Elena’s POV:
All those secret nights, whispered promises, and stolen moments were just a cruel game to him.
"So after stringing me along for two years you expect me to just sit back and watch you choose my sister?"
My eyes clouded with tears and you could hear the heartbreak in my voice, but he couldn’t see me cry.
Leo laughed, he looked at me like I was nothing more than a toy that he had outgrown and served its purpose.
"Wake up unshifted nobody” Leo sneered, stepping closer.
"No true wolf would ever want you. You were just a placeholder."
The music played loudly, dozens of packmates watched and whispered laughing behind their hands. My sister Lyra stood right beside him, the happiest I had ever seen her.
The satisfied look on Leo's face made me boil with rage. I slapped him across the cheek and the whole room went shockingly silent.
Leo stumbled back holding his red cheek with his hand. His eyes flashed with sudden anger. "Have you lost your mind?"
"Yes" I whispered back wiping the tear that succeeded in dropping off my face. I turned on my heel ready to leave behind everyone and everything.
Outside the pack house the cold winter air slammed against my skin and I immediately regretted wearing a thin coat to the party.
I sat on the pavement of the house and wept heavily, regretting every single decision I've made concerning Leo. Regretting meeting him two years ago, where he deceived and messed with me.
Two years earlier…
Moon Shadow Academy always smelled like pine and fake luxury. To everyone else those iron gates were paradise..
For me it felt like walking into a trap. I kept my head down, my grey hoodie pulled low over my forehead and my hands deep in my pockets. My goal for each day was simple: touch no one, say nothing, and give no one a reason to look at me.
I stayed in the shadows. It was easier than watching people pretend I didn't exist.
In a world where everyone was proud of the wolf sleeping inside them, I was a ghost. At eighteen, I was a late-shifter with a dead-silent wolf offering no instinct, no strength and no comforting mental voice. Deep down, I sometimes wondered if I was even a real werewolf at all.
At home, every single family dinner felt suffocating. My father would stare at me across the table with cold eyes, while my mother openly only cared about my younger sister Lyra, smiling at her and giving her all the love I wish I had.
Lyra was everything I was not. She was an early shifter at sixteen, and her wolf was a large beautiful silver beast of great strength.
She was the definition of pack royalty: gorgeous, confident, wildly popular, and adored by every single person in our town.
I on the other hand, was a sorrowful tale. I had no friends to text, no notes to pass, and no one to sit with at lunch. I just moved through the halls like a shadow, hoping the days would quietly pass by.
It was even worse when people found out I was Lyra's older sister. They called me a mistake, and praised Lyra more for not turning out like me.
"Watch out ghost!” a cold voice sneered as I walked past the hallway. Someone hit my shoulder as I tried to walk past a row of metal lockers.
I stumbled forward. My heavy books crashed onto the floor with a loud sound.
A group of popular students laughed, their eyes glowing with a cruel light. I dropped to my knees, trying to gather my books and not pay attention to their snarky remarks.
"Do you need help with that?" a smooth voice asked.
A hand reached down to the floor. The fingers were long, the skin was warm, and the voice was entirely too familiar. Everyone in the school knew that voice very well.
Surprised, I looked up slowly. Standing right over me was Leo Thorne.
Leo was the alpha's cousin. He had messy dark hair, sharp jawline and a lazy handsome smile that made half the school faint. He wore his letterman jacket like a royal crown, and right now he was looking down at me with a strange look in his dark eyes.
"I'm fine" I muttered, grabbing my books and jumping to my feet.
I tried to walk away but Leo easily caught up with me, his long strides outpacing my steps.
"Running away from me already little shadow?" he asked, his voice full of play. "I am your tour guide for the year, I was assigned to look after you. Think of me as your personal guard."
Our school always assigned tour guides at the beginning of the semester to force interaction among the students. This semester, I was unfortunate enough to be stuck with Leo.
I stopped and glared at him, crossing my arms over my chest. "I do not need a guard. And I definitely don't need a tour guide who lives for jokes."
Leo laughed. It was a warm sound that made even more people turn to look at us. "Flattering. That's how you think of me". That's how everyone thinks of you. "I just think it is a shame how a girl like you hides in the dark."
A shame. That was a nice word for broken.
