Chapter 1: The First Awakening

The first time Derek’s claws broke through his skin, I was the one his friends called. I found him pacing the basement, the air charged and wild, like the night before a big game—except this time, someone might not make it out whole.

"I’m not just gonna hand it to her. We’re loyal, okay? The first person we mark—that’s it. That’s our person, forever."

He sounded cocky, almost defiant, his voice bouncing off the wood-paneled walls. For a second, it stung—he sounded nothing like the Derek I’d grown up with, the boy who used to chase lightning bugs with me in the backyard.

"Even if she shows up begging, I have to keep my distance. I can’t let her think I’m that easy."

But he waited, and I never came. The clock on the wall ticked past midnight, the full moon painting weird, shifting shapes across the glass. He didn’t know his brother’s bodyguard had already blown up my phone:

"Aubrey, he’s always picked you. Please, can you come? He needs you tonight."

"If you could just come over and kiss him—it might save him."

The texts blinked on my cracked iPhone, urgent and impossible to ignore. The truth was, five years ago, I’d fallen into a ravine while skiing in Colorado—and died. His brother, to save me, split half of his werewolf lifespan with me through a mark and pulled me back from the brink.

Late at night, I wrapped my arms around his brother’s neck, the clean scent of antiseptic and pine sap filling my nose. I whispered, "Caleb, don’t hold back. Tell me—how long have you been keeping this secret? How many years have you loved me in silence?"