CHAPTER 2
♪Isabella♪
The world blurred. Branches whipped my arms, thorns tore at my legs, and my lungs screamed for air as I bolted through the woods behind the school.
I couldn't take the main road. Too open. Too many humans. Too much risk of wolves following.
Humans and wolves had long since merged—blended together in jobs, school, and everything else—except that humans don't know of our existence.
They just thought of us as the weird society who lives at a gated community near the woods.
Lost in thoughts, I crashed into trees like a lunatic, praying my legs didn't give out. My heartbeat thundered in my ears, drowning everything else. My thighs burned. My chest ached.
And still the heat pulsed low inside me, mocking me. Seriously? Now?! Like my body thought this was the perfect time to remind me I was basically melting from the inside out.
"Moon Goddess, please," I gasped, shoving past a branch. "If I survive this, I'll—I don't know—stop stealing bread rolls from the kitchen? Swear it."
The sky suddenly decided it was the best time to gray over. A storm was coming fast, making the forest darker.
From the shadows, a laugh echoed in the trees. Not mine. What—? I skidded to a halt, frantically finding the source.
Someone stepped out. Raven-black hair, violet eyes gleaming even in the dim light. A smile curved on her glossy lips.
Selena.
Of course. Because my day clearly wasn't cursed enough already, it had to bring her.
The main freaking character.
"Well, well," she purred, arms folded as if she'd been waiting all along. "Look what the forest dragged in." My skin prickled as I glance past her, searching for any way around.
"Not now, Selena. I don't have time for your crap." My voice came out more snappy than I intended.
"Oh, the freak suddenly has a mouth," Selena snapped back while sniffing the air before her eyes sharpened as if something hit her.
"Move, Selena," I forced my chin up, even though my whole body trembled from exhaustion and… whatever the hell this was.
Her laugh rang through the trees. "Why? So you can keep running like the pathetic little slut you are?"
She stepped closer, sniffing again as if something was in the air bothering her. Her nostrils flared, her pupils went wide, and her violet eyes snapped to mine like she'd uncovered a secret she couldn't believe.
"Huh?—" She took another breath, slower this time, and her lips curled in shock and disgust. "No. No way. You?"
I frowned, hugging myself tighter. "What the hell are you talking about?"
Selena's mouth twisted, unable to decide whether to laugh or spit on me. "Unbelievable. You don't even know, do you?"
"Know what?" I demanded, though my voice cracked. The shameful wetness made me want to crawl out of my skin.
Selena leaned in, grinning. "Figures. A freak like you wouldn't even recognize it."
"Recognize what?!" I snapped at her constant mind game. I wanted to shove her, run—anything.
Her laughter turned crueler. "Oh, this is rich. You don't even know what's happening to your own pathetic body."
I clenched my fists, trembling. "I don't have time for your bullshit, Selena!"
"Then you'd better make time," Eyes glittering, she purred like a cat. "Because if I can smell it already… others will too. And I'd be damned if I let you anywhere near the pack house—near Aleric."
My mouth went dry. "You wouldn't dare—" I started, but my legs trembled and the words sounded tiny even to me.
She wouldn't, would she? I'd done nothing to her. I had to go back to the pack house, to my room, the only safe place I know, maybe I could find something to stop this uncomfortable reaction.
"Oh, I would. You should know by now I don't need much of a reason to ruin your life." Selena took a step forward, and the cold air wrapped around me tighter.
I moved backward, trying to create some space between us. I acted like I'm strong but if push comes to pull, Selena would easily whoop my ass with her wolf just like last year.
I backed away until my heel crushed a twig and it snapped. On reflex I twisted toward the sound but pain flared.
A metal snap bit into my ankle, teeth clamping hard. I dropped to one knee. "What the—" I yanked at the trap but it held. Pain shooting up my leg like lightning.
I twisted, trying to find a way to free myself, anything. My hands were slick; my breath came uneven. The forest spun.
Selena laughed out loud. "Oh, sweetie. You run like an idiot. You fall like one too."
"Let me go," I hiccupped but She barely glanced at me, fingernails painted perfect as if I was boring her.
"No."
"Selena!" I snapped, giving her a hard glare.
She sighed, crouching until her face was level with mine. "Where are your manners, mutt?" she mocked, stifling a laugh.
"Oh—shit, I forgot. Your smelly servant mother couldn't teach you, nor could your dead disgrace of a father—"
"Don't you dare finish that sentence." I cut her off, fury overriding fear.
Shrugging with her venom-soft smile Selena continues, "Your dead disgrace of a father? Please. He was exactly what the pack needed, weak and gone."
Slap!
Before I could stop myself, my hand lashed out. The slap stung across her cheek. Her perfect hair whipped to the side.
For a heartbeat her expression hardened, edge flashing in her eyes. "I swear to the Goddess above, I'm going to enjoy watching you rot." A low growl threaded the words.
"I warned you!" I shouted back at her, the pain in my ankle fresh as the trap hooked me into place.
Selena's glowing violet eyes glared daggers at me as she straightened. "I planned to leave you here an hour," she stated.
"But it seems you want the extended treatment."
"You wouldn't dare...the Alpha—"
"The Alpha won't do shit." Her eyes glared daggers at me. Cutting through me sharply because I painfully knew she was right.
The alpha won't give two fucks about a Wolfless freak like me. I had always been an outcast even before the death of my father and my brother, the signs were there but I had ignored.
Selena tilted her head, voice turning softening, "After all, he hopes his heir ends up with the pack's prize." She gestured to herself. "Not a wolfless mutt too stupid to realize she's in heat."
The word hit me like a slap harder than the one I'd given her.
Heat.
The storm. The trap. The pain. It all blurred into nothing as the fire in me roared higher.
No. Can't be. Not me. Not now.
I'm seventeen. Heat always came at fifteen. When mine didn't, I thought, no, I knew—I was cursed.
First my brother at seven. My father at ten. No wolf at thirteen. No heat at fifteen.
Every milestone had screamed the same truth.
Broken.
Wolfless. Cursed. Nothing.
So why the hell was Selena saying I was in heat?
Selena huffed as the first cold drop of rain splatters the leaves. "Pathetic." She pushed herself up, dusting invisible dirt off her expensive designer clothes.
"I'll leave you here to think about your choices. If someone finds you, maybe you won't be dead from starving… or from a wild animal."
Selena, please—" The word cracked out of me before I could stop it. I never begged. It never mattered.
But right now I was desperate, because if she was right, I needed the pack house—needed safety.
Selena barely turned, one hand lifting in a dismissive wave. "Try not to die before I get bored."The trees swallowed her silhouette as she vanished out of sight.
The rain pounded harder as I screamed after her till my voice left me, yanking at the trap until my skin tore and blood slicked my ankle.
No use. The trap held me into place. I couldn't hear anything anymore—not the rustle of leaves, not the distant sound of cars or civilization.
Just the storm beating down on me.
Time blurred. I didn't know how long I'd been trapped. An hour? Two? It felt like forever.
By the time the rain finally thinned, I could barely lift my head. My throat burned dry, my stomach twisted painfully, and my ankle throbbed.
I forced my eyes shut, curling into myself more, trying to pretend if I didn't look at my surroundings, the trap, the heat—everything—would just vanish.
But then… a sound.
Heavy. Slow. A step pressing into the soaked earth, closer, closer, until the air around me shifted.
I froze.
Something had stepped into the forest and it was getting towards me fast.