Chapter 1: The Alleyway

Adeline’s POV

“Adeline, wait, slow down. You’re not making any sense—”

“This entire situation isn’t making any sense!” I shoot out at Deluna through the phone. She pauses for a moment, and I take the chance to wipe away my tears of frustration. “I’m at the club, but the guy isn’t here. I can’t even get a hold of him.”

“Have you tried calling? Give me his name and number. I'll do it.” I can hear the frustration in Deluna’s voice, but unlike me, her voice is coupled with anger.

I run my hand down my face and let out a long sigh. When I pull it away, I feel the tears run down my eyes and smudge my cheek. I chuckle lightly to myself at the sad situation, somehow finding amusement in the fact that I managed to put on waterproof eyeliner that day.

“Are you laughing right now?” Deluna asks me. There is an accusing tone to her voice that I can't ignore.

“No, I’m p*ssed off! But this is just so,” I groan out. “So predictable! I mean, why wouldn’t I get scammed out of the last money I had left!” I curse aloud as I push out of the dimly lit club hallway and into the back alley. It is colder here, less covered in cigarette smoke and fog.

I pull the phone away from my ear as Deluna rages on. She is always like this. Sometimes I like to call her because she seems to react more appropriately to whatever unfortunate thing befalls me.

I always laugh in improper situations. I mean, come on, a twenty-three-year-old rogue wolf from Toronto trying to follow her dreams, and what, she gets scammed not even two months into living here?

“Can’t you go to the bank and explain it to them?” I shake my head at Deluna’s question.

“No, I withdrew the money out of my own accord. Everything they would be able to help me with security-wise won’t work because I decided on my own.” I hear her sigh. I laugh when I tell her the next bit. “That was my last—my final semester money. I have nothing now.”

“Jesus,” she tells me, exasperated.

“No.” I attempt a joke. “Just Adeline. Poor, broke Adeline.” Pouting, I slump down onto one of the crates in the alleyway and stay on the phone with Deluna for half an hour more.

“What are you going to do now?” she asks me, and I meet her question with a shrug.

“I don’t know what I can do. I could take a loan out at the bank, but that never ends well, does it?” I ask her.

“No, no, it doesn’t,” she replies. “You could pick up some more jobs. It’ll be a hell of a thing to do on top of all your college work, especially since Canary is so prestigious, but it might look good on your job application.”

I raise a brow. “Being robbed blind would look good on my job application?”

I can practically see her rolling her eyes. “No, you fool, having job experience would look good on your job application.”

“I doubt the Bio Research Institute is looking for cashiers, Deluna.”

Deluna says something else, I can hear her voice on the other end, but suddenly my attention is caught on something else. I hear grumbling from a little way beyond where I am sitting.

When I turn my head and push the door to the club, I see there is a corner. And from the walls of that corner, I can see many shadows quickly moving on the stone brick wall.

“What?” Deluna asks in my ear, noticing my silence, “What’s happening?”

I shake my head as I stand up and walk closer to the corner's turn, “I think… oh my God,” I push myself closer to the wall, “I think someone is doing some very… unhygienic things right now.”

Deluna makes a noise of disgust in my ear, “Don’t tell me you’re walking towards it, Adeline!”

“Well, someone has to get them to stop. This is a public place for God sa—holy sh*t!” Just as quickly as I turn the corner, I backtrack and hide in the shadows of the wall behind the scene.

“What’s happening? Adeline? What happened?” Deluna’s words quickly hurry into my ear, and I lower my phone volume to avoid being caught.

“There’s a group of guys fighting. Hold on, I’m going to turn my camera on and go help.”

“Adeline, you are absolutely not going to go and help—!” But before her words of reason can register with me, I place my phone in the direction of the fight. From there, Deluna sees everything that is happening.

I use my hearing to try and determine just where they are and how many of them were before I rushed into the fray of things. I turn the corner, and the scene in front of me shocks me.

It's a group of about four men, all attacking a singular man. The thing that shocks me the most, though, is the fact that the man being attacked seems to be holding his own against the four other men.

The only thing is, he was fighting them with one hand!

When I turn to look at his other, I can't help but deadpan. His right hand is holding onto a beer bottle.

“Seriously?” I mumble out. Just as I walk towards him, my foot comes down onto the gravel, and the sound echoes. The man that was being attacked shoots his gaze towards me. I see his eyes widen before he lets out a growl.

“Why is everyone bothering me today?” He looks me directly in my eyes as he says that, and I feel a halt in my breathing as he looks at me. His eyes, among every other one of his sharp features, were what struck me the most. Those mismatched eyes, one a glaring green emerald, are the only thing that encases my thoughts— and the other a slightly more faded version of his left. It isn’t heterochromia.

No, is he blind in that eye?

But I don’t have time to think about it too much. Because the next thing I know, the man knocks down two of his attackers simultaneously. For the last two, he uses the back of his beer bottle to knock on one of their heads, effectively knocking him out.

The final one stares at the man in shock before hurrying away.

But the man, who is taller than the others with a dark head of hair, only looks at his broken bottle with a forlorn gaze.

“Hey,” I call out cautiously, “Are you alright?”

I can see the way he's swaying slightly. Despite having won the fight, he doesn’t look too good. The strange man turns toward me fully, and I am blown away by the expression on his face.

He looks so tired. There is nothing but rage on his face, his lips pull up into a snarl, and his eyebrows furrow as far down as possible. His entire demeanor threatens me. So why am I walking closer to him?

“Are you alright?” I ask him as I stretch out toward him.

I can hear Deluna calling my name from somewhere behind me, but I ignore her as I reach toward the man. He snarls at me, but his eyes glaze over by something I can’t place.

I can’t just leave him here alone, could I? He is obviously very drunk, and is that blood? I look at his side to see the red blotch forming there. It's small but big enough to tell me he's been scratched by one of the men attacking him.

“You’re bleeding,” I call out to him, but he turns away from me.

“Go away. You’re p*ssing me off.” I take a step back, offended but don't let that deter me.

“Hey!” I shout at him, and he stops walking. “Look, I don’t care about what you’re feeling right now, but you’re drunk and bleeding. So quit walking away while I call you a taxi to get you to the hospital.”

Another growl leaves him. Instead of walking away this time, he turns around faster than I can see and stomps toward me. Deluna yells out my name, but I'm too frozen to move.

But just as the man reaches me, I hear him grunt out and reach out for his side. Then his eyes roll to the back of his head, and he falls forward.

“Hey, hey!” I call out to him and move closer to catch him before he falls to the ground. A breath of air leaves me as I try to hold his weight up, but I can’t, and I only manage to soften his fall.

Throwing the man off of me slightly, I tilt his face up from beneath a sharp jaw and stare at him. His skin is pale, paler than I thought was probably his normal skin color. There were freckles that littered his cheeks, light and sparse, but they were there when you stared up close.

He was so handsome that I found myself having to stare at him for a moment longer. A high nose bridge and slightly further parted eyes gave his expression, even asleep, a sharp look. I breathe out and then lift him up.