Chapter 1

The zipper hissed like a warning snake as Lila pulled it up my spine.

"Breathe, Chloe," she laughed, her hands smoothing the silk over my hips. "You’re too tense. You smell like cortisol and cheap detergent."

"I smell like a human," I corrected, staring at myself in the cracked mirror of our tiny apartment. "Which is exactly why I shouldn't be going to the Obsidian Club tonight. It’s Lunarstice, Lila. The Alphas will be out of their minds on moon-drunk hormones."

Lila rested her chin on my shoulder. Her eyes, a warm, honey-brown that usually made me feel safe, were bright with a frantic kind of energy. She was an Omega—the lowest rung of the werewolf hierarchy—but to me, she was the only reason I hadn't been eaten or enslaved by the time I turned twenty-one.

"That’s why I need you," she pleaded, turning me around. "I’m an Omega, Chlo. If I walk into that club alone, I’m just meat. But if I walk in with a human friend... it looks like I have status. It looks like I have resources."

She held up a pair of diamond earrings—fake, but convincing. "Please? I just need to catch the eye of a Beta from the River Pack. Just one dance. If I can secure a mate, we move out of this dump. No more leaks, no more hiding."

I hesitated. The dress she had bought me was terrifyingly beautiful. It was a deep, blood-red silk that clung to every curve, leaving my back exposed. It felt expensive. Too expensive for a girl who worked double shifts at the cannery.

"Where did you get this, Lila?" I asked, touching the fabric.

"I saved up," she lied smoothly. She brushed a stray hair from my face. "Consider it a thank you. For being the only one who doesn't treat me like a runt."

I looked at her. We had grown up together in the Grey Zone, the slums between the human ghettos and the shining Wolf City. She had fought off scavengers for me. I had stitched up her wounds after territorial scraps. We were sisters in everything but blood.

"Okay," I sighed, the knot of anxiety in my stomach tightening. "One hour. We stick together. You don't leave my side."

"I promise," Lila beamed, her canines flashing white. "I would never leave you, Chloe. You’re my best friend."

She hugged me then, tight and desperate. I hugged her back, burying my face in her hair. She smelled of lavender and something else tonight—something sharp and metallic, like guilt.

I ignored it. In a world of monsters, Lila was the only thing that made sense.

\---