CHAPTER 2
♪Isabella♪
The forest swallowed the sound as I ran—every breath a gasp, every step a prayer stitched with panic.
Branches whipped my arms, wet leaves slapped my legs, and the wind pushed against me like it was auditioning for the role of 'Antagonist hashtag 2.'
Maybe it was. Maybe everything in this cursed world had joined a group chat dedicated to making my life miserable.
I couldn't take the main road. Too open. Too many humans. Too much risk of wolves following.
Humans and wolves had blended into the same world long ago, living side by side in schools and jobs.
The humans think we're just a "weird gated community." If they only knew that behind these gates, we're basically one bad day away from a National Geographic special.
My body felt foreign—too hot, too tight. Heat pooled low between my thighs, humiliating and impossible to ignore.
"Seriously? Now?!" I whispered to my own body. "Not now. Goddess, not now…" Like my internal organs hadn't gotten the memo that we were currently fleeing for our lives.
"Moon Goddess, please," I gasped, shoving past a branch, begging was useless but come on.
"If I survive this, I'll...I don't know... stop stealing bread rolls from the kitchen? Swear it."
A miserable bribe, I know, but I'm a low-ranking outcast. I don't exactly have a dowry of gold to offer.
Not knowing why every male wolf at school went feral the moment they caught my scent sucks, I didn't even know what I smelled like.
Hopefully not like despair and cheap shampoo, though that would be the most accurate.
Suddenly, a memory slammed into me. A hand pulling mine. A smile too bright for a seven-year-old. "Izzy, it's okay. Just stay behind me."
No, no, not now. I don't have the emotional bandwidth for a traumatic flashback.
From the shadows, a laugh echoed. Someone stepped out. Raven-black hair, dark eyes, and a smile that probably cost more in dental work than I've made in my entire life.
Selena.
Clearly my day wasn't cursed enough already, the universe decided to drop the Main Character in my lap.
My dear twin sister. The perfect child. The one who got the good genes and the functional personality.
"Well, well," she purred, arms folded as if she'd been scripted into this scene. "Look what the forest dragged in."
"Not now, Selena. I don't have time for your crap."
"Oh, the freak suddenly has a mouth," she snapped, sniffing the air, till her eyes sharpened.
I half-expected her to start judging me for my lack of perfume, but her face twisted into something much weirder.
"Move, Selena," I forced my chin up, even though my legs felt like overcooked noodles.
"Why? So you can keep running like the pathetic little slut you are?" She stepped closer, sniffing again.
Her pupils went wide, her violet eyes snapping to mine.
"No. No way. You?"
"What the hell are you on about?"
"Unbelievable. You don't even know, do you, sister?" She spat the word 'sister' like she was trying to get a hairball out of her throat.
We're twins for the record, nature's way of showing its twisted sense of humor.
"Know what?" I demanded.
"Oh, this is rich. You don't even know what's happening to your own pathetic body."
"I don't have time for your bullshit, Selena!"
"Then you'd better make time," she purred, eyes glittering. "Because if I can smell it already… others will too. And I'll be damned if I let you anywhere near the pack house—near Aleric."
My mouth went dry. So that's what this is about. Aleric. I'd done nothing to her. I don't even care about alriec, she could fucking have him.
I just have to go back to the pack house, to my room, the only safe place I know, maybe I could find something to stop this uncomfortable reaction.
"Look at you," she murmured. "Same face as mine, but somehow uglier. Same blood, but somehow weaker."
She grabbed my chin, forcing me to look at her, I pushed her hands away. "You should have died with Ethan"
My heart cracked, but I wasn't going to let her see it. "Shut up," I whispered.
"You begged him to go into that forest," she continued, "You cried until he gave in. You killed him."
"I was five."
"And?" She shrugged. "You think the pack cares? You think Dad does? You took his heir from him. All he has left is me."
I felt like she was trying to yank the world out from under me. "You should know by now I don't need much of a reason to ruin your life." She took a step forward, and the cold air wrapped around me.
I moved backward, trying to create some space between us. I acted like I'm strong but if push comes to pull, Selena would easily whoop my ass with her wolf just like last year.
I backed away until my heel crushed a twig and it snapped. On reflex I twisted toward the sound but pain flared
A metal trap bit into my ankle hard. I dropped to one knee, pain shooting up my leg like lightning.
Selena laughed. "Oh, sweetie. You run like an idiot. You fall like one too."
"Help me" I hissed at her but she barely glanced at me, her fingernails painted so perfectly they looked like they'd never touched a day of chores in their life.
"No."
"Selena!" I snapped, giving her a hard glare.
She sighed, crouching until her face was level with mine. "Where are your manners, sister?" she mocked, stifling a laugh.
"Oh—shit, I forgot," she mocked. "Our dear parents always regret having a mistake, so they couldn't teach you manners—"
"Don't you dare finish that sentence." I cut her off, fury overriding fear.
Shrugging with her venom-soft smile Selena continues, " Or what?! You know? Dad always says how much of disgrace you bring to the fa...."
Slap!
Before I could stop myself, my hand lashed out. Her perfect hair whipped to the side. For a split second, I felt great.
Truly incredible.
Then I remembered I was the one currently attached to a piece of rusted metal. "I'm going to enjoy watching you rot," she growled, her brown eyes glowing, indicating her wolf presence.
"I warned you!" I shouted back at her, the pain in my ankle fresh as the trap hooked me into place.
Selena's glowing brown eyes glared daggers at me as she straightened. "I planned to leave you here an hour," she stated.
"But it seems you want the extended treatment."
"You wouldn't dare...Dad—"
"Dad won't do shit." Her eyes glared daggers at me. Cutting through me sharply and painfully because I knew she was right.
Dad won't give two fucks about a cursed child like me. I had always been an outcast even before my wolf didn't show, the signs were there but I been ignorant.
"After all, Dad hopes I become his successor. Not a wolfless she-thing too stupid to realize she's in heat."
The word hit me like a physical blow.
Heat.
No. Can't be. I'm seventeen. Heat always comes at fifteen. When mine didn't, I figured the Moon Goddess had just unsubscribed from my life.
Broken. Wolfless. Cursed. So why now? Did my internal clock finally decide to wake up at the worst possible moment in shifters history?
Selena dusted invisible dirt off her designer clothes—clothes I usually only see from a distance, or when I'm folding them.
"I'll leave you here to think about your choices. Try not to die!" She sang the last part as she vanished.
I screamed after her as the rain pounded harder while I yanked at the trap until my skin tore.
No use. I was a literal sitting duck. Time blurred. An hour? Two? I forced my eyes shut, trying to pretend that if I couldn't see the forest, the forest couldn't see me.
Solid logic, right?
But then… a sound.
Heavy and sharp. A step pressing into the soaked earth. Closer. Faster.
If it's a wolf, I'm a snack. If it's a person, I'm a headline. Either way, I'm really starting to regret that dream about Aleric.