Chapter 2

Ilana POV:

As Silas and I stepped out the front door, we found Mom on the porch, tending to a pot of ferns that looked decidedly unhappy. She looked up, her lips twitching into a knowing, slightly weary smile.

"Arguing about Cole again?" she asked, her voice gentle. "I could smell the displeasure in both your pheromones through the kitchen wall."

A hot blush crept up my cheeks. I went to her and wrapped my arms around her waist, burying my face in her shoulder. "Mom, Silas is being mean."

She patted my back, her own scent of warm vanilla and something uniquely maternal wrapping around me like a blanket. "Your brother is just worried about you. Now, go on, you two. You'll be late."

Silas, his face a stiff mask, pulled open the passenger door of his beat-up pickup truck for me. The gesture was polite, but the set of his jaw told me the conversation wasn't over.

I climbed in, the worn fabric of the seat familiar beneath me. The air inside the cab was thick with unspoken tension as I clicked my seatbelt into place. Silas slammed his door shut and started the engine with a roar, the old truck shuddering to life.

He pulled out onto the road, his knuckles white on the steering wheel as he focused on driving. I couldn't stand the silence. It felt heavier, more suffocating, than our arguments.

"Why don't you like him?" I finally burst out, turning to face him. "Cole is good to me. He's kind."

Silas's foot jerked on the brake, and the truck lurched for a second before he smoothed it out. "This isn't about 'liking' him, Ilana," he said, his voice a low rumble. "This is about who he is. He's a Blackwood. His brother is our Alpha."

He spat the words "our Alpha" like they were a curse, each syllable dripping with a strange mix of reverence and resentment.

"So what? Cole isn't like his brother," I argued, though in truth, I'd only ever seen Alpha Ryker from a distance. He was a terrifying, solitary figure who radiated a cold, untouchable power.

A bitter, humorless laugh escaped Silas's lips. "You're so naive. In this pack, family is everything. A single word from Alpha Ryker could end our lives, and no one would dare question it."

His eyes flicked to the rearview mirror, a nervous, ingrained habit he'd picked up since becoming Gamma, always checking for threats.

"He's holding this ridiculous 'mate selection ceremony' right now, and the entire pack has to bend over backwards for him. Isn't that why Cole hasn't had any time for you?"

His words were a direct hit, striking the very core of my recent loneliness. My heart clenched. It was true. Cole had been distant, and it had started right when the preparations for the ceremony began.

"It's an important pack event," I said, my voice defensive. "As his brother, Cole has to help."

"'Help'?" Silas repeated, his tone laced with scorn. "Or be ordered? No one has a choice when the Alpha commands."

The truck came to a stop at a red light. Silas turned his head, and for the first time that morning, he looked at me fully. His gaze was as sharp and unforgiving as the silver dagger he'd been polishing.

"I fought and bled to get to the Gamma position, Ilana. I didn't do it just to watch you get sucked into that whirlpool of power politics. I won't let you be destroyed by the whims of an Alpha."

The raw power of his own inner wolf radiated from him, a wave of pressure that made the air in the cab feel thin. Moonlight, my own wolf, whimpered and shrank back in my mind, intimidated by his intensity. But my love for Cole was a stubborn, resilient thing. It gave me the strength to push back.

"Cole would never, ever hurt me," I said. My voice was quiet, but it was filled with a conviction that came from the deepest part of my soul.

The light turned green. Silas stomped on the accelerator, his gaze fixed on the road ahead again, his jaw tight. He knew he couldn't convince me. Not with logic, not with threats.

We drove the rest of the way in a heavy, suffocating silence. I stared out the window, watching the familiar buildings of our town blur past. A part of me knew Silas had a point. I wasn't stupid. I understood the power dynamics of the pack. But my heart refused to listen to reason. Cole was my light, the one bright spot in a life that had often felt gray and small. I couldn't lose him. I wouldn't.

The truck slowed to a halt in front of the high school. "I'll pick you up after your training," Silas said, his voice flat.

He paused, then added one final, chilling warning.

"Stay away from the Blackwoods, Ilana. Especially the Alpha."