Chapter 2

The next day,I went to North Ridge Training Center to register.The air smelled of cedar and ice wax.

I saw Kaiden with his arm around Nora.

Nora saw me first.She shrank back at once and hid behind Kaiden.

"Kaiden,I'm scared."

He stood in front of her like a wall.

"Ava,don't make a scene."

I tried to walk around him.He grabbed my wrist.

"What is wrong with you?Nora didn't do anything.Do you have to make it this ugly?"

I yanked my hand free.

"Let go of me."

People in the hallway turned to look.

Nora's tears came right on cue.She stepped out from behind Kaiden.

"Ava,I'm sorry.If you want to blame someone,blame me.I never meant to hurt you...This is all my fault."

She took another step forward.Kaiden pulled her back into his arms.

"Look at her."Kaiden's Alpha tone pressed down on me."Look what you've done to her.Ava,I never thought you could be this cruel."

Whispers rose around us.

"That's her,right?The girl who works at Silver Ridge Ice Center."

"Wait,isn't she the one who lost the scholarship?"

"Yeah,she lost to Nora.Honestly,look at her.No wonder the Alpha heir got tired of her."

"Nora looks like an angel.I'd choose her as future Luna too."

I stared at Kaiden.

"I said,let go of me."

He did not let go.Instead,he shoved me.

I slammed into the lockers,my shoulder blade hitting metal with a dull thud.

I looked up at him.

He looked back.There was not a trace of hesitation on his face.

We grew up together.When he was ten,he was sent here to learn the Hawthorne Pack's ice business in the north.

During his first week,before he knew how life on the icefields worked,a few young wolves cornered him behind the rink.I raised a sharpened skate blade and scared them off.

From then on,he followed me everywhere.

When someone bullied me,he would pin them to the ground,his eyes so black it looked as if he might tear out their throat.

"Ava,I will always be here."

"We'll leave this place together.North Ridge Training Center,the International Pack Ice League,the world beyond the Pack.I'll be with you the whole way."

Now he was protecting another girl and shoving me against a wall with his own hands.

Nora cried harder.

"Kaiden,don't...let's go.This is all my fault."

Kaiden lowered his head and kissed her hair.

"It's not your fault.Not one bit."

He gave me a warning look,then left with his arm around her.

I leaned against the lockers,struggling to breathe.

The office was at the end of the hall.I passed the wall of outstanding athletes.

Nora's picture hung in the center,larger than everyone else's.

A rising star who overcame hardship.The brave story of a future Luna.

I looked at it for one second and laughed.

I remembered a late night after training,when I came back to the skate shop.

My father was waiting in the parking lot.I could smell the sour rot on him from ten feet away.

"Where's the money?"

I did not answer.I tried to get past him and unlock the door.

He grabbed my hair and slammed my face into the outside wall.

"I'm talking to you.Are both your ears deaf?"

"I don't have any money."

"The Hawthorne Pack's Alpha heir is that rich,and you follow him around every day.You can't get a few hundred dollars out of him?"

He slapped me across the face.

"You hiding it from me?Where is it?Huh?"

He searched my pockets roughly.I pushed him away.

That was a mistake.

The next second,he kicked me in the stomach.I hit the asphalt and curled up in pain.

"You ungrateful bitch.You're just like your mother.Trash,both of you."

He turned to look for something heavier.A tire iron,maybe a metal pipe.I could not see clearly.

That was when Kaiden's car pulled into the parking lot.

He was out before the engine shut off.With an Alpha's strength,he had my father pinned down in two moves,then pulled me up from the asphalt.

He checked my face,my arms,and my ribs again and again.

"Where did he hit you,Ava?Tell me where you're hurt."

I could not answer.He took off his coat and draped it over my shoulders.

"It's all right.I'm here."

That night,he did not go home.He stayed with me on the broken couch behind the shop until dawn.

The next day,he went with me to the police station and watched my father get locked in a holding cell.

He held me tight and said,

"I'll take care of you from now on.When I become Alpha of the Hawthorne Pack,you'll be my Luna."

Back then,I actually believed him.