In Their Shadow: The Daughter They Forgot Chapter 01

In Their Shadow: The Daughter They Forgot Chapter 01

Our family group chat is called “The Happy Dacres.”

The members: Father, Mother, my brothers Leander and Corwin, and my sister Mirelle.

Plus Leander’s Golden Retriever, Corwin’s Ragdoll cat, and Mirelle’s guinea pig.

Yes, every single pet has its own profile.

Me? I was never added.

I asked Mirelle, “Can you add me?”

She was trimming her Pippin’s nails and didn’t even look up.

“That chat is only for family. You don’t really belong in it, do you?”

A pet rodent got a seat at the table.

But as her biological sister? I didn’t qualify.

I pulled out my phone and accepted Cascadia Lycan Academy’s offer of admission.

If there was no place for me in this family, I would leave for good.

***

Almost everyone in Greyhaven Pack knew the Dacre family.

My father, Ambrose Dacre, was Greyhaven’s Alpha and one of the strongest warriors of his generation.

My mother, Odette Dacre, was one of the pack’s best healers.

Leander was an esports star with 10M followers.

Corwin had joined a werewolf genetics lab in his teens and was hailed as a prodigy.

Mirelle was one of YouTube’s biggest werewolf lifestyle influencers.

Even Pippin, her guinea pig, had 300K followers.

Every one of them stood out wherever they went.

Me? I was the only Dacre without a verified social media profile.

Actually, that wasn’t quite true. I wasn’t completely invisible.

Once, Mirelle posted a YouTube video titled ‘Guess How Many People Are in My Family.’

She laid out the photos one by one—Father, Mother, Leander, Corwin, and Mirelle.

Then Pippin, Nimbus, and Max.

Eight photos in a perfect row.

I wasn’t there.

One comment read: [Mirelle, don’t you have an older sister?]

Mirelle replied with one line: [Oh, she doesn’t count as family.]

Her answer started trending that same day.

People began asking who Tamsin Dacre was.

Others wondered why an Alpha’s family had never publicly mentioned its other daughter.

Mirelle’s team did not explain.

Two hours later, they even released a statement:

[Statement on Mirelle Dacre’s livestream: Her comment was part of the show. Please don’t read too much into it.]

Part of the show.

I still remember how those words felt.

It was like standing outside the Pack House on a full-moon night, close enough to scent my family inside, yet knowing none of the doors would open for me.

Things like that had happened all my life.

For Leander’s first training session, Father cleared his entire schedule and spent the day with him on the field.

For mine, I waited from afternoon until dark. All I got was a text from the Beta: [The Alpha had something come up.]

At sixteen, I placed first on the Pack Aptitude Test.

I brought my results home and waited in the living room until after midnight, hoping Mother would praise me just once.

But Mirelle stumbled on the stairs, and Mother immediately insisted on taking her to Greyhaven hospital.

My results sat on the coffee table for three days. Then someone used them to line Pippin’s cage.

In that family, I was never allowed to claim anything as my own.

All my life, I wore Leander’s old training gear.

I wasn’t as brilliant as Corwin or as gorgeous as Mirelle.

So I trained myself raw, desperate to keep up.

I thought if I was a little more obedient and a little more exceptional, someone would finally see me.

A month had passed since high school graduation. Not one person had asked about my grades.

Not one had asked where I’d applied.

That day, I finally received an offer from Cascadia Lycan Academy, the best werewolf academy in North America.

For one breath, I wanted to tell everyone. I wanted to prove I wasn’t worthless.

Then I took out my phone and remembered…

I wasn’t even in the family chat.

So I asked Mirelle. Her answer was clear, “You’re not a Dacre.”

After eighteen years, nothing had changed.

I lowered my gaze. The silver-and-blue wolf crest of Cascadia Lycan Academy gleamed on the screen.

I tapped Accept.