Chapter 2: The Boy Who Once Protected Me

Cole and I grew up together. We met when we were three.

Our parents had been friends for more than a decade, and both our families belonged to the Ironwood pack. We lived in the same pack apartment building, on the same floor, right across the hall from each other.

I’d liked Cole for as long as I could remember.

In elementary school, I was often bullied by a few boys whose wolves hadn’t awakened yet.

One of them sat behind me. He’d pull my hair, stick gum on my chair, and shove fake spiders into my desk.

I cried and told the teacher. The teacher scolded the boy, then smiled and told me he only did it because he liked me and didn’t know how to show it.

I didn’t buy that explanation. The boy didn’t stop, either.

So I went home and told my parents. They immediately wanted to file a complaint with the school. Cole’s father happened to be at our apartment that day, and when he heard what happened, he called Cole over and told him to keep an eye on me at school from then on.

Cole and I were the same age, but in different classes.

The very next day at recess, he stormed into my classroom, dragged that boy into the hallway, and beat him up.

Cole had always been taller and stronger than the other kids, even before his wolf awakened. He beat those boys until they ran crying to the teacher.

Before he left, he stood in the doorway and announced to my entire class, “If anyone bullies Aurora again, they’ll have to answer to me.”

That was the day I started to love him.

After that, I became his shadow. Wherever he went, I followed.

Cole hated it. He had his heart set on joining the pack’s warrior prep division, and he thought hanging around all day with a girl who wore pink and hated mud would make the other boys laugh at him.

But I didn’t give up.

As the years passed, he gradually stopped pushing me away.

After our wolves awakened, I started to catch his gaze lingering on me. Sometimes our eyes would meet, and he’d seem lost for a second. If he caught the faint strawberry scent of my shampoo, he’d look away like he’d been burned.

It wasn’t the pull of fated mates. It was just the deep, tangled familiarity of two people who had grown up intertwined.

But I thought it was love.

At a family dinner once, Cole’s father joked that we were so close we might as well choose each other as mates when we came of age.

Cole didn’t argue. Under the table, he squeezed my hand, and I saw the tips of his ears turn red.

My heart felt light and sweet. “Okay!” I announced loudly. “I’ll choose Cole!”

But when we started high school, everything changed.

At the end of the first semester of tenth grade, a transfer student joined our class.

Her name was Amber Lawson, from the Redcliff pack. Her parents had moved into Ironwood territory for work.

Amber was brilliant at math, a star at basketball, and a natural at close-combat training. After the school’s placement evaluation, she was put directly into the academy’s warrior prep division. She was also strikingly pretty, with a cascade of beautiful chestnut curls.

On her first day, she smiled at the teacher and said, “My hair’s naturally this color, and yes, it’s naturally curly. Surely the academy dress code doesn’t expect me to straighten it?”

Then she scanned the room. When her gaze landed on me, she paused for a beat and then burst out laughing.

“What is this, a princess who escaped from a Barbie dream house? Your backpack, your water bottle, your hair clips—they’re all pink. We’re in high school. Are you still playing dress-up?”

The entire class turned to look at me.

My face flushed.

I did like pink. My backpack, my water bottle, my hair clips, my T-shirts, my phone case—almost everything was pink.

Growing up, some boys had called me clingy and spoiled. Some girls had said I was trying too hard to be cute.

But most people were kind. More often than not, girls would tell me pink suited me.

It was the first time anyone had mocked me so openly, and for a moment, I was too stunned to speak.

“Sorry, I’m just blunt,” Amber said with a breezy little shrug. “Don’t get upset, Princess.”

“That’s enough,” Cole’s impatient voice cut in from behind me. “It’s your first day. Maybe talk less.”

I turned to see him glaring at Amber, his brow furrowed.

Amber just arched an eyebrow. “Oh? Has the princess’s guard dog arrived?”

“What did you just say?”

Cole slammed a hand on his desk and stood up. The tabletop shuddered under the force of his awakened wolf, and the students nearby fell silent.

The teacher quickly ordered him to sit down, then assigned Amber to the only empty seat in the room.

It was directly in front of Cole.

And just like that, they became neighbors.