Chapter One

Kalin

If I’d been born a witch, I would have cursed anyone who hurt kids and covered them in poison ivy for the rest of their natural-born lives. Sure, a tad overdramatic, but come on, who the fuck hexes children?

I stared down at Lupita fast asleep in her crib, her lower lip sticking out and her lashes clumped in patches from the past hour’s crying session. She was only six months old and already displayed stubbornness when it came to nap time. It had to run in the family. Her dad, Enre, the alpha of our Romanian wulfkin pack, rarely slept, and her mom, Alena, only snoozed in one-hour spurts to look after the twins.

My inner wolf pressed against my insides, inhaling Lupita’s powdery, newborn-baby scent and, beneath that, a timber-like smell. Lupita wouldn’t transform into a wolf until she hit puberty, and then all hell would break loose with her hormones taking over. Good luck to her parents.

“Kalin, look here,” Alena called from across the nursery.

I crossed the room to the second crib. Standing beside Alena, I glanced down at the bed. Seff was in his nappy, kicking his arms and legs in the air, smiling. Lupita and Seff might’ve been twins, but they couldn’t have been more different. When one hollered, the other giggled. When one cried for food, the other vomited.

Alena rubbed Seff’s round belly, her index finger pointing to a tiny red star just above his heart.

“What is that?” I leaned so close that the baby’s fine hair shifted with my breath. How could I have not seen that before? I helped Alena with the twins most days, because that was what best friends did. I touched the mark; it was rough beneath my finger. “Did he scratch himself?”

Alena had her hands flat against her stomach, her eyes watery. “I told you—I think they’re cursed. I was praying the family blight would skip them. It’s always skipped a generation before.” Her gaze swept to the child, whose eyes were mirror images of his dad’s—deep blue.

“Don’t say that,” I said. Leaping to conclusions never helped anyone.

Alena shook her head, long strands of brown hair loosening from her ponytail. “The other week when Lupita tumbled out of her crib and got that concussion, Seff fell asleep right away. He didn’t wake up for forty-eight hours.”

Fear looped through my mind. “Why didn’t you tell me that?”

Her gaze lowered. “Enre and I kept it secret, hoping we were mistaken. I thought the mark would fade after a bit, but it’s getting darker. Now I’m terrified it’s the curse.” She paced to the door and back, her blouse stained on the shoulder from Seff’s earlier projectile vomit. “The mark appeared on Seff’s chest, similar to Lupita’s, after the accident.” Alena pulled the collar of her shirt away from her collarbone, revealing a small, red star. Identical to Seff’s.

I’d grown up with Alena and her twin brother, Nic. Every member in the pack knew about their curse, but not the mark. If one twin died, then the other did too, so they stayed close. They had joint souls. Alena had once told me a witch placed the spell on her family. This was a specific kind of hex. A revenge spell. Something about her ancestor betraying a witch and getting another killed. But it had happened so many generations ago no one seemed to remember the smaller details. Yet the family still suffered. Hearing now that the babies were also afflicted, my stomach locked up.

“When I was young,” Alena said, “Nic almost died. I was unconscious for several days while he remained injured. I won’t let that happen to my babies. Seff and Lupita are my angels, and I’ll do anything to keep them safe.” Alena wiped her eyes, and I took her into my arms, letting her cry on my shoulder. Her body shook.

“Everything will be okay, you’ll see.” I held my friend tightly, giving her warmth and support.

At the age of twelve, I’d lost my sister to a wolf attack. My world had collapsed, and I’d sworn I’d die that day too. Alena’s father had discovered me wandering through the woods and accepted me into his pack. That was so long ago—a lifetime—but having someone accept me had eased the pain. I owed my life to their family. And I’d do anything for Alena.

She forced a weak smile and busied herself with folding the twins’ blankets. “Thanks, Kalin. It feels good to talk about it. Enre has his way of dealing with shit—hunting any animal that moves. But I can’t stop thinking about it—if one of my babies dies, then we lose both.” Her shoulders curled forward, her mouth growing thin and pale.

“Hey, stop thinking like that. You and Nic are still alive. If Seff and Lupita are anything like you, they’ll be fine. Maybe we should focus on hunting for magic folk. Find a cure.” The world was big enough that there was always someone to help. The trick was finding the right person.

She huffed. “I’ve tried, but most witches are fake or have no idea about this. And it’s complicated. As a wulfkin, normal human spells won’t work on me. And what if it’s too late? What if too much time has passed, and we can never lift the curse?”

I took her hand in mine, pushing aside the sorrow tunneling through my chest. “For the twins’ sake, you need to be strong. If a spell was placed on your family, then someone has to know how to remove it.”

Alena returned to Seff’s cot, breaking into a soft hum. My insides shattered to see her in pain, but we were part of a huge pack here in Transylvania—forty-seven wulfkin. And, as wulfkin, we transformed into our wolf forms at will outside the full moon. We were powerful, strong, and the biggest clan in Europe—meaning a lot of members were available to care for the little ones should we decide to go track down the cure to this curse.

“Actually . . . ” Alena looked my way. “Enre and I were—” Her words vanished as she stared at the doorway behind me.

I twisted around and found myself very close to Lenuţa, my room buddy. While most wulfkin slept huddled in big groups, she and I had scored a room to ourselves with a little help from Alena.

