Chapter 2

Ella. 

I didn't sleep.

Every time I closed my eyes, I saw Kyle's face. Felt that pull in my chest like a physical ache. At two in the morning, I gave up and opened my laptop.

I typed "werewolf mates" into the search bar, felt ridiculous, and hit enter anyway.

Thousands of results. Most were fiction…romance novels, fan wikis, and role-playing forums. But buried in the noise, I found older sites. Folklore pages. Mythology databases. References to "true mates" and "bond pairs" that went back centuries.

The information was consistent enough to be unsettling.

Mate bonds were permanent. Once activated, they couldn't be ignored. Mates could sense each other's emotions, locations, and sometimes even pain. Rejection was possible but caused severe psychological damage. Sometimes physical damage too.

And marking, claiming was irreversible.

I slammed the laptop shut at four AM, crawled into bed, and spent the next three hours staring at the ceiling.

Dad knocked on my door at seven. "You okay, sweetheart? You look exhausted."

"I couldn't sleep," I said. True enough.

"Nervous about Kyle starting at your school tomorrow?"

Tomorrow. Monday. Kyle would be at Lincoln High.

"Yeah," I said. "Something like that."

I got through Sunday in a haze. I tried to do my homework, but I couldn't focus. I tried to read, but gave up after rereading the same page six times. The pull was constant now, a low hum under my skin that wouldn't go away.

I knew exactly how far away Kyle was. Which direction. Like I had an internal compass that pointed only to him.

It was terrifying.

Monday morning, I felt him the second I walked into the school parking lot.

He was here. Inside the building. My whole body froze, that invisible string pulling taut.

Jade found me at my locker. "You look like death. Late night?"

"Something like that."

"Well, you're about to feel better. Have you seen the new guy?"

My stomach dropped. "What new guy?"

"Transfer student. Senior. He's in Mr. Peterson's homeroom, and oh my god, Ella, he's…" She fanned herself. "Illegal. That's what he is. Illegally hot."

I didn't need to ask who she meant.

First period, I felt Kyle three classrooms away. English class, north hallway. The awareness was so precise it made my head spin.

Second period, he moved. Chemistry lab, east wing.

By the third period, I was checking the hallway every few minutes, hyperaware of his location even though I couldn't see him.

Jade noticed. "You okay? You're acting weird."

"I'm fine."

"You keep looking at the door like you're expecting someone."

I was. But I couldn't explain why.

During lunch period, I saw him.

He walked into the cafeteria and every conversation near me stuttered. Girls turned to stare. Even some of the guys looked twice.

Kyle ignored all of it. He got food he clearly wasn't going to eat, found an empty table in the corner, and sat with his back to the wall.

"That's him," Jade whispered. "The transfer. Kyle something. He's in my calc class and didn't say a single word the entire time."

I couldn't look away. He was wearing a black t-shirt that showed off arms I definitely shouldn't be noticing, and his jaw was tight like he was in pain.

"Earth to Ella." Jade waved her hand in front of my face. "Are you drooling?"

"What? No."

"You're totally staring at him."

I forced myself to look away. "I'm not."

"Oh my god, you are. Do you know him?"

"He's my new stepbrother."

Jade's eyes went wide. "WHAT?"

"My dad's girlfriend is moving in next month. That's her son."

"That should be illegal. Like actually illegal. How are you supposed to live with that?"

I had no idea.

Lunch dragged on. Jade kept talking about some guy from the debate team…Brandon, who apparently had a crush on me. I nodded in the right places, barely listening.

Then Ashley Morrison walked up to Kyle's table.

Ashley was beautiful, confident, and had dated half the football team. She sat down across from Kyle without being invited, leaned forward so her shirt showed cleavage, and smiled.

I felt rage.

Not a normal annoyance. Not mild jealousy. Pure rage that came from somewhere deep and completely strange to me.

My hands clenched around my water bottle hard enough that the plastic cracked.

"Whoa," Jade said. "You okay?"

I stood up. "I need air."

I left before Jade could ask questions, before I did something insane like march over there and rip Ashley away from him.

What was wrong with me?

I made it to the hallway before someone caught my wrist.

Kyle.

I spun around. He had followed me, he left Ashley sitting alone at his table. Up close, he looked worse than I felt, dark circles under his eyes, tension in every line of his body.

"You felt that," he said. "When she touched me."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Stop lying. The bond makes it almost impossible for us to lie to each other."

I yanked my wrist free, but the contact had already done its damage. That pull was stronger now, warm and insistent and making it hard to think.

"Fine," I snapped. "Yes. I wanted to rip her face off. Happy?"

"No." His voice was rough. "Because I feel the same way every time your friend's boyfriend looks at you."

"Jade's boyfriend doesn't look at me."

"Not Jade's. The one she keeps talking about. Brandon."

How did he know, we were on opposite sides of the cafeteria. He couldn't have heard that conversation.

"Enhanced hearing," Kyle said, like he'd read my mind. "I can hear everything in that room. Including your heartbeat speeding up right now."

"This is insane."

"I know."

"We're about to be stepsiblings."

"I know."

"So what do we do?"

His jaw clenched. "My father says we reject the bond."

"And then what?"

"And then we live in the same house and pretend we don't feel like we're dying every second we're apart."

The words hung between us. The truth of them settled in my chest like lead.

His phone rang. He glanced at the screen, and something in his face changed. "I have to go."

"Now? It's the middle of the school day."

"There's… it's complicated. A pack thing."

"What kind of pack thing?"

He hesitated, then said, "Another Alpha is coming to meet with my father. About territory and alliances. I'm supposed to be there."

"You're leaving school for a meeting?"

"It's not just a meeting. It's…" He ran his hand through his hair, frustrated. "You wouldn't understand."

"Try me."

"The pack world doesn't work like the human world. There are rules. Protocols. When an Alpha visits another Alpha's territory, the heir has to be present. It's a sign of respect."

"So go."

"I don't want to leave you here." The admission seemed to cost him something. "The bond doesn't like distance. It's going to hurt."

"I'll survive."

He looked at me like he wanted to argue, but his phone rang again. He silenced it. "After school. We need to talk. Really talk."

"About what?"

"About what we're going to do. About the bond. About…" He stopped, shook his head. "Just meet me. Please."

Before I could answer, he was gone.

I leaned against the lockers, trying to catch my breath. The pull was already aching, stretched thin by his absence.

The rest of the day was torture. I felt him leave school, felt the distance grow. By the eighth period, my chest actually hurt.

Jade cornered me after the final bell. "Okay, spill. You and the hot stepbrother. What's going on?"

"Nothing."

"Liar. You've been distracted all day, and he followed you out of the cafeteria like a lost puppy."

"It's complicated."

"Everything's complicated. Talk to me."

I wanted to. I wanted to tell Jade everything, the bond, the werewolves, the impossible situation. But how could I? She'd think I had lost my mind.

"I can't," I said. "Not yet."

Jade studied me, worried. "You know I'm here, right? Whatever this is."

"I know."

I drove home, did homework I wouldn't remember, ate dinner with Dad while he talked about wedding plans I couldn't focus on.

And the whole time, I felt Kyle. Miles away, but present.

At nine PM, my phone buzzed.

Unknown number: "This is Kyle. Can you come to Crescent Moon territory? We need to talk. I'll send you the address."

I stared at the message.

This was crazy. Going to werewolf territory. Meeting with the guy who was supposed to be my stepbrother but was actually my mate.

I typed back: "When?"

His response was immediate: "Now. Please."

I grabbed my keys.