Chapter 2 THE NAME I CAN'T FORGET

RACHEL'S POV

They got there in under thirty minutes, but it felt like a whole day had passed.

Ryan didn't make it.

He was gone.

And I couldn't believe it.

If only he'd just stayed with me.

"Hey." One of the paramedics gently pulled me from the pavement, guiding me aside so they could take Ryan. I barely noticed her touch. Everything had been perfect just minutes ago, his laugh, his hand in mine. Then the shot and silence.

She led me to the back of a nearby vehicle, where another paramedic began shining lights in my eyes, checking my pulse, asking questions I couldn't answer.

It had started snowing again so the first paramedic took off her jacket and draped it over my shoulders. Around us, the students stood frozen, like the cold had locked them in place. The Willowvale Police Department officers were scattered among them, asking questions. Taking notes.

I watched the crowd through a blur of cold and grief until something sharp cut through the fog.

That voice.

> "Relax, Gabriel, man. We still have the money!"

It came back to me like lightning.

Logan. He was standing just a few feet away, being questioned so I stood up on impulse. I needed answers.

"Hey! We're not done with you!" the paramedic called after me but I didn't answer. I just kept walking, needing-desperate-to hear more.

The female officer with Logan turned just as I reached them. She offered me a short, sympathetic nod, clearly about to wrap things up.

"Gabriel!" I blurted quickly as she was about to walk away. "The shooter's name is Gabriel."

She paused mid-step, turning to Logan. "I thought he didn't have a sister?"

"I'm his girlfriend," I said quickly.

"What? Since when?" She turned back to me.

"Today," I replied, my voice steady.

A slow silence passed between us before she raised a brow. "So you know about the gambling money?"

"What?" I frowned. That caught me off guard.

"I think we've got all the information we need, miss. We'll get your boyfriend's killer. That's a promise."

And just like that, she turned away.

I stood there, stunned. She didn't believe me. None of them did.

I sat back down near the fountain, not far from Logan while he avoided my eyes.

"Those guys," I asked, keeping my voice low. "The ones who did this... do you know them?"

Before he could answer, the officer called back to him. "Let's go, Logan."

He glanced at me, guilt flickering across his face. "I'm sorry," he whispered, before walking off with her.

And just like that, I was left out in the cold. Was this going to be one of those cases where the people who needed answers the most were the last to get them?

"So you were here all along and didn't hear me calling your name?"

Sarah's voice startled me.

I turned to her. One look at my face, and all the color drained from hers.

"Who got shot?" she asked, her voice suddenly small.

I swallowed, trying to speak. My throat tightened.

"R... Ryan."

I couldn't hold it in anymore. The tears came freely as Sarah sat beside me, pulling me into a quiet hug.

"Hush," she whispered gently, her hand brushing over my back as I cried into her shoulder.

We never heard anything else about the shooter. No name. No motive. No arrests.

Nothing.

Logan and his family packed up and left town not long after. Just like that, gone. Sarah was crushed. He didn't even say goodbye. Being human, he wasn't bound to any pack rules or territory lines which made tracking him down was nearly impossible. It was like he vanished into thin air, as if he'd never existed.

And Ryan's family? They wouldn't speak to me. Wouldn't answer my calls. One time, I even showed up at their doorstep hoping for answers only to be threatened with the cops for violating the restraining order they'd filed against me. I don't know if they were grieving or hiding something. Maybe both.

I should have just let it go.

Held onto the good memories from high school. The times he finally worked up the courage to flirt with me, or those playful fights we had when I refused to do his homework.

But I couldn't.

Life didn't just pick up where it left off. Not for me. Everyone else seemed to move on. Classes. Exams. Graduations. I was stuck in that moment-frozen like the snow that had fallen the night he died.

I made a vow at his funeral, that no matter how long it took, I would find Gabriel. The real one. And I would bring him to justice.

My dad always wanted me to study law. Said it was the best way to serve our community especially with how often our kind got blamed for things. He had this dream that I'd become a judge one day. I didn't fight him on it. Not at first.

But after what happened with Ryan... my path shifted. I couldn't sit behind a bench or desk waiting for justice. I needed to be the one out there chasing it.

And almost five years later, I became a cop. A detective, actually-much to my parents' disapproval. They still hoped I'd come around.

But I had a mission. And that mission had a name.

Gabriel.

Most of the Gabriels I'd helped arrest over the years weren't him. I always knew. Something in me, something in my wolf could feel the difference.

The real one was still out there. Somewhere.

And I wasn't done.