An original and empowering shapeshifter/werewolf mystery.
Lily's abusive life with her childhood pack is about to change forever when she's assigned to attend Rochester Academy; A boarding school rumored to be for unmated shifters.
What does this...
The rumors were irritating. They spread like rapid-fire across the school.
Lily could see the logic of it... if Christy was a Lycan. And Lily was seen with her on the first day going to the dining hall... if they were in the same classes... The two girls both wore red class markers ... and and and...
But.. no. She didn't want to believe it. It was only a silly rumor. She wasn't... she couldn't be .. Lycan.
She.. didn't want to be Lycan.
And yet the rumors .. just the thought that she could be Lycan... the idea seemed to nag at her at every chance. Particularly in classes, when the curious gazes of classmates lingered on her when they didn't think she'd see.
Leaving classes, through the corridors, people stood further back from her than they did even for Ryan. No doubt they thought she was a temperamental newly shifted Lycan who lacked all sense of control. It was a very isolating experience. Made even more so because of how distant she'd been feeling with Anne recently.
"She's almost eighteen," she heard a distant student say as she made her way to the dining hall. "There's no way she'd shift for the first time when she's seventeen. She must have another form that we just don't know about."
Their words haunted her. It didn't help that Lily's enhanced hearing had started to come and go as it pleased. It made it hard to avoid the rumors.
"I heard she can turn into a hippo," said another student. The voices, though whispered seemed to ring through the corridor.
A hippo.. that'll be the day.
'You need to control your abilities,' Anne's voice, from their first study session, seemed to echo in her mind.
It had a sobering effect. Maybe if she wasn't under so much stress, and maybe if the rumors weren't plaguing her.. maybe then she'd be able to focus and gain control... maybe.
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"Just accept it already, the rumors are true," said Anne later that evening. She had pulled Lily aside after their General Agility class.
"I don't think so. I can't shift into more than one animal.." said Lily.
"Have you even tried?"
"No.. but that's beside the point," said Lily stubbornly. "Anyway, the first shift happened on its own."
"On its own?" said Anne, sounding disbelieving. "You mean after you spent over three months practicing and actively trying to shift?"
"What's that got to do with anything? Those attempts were all unsuccessful," said Lily.
"Those attempts were vital to your success," said Anne. "If you didn't think it could happen, you would have never practiced. And if you never practiced you would have never gotten to the point that you believed you could."
"Even if that's the case, it doesn't prove anything," said Lily. "I'm not a Lycan. I can't be."
"Not sick anymore are you?" said Anne, changing tact.
Lily paused. It was weird being reminded of that. How had she forgotten how sick she'd been for months and months at the start of the school? "No," she said to Anne. "Not since..."
"Not since you shifted," said Anne. "And you remember what we read about the Lycan gene and how a virus can be a trigger for it."
"It's coincidence that's all," said Lily with a dismissive wave of her hand. "I'm not a Lycan."
"Why not?" said Anne.
Lily thought for a time. The whole idea of it sounded.. foreign and uncomfortable. What would it mean to be a Lycan? To have so much power to wield... To be expected to be a leader. She was just Lily. All she'd wanted was to be able to help her family of orphans at her old back.
'As a Lycan, you can,' said the quiet voice of her mind.
"I... I'm not .. strong," she said to Anne. "I just don't think I'm a Lycan."
She wasn't sure why she was so reluctant to entertain the idea. But the thought of being labeled as a Lycan... to take on that title, and the expectations that came with it...
She'd never thought much about what she wanted in life, what she aspired to. Her desires had always been such humble things. To be safe, help her family, and be free...
And the idea that she was a Lycan seemed at odds with who she was.
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