Chapter 2

When Dom said that, he had no idea I'd end up with his rival.

After we made up, Dom had a little PTSD.

If I was even slightly cool with him, he'd say I was freezing him out again.

So I started bringing him water at his basketball games.

The first time Lucian Vance saw me, he froze on the court.

Then Dom crashed into him going for a rebound, and Lucian landed wrong on his ankle.

Any other day, there would have been claws on that court. They were the heirs to Stonecrest and Northridge, the two biggest packs in the territory, and they'd hated each other since middle school.

But then Lucian found out I was Dom's sister.

He forced out a smile. "We're good, man. No big deal."

Lucian was a lot of energy.

Loud, friendly, clingy in a way that should have been annoying and somehow wasn't.

He felt clean. Honest.

The kind of boy who grew up in a happy house.

I turned him down without thinking twice.

I didn't know what to do when people were cruel to me. I didn't know what to do when they liked me either.

I was a sickly kid. Hospital visits every few weeks for as long as I can remember.

Back then, Dad was Alpha of Stonecrest and Mom was his Luna, and between the two of them, there was no time left for a kid who kept getting sick.

So they sent me to live with my grandparents.

They mailed my grandparents photos. Stacks of them. Grandma would sit me down at the kitchen table and show me.

Maybe they did it so I wouldn't forget them.

I looked at the happy family of three. Dom at the amusement park. Dom at the aquarium. Dom at the mall. Dom blowing out his candles.

It hurt.

I didn't let it show.

My grandparents liked boys better. More precisely, they liked the heir better. Every Christmas, Dom's check was bigger than mine.

When he visited, they couldn't stop smiling. They never smiled at me like that.

But they never mistreated me either.

I got three hot meals a day. My clothes were always clean.

When I threw up in bed in the middle of the night, nobody yelled.

I figured the least I could do was be easy to take care of.

In fourth grade, my parents brought me home.

I thought I'd be happy.

They were all good to me. Especially Dom.

He didn't act like most firstborns do when a sibling shows up. He was always poking me, dragging me places, spending his allowance on candy for me.

All of it felt wrong.

When my family crowded around me to sing happy birthday, I felt nothing. When they worried about me, I didn't feel touched.

What I wanted was a door.

Somebody gets close, I open it, step through, and I'm gone.

Lucian was the first person who sat down outside that door and refused to leave.

He always had something to say.

Just woke up. Dreamed about you. You were hugging a giant tub of ice cream. So cute.

Are you craving ice cream? Let me take you to dinner tonight. After, we'll get a giant tub and hug it together.

I didn't want to go out. I didn't know how to say no. So I didn't answer.

Summer break is torture. I can't see you.

Ives, answer me. Even a period is fine.

Way too cheesy. I didn't answer.

Sorry I went quiet for two days. I was in the hospital. Pneumonia, if you can believe it. Wear a jacket, okay? Don't end up like me.

I felt terrible. I was scared he was mad. I didn't answer.

He called.

"Ives, I know you saw them. You're too nice. You felt bad you didn't check on me, and then you didn't know what to say, so you said nothing. Right?"

That was Lucian. Serious. Persistent. Thoughtful.

He chased me for three whole years.

Long enough that even Dom backed off.

Somewhere in there, I started to believe this one wasn't going anywhere.

That I was safe with him.

So I said yes when he asked me out.

A few years later, I said yes when he asked me to be his mate. He marked me the night of the ceremony.

On paper, I became Luna of Northridge. In practice, I painted. Luna work meant people, and people were the whole problem.

Lucian built us a house on the quiet edge of his territory, far from the pack house, because I couldn't sleep with forty wolves under one roof.

I thought that was love.

What I never saw coming was this.

The brilliant assistant Lucian kept bragging about was the girl who bullied me in high school.