Chapter 2

The Missing Half

Lena’s POV

“Oh, hi Kade,” I said, my voice soft, my cheeks warm.

He smiled. “I think someone’s thoughts got too heavy, and that’s why you tripped.”

His voice always sounded kind. His tone made people feel calm, safe. He used to be the most considerate boy anybody ever knew.

I convinced myself that the reason was only him being polite and he treated everybody in that manner but my heart would not. It fluttered the way it always did when he smiled like that, so open and gentle.

“Umm no…I am okay? I replied, not sure to what I was replying at all. I understood that I was daydreaming again and it occurred too frequently being around him.

We’d known each other since we were little. In kindergarten, we were inseparable. But as we grew up, he drifted away, busy with leadership training and pack duties, while I stayed where I was waiting.

And still, I remembered everything.

“When we grow up, Lena, we’ll be Mates,” he’d said once while building a sandcastle with me during recess.

“Really, Kade?” I asked with wide eyes.

“Yup! I’ll even build a real castle like this for you, so we can play all day.” He took my hand as he spoke, so sure of himself even then.

“Wow, so I’ll be your Luna?” I asked.

He nodded quickly. “Yeah, even if you don’t have a wolf. I have mine!”

At that moment, he changed for the first time in my presence, still only a young pup, his coat soft and brown. I cheered with excitement as he swung his tail and kissed my hand. 

But that was years ago.

“Lena, are you still with me?” Kade asked now, waving a hand in front of my face.

“Huh?” I blinked, then gave a nervous smile.

“You are a great deal of a day-dreamer,” he said, more to himself than to me.

I was staring at him and then, as I scratched behind my neck, I apparently said, “Thank you, for catching me. So clumsy I am at present.”

“Oh, it will do, he said, looking at his watch. He stared at me then, with contracting eyebrows. “Can we catch up later? I’ve got class now.”

He was in his final year. Exams were coming, and he had more responsibilities than anyone else in school. As the only son of Alpha Darion and Luna Mira, he was the future Alpha of our pack.

I was technically in the same grade because of my high marks, but I was the youngest by a year. Kade and I only shared one class together.

“Of course,” I nodded quickly. “See you later.”

I saw him go, tall and straight, with the confidence that I had never been able to excel. As he went down the corridor, I turned to the school gates. However, I was not to go to my first class until an hour.

I did what I have always done when I found I was too heavy to stay sitting down, that is, I went to the park.

It was one of these small places where it is not customary to go so early, and it was quiet. I was seated in that same old bench where I used to sit and looked up at the grey clouds. It was all sluggish as though the day and the night were in between.

That boy I just talked to, Kade Marlowe, had my heart but he didn’t know it. I have had crushes on him since I was a kid. But it wasn’t a crush only. It felt more, like something who lived in my chest and wouldn’t go. The way he talked so low and gentle, made my heart break.

But I knew I wasn’t special to him. Everyone received the same soft smile and polite warmth of Kade. He was respectful to the older and only used to be friendly to the juniors and had never raised his voice even when he was angry. He was everything a future Alpha should be.

I often asked the moon goddess to let him be my Mate. I begged for it and prayed on my knees as one chokes with pledge, and under the bedclothes, in the dark, in the woods where none could hear. However, I did not know whether the goddess would ever hear me since I was a different person.

I didn’t have a wolf.

Most people believe that wolves appear when we’re teenagers. That’s wrong. We’re born with them. From the time we’re babies, the wolf is already there, just quiet. By the time we’re three, they make themselves known. Sometimes even earlier. Rare children have been known to shift as young as one year old.

But I never shifted. Never heard a voice in my head. Never felt that warm presence people talked about, like a second soul inside you. I was just… alone.

Everyone else my age had met their wolves when they were tiny. They grew up learning to talk to them, run with them, and shift under the moon. Their wolves were a part of their bodies, their instincts, their emotions.

But me? Nothing.

By the time I said to my mother that I had never heard the voice, had never experienced that weird gravitational kind of pull that everyone seemed to feel, her mouth literally, literally, fell open. She pressed me many times whether I was going to be really sure. It was impossible not to tell her the truth, I did not feel anything.

Since then, our relationship was altered. She was hurt, and maybe even ashamed. In a family full of proud shifters, how could her daughter be the one without a wolf?

And maybe that’s why she grew so distant. My mother, daughter of an Alpha, mated to my father, a noble Omega. In our world, Omegas aren’t low-class or weak. They’re actually third in rank after Alpha and Beta, respected and trusted. My father was once a scout leader, and his loyalty was unmatched.

I should’ve been proud of my bloodline. But instead, I carried shame.

My brothers, Jace and Thorne Wilder, both had strong wolves and led training groups. They got praise. They rested. They got freedom. I got chores. And silence.

I often lay awake at night, asking the same question: Why not me?

No answer ever came.

My phone buzzed on the bench beside me. The screen showed a reminder, class was about to start.

I picked up my bag and stood slowly. I had one last hope. Maybe everything would change if Kade turned out to be my Mate.

Every year, during the Red Moon Night, werewolves who are nineteen or older find their destined partners. It’s the only time the bond reveals itself. I still had one year to go.

One more year of waiting.

If I was lucky, if the goddess heard me, Kade would be mine. And if that happened… maybe my wolf would finally come. Maybe I wasn’t broken, just waiting.

The steps to school were heavy with hope, with fear, as I pulled my jacket firmly and reassuringly in place. I did not have a dread of what was going to happen next. But I realized that I had to change something.

Since no one can spend his life in obscurity.