Lenuţa stared at me, dolled up in a red-satin gown that accentuated the auburn hair curling over her shoulders. The snug bodice gave her an hourglass figure, while the full-length skirt waved around her feet. With a V-cut across her breasts, her assets were on full display. Add in her red lips, and she would have any guy drooling.

“Damn, girl, you’re going to destroy hearts tonight at the Halloween party,” I said.

Lenuţa smirked and spun on the spot. “Can you believe we picked this up at a second-hand store? Who in the world owns a dress like this in the first place and then gives it away?”

Alena was beside me. “You look gorgeous. Come. I’ve got a necklace that matches your outfit.” We followed her into an adjacent bedroom where she had a gigantic bed made of two king-sized beds nearly filling the room. While most of the pack preferred to sleep together on furs wherever they crashed at night, Enre insisted on keeping Alena to himself. One day I’d find my own hero to share my life with.

Lenuţa nudged me. “Hey, Kalin, why aren’t you dressed?”

“There’s plenty of time.”

“What are you talking about?” Her nose pinched as her caramel irises shone in contrast to the dark eyeliner. “We’re due to leave in five minutes. Damir is getting the car to take us to the castle. It’s our first human job as entertainers, and I don’t want to be late. I’ve been searching for you.”

How long had I been with Alena? The blinds were shut in the bedroom, but I peeked around them to find night crawling across the sky. “Crap. I’ve got to go. Sorry, Alena. I can’t be late to my first job.”

She glanced up, holding a black choker with a red teardrop pendant. “Of course! Go. Best of luck!”

I darted past Lenuţa, who slapped my butt. “Hurry up, chickie. We have to be there before eight p.m. They’re shutting the castle after that.”

Shit, shit, shit. I sprinted down the dark corridor to get outside, where the last sparks of sunlight streaked the sky. Damn. I prided myself on being early. And it was especially important for our job as hired fortune tellers at a human party. It was a gimmick for Lenuţa, but I believed the cards held the truth. I could also see a snippet of some people’s past or future when I touched them, but my ability didn’t work on everyone or all the time, such as Alena’s twins. My mind blanked when I concentrated on them. Regardless, tonight, we couldn’t let the organizers down, or we’d lose our ranking on the recruitment website, and then no one would hire us again.

“Kalin, you ready?” a male’s voice yelled out.

I turned to find Damir waving at me from across the lawn. Pine trees surrounded the open land. “Give me a sec.”

Bursting into the wooden cabin I shared with ten other wulfkin, I made it to my room in record time. I stripped and grabbed the plastic bag in the corner. I’d picked up my gown with Lenuţa a few days earlier and still hadn’t unpacked the outfit.

I rummaged through the bag and pulled out an ocean-blue dress. Strapless, it had fur lining on the bust—the main reason I’d selected the costume. Plus, it fit perfectly around my curves. The gown came with matching gloves also lined with fur. How could I say no to that? I stepped into the dress, pulling it up my body.

“Need help?” Lenuţa entered the room and tugged on the corset ties at my back.

“Thanks. It’s kind of fun to get dressed up for the ball, rather than wearing the usual fortune-teller look.”

“I’m going to wear my outfit every day.” Lenuţa broke into a giggle.

I gasped for air as she pressed one hand against my butt, the other yanking on the ties. I stumbled backward a few steps. “Not so tight.”

“Okay. Done.”

Rolling the gloves on, I ran into the bathroom and stood in front of the full-length mirror. “Wow. I actually have a waist.”

Lenuţa joined me. “You always did. The right clothes will emphasize it, girl. Now, put these on.”

She set my suede ankle boots on the ground, and I stepped into them.

A car honked outside.

“Crap, go tell Damir to hold his horses. I’m almost done.”

Lenuţa lifted her red dress and sped out of the bathroom.

“Okay, no time to waste.” Within minutes, I had my hair ruffled and fitted with a faux tiara, and my lips rosy. I took a last glance at my reflection. “Oh, yeah. Cinderella, eat your heart out.”

Back in the bedroom, I shuffled a hand through a cardboard box of items and grabbed my deck of tarot cards. I used to do readings all the time when some of the pack had lived in Bulgaria running a circus for humans.

Though, I didn’t need the cards to read someone’s fortune. A simple physical touch gave me snippets of their past or future. My sight was a gift from the goddess at the last Lunar Eutine—a time when I became a full wulfkin and the moon no longer affected me. Now, I could transform into my wolf form whenever I desired. Every wulfkin went through the ceremony, but, for some reason, at the last event, only females had been gifted with abilities.

I retrieved my satin bag with a wrist handle from the box and stuffed the deck in there.

A card jumped out and landed several feet away, face up.

Death.

While “Death,” at face value, had an obvious meaning, in tarot, it also translated into the ending of something big . . . a transformation. But neither definition was an option for me. The pack had gone through enough changes to last a lifetime lately. Our old alpha was killed. Enre had claimed our clan and merged it with his. And then there were the cops on our tails in Bulgaria. They’d believed us responsible for the dead humans found near our circus. Our kind almost got discovered, so we escaped the country. We’d moved from Bulgaria to Romania. Wulfkin had to live in secret to ensure our survival. To reveal our true forms to humans meant we’d be breaking one of the biggest pack rules. And punishment came in the form of death.

I swiped the card off the ground, slid it into my bag, and hurried out the door. “Nope. I’m ignoring this.” It was just a product of my clumsy hands.

Tonight’s job would go as planned. The pack needed money for our growing members, so Lenuţa and I were doing our part. Nothing would go wrong, and no Death card would change that.