Chapter Two

Isolde’s POV

I had a twin—Isla. Yeah, I know.

The names? Tragic. Go ahead and blame our parents for thinking rhyming was cute.

Isla was the golden child. We were identical down to the last eyelash, but somehow, she always sparkled a little more. Boys tripped over themselves for her. She was sweet, graceful, soft-spoken, basically the lead role in a fairy tale.

Me? I was the background noise. Loud, impulsive, stubborn as hell, and apparently allergic to rules. Definitely not the favorite.

It wasn’t exactly a mystery who our parents preferred. Spoiler alert: it wasn’t me.

When we turned sixteen, our family moved to the Red Moon Pack. Big promotion vibes, my dad joined Alpha Grey’s inner circle, and my mom became the Pack Enforcer. Discipline, control, and iron fists, that kind of thing. Real bedtime story material.

With all the new money rolling in, our parents gave us a rare freedom: pick any high school we wanted. No budget limit.

I chose Selville High. Isla went with Storm High.

Finally, a break. No more perfect twin breathing down my neck. Bliss.

Or so I thought.

Selville was hell on stilts. Rich kids, genius kids, and me? I stuck out like a sore, underperforming thumb. The bullying started fast. Some professor—Jake? Jordan? Whatever—decided I was “dumb” on day one, and the rest followed his lead like good little sheep.

I didn’t have friends. I barely spoke to anyone. My days were a blur of lectures, silence, and watching the clock tick painfully slow.

Until I met him—Ryder.

The Alpha’s third-born son.

He wasn’t like the rest of them.

While the other boys at Selville wore arrogance like cologne, Ryder wore silence like a weapon.

He was quiet, cold, and completely untouchable. The kind of guy you don’t look in the eye unless you’re ready to bleed.

And gods, was he beautiful in that brutal kind of way? Sharp jaw, high cheekbones, and a mouth that always looked halfway to a smirk or a warning. But it was his eyes that did the damage. Storm-grey. Cold. Sharp. Like he saw through you and wasn’t impressed.

I fell for him the second I saw him.

And somehow, that became the one thing Isla and I actually connected over.

I wasn’t especially close to her, but Ryder? He was the bridge.

I’d ramble about his eyes, his voice, the way he leaned against walls like he owned gravity. And she’d listen—really listen.

Then fate did her dramatic little thing.

Cough cough.

No, not mates. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

We weren’t fated. Not even close.

But then we got paired for a group project. Just a random assignment, nothing special.

Except... it changed everything.

After that, he kept showing up. Not just in class.

In the cafeteria. In the library. Outside the gym.

We kept crossing paths, like the universe had quietly decided we were meant to collide again and again.

Some people might call it a coincidence.

I didn’t.

And maybe it’s foolish. Maybe it’s naive. But I don’t care what anyone thinks.

To me, it meant something.

Maybe, just maybe, I was meant to stand beside him.

Even if he was the storm.

And I was just the girl reckless enough to step into it.

I don’t know how it happened but we became close. Closer than I’d expected.

He started trusting me with things he’d never told anyone else. Just me.

He said he never wanted to be Alpha. That all he’d ever wanted was to live without blood on his hands.

But that wasn’t an option in the Grey family.

His father, Alpha Grey believed strength was born from pain. So when Ryder turned thirteen, he was dragged out into the forest in the middle of the night… and left there. Alone. No food or protection. Just his human body and the howls of rogue wolves surrounding him.

It was a “lesson.” One of many.

He made it back three days later, half-starved, his back torn open, one eye swollen shut, and claw marks down his thigh from a rogue who almost ripped him apart.

His father didn’t say a word. Just nodded and walked away. No praise. No comfort.

After that, it only got worse.

At fourteen, he was ordered to kill a traitor from the pack. A boy not much older than him, someone who’d once shared his lunch at training. Ryder was forced to look him in the eye as he slit his throat.

Each memory he shared was worse than the last. I ached for him. If I could’ve taken his pain and carved it into my own skin, I would have.

I knew every scar on his back by heart. The long one from the rogue. The jagged one near his ribs from the training accident he never talked about.

When he slept near me, I’d trace them in the dark, not with my fingers, but with my eyes. Like they were constellations only I could read.

He never asked for comfort, but from that moment on, he became my gravity. My reason. My world.

Ryder worked hard and earned his place at Selville College, the best in the pack. And I knew I had to keep up. So I studied harder than I ever had in my life. Night after night, I buried myself in books until my fingers cramped and my eyes burned.

I passed.

And on my first day at Selville, as I stepped onto campus, I spotted him across the courtyard. He didn’t hesitate. He grabbed me by the waist and spun me around like he’d been waiting years to do it. His laughter cracked, and in that moment, nothing else existed.

College was ours.

We spent hours together in special moments, on rooftops, in quiet corners of the library, and during late-night walks that always seemed to end too quickly.

We went on a few dates. We almost crossed the line more times than I could count.

Every time his hands lingered too long, every time our breaths hitched, it felt like we were dancing on the edge of something we both wanted, something dangerous and impossible to take back.

Then I turned twenty-one.

Still no wolf.

Three years had passed since I turned eighteen, and nothing inside me ever stirred. No howling. No shifting. Every full moon reminded me I was different. A she-wolf without a wolf. I tried to be strong, but sometimes I cried myself to sleep wondering why me?

Isla, my twin had awakened her wolf the very night she turned eighteen. Her shift had been perfect. Effortless. Her wolf was as elegant as she was, with sleek silver fur, piercing lavender eyes, and a graceful stride.

Everyone celebrated her awakening like she was the future of the pack. And I stood in her shadow, pretending I wasn’t quietly breaking.

And Ryder… he was always there. He’d hold me close and say it wasn’t the end of the world. That late bloomers existed. That I was still powerful in ways no one else could understand.

And for a while… I believed him.

I thought my life was finally falling into place.

We made it to the end of college.

I still remember that morning; our convocation ceremony. I had plans. Dreams.

I thought maybe, just maybe, he’d ask me to be his girlfriend officially.

But after Ryder walked across the stage and collected his certificate and his award, I couldn’t find him.

He vanished.

I searched for him through the crowd. Waited by the gate.

Called his phone over and over.

Nothing.

So I went home. Back to my apartment. And there, right in my sitting room, I found him. Not waiting with flowers. Not reaching for me. But kissing my sister.