CHAPTER 245: CHAPTER 245 EVERYTHING FALLS APART

This is the love story between Caroline’s friend Ava and Draven’s friend Joseph.

Bullied as a wolfless Omega, eighteen-year-old Ava thought college would be her escape. Until she discovered she and her mother were being hunted. The truth? She wasn’t defective. She was a powerful witch-werewolf hybrid.

Starting fresh in Harbor Bay, she works hard and dates werewolf Isaac, despite her mother’s fierce opposition.

But when Isaac cheats on her with a coworker, Ava’s normal life falls apart.

A chance encounter at the mall with an arrogant, devastatingly handsome Alpha named Joseph Garcia leads to an embarrassing mix-up involving sex toys and an inexplicable magnetic pull that terrifies them both.

Joseph Garcia, CEO of Puma Global and notorious playboy Alpha, has never met a woman who could resist his charm. This feisty brunette rejects him, humiliates him publicly, and walks away like he’s nobody. His wolf Dean thinks she’s special, but she’s just an omega. Isn’t she?

Ava fights her attraction to everything she was taught to avoid, while Joseph becomes obsessed with the one woman who resists his charm. Neither realizes they’re fighting a bond written by the moon goddess.

But when the wolf pack hunting Ava’s family finally tracks her down, everything changes.

Can two people from different worlds overcome their prejudices and embrace a love that could either save them both or destroy everything they’ve built?

Ava’s POV

"Dear Ava, we are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted..."

I nearly screamed right there in the post office.

Harbor Bay University! My ticket out of this Frostveil Pack where being a wolfless Omega made me bullied, humiliated, and about as popular as a vegetarian at a barbecue.

The walk home felt like floating on clouds, until I opened our front door.

Mom was throwing clothes into suitcases like the house was on fire.

But what really freaked me out was the kitchen table. Mom’s "decorative" crystal ball? Glowing. Tarot cards? Flipping by themselves. And the wall map had black shadows creeping toward our town like some horror movie.

"Mom, what the hell is going on?"

"How did they find us again?" Mom muttered, not even looking up.

"Who?" I squeaked.

She ignored me, stuffing clothes faster. "We’re leaving. Now."

"Where to?"

"Harbor Bay."

I stared at the acceptance letter in my hand, then at her. "Okay, that’s weird. How did you—"

"Questions later. Moving now."

Twenty minutes later. We’re flying down the highway. Worst déjà vu ever.

This exact scene of frantic packing, mysterious departure, Mom’s cryptic non-answers had been my childhood on repeat.

That’s when I saw them in the rearview mirror.

Wolves. Big, scary, running alongside our car like we were in National Geographic.

"Uh, Mom? We’ve got a situation."

She looked back and went pale. "Switch places with me."

"Are you insane? We’re doing seventy!"

"Just do it!"

Somehow we managed the world’s most dangerous driver swap. As soon as Mom was in the passenger seat, she pulled out what looked like a fancy stick.

I couldn’t help it—I burst out laughing.

"Seriously? We’re in a high-speed chase with werewolves and you pull out a souvenir from Universal Studios?"

Mom rolled her eyes. "We ARE werewolves, Ava. Did you think wizards were just fairy tales?"

Before I could tell her how insane that sounded, she started chanting in some ancient language.

The stick lit up, there was a flash of light, and suddenly the wolves behind us went flying like they’d hit an invisible wall.

I nearly drove us into a tree. "WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?"

"Magic," she said, like a Brit discussing drizzle. "Good thing it was just scout wolves. If their Alpha had come..."

My hands. Shaking. Could barely hold the wheel. "Mom, what did you DO? Why is some Alpha trying to kill us?"

"It’s complicated."

"I’m eighteen, not eight. Try me."

I was getting frustrated. "And maybe start with why my werewolf mother just went full Hermione Granger on those wolves?"

"Fine, fine." She waved her hand. "I’m a hybrid, sweetie. Half witch, half wolf. "

The car swerved as I took in that bombshell. "Wait, so I spent eighteen years thinking I was wolfless, when really I’m just..."

"Mixed blood," she finished quietly.

Great. Just great. I was a magical mutt and nobody thought to mention it.

After that, life moved like someone hit fast‑forward. New homes. New secrets.

***

Four years later.

Harbor Bay Mall clothing store.

