Unexpected Encounter

Max had been heading for the back of the library when it happened. The moment his shoulder collided with someone, he instinctively reached out, steadying her before she could fall. Then he froze. Brown eyes. Long, dark brown hair. Small frame.

Brianna Heart. Of course. His grip on her arms tightened slightly, just enough to keep her from slipping away. Because he knew. He could feel it. The way her entire body tensed—not in fear, but in awareness. Like she had been caught. Like she was already looking for an escape.

Max narrowed his eyes. “You again.”

She swallowed, her expression carefully neutral. “Apologies. I wasn’t looking where I was going.” She straightened, brushing off her sleeves as though he hadn’t just grabbed her out of nowhere.

Her voice was even, perfectly controlled. Too controlled. Max stared at her for a long moment, searching for a crack in that composure. She was hiding something. And he was done playing games.

His voice came out low, measured. “You’ve been avoiding me.”

Something flickered in her eyes—so quick, he almost missed it. But he didn’t. She pulled herself from his grip, taking one careful step back.

“That would imply I was thinking about you,” she said smoothly. “And I assure you—” A pause. A flicker of hesitation. Then, she corrected herself.“—I mean, I wasn’t.”

Max’s wolf bristled. What was that? The way she talked was too proper. Too formal for any normal teenager. Like someone who was carefully adjusting her words to fit in. To sound ordinary. Calista reached up and adjusted her gold earring and that’s when he noticed a gold sword hanging from one ear. A silver sword hanging from the other. Weird. Most girls wear normal earrings. Why tiny swords?

And then there was the lie. Max’s jaw tightened. His hands found his pockets. Something shifted behind his eyes, slow and hot. Maybe not entirely, but he knew when someone was trying too hard. Because if she wasn’t avoiding him then why did her pulse just spike? Why did her hands clench into fists, like she was trying to ground herself? Why did she smell like—

His thoughts stalled. She didn’t. She still had no scent. The irritation that had been simmering inside him flared hotter.

He took a slow step forward, voice dropping lower. “What are you?”

Her posture remained poised, but he saw it the tiny flicker of hesitation. The way her breath caught for just a fraction of a second. Not much. But enough. Enough to tell him he was right. She wasn’t normal.

“You’re not part of the pack.” Silence. His eyes darkened. “And you don’t have a scent.”

Something in her posture shifted, but her expression remained impossibly composed. For a moment, they just stood there. The tension between them was thick, suffocating. Then, finally, she spoke.

“I do not know what you mean,” she said evenly. Then, quickly, she corrected herself again. “I mean, uh, that’s weird. Maybe, um… you have a cold?”

The corner of Max’s mouth pulled back, then didn’t. Because something about her about this entire situation was wrong. She wasn’t human. And she wasn’t going to answer him again. She crouched down, fingers closing around the spine of the book with the calm efficiency of someone completing a task. She rose, turned, and walked past him.

Like he was nothing more than an obstacle in her path. Max clenched his jaw, watching as she disappeared between the bookshelves. He should let her go. That would be the smart thing to do. But instead? His wolf growled in warning. Not yet. Not until he figured out what she was really hiding.

Max couldn’t waste any time. He needed backup. Michael wasn’t going to be much help with this. The moment Max suggested following Brianna around, his brother would either complain about it for three hours or deliberately make the entire situation worse for his own entertainment.

During lunch, he instead of going to the cafeteria Max headed strait to the gym’s training center and in there stood his friends Jason, Keira, Tyler, Josh, and Emma.

The Bloodmoon Training Center occupied an entire section of the Gym Complex, connected to the main gym by a set of reinforced double doors. The moment Max stepped inside, the atmosphere changed.

The gym noise cut off behind him. Here, everything was rubber and steel sparring rings at the center, climbing wall along the far side, obstacle course threading through the back. A whistle shrieked somewhere overhead. Someone hit a mat hard.

For Max, the familiar environment immediately eased some of the tension he’d been carrying all day. And there in the training center stood his friends Jason, Keira, Tyler, Josh, and Emma. They stood in a half-circle near the back wall, their expressions ranging from mild curiosity to full-blown skepticism.

Jason leaned against the wall, arms crossed, his amber gold eyes gleaming with thinly veiled impatience. Jason had a way of taking up more space than his height suggested. He pushed off the wall and reset his crossed arms, the motion pulling his sleeve back just far enough to expose the pale ridge of scar tissue on his forearm. His amber gold eyes moved to Max and stayed there, the kind of stare that had probably started more sparring matches than it had ended. His dark brown hair was almost in order. “Alright, Max. You dragged us all here so what’s this about?”

Max exhaled slowly, crossing his arms. “There’s a new girl at school,” he started. “Brianna Heart.”

Jason immediately snorted. “You’re seriously pulling us aside for some random girl?”

Keira, however, frowned slightly. Keira had already turned back to the climbing wall, fingers absently working a piece of chalk. A crescent moon tattoo showed on her inner wrist as she reached up to re-tighten her ponytail chestnut hair, a few loose strands falling across the freckles on her nose. She moved like someone who had learned early that being fast mattered more than being big. “New student? That’s already rare for our school.”

“She’s not just a new student,” Max said, his voice sharp. “She has no scent.”

The air changed instantly. Jason, who had looked ready to dismiss the conversation, went completely still. His sharp amber eyes narrowed. “No scent?” Keira’s brows furrowed. Emma straightened slightly. Josh and Tyler exchanged a glance.