I narrowed my eyes at him. Guys like Leo never looked twice at girls like me unless they wanted to mock them. But as I stood there feeling the weight of a dozen mean stares, Leo stepped just a little closer, blocking the crowd from seeing me.
It was a small meaningless thing, but it managed to pull at my heart strings. Standing there completely alone in a school that hated me the small gesture Leo made felt nice. Dangerously nice.
I turned away from him and walked quickly to my classroom, trying to push his handsome face out of my mind. But the damage was done and the trap was set.
The weeks at Moon Shadow Academy passed slowly and painfully.
After that morning by the lockers, Leo didn't leave me alone. Infact, he made his presence more known. He followed me consistently, appearing everywhere I went. If I walked to the dining hall he was already at the doorway. If I sat in the corner of the library, he’ll pull out the chair across from me, opening a book he'd never read just to watch me.
At first I resisted him hard, I tried to push him away, telling him to go back to his friends and leave an unshifted nobody alone. I didn't want to accept his attention terrified it was just another cruel trick. But Leo remained stubborn. He always had a smooth answer ready, his dark eyes always looked warm and genuine, which slowly broke down my walls.
The turning point happened on a rainy evening when the storm outside shook the old glass windows of the school building. I sat in the empty history classroom, trying to finish an essay I had to submit the next day, so I would not have to return to the dorms where my sister Lyra and her peers gathered.
The door creaked open and Leo walked in, shaking the rain off his jacket. He held two cups of hot chocolate in his hands.
"You'll strain your eyes studying in the dark” he said softly, walking over and placing a warm cup on my desk. "I heard they're your favourite".
I looked up from my laptop, my chest tight.
"Why are you doing this Leo? Your friends mock me and my own family treats me like a disappointment. Why waste time on an unshifted student?"
Leo stared at me, the light smile vanished from his face, replaced by a serious expression. He pulled a chair close to my desk and sat down, resting his elbows on the wood.
"Do you want to know the truth?" he whispered, eyes locked on mine.
I nodded slowly, holding my breath.
"Everyone else in this academy cares only about power, strong fur, and status" Leo said taking a sip of his hot choco. "They only respect loud wolves. But you fight every single day just to survive in a place that treats you poorly. I respect that."
My heart beats faster, my parents had never looked at me like that. The teachers certainly hadn't. A boy like Leo shouldn't have either. But hearing those words from the most popular wolf in school felt like I mattered again.
"If other students find out we talk like this in private," I whispered, looking down nervously at my mug, "they will make my life a living hell."
Leo reached across the desk without hesitation, caressing my hands gently .
"Then we keep it a secret. No one ever needs to know. It’s true that if anyone found out I was speaking with you the bullying would increase. So we keep this entirely between us. Just you and me."
Looking back, I should have walked away. But I was just so tired of being alone. Tired of feeling dejected and like a mistake. So I decided to believe all his lies.
"All right” I whispered, offering him a small trusting smile. "A secret."
After that everything happened in secret. Two years of sneaking around empty classrooms and whispering in the dark..
During our secret hangouts, Leo would wrap his arms around me under the beautiful sky, pressing kisses into my hair and whispering promises.
"Just wait until my twentieth birthday, little shadow," he would vow against my cheek, making my heart soar. "After that I won't have to hide you anymore. We'll be together openly and I'll make everyone respect you". He had a way with words, knew how to make you feel cherished and loved even when you weren't.
In public spaces, Leo had to act as though he barely knew me, sometimes even walking right past me in the hallway without a single glance or a word.
It hurt every single time, making mh heart ache. But later at night, in the quiet shadows, Leo would pull me tightly into his arms, and whisper sweet reassurances, explaining that he was just protecting me from the brutal unforgiving traditions of our strict pack.
"Just trust me a little longer” he murmured against my hair, his breath warm and comforting. "Things will change soon. I promise."
Like a fool, I believed every single word he said. Two long years passed in a beautiful blur of quiet late-night talks, gentle touches, and whispered promises. I genuinely believed I was the luckiest girl alive to have captured the heart of the alpha's cousin, the future heir of the most renowned pack on the wolf clan.
I had no idea whatsoever that I was merely a temporary placeholder and a convenient game to pass the time until he could make his real move.
