Sometimes I feel like everything I touch turns to ash . . . everything except my relationships with Ezra and Alex. They're my rocks in this battering storm of life. I, Cadence Nocetti, am a living, breathing bad omen. Being born a twin means that I'm destined to bring the world to ruin, and sometimes that really feels like the truth.

My family was torn apart. Mom disappeared within herself, becoming a hollow shell of a being that I hardly ever see. Dad is always busy at a nearby human hospital or the free clinic in the Omega section of our pack's territory, which means that he's never present either. Even Alex and Ezra struggle to stick around thanks to their parents' interception, leaving an unexpected person to support me instead.

All of that is hard enough, but a lack of a constant parental figure allows evil to slip through the gaping cracks. The amaryllis I hold near and dear to my heart start appearing as the calling card of a brutal, violent stalker.

My life is quickly turning to hell by the day. Will there be anything left by the time I Ascend on my eighteenth birthday?