Chapter 1
“The mate bond is the strongest connection that exists in the world. It’s not something you can ever truly understand or explain until you’ve experienced it for yourself. Imagine feeling a magnetic pull toward someone so strong you lose all sense of reason.”
Mr. Jones stood at the front of the class, reciting the same information that Cassidy had heard a thousand times before. She was sitting in Werewolf 101, just as she did every Thursday afternoon. She tried her best to stifle the yawn that threatened to escape her as she feigned interest in the lecture. She’d heard this same presentation so many times she could probably recite it by now.
Mr Jones was a seasoned werewolf who had served their pack as a mentor for budding young werewolves for years. His salt and pepper hair added a layer of authority to his lectures, despite the fact that most of his students looked bored most of the time. But, even in his casual attire of faded jeans paired with a white golf shirt, he commanded respect. He knew what he was talking about, and you could hear it through the confidence with which he discussed issues pertaining to werewolf life. He was someone who was widely respected not just in their pack, but in the werewolf world and even the human one too. His lectures on human nature were just as compelling as the ones about werewolves. If only they knew that his only interest in studying humans was the fact that he wasn’t one.
“Sounds like brainwashing to me,” Theo mumbled under his breath. Theodore Greaves was Cassidy’s best friend, and sometimes it felt like he was her only friend. He had striking green eyes and strawberry blonde hair that he wore gelled up into spikes, even though that trend had died long before he was born. He was tall for his age, but gangly in a way that implied he hadn’t quite grown into his pubescent growth spurt just yet. However, you could tell by his lean physique that he was bound to grow into a muscular frame, the kind any warrior would kill to have.
Many times, one of the pack’s warriors would approach Theo about beginning his training. Had it been anyone else, they would have jumped at the opportunity. After all, most werewolves only began training after graduating High School. It was a great honour, and a sign of possessing incredible potential, that a boy should be approached whilst still in school. Unfortunately for the captain, Theo couldn’t be less interested in training or anything else that would require him to be serious for more than five minutes.
Despite this clear genetic advantage, he’d never given much of his time to sport. He hadn’t really given much of his time to anything, to be honest. He saved his energy for ridicule and sarcastic remarks. If he put half as much effort into his school work as he did into planning his elaborate pranks, he would probably be Valedictorian. Cassidy nudged him with her foot under the table, warning him to knock it off. As much as she loved her friend dearly, she hated how his desire to stir chaos always seemed to end up thrusting her into the limelight right beside him. She preferred to be more of a wallflower. Someone who was rarely seen and almost never heard.
“Mr. Greaves, is there something you’d like to say?” Mr Jones called out, causing the rest of the class to turn toward them. Great, Cassidy thought to herself as she tried to shrink back into her seat. She was hoping that if she could just make herself small enough, she might disappear completely. But no such luck.
“No, sir, nothing at all,” Theo responded, his voice sickly sweet. His smile looked innocent and bewildered, but Cassidy could see the mischievous glint in his eye and the way his smile quickly turned into a smirk the moment Mr. Jones turned his attention back to the rest of the class. Cassidy heard an exasperated sigh coming from somewhere in front of them, and she didn’t need to look up to know it was coming from her sister. To be honest, if she and Cassandra weren’t identical twins, it would be hard for anyone to believe they were even related. They had the same fiery red hair, sparkling blue eyes, and even the small scattering of freckles that they had around their noses was nearly a perfect match. However, the similarities seemed to end there.
Cassandra was every bit as outgoing as Cassidy was introverted. Their personalities were so opposite that it was almost comical. Sometimes you actually had to look really hard to even notice that they looked alike, never mind identical. Cassidy thought back nostalgically to the days when people couldn’t tell them apart. Growing up, they had been the most stereotypical twins you could ever imagine. They always wore matching outfits and were practically joined at the hip. They loved all the same things, listened to all the same music, and enjoyed doing all the same hobbies. They went absolutely everywhere together, and there were never any secrets between them.
But all of that changed when Cassandra started dating James. He was the captain of the Football team and the future Alpha of their pack. James Goddard was the crush of almost every girl they knew. Between his raven black hair that always seemed unnaturally shiny and his piercing blue eyes that contrasted brilliantly against his slightly olive skintone, it wasn’t hard to understand why. But Cassidy could never quite see past the condescending sneer he constantly wore on his face to really appreciate whatever it was all the girls saw in him. So what if he was going to be Alpha someday? Big deal. Cassidy had no intention of sticking around long enough to ever see that happen, so she felt no need to sit around kissing up to him like everyone else always had. For the most part, she’d gone out of her way to interact with James as little as possible, despite them attending the same school. And she’d especially never felt inclined to hang around with his inner circle. They all seemed to be as arrogant and elitist as he was, and she had no desire to surround herself with such toxic energy. Of course, that is, until he started dating her twin sister.
