Chapter 01: The Stranger

CELIA’S POV

I should have known that nothing good could come from falling in love with a wolf, especially when I was the only wolf-less girl in the entire academy.

Unlike everyone else, I had never shifted, never heard a wolf’s voice inside my head, and never experienced the pull of a mate bond. I was simply Celia, a scholarship student at one of the most prestigious werewolf academies in the country, and somehow, against all odds, I had fallen hopelessly in love with its most sought-after wolf.

Matt was the Beta’s son, the strongest wolf in our year, ridiculously handsome, popular, and worshipped by almost every girl in the academy. Yet for three years, he had made me believe I was the only girl he wanted.

“You don’t need a wolf for me to love you, Celia,” he had whispered beneath the academy’s old oak tree. “You’re the woman I chose, and I don’t care what anyone says. At the end of the day, you’re the one I want coming home with me.”

God, I had believed him.

That was why, three days ago, I had stood in front of my mirror in a silver dress, my stomach fluttering with nerves as I prepared for the academy’s annual Mating Ball. It was the night when wolves who had already discovered their fated mates publicly accepted their bonds before everyone. Since I had no wolf, I knew the Moon Goddess would never reveal a mate for me, but I had never believed that would change anything between Matt and me.

Besides, I had been looking forward to that night for another reason.

I was going to give Matt my virginity.

I had saved myself throughout our three-year relationship because I believed we would eventually build a life together. I had even packed an overnight bag that evening, carefully choosing everything because I wanted our first night together to be special. After three years of waiting, I thought I was finally giving myself to the man I loved.

What I didn’t know was that Matt had already found his mate.

And she was my best friend.

He and Grace had known for weeks. There had been whispers around the academy that something was going on between them, and once, I had even caught them standing suspiciously close together. When I confronted them, they both laughed and told me I was being paranoid.

Like a fool, I believed them.

The Mating Ball was simply the night they had chosen to stop hiding.

That night, the academy field had been transformed with silver lanterns and white flowers. Hundreds of wolves gathered beneath the full moon, their excited conversations filling the air as everyone waited for the mate revelations to begin.

I stood beside Matt with my fingers intertwined with his, smiling like a fool because I still believed everything was perfect between us.

Then the drums began.

The conversations slowly faded as the elders stepped onto the raised platform, and something about the sudden silence made uneasiness crawl through me.

“The Moon Goddess has revealed her choices,” the head elder announced. “Tonight, the fated mates who have already been called shall stand before the pack and accept their bonds.”

I tightened my fingers around Matt’s hand, but instead of squeezing mine back as he normally would, he pulled away.

My smile faded.

When I looked at him, he wasn’t looking at me anymore.

His attention was fixed across the field.

On Grace.

My best friend stood among the unmated girls, staring directly at him with tears already filling her eyes. Before I could understand what was happening, Matt started walking toward her.

“Matt!” I called, hurrying after him.

He didn’t stop.

My heartbeat quickened as I pushed through the people around us and finally caught his arm. “What are you doing?”

He turned to me, and the coldness in his eyes stopped me.

“Let go of me.”

I stared at him. This was the same man who had kissed me goodbye that morning, the same man who had spent three years telling me I was the only woman he wanted. Yet he was looking at me as though I were nothing more than an inconvenience.

“Matt, what is happening?”

He pulled his arm from my grasp and looked toward Grace again. She was crying now, but they weren’t tears of shock or confusion.

They were happy tears.

“She’s my mate.”

For a moment, I genuinely thought I had heard him wrong.

“What?”

“Grace is my mate.”

The words seemed to echo across the field.

I searched his face, waiting for him to laugh or tell me this was some horrible joke, but he simply turned away and continued toward her.

“Matt, you can’t do this.” I followed him, humiliation burning through me as more people began watching. “You told me you loved me.”

Grace laughed.

The sound stopped me in my tracks.

“Luna?” She looked me up and down with open disgust. “You actually dreamed of becoming Matt’s Luna? That’s adorable. You don’t even have a wolf, Celia. You don’t belong in our world, so stop embarrassing yourself by pretending you ever had a place beside him.”

I could barely breathe.

This was Grace. My best friend. The girl who had sat on my bed countless nights listening to me talk about Matt. She knew how much I loved him. She had helped me choose the silver dress I was wearing.

And all that time, she had known.

“Why?” My voice broke as I looked between them. “Why didn’t you just tell me?”

Matt turned around so abruptly that I almost crashed into him.

“I don’t care what I told you before. Did you seriously believe a wolf like me could ever want a wolf-less piece of shit like you? Besides I was just just using you to pass time, saving Grace for tonight”

Shocked whispers broke out around us.

I stared at him, unable to reconcile the man standing before me with the boy I had loved for three years. My chest hurt so badly that I could barely draw a proper breath.

“Matt, please. You can’t do this to me.”

“Stop saying my name!”

He shoved me backward.

I stumbled and somehow managed to stay on my feet, staring at him in disbelief. Before I could regain my balance, his hands hit me again.

This time, there was nothing beneath my feet.

