Chapter 1

I lied about my age and ended up in a secret online relationship with one of the biggest names in esports.

He was nothing like his public persona.

In public, he was cold and aloof.

Online, though, he flirted with me nonstop.

When he got worked up, he even said he'd be my good boy.

Then my nineteenth birthday came and went, and my wolf still hadn't awakened.

Most werewolves shifted for the first time at sixteen. Even late bloomers awakened by eighteen.

I couldn’t let Adrian find out I was defective, with no wolf at all.

So I broke up with him and blocked him everywhere.

Months later, while staying with my best friend Chloe, I heard her older brother speak outside the bedroom.

I had heard that same deep, distant voice through my headphones almost every night.

Then Chloe's voice drifted back through my mind.

“Don't get any ideas. My brother hates women who throw themselves at him.”

“Ever since his online girlfriend dumped him, he can't even see a couple in-game without hunting them across the map.”

“Chloe,” I asked carefully, “your brother's name is Adrian, isn't it?”

Until Chloe answered, a tiny, delusional part of me had still been clinging to hope.

“Oh my God. How did you know?”

Chloe stared at me from across the bedroom, one hand flying to her mouth.

And just like that, my last shred of hope vanished.

Of all the men in the world, I had somehow dated my best friend's older brother online.

And now, six months after dumping him, I was staying under his roof.

The odds of this were worse than getting matched with the same player twice out of millions of people on the server.

Before I could come up with an answer, Chloe waved it off.

“Actually, never mind. We tell each other everything. I probably mentioned his name at some point.”

She kept talking, happily supplying an explanation on my behalf.

I stood there trying to remember how to breathe.

Adrian was in this house.

My heart started pounding at the thought.

But it wasn't only my heart.

Something stirred deep in my chest, a strange restless pressure, as if a living thing had nudged me from behind my ribs.

I held my breath and reached inward, searching for it.

There was nothing.

No wolf. No presence. Not even the faintest sign that an awakening was close.

I gave a humorless little smile.

Of course. I'd imagined it.

Werewolves usually awakened at sixteen. A weak bloodline might delay a first shift by a year or two, but I had never heard of anyone reaching nineteen without one.

When I was little, my family used to tell me that a witch had examined me and declared me “special.”

For years, I'd survived on that word.

But everyone my age could shift now. I didn't even know if there was a wolf inside me to wake.

Special was probably just a kinder word my parents had invented for broken.

My mind drifted back to an hour earlier, when Chloe had first brought me home.

Adrian had been coming downstairs in a dark robe, the lean tendons in his neck shifting as he moved. He looked polished even half-dressed—cool, expensive, and unfairly sexy.

He was one of the biggest names in professional gaming, the captain who had led his team to three consecutive world titles. In interviews and on stream, he rarely spoke more than necessary.

Win or lose, his expression barely changed.

His fans called him the Ice King of esports.

Looking at him, I'd felt the oddest flicker of recognition.

More unsettling was the way he stopped when he saw me.

His dark eyes sharpened. His nostrils flared almost imperceptibly, as though he'd caught an unexpected scent.

A second later, his expression returned to its usual cool indifference.

He gave me a polite nod, his face once again perfectly unreadable, and treated me exactly as he should have: like his sister's college roommate.

It never occurred to me that this intimidatingly respectable man could be my flirtatious online ex.

The Adrian I knew online was entirely different.

He called me baby and sweetheart. He could make an obscene joke out of almost anything, and his possessive streak was frankly ridiculous.

I had been young and hopelessly inexperienced. More than once, he'd gotten me so flustered over voice chat that I'd climbed out of bed in the middle of the night just to splash cold water on my face.

I pressed my lips together.

“How many girlfriends has your brother had?”

Chloe laughed under her breath.

“Just one. It was online, but I think he was seriously into her.”

Her smile turned rueful. “Then she dumped him without warning. He's been in a foul mood ever since. Even his wolf has gotten harder to control.”

She patted my shoulder.

“If he's rude to you, don't take it personally. He's rude to everyone now.”

I managed a weak smile.

What I didn't know was that our brief encounter had affected Adrian too.

The moment he caught my scent, his wolf had stirred restlessly inside him.