At first, Cassidy had thought it was all a big joke. After all, the two of them had spent years mocking the popular group and how they acted like they were so much better than the rest of them. Then came the small changes. Cassandra changed the way she wore her hair without asking Cassidy to do hers the same way. Then she started buying outfits just for herself, and listening to music Cassidy had never heard of before. When Cassandra had first suggested they start sitting at the popular table at lunch, Cassidy had gone along with it. As much as it pained her to feel her sister slowly drifting from her, she was determined not to lose her completely.
For eight years, Cassidy and Cassandra had sat together at lunch, just the two of them. And now that sacred time at the cafeteria had been replaced with raucous laughter and underhanded jokes, many of which were directed at Cassidy. Cassidy tried to brush it off at first. I mean, isn’t this just what growing up meant? Obviously, they couldn’t wear matching outfits forever and, at some point, they would need to develop their own identities. That much she understood. But, this wasn’t about them not being the same; it was about them not even being similar anymore.
“This year, you’ll all get to meet your wolves on your 18th birthday; some of you already have,” Mr Jones reminded the class, pulling Cassandra away from her thoughts. She groaned internally. Unlike her sister, Cassandra wasn’t really looking forward to the new developments that lay ahead. Sure, this information wasn’t new to her. She’d had all of this drilled into her head for the past 4 years, ever since she started attending SilverLake Academy. It was all just a part of being a she-wolf and growing up in a pack. The small town they lived in became even smaller when the only people you ever got to interact with were other pack members.
“Some of you will search for your mates your entire lives and never find them. For others, you’ll wake up one morning and realize your mate was right here all along, and you never gave them a second glance.”
With these words, murmurs went around the room. The students were both terrified and thrilled by the idea that they could walk into this very room someday and realize that their mate was someone they already knew.
“And some of us will realize that we already knew who we were fated to be with,” Cassandra added in a dreamy voice. She leaned even further into James to emphasize her point, if that was even possible given her habit of being basically glued to him at all times.
“I swear she would unzip his skin and climb right in if she could,” Theo whispered to Cassidy, causing her to stifle a laugh that she quickly tried to turn into a cough. Cassandra whipped her head around to glare at her with lightning speed, assuming the laugh was in relation to what she’d said.
“It does happen, Cassidy. Just look at James’ parents!” she snapped.
With that, the entire class let out an audible groan. They were so tired of hearing about how Alpha Caden and Luna Bella had been High School sweethearts for years before discovering they were mates. As the story went, Alpha Caden had woken up on the morning of his 18th birthday, and once his wolf had immediately identified her as his mate, he turned to Luna Bella and said, “I knew it!”
It was a beautiful and romantic story with a perfectly happy ending, yes. But somehow it lost all of its magic when you’d heard it a million times. Especially in relation to Cassandra insisting that she would be reliving this perfect moment on the morning of their 18th birthday. Adding to her conviction that they were mates was the fact that she and James shared a birthday. She took this as further evidence of the Moon Goddess having destined their union.
Cassidy would never forget the look of absolute excitement in her sister’s eyes the day she’d told her.
“James and I have the same exact birthday! Can you believe it? Imagine getting to share your birthday with someone you love?!”
Cassidy had stared at her sister blankly. They’d shared a birthday their entire lives. Did that mean her sister didn’t love her?
“We have the same exact birthday,” she’d reminded her sister, her mouth turned down into a frown.
Cassandra waved a hand dismissively, brushing her off.
“That’s different because we’re family,” she’d responded, sounding almost exasperated by her sister’s lack of enthusiasm. That was the first of many cracks that had formed in their relationship. Cracks that revealed to Cassidy that their relationship was changing, and not for the better. If Cassandra was this obsessed with James now, she could only imagine how much worse it was going to get when they woke up in 2 weeks and discovered that they were mates.
It was a day Cassidy had been dreading for years, and now it loomed over her head like a dark cloud threatening to ruin and otherwise perfect day. She really wasn’t looking forward to their birthday. She had a feeling that it would mark the moment when whatever was left of her relationship with her sister would disappear and be lost forever.