Josh had gone back to taping his wrist when Max said it, and he stopped. He looked up from under dark brows, the kind of patient, level look that made people want to fill the silence.The tape hung loose between his fingers. A faded scar cut through one eyebrow, a souvenir from a sparring match years ago.

He rested his forearms on his knees, exposing calloused hands and the muscle packed onto his frame from years of training. Unlike Jason, who looked like he spent every waking hour in the gym, Josh carried his strength quietly. The kind of build that made people underestimate just how hard he could hit.

He set the tape down on the bench beside him without looking at it. “No scent at all?” Josh asked.

“Nothing,” Max confirmed. “Not human, not wolf, not anything.”

Jason’s jaw ticked. “That’s not possible.”

“Exactly.”

For a moment, no one spoke. Then Keira finally exhaled. “Alright. That’s… definitely weird.”

“More than weird,” Max said. “She’s been avoiding me since yesterday. Every time I catch a glimpse of her, she disappears. I bumped into her in the library today, and she acted like she barely cared. But I could tell.”

Emma was curled cross-legged on one of the training mats rather than standing with the others, a sketchpad balanced on her knee and a pencil tucked behind one ear. A thick sweater hung slightly past her wrists despite the warmth of the Training Center, and a loose braid of auburn hair had partially escaped somewhere during the school day. Her eyes remained fixed on Max, thoughtful and unusually serious as she absentmindedly tapped the pencil against the edge of the sketchpad.

Emma noticed things. Always had. The rest of them focused on what people said. Emma paid attention to what they didn’t. A faint crease appeared between her brows as she thought, then she glanced down and doodled something in the corner of the page before looking back up again.

“She’s hiding something,” Emma murmured.

Jason rolled his shoulders. “So what’s the plan? We corner her? Get her to talk?”

“No,” Keira said immediately, shooting him a sharp look. “If she’s trying to lay low, pressing her too hard will just make her more careful.”

“She’s already careful,” Max muttered. “But yeah. We do this right. We follow her, watch her. See where she goes after school, who she talks to.”

Tyler sighed dramatically. “So basically, we’re stalking her.”

He pushed a hand through his sandy blond hair, only making the already messy strands stick up worse. Dressed in a loose Bloodclaw training tank and shorts, he looked exactly like what he was fast, athletic, and incapable of taking anything seriously for more than five minutes. The worn leather bracelet he refused to part with slid down his wrist as he crossed his arms.

A familiar smirk pulled at his mouth, the small scar on his chin becoming more noticeable. Nobody ever got the same explanation twice for where he’d gotten it. His hazel-green eyes swept around the group, amusement already creeping in despite the situation.

Max shot him a pointed look. Tyler held up his hands. “Fine, fine. Just saying, we’re all gonna look like creeps if we get caught.”

Josh ignored him, turning to Max. “Do you think she’s a witch?”

Jason scoffed. “If she is, we need to handle this fast. We all know what witches do to lycans.”

Emma frowned slightly. “There are White Witches, too. Not all of them are dangerous.”

Jason let out a sharp laugh. “Yeah? You willing to bet on that?”

Emma didn’t back down. “I’m saying we don’t jump to conclusions.”

Keira tapped her fingers against her thigh, thoughtful. “That name,” she murmured. “Brianna Heart.”

Max frowned. “You know her?”

Keira shook her head, but there was something unreadable in her expression. “No,” she said slowly. “But I’ve seen her. And I remember thinking… she doesn’t move like a normal student.”

Max’s gaze sharpened. “What?”

“I don’t know,” Keira admitted. “It’s subtle. Most people wouldn’t notice. But when she walks, it’s too controlled, too measured.”

Max exhaled slowly. So it wasn’t just him. “I don’t know what she is yet. That’s what we’re going to find out.”

Keira exhaled. “Alright. What’s the plan?”

Max’s eyes darkened. “We watch her for the next few days. If she slips up if she does anything suspicious we catch her in it.”

Jason cracked his knuckles. “Sounds easy enough.”

“Stick to your strengths,” Max continued. “Keira you’re best at reading people. If she’s hiding something, you’ll see it first.”

Keira nodded once.

“Josh you’re on tracking. If she leaves school alone, follow her.”

Josh crossed his arms but nodded. “Got it.”

“Tyler, you’re on social listening. If anyone at school knows something about her, you’ll hear it first.”

Tyler grinned. “Ah, so you finally acknowledge my talent for eavesdropping.”

Max ignored him. “Emma, if she talks to anyone, get close. See if you can get her to trust you.”

Emma hesitated. “You mean…” she trailed off, frowning. “You want me to befriend her. And then spy on her.”

Max didn’t flinch. “Yes.”

Emma crossed her arms. “I don’t like that.”

Jason snorted. “You think spies ‘like’ spying?”

“I think this feels wrong,” Emma muttered. “What if she’s just a normal girl?”

Max’s jaw tightened. “She’s not.”

Emma exhaled. But in the end, she nodded. “Fine. But if she’s innocent, I’m calling it off.”

“And Jason,” Max said last, his voice firm.

Jason smirked. “Let me guess. I get to ‘accidentally’ challenge her to a fight?”

Max shot him a glare. “No.”

Jason sighed dramatically.

Max exhaled. “You’re backup. If she’s dangerous, I want you ready.”

Jason grinned. “Now that, I can do.”

The plan was set. The hunt was on. And soon, Max was going to know exactly who Brianna Heart really was.