I fell straight into the academy pool.

The icy water closed over my head, and every thought of Matt and Grace disappeared as panic exploded through my body.

No. Not the water.

I had been terrified of deep water since I was a child, and everyone close to me knew it.

Matt knew.

He knew exactly what he had done.

I kicked desperately, but terror made my limbs feel useless. I couldn’t tell which direction the surface was anymore. When I opened my mouth to scream, water rushed in instead, burning my throat as my chest tightened painfully.

I fought harder.

My fingers reached for something, anything, but found only water.

For one horrifying moment, I truly believed I was going to die.

Worse, I thought my last memory would be of the boy I had loved standing beside my best friend while I drowned.

Then an arm caught me.

Someone dragged me upward, and suddenly I was coughing violently at the edge of the pool while voices shouted around me. My entire body shook as water poured from my mouth and lungs.

Through my blurred vision, I searched the crowd until I found Matt.

He was standing beside Grace.

Watching me.

There was no panic on his face. No horror at what he had done. He didn’t even look guilty.

That was the moment the last piece of my heart finally broke.

My boyfriend of three years had nearly killed me, and he didn’t care.

A few days later, I was still trying to put myself back together.

My shift at the café had ended nearly an hour ago, yet I was still sitting alone in the staff room, staring blankly at the warning slip my boss had placed in front of me.

I had messed up orders, forgotten a customer’s change and nearly dropped an entire tray of drinks. Eventually, my boss had pulled me aside.

“You’ve been distracted, Celia,” she had said. “This is your second strike. One more mistake like this and you’re fired.”

Wonderful.

Apparently losing my boyfriend, my best friend and whatever remained of my dignity wasn’t enough. Now I was one mistake away from losing the job that helped pay my academy expenses too.

By the time I finally left the café, the sky had already turned dark. I walked aimlessly through the streets with my bag hanging from my shoulder, but the thought of going home and lying awake with Matt and Grace running through my head made my stomach turn.

I needed a drink.

Something strong enough to shut my brain up for a few hours.

That was how I ended up standing outside a small bar I had passed dozens of times but never once considered entering.

Tonight, I didn’t think twice.

Warm air wrapped around me as I pushed open the door, and the sharp smell of alcohol filled my nose. Music played quietly somewhere in the background while a few people talked and laughed around scattered tables.

I walked straight to the counter and climbed onto a stool.

“Give me the strongest drink you have.”

The bartender gave me a questioning look but apparently decided it wasn’t his job to save me from my bad decisions. He poured a shot and pushed it across the counter.

I swallowed it in one gulp.

The alcohol burned all the way down my throat, and I welcomed it.

“Another.”

He poured another.

I drank that one too.

I was reaching for the third when a deep voice came from beside me.

“You know, that’s a hell of a way to drink away a broken heart.”

I turned toward the voice, ready to tell whoever it was to mind his own business.

Then I saw him.

And completely forgot what I wanted to say.

The man sitting a few stools away was breathtaking. Thick, wavy black hair fell carelessly over his forehead, framing a face that looked unfairly perfect. His strong jaw was covered by the faintest shadow of stubble, and when his electric blue eyes met mine, a strange feeling tightened low in my stomach.

He was definitely a wolf. I had spent enough years around them to recognize the confidence they carried, but there was something different about this one.

A stronger kind of aura.

My heart skipped.

Then, for one impossible second, a low growl sounded somewhere deep inside my head.

I froze.

What the hell was that?

I glanced around instinctively, but nobody else seemed to have heard anything. When I looked back at the stranger, the sensation was already gone.

He smiled, revealing a perfect set of white teeth.

“Are you just going to keep staring at me all night?”

Heat rushed to my cheeks, and I immediately looked away. “I wasn’t staring. Don’t flatter yourself.”

His smile widened.

“Okay, sweetheart.”

I frowned at him, but annoyingly, the corner of my mouth betrayed me with the smallest smile.

It was the first time I had smiled since the Mating Ball.

Of course, he noticed.

“There it is.”

I glanced at him. “What?”

“That smile.” His eyes remained on mine. “You should do it more often.”

I should have rolled my eyes and gone back to my drink.

Instead, I found myself looking at him again.

There was something unusual about this stranger, and the longer he sat beside me, the harder it became to ignore. Every time he shifted closer, my skin tingled. A strange warmth spread through my body, completely different from the burn of the alcohol in my stomach.

I had never reacted to anyone this way before.

Not even Matt.

The realization should have frightened me.

Instead, I became even more curious.

The stranger had been smiling a moment earlier, but as he continued staring at me, his expression slowly changed. His brows pulled together, and the amusement disappeared from his eyes.

He went completely still.

“That’s impossible.”

I frowned. “What is?”

He leaned closer, his voice dropping until I could barely hear him over the music.

“I can hear your wolf.”

My blood ran cold.

For a moment, neither of us moved.

Then I forced out a nervous laugh. “I don’t have a wolf.”

His eyes widened.

“That,” he whispered, “is exactly what I’m afraid of.”