happen?”

I shook my head.

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. Everyone else already is.”

“No,” he said, looking at me. “I mean it. I know how hard you tried.”

A silence stretched between us.

“You remember that night we camped out here?” he asked suddenly. “We were ten, and we swore we’d both be Alphas one day.”

“Yeah,” I whispered. “That was before everything changed.”

Kellan frowned. “You still matter, Dest.”

“Not to my dad.”

“Forget him.”

I laughed bitterly. “Easy for you to say.”

“I haven’t forgotten you,” he said, his voice quiet.

I looked at him. For a second, I saw the boy I used to know, the one who defended me at school, the one who punched Branson when he called me ‘dead wolf girl.’

Maybe I wasn’t completely alone.

Still, that didn’t fix the hole inside me. The aching, empty place where my wolf should be.

“I just want to know why,” I whispered. “Why me?”

Kellan didn’t answer. He just stared at the trees, lost in thought.

Then he stood. “Come on. I’ll walk you back.”

I hesitated. “If Dad sees you—”

“I don’t care. Let him say something.”

I stood, too. “You’ve changed.”

“So have you.”

We walked back together in silence.

When we reached the edge of the forest, Kellan stopped. “If you ever need to talk… or get away… I’m here.”

“Thanks.”

He gave me one last look before turning and disappearing into the trees again.

Back at the house, I crept inside like a ghost. I made it to my room without anyone seeing me.

I lay down and stared at the ceiling again.

Maybe I didn’t have a wolf.

But I still had a heart.

And it was still beating.