CHAPTER 1

Chapter 1: The Friend Scent

It struck me while I was strolling through the packed East Coast market. The scent. It smelt wild, earthy, and full of something I had never smelled before. Ancient, I was unable to move for a moment because my breath was seized. I could only think of the fragrance beckoning to me as if the entire world had frozen.

My friend.

I spoke the word in a whisper to myself, unaware that I had said it out loud. My heart pounded, unfamiliar heat spreading throughout my chest. I knew, felt it, the connection to it, to him, despite not knowing where he was. I didn't need to be able to see him to know. I knew, somehow within me.

"Watch it!" A rough voice interrupted my daydream, and I instinctively raised my cane, tapping it in front of me to steady myself. I could again hear the hum of the marketplace, but the scent still clung. The temptation was irresistible.

I was holding my breath and planted my feet to the ground. Focus, Isidora. I was no longer that same girl. I had adapted to leave without eyes, but there was something about the power of the scent that caused me to hesitate. This was more than a sense. This was him. My Friend.

And then I heard him. A voice—low, rich, and pulling at something inside of me I couldn't identify.

"Friend ?"

I froze in my tracks. My heart skipped a beat. That voice. It was like a magnet, drawing me to it. It was familiar, but not in a way that would make any sense. I couldn't determine whose it was, but I could feel its presence like I'd heard it my entire life.

I turned my head in the direction of the voice, my hold on the cane tightening. I couldn't see him, but I could feel him, and that was enough. "Who are you?" I demanded, attempting to keep the shake from my voice and conceal it.

"Jacob. Jacob Jude," the voice replied, and my body tensed.

Jacob Jude.

The name washed over me like a wave, and I was taken aback. It shouldn't have sounded so familiar, so. Right, but it did. My breath stopped again, and I swallowed in an attempt to stabilize myself. I knew that name. He was the son of the Golden Claw Pack. The last time that I had seen him, things were different. He was to be my Friend. But I could not permit myself to think it—not after all that had transpired.

"Isidora Christa," I murmured, the words escaping more of a whisper than anything else. My body was tense as if a storm brewed within me.

I could feel him approaching, yet I did not know how. Every step he took seemed to bring him near, and my heart was racing. The chemistry between us was tangible, yet I could not see it. I wanted to run from it, yet something within me reminded me that I needed to stay.

His hand emerged, and I did not step back. His fingers brushed against mine, and my whole body trembled at the touch. It was like a flame had been ignited between us, something hot, charged, and dangerous.

"You're blind," he whispered, his voice now soft, barely audible, but there was no censure there. Only curiosity.

"And you're my friend," I replied before I could stop myself. The words tumbled out, heavy with the weight of all I'd kept inside for so long.

I could feel the shift in the atmosphere around him, the tension building. I did not know if it was his guilt, maybe mine, but we both knew it—the distance between us, the hurt that had built up over the years. But this. this was different. Something I had not expected.

He didn't answer right away, and I could feel him come closer. I heard him breathe, slow and steady, but there was something else there—something that curled my belly with need. My heart was racing; his smell surrounded me, pulling me in and making it increasingly difficult to breathe.

I was supposed to be angry. I was supposed to despise him for what he'd done to me. He'd rejected me, discarded me like I wasn't worth anything like I wasn't worth his time. But there he was, before me, and all I felt was this pull.

"You shouldn't be here," I said to him, my voice shaking but firm. I was attempting to be strong, to hold on to the anger that was the only thing preventing me from giving in to the temptation of him, but it was so hard. So hard when he was this close when the chemistry between us was this real.

"I needed to see you," he whispered, and I could feel the regret in his voice. "I didn't know. I didn't know what I was doing."

I recoiled, my hand tightening on my cane. What was he saying? Had he not known? My heart hurt. I wanted to believe him. I wanted so much.

"You hurt me," I said to him, my tone more biting than I intended. "You gave up on me without a fight."

I was wrong," he whispered now, his hand seeking mine once more. The warmth of his palm seeped into mine before he wrapped his fingers around my wrist in a loose cuff, his fingers skimming over the skin of my arm. His touch created shivers of heat tumbling through me, and I could no longer pretend.

I was stupid," he went on, his voice barely above a whisper and despairing. "I believed I was acting in the best way possible, but I was mistaken. I should have fought for you. I should never have let you leave.".

My breath remained in my throat. Fought for me? I had wanted him to fight. I had wanted him to come back, tell me that he loved me, make everything all right. But he hadn't. He had left me, and I couldn't remember anything else.

"I don't know if I can trust you again," I breathed, my heart hurting as I withdrew my hand from his. "You walked out on me once. I couldn't take that again."

"I'm not leaving this time," he said, his voice burning, determined. "I won't lose you again. I'll do anything to show you."

I stepped back, my heart racing. His words stung, and for a moment I was torn. One part of me wanted to run from him, to run from the hunger that was pulling me towards him. But another part of me—another part of me that still knew what it was like to be with him—wanted to stay.

"I don't know," I said, my voice trembling. "I don't know if I can ever forgive you."

"You don't have to forgive me yet," he whispered again, leaning in once more, his warm breath in my ear. "Just let me have a chance to prove it to you. Let me have the chance to prove to you that I'm not that man anymore."

The words hung between us, heavy with meaning. I could sense the tension mount, the pull stronger than ever before. I struggled against it. I struggled to turn and go, but I did not. I could not.

His lips brushed my ear, and I stiffened every muscle tense.

"Isidora…," he whispered, his voice a soft entreaty.

And then, just when my breath was stuck in my throat, a loud voice broke in between us.

"Isidora, where the hell are you?"

I spun around at the sound of the voice, my heart plummeting. I knew that voice.

I knew whose it belonged to.

It was Lucas, That changed everything.