"Ava, great sales this month. You’re getting a raise," Manager Esther said during lunch break.

"Really? Thank you so much."

Best news I’d gotten in the six months since starting this job.

My coworkers Cybele and Cynthia gave me the stink eye from across the break room. Whatever. Their jealousy was par for the course when you actually showed up and did the work.

I walked out of the store for lunch.

It had been four years since that dramatic highway escape to Harbor Bay. Mom and I had outrun whatever pack was hunting us, and I’d finally gotten the truth out of her.

Apparently, Mom had used her "sketchy" witch abilities to brew up something for some Alpha’s... performance issues. Instead of fixing him up, she somehow nuked his mojo. Now he’s convinced she cursed his manhood and has been hunting her ever since.

The explanation was so ridiculous I couldn’t even be mad. Knowing Mom’s chaotic witchy approach to everything, I actually felt sorry for the poor bastard.

As for why I’d ended up slinging clothes for minimum wage? That lovely wolfless Omega thing again.

I’d cornered Mom about the whole mixed-species situation. She had her wolf, despite being half-witch. So why was I defective?

"Probably too many generations of mixing," she’d said after pondering. "Watered-down bloodlines, you know?"

I was genuinely taken aback that she’d explained it from a genetic angle. Very scientific for someone who read tea leaves for a living.

After eighteen years of curiosity, I’d finally asked the question I’d been too scared to ask. "What exactly was my father? Werewolf? Human? Or..."

I’d hesitated. "Vampire?"

Mom gave me the biggest eye roll. "Who wants to date some blood-sucking freak?"

If he looked like Robert Pattinson, I might consider it, I’d thought but kept to myself.

"Human," she’d said simply.

So there it was. My father was human.

Which left me stuck between worlds—not witch enough for real magic, not wolf enough for a pack.

Harbor Bay was Storm Valley Pack territory. Alpha Draven had a non-discrimination policy, which was exactly why I’d chosen the university here.

Reality, however, was less idealistic.

Four years of business school. Countless resumes. Endless interviews where I could see the thoughts scrolling across recruiters’ faces: Omega. Useless. Lazy. Defective.

Student loans didn’t pay themselves, so here I was. Retail hell.

My phone buzzed as I headed back from lunch. Mom’s name flashed on the screen.

After a year of cold war, she’d finally remembered I existed.

"Hello?"

"Ava, Grandma’s birthday is next week. Don’t forget to get her something." Blunt and awkward as always.

"Got it, Mom. I’m heading back to work—"

She sighed heavily, clearly annoyed. "When are you going to dump that idiot boyfriend? I’ve told you I don’t like him."

Here we go again.

"Mom, why don’t you like Isaac? He’s good to me. I love him."

Isaac was my first everything—first boyfriend, first kiss, first person to say he loved me even though I was a wolfless Omega.

"Ava, I’ve explained this. He’s a werewolf. That’s reason enough."

"SO ARE WE! That’s not a real reason!" I loved him, and I wouldn’t let my mother tear us apart with some ridiculous excuse.

"Werewolves are nothing but trouble!" Way to insult yourself, Mom.

"What, so I should follow your example? Find a human, get knocked up, then raise the kid alone?"

I knew I’d messed up the second I said it.

"Mom, I didn’t mean—"

Click.

She’d hung up.

Great job, Ava Flynn. Real smooth.

I stared at my phone, guilt churning in my stomach. Mom had her flaws, but she’d raised me alone in a world that saw us both as freaks. She didn’t deserve that.

But I wouldn’t let her sabotage the one good thing in my life. Isaac was the first person who made me feel normal and wanted me anyway.

I wasn’t giving that up.

When I got back to the store, I noticed Cynthia and Laura’s faces went pale. Cynthia tilted her head slightly, clearly mind-linking someone. Laura tried to distract me with some random question about inventory.

I didn’t see Cybele anywhere. She was supposed to be covering my shift while I was on break.

But I ignored their weird behavior and headed straight to the back room to grab my purse, my mind still on the fight with Mom.

I flicked on the light and froze.

This was the most disgusting scene I’d ever seen in my life.

My boyfriend Isaac had Cybele pressed against the wall, thrusting into her hard from behind while his hand clamped over her mouth to keep her quiet.

Cybele’s face was flushed, her eyes rolling back like she was on the verge of climax.