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Chapter One

The New Girl

Aria’s POV.*****

“If I failed here, my family would lose everything.”

I stared up at the iron gates of North Ridge Sports Academy, so tall and imposing they looked more like the entrance to a castle than a school. Beyond them stood the place that could either save my family or send us straight back to where we'd started.

I'd spent years dreaming about getting through those gates, only to watch one application after another end in rejection. Now, somehow, I was finally here.

The cab came to a stop, and the driver turned back to look at me.

"We are here, ma'am," he said, in a polite tone. "Wishing you a great day ahead.”

I smiled at him and placed the fare in his outstretched palms and grabbed my suitcase. I stepped off the cab with one suitcase, scuffed at the corners, and wheels that squeaked as I dragged it over the cobblestone driveway. Around me, luxury cars purred to a stop. I was certain some of the cars here would pay my mother’s rent. Students climbed out with parents trailing behind them, assistants hauling matching luggage sets in sets of four, five, or six. Everyone wore sunglasses that cost more than my entire wardrobe, and that was when it finally dawned on me that I had gained a scholarship to the most prestigious academy.

I looked around to see if there was anyone looking lost just like me, but I was alone. Everyone was walking around, hugging, and engaging in little chitchat, and I could tell I might be the only new student here. I looked up at the billboards high up. Team leaders of different athletic departments were displayed on the screen. I wondered how it would feel to have my picture on this billboard.

My fingers found the edge of the scholarship letter in my jacket pocket, folded and refolded so many times that the creases had started to tear. I gripped it tighter.

Losing this scholarship wasn't an option. Without it, my brother's treatment would stop, and we'd have no way to keep paying the rent. My mother had already sacrificed everything she could. I couldn't ask her to sacrifice my brother too.

The check-in was quick. Room 412, a student ID, a campus map, and a reminder that orientation started at two. I thanked the staff member and dragged my battered suitcase toward the dormitory. The elevator was broken, because apparently the universe had decided my first day needed one more humiliation, so I hauled my suitcase up four flights of stairs.

I unlocked the door, pushed it open, and found an empty space. Inside the room were two beds and two desks, with one side of the room completely bare. There were no posters or sport stickers anywhere on the wall to signify the presence of anyone in the room.

My roommate hadn't arrived yet.

Perfect. At least I could claim the better bed before she showed up.

I dropped my suitcase onto the mattress by the window and glanced at the clock. Twenty minutes until orientation.

So much for settling in.

I dropped my suitcase on the unclaimed bed, didn't bother unpacking, and locked the room behind me. Orientation is starting in twenty minutes, and for a student who is on scholarship, missing the orientation is not a way I want to start.

The auditorium was a cathedral of privilege. Vaulted ceilings and chandeliers made out of real crystals shone brightly above, and rows of velvet seats were filled with students who looked like they'd been born with gold in their hands. I found a seat near the back, wedged between a girl reviewing stock portfolios on her tablet and a guy complaining about the thread count of the dorm sheets.

The principal's speech was everything I'd expected—tradition, excellence, championships, and a dozen reminders that North Ridge wasn't just a school but an institution.

I tried to listen.

I really did.

But every time he mentioned the academy's elite athletes, I thought about the scholarship letter burning a hole in my pocket.

I wasn't here to admire North Ridge.

I was here to prove I deserved to stay.

When the auditorium finally emptied, it emptied like a burst dam. Hundreds of students poured into the hallway, voices echoing off the marble floors, a sea of navy blazers and gold accents. I pressed myself against the wall and unfolded the campus map again, trying to orient myself. The dining hall was somewhere to the left. The science building was about a ten-minute walk away.

Someone slammed into my shoulder. As soon as his fingers brushed mine while catching the coffee cup, a strange warmth shot through my arm.

Hot liquid splashed across my chest and my hands, seeping through the thin fabric of my shirt.

I gasped, more from shock than pain, and looked up.

I looked up.

And I forgot my irritation for half a second.

The guy standing in front of me was unfairly beautiful—sharp jaw, dark hair falling messily across his forehead, and gray eyes that looked almost silver beneath the hallway lights.

He wasn't just handsome.

He was the kind of beautiful that made an entire room notice him.

And judging by the whispers suddenly spreading around us, I wasn't the only one who'd noticed.

"Oh! She didn’t just bump into Luca Silver."

“Luca Silver.”

The name stirred something at the back of my mind.

I'd heard it before. Somewhere.

Before I could place it, another whisper reached me.

“That's Luca Silver.”

Apparently, everyone here knew exactly who he was.

Everyone except me.

I didn't know who Luca was and why the girls were acting like I just bumped into a Greek god. He looked down at the coffee dripping from his jacket.

“Great. My favorite jacket.”

I glanced at the stain soaking through my own shirt.

“You know, mine's pretty ruined too.”

His eyes lifted to mine.

“You walked into me.”

I folded my arms. “And you walked around with a cup of coffee like the hallway belonged to you.”

A few people nearby went silent.

Luca's eyebrow lifted.

“You always do this difficult thing?"

“Only when someone gives me a reason.”

The hallway went silent. I could feel the weight of a hundred stares pressing against my back, heavy and disbelieving. Nobody talked to him like that. I could feel it in the air, thick and charged.

Luca Silver blinked once and then twice in disbelief.

For some reason, my wolf stirred restlessly, and I don't understand why.

My breath caught.

No.

That was impossible.

I had spent my entire life believing the stories about fated mates were just that—stories.

Yet the moment I touched Luca Silver, my wolf had woken up for the first time in years.

And judging by the way Luca was staring at me, something inside him had awakened too.

Oh, God.

What had I just found?