Prologue
PROLOGUE
Eviana
The farmhouse is quiet tonight, the hum of the scent neutralisers blending with the creak of the old wooden beams. The air smells faintly of lavender and chamomile—the scents Grams insists keep us calm. I don’t know if it’s true, but I’ve never dared question her.
Grams is everything in this world: mother, father, protector, and jailer all at once. She always says the world out there is full of dangers we can’t imagine, that we’re safest here, hidden away where no one can hurt us. It’s been that way for as long as I can remember.
“Eviana, get the door,” Grams calls from the kitchen, her voice firm, brooking no argument.
I jump, my heart skipping a beat. My sisters are scattered around the living room—Evangaline’s curled up with a book, Evelyn is sketching quietly by the fire, and Everly is lying on her stomach, feet kicking the air, scribbling in her journal.
None of them move to help.
With a sigh, I put down the knitting needles Grams handed me earlier, the half-formed scarf pooling on my lap, and walk to the door.
When I open it, the wind rushes in, cold and biting. I shiver, pulling my thin cardigan tighter around my shoulders.
Grams appears behind me, a force of nature despite her small stature. “I told you to shut that properly,” she snaps, brushing past me to lock the door herself.
I don’t respond. There’s no point.
As she works the bolt, I glance out at the darkness, the world beyond the farmhouse shrouded in mystery. Grams always says alphas roam out there like wolves, sniffing the wind for any hint of an unclaimed omega. It’s a terrifying image, one she’s spent years drilling into us.
“Grams?” I ask hesitantly. “Do you think…do you think the world’s really as bad as you say?”
She turns sharply, her eyes narrowing. “Don’t be foolish, Eviana. The world is that bad. Worse. Why else would I keep you girls safe here?”
“But—”
“No buts,” she cuts me off, her tone leaving no room for argument. “You’ve got everything you need right here. You’ve got your sisters. This house. Me.” She glances at the other girls, her expression softening slightly. “You’re all I’ve got. And I’ll do whatever it takes to protect you.”
Her words are meant to comfort, but they feel more like chains wrapping around my chest.
Grams goes back to the kitchen, her footsteps heavy on the creaking floorboards.
I sink back into my seat by the window, staring out at the fields beyond the farmhouse. The moonlight glints off the frost-covered grass, and I wonder – just for a moment – what it would feel like to run across it. To feel the cold bite of the wind without the weight of Grams’s warnings pressing down on me.
My sisters are quiet. They’ve all learned not to question Grams, not to let their thoughts wander too far from the safety of these walls. But I can’t help it.
“Eviana,” Evangaline whispers, her voice soft and gentle. “Stop thinking so loudly. She’ll hear.”
I glance at her, guilt twisting in my chest. “Sorry.”
She smiles faintly and goes back to her book, but the weight of the night doesn’t lift.
Grams’s words echo in my mind: The world is dangerous. Alphas are dangerous.
And yet, as I stare out into the darkness, I can’t stop wondering what it would feel like to be free.