CHAPTER TWO

"Maya, have you seen Embry?" Tiffany asked as she entered the living room, her eyes scanning for her son.

Maya, sitting on the couch, turned her gaze toward her aunt and shook her head, the corners of her mouth curling into a mischievous grin. "No, he just left in a rush—how much do you want to bet it's a girl?" she teased her tone light but with an underlying challenge.

Tiffany sighed, clearly exasperated. "I hope not. My Embry doesn't need love—he can survive just fine without that unnecessary distraction."

Maya almost groaned aloud but managed to hold it in, instead plastering a fake smile on her face. "My bad, maybe he's with Quil and Jacob," she said, her tone dripping with sarcasm as she threw out the names of Embry's close friends. Tiffany, looking a little relieved, nodded, clearly preferring the idea of Embry being with his friends rather than involved with a girl.

Once Tiffany had left the room, her smile quickly dropped, and Maya let out a frustrated growl under her breath. She had tried—tried so hard—to tolerate her aunt's constant insistence that she and Embry didn't need relationships, that they should focus on other things. It was as if Tiffany believed love was some sort of distraction, an unnecessary part of life that could somehow hinder their futures. The way she went on about it, as though it was some fundamental truth they had to live by, grated on Maya's nerves.

Over the years, Maya had learned to put up with it. She and Embry had both gotten used to Tiffany's well-meaning, but completely misguided, lectures. They had to. It wasn't like they could escape the constant reminders. But it was nothing compared to the shock Maya had felt the first time she saw her cousin transform into a massive wolf right in front of her eyes.

Instead of screaming or running, the way any normal person would, Maya had fainted. The sight had been so overwhelming, so impossible to comprehend, that her mind simply shut down.

When she finally regained consciousness, she found herself in a strange, unfamiliar room, her vision still blurry. She blinked several times, trying to get her bearings, before her eyes landed on three shirtless guys standing around her. She nearly fainted again but managed to stop herself, her heart pounding wildly in her chest.

"W-What's going on?" she stammered, lifting a hand to cover her mouth as she took in the sight of the three men. They exchanged looks, their expressions unreadable. The smallest of the three spoke up first, his voice soft but serious.

"Do you remember what happened before you fainted?" he asked gently, his eyes studying her with concern.

It took a moment for the scene to come back to Maya. Her head swam with the memory of her cousin Embry, standing before her, his body contorting, growing larger, and then—the wolf. The massive creature that had replaced her cousin. She gasped in realization, throwing the covers off of her and sitting up abruptly.

"Is Embry okay? Where is my cousin—he just—he just—" She started hyperventilating, her chest rising and falling in quick, shallow breaths, her panic escalating by the second.

One of the others, the tallest and most serious-looking of the three, reached out, awkwardly patting her shoulder as he tried to calm her down. "Hey, I need you to breathe slowly," he said, his voice firm but not unkind. Maya looked up at him, trying to focus on his face as she struggled to control her breathing.

Maya wasn't sure why, but she found herself obeying his instructions. Her life had been a series of people telling her what to do—whether it was her parents or her aunt—and even though she'd rebelled, deep down, there was still a part of her that reacted instinctively to authority. It was a kind of trauma-driven obedience, one she hated but couldn't quite shake.

"My—my cousin turned into a huge wolf," Maya finally managed, her voice trembling with disbelief as she looked from one man to the next. "And something tells me... that's apparently normal?"

The tallest man, the one who had spoken to her before, gave a heavy sigh. "Well," he began, his tone cautious, "it's kind of complicated." He looked at the other two men, who nodded in agreement, as though bracing themselves for the conversation that was about to unfold.

Maya's mind raced, trying to process the enormity of what was happening.

A wolf? Embry had turned into a massive wolf right before her eyes, and now she was surrounded by four men who didn't seem shocked at all. They were acting like this was just another day, another part of their reality.

Maya couldn't help the feeling of being completely out of place. She had never asked for any of this. But somehow, she was now wrapped up in something far bigger than her, a world she had never known existed. And it was all tied to Embry, to her family, and to a truth she wasn't sure she was ready to face.