CHAPTER 2

NEAH

The sound of screeching tires. Metal folding like paper. Glass exploding everywhere. My body flying forward but my hands grabbing nothing but air. Then impact. Hard and sudden and final.

I jolted up in bed gasping for air. My chest was heaving and my shirt was soaked through with sweat. The room was dark. My room. I was in my room. I was safe.

But I could still smell it. Burned rubber and gasoline and something metallic that I knew was blood but could never say out loud. The smell lived in my nose like it had moved in permanently. Three years and it hadn't faded one bit.

My door flew open and Caleb was there before I could even catch my breath. He didn't say a word. He never did. He just climbed under my blanket, pulled me against his chest, and held me. His heartbeat was steady under my ear. His scent was familiar and warm, like pine and something sweet that I could never name. My breathing slowed. The smell of the crash faded. My eyes got heavy.

This was our routine. Every night. Same nightmare, same scream, same rescue. I hated that he had to do this. I hated that I needed it even more.

By morning the nightmare had loosened its grip enough for me to function. I dragged myself downstairs still half asleep and dropped into my seat at the kitchen island.

"Another rough night, sweetheart?" Aunt Diane set a plate in front of me loaded with eggs, bacon, toast and fruit. She asked like she didn't hear me screaming from across the house. I loved her for that. She always gave me the choice to talk about it instead of forcing me.

"Yeah. Getting worse actually. I don't know why." I shoved a forkful of eggs in my mouth so I didn't have to say more.

Diane and Marcus didn't have to take me in. When my parents died, every blood relative I had found a reason to say no. Too young to live alone. Too old to raise. Too expensive. Too much trouble. Diane didn't even hesitate. She was at the hospital before the doctors finished telling me my parents were gone. She held me while I screamed and she signed every paper they put in front of her and she brought me here.

I owed her everything. So I swallowed my moody teenager impulses and gave her a smile that said I was fine even though we both knew I wasn't.

"You ready or what?" Caleb's voice echoed from somewhere in the house. Loud and dramatic as always.

"Almost. Your mom is trying to feed me enough food for a small army. I can't just leave it."

He appeared in the doorway already dressed with his backpack slung over one shoulder and a piece of toast hanging from his mouth. "Mom, she's human. She doesn't burn calories like I do. You're going to have to roll her to school."

"Did you just call me fat?" I grabbed the closest thing to me, which was a strawberry, and threw it at his head. He caught it without even looking. Stupid werewolf reflexes.

"I'm saying you're well fed. There's a difference." He grinned at me with that annoyingly perfect smile. I couldn't deny that my best friend was good looking. All the wolves here were. It had to be genetic. Caleb had dark brown hair that always looked messy on purpose, warm hazel eyes that could charm anyone, and a body that screamed future Alpha. He was over six feet tall and built like he was carved from stone.

But I had never once felt anything romantic toward him. He was my brother. My twin in every way the universe would allow. The idea of us being anything more made both of us want to throw up.

"Your fan club is going to be waiting at school," I said as we headed for his car. A big black truck that growled when he started it. Boys and their toys.

"Don't remind me." He groaned.

The fan club was a group of girls who had been chasing Caleb since he turned eighteen and came of age to find his mate. None of them were his mate. They all knew it. They didn't care. And most of them hated me because I lived with him, ate with him, rode to school with him, and apparently that meant I was sleeping with him.

I wasn't. Never had. Never would. But rumors don't need truth to survive in a pack full of bored teenagers with super hearing.

The worst part was the insults had gotten meaner lately. Dead parents. Being human. Being beneath them. All fair game apparently. I never told Diane about the worst of it. She would burn this school to the ground and I didn't need anyone fighting my battles for me.

We pulled into his parking spot and sure enough, the welcome committee was already there. A cluster of girls in too tight clothes and too sweet smiles, all angled toward the driver's side like magnets.

"Showtime," I muttered.

"Shut up." He took a deep breath and got out.

I had to physically push through the crowd to get past them. One of them, Janelle, made sure to bump my shoulder hard enough to knock my bag off. I picked it up without looking at her. Not worth it. Not today.

Caleb didn't fight them off for me. He knew better. If he stepped in it would just make things worse. He just made sure they didn't actually block my path or put their hands on me in any real way. It was a system we had worked out over the last two years.

"Let's go, Neah. The guys are waiting." He threw his arm around my neck and pulled me away from the crowd. "Seriously, what am I going to do without you when you leave for college? Who's going to protect me from them?"

"That's your mate's job. Find her already so I can retire."

He laughed but it didn't reach his eyes. We had this conversation a hundred times. He didn't want me to leave. I didn't want to talk about it anymore.

The guys were waiting by the main entrance. And by guys I mean three of the best looking men I have ever seen in my life, standing in a row like they were posing for a magazine cover they didn't know about.

Shane spotted us first and his whole face lit up.

"Neah! Looking amazing as always. I swear you get prettier every time I see you."

"Shane, you saw me yesterday at training when I almost broke your nose."

"That was pretty too." He winked.

Before I could respond, Miles grabbed my bag from my shoulder and slung it over his own. Theo just nodded at me, which was basically a full love confession from him.

We walked into school together. Our little group. My found family.

I didn't know it then, but it was the last normal morning we would ever have.

Because somewhere across three territories, an Alpha I had never met was about to make a decision that would drag me into a world I wasn't ready for.

And nothing, not my training, not my plans, not even Caleb, would be able to stop what was coming.