Chapter 2

Maria was waiting for Riley to turn up at the gym, the next day. A few minutes later, Riley shows up with her brother and Brian. Enzo stares at Maria still studying and watching her every move hoping that she will spill the secret that she is hiding. Maria waves Riley over and tells her to get dressed into her gym clothes. Enzo then approaches Maria when Riley has left to get changed. "Why are you training my sister?" Maria looks at Enzo with a disgusted expression. Enzo could see the colour of her eyes and it sent shivers down his spine the more he looked at them. Her eyes showed no emotion. Nothing at all. Breaking the silence and tension in the air, Maria says, "I am helping and training her because no one else in her family will. Do you think I can't fight well just because I'm a girl?" Enzo doesn't answer her question and instead just looks away from her and towards the floor. "That's what I thought, so I'm going to prove you wrong. In an hour, we are going to fight each other. Girl vs boy and let's see who wins then!" Enzo looks stunned that she challenged him to fight, but he had no choice but to accept otherwise it would be a sign of weakness and with that agreed upon, he walked off to go train. "What was that all about?" Asks Brian. "I've been challenged to a fight by Maria." Brain pauses for a minute, but quickly carries on talking. "Well if you're going to fight Maria, go easy on her. She's just a human." "You sure about that? I know you think something's off about her too."

Riley finishes getting ready and comes out to meet Maria. "So what do you want me to do? Shall I throw a few punches first?" A devil-ish smile spread across Maria's face. "No, not yet. Instead you'll be lifting weights and running on a treadmill for 30 minutes so you'll be warmed up. Then we will do some real fighting." "WHAT! Why 30 minutes?" Riley shouts.                                              "Do you want me to make it 40? If not, then I suggest you get started." Riley groans and starts to lift the weights over and over again until her arms were aching. Then she moves onto the treadmill and begins to run at a low setting and speed. Maria turns to look at Enzo on the other side of the gym. He was punching the punch bags and had complete focus. You could see the determination on his face and the sweat was dripping down from his face onto his chest showing he was giving it his all. Maria couldn't help but stare at everything he was doing. As if Enzo could tell she was staring at him, he turns around and looks over in Maria's direction and sees her staring. The two look at each other that seemed like forever until, they both get interrupted by Brain and Riley. "I've finished and I know it's been 30 minutes." Marias focus turns back onto Riley and she says, "Great. Let's start to learn how to punch." Riley's face lights up at the thought and the two start to teach each other different ways to punch. Half an hour later, Enzo's dad walks into the gym and walks towards his son. "It's time to go son. We have important things to discuss." Enzo looks at his dad and says, "Just one second. I have a fight to win." Enzo walks into the fighting ring and shouts Maria over. When Riley realizes what was going to happen, her face drops. "You're going to fight my brother?" She says. Maria nods and walks into the ring. Enzo throws the first punch, but Maria dodges it quickly and moves behind him, while tripping him up. Enzo looks confused at how she could have already took him down in the first few minutes, but is also intrigued. Enzo gets up on his feet and returns to his fighting stance. While watching the match, Riley was trying to get her dad to stop the fight, but as always, he didn't listen and her fear started to amplify. Minuets have passed and punches from both sides have been thrown. Maria dodges another one of Enzo's punches and leaps into the air, wrapping her legs around his neck, which makes him instantly fall to the ground. Enzo was soon struggling to get air and could feel the life in him slipping out of his fingers. He soon hits his hand on the ground three times and Maria releases her legs around his neck letting him breathe in the air surrounding him. Enzo quickly stands up and looks shocked that he got beat by a human. Riley, Brian and his dad was also shocked, but Riley was feeling most relieved that her only friend was okay. "How did you beat me?" asks Enzo. Maria looks at him and says "I'm a good fighter and just because I'm a girl, doesn't mean I can't beat a boy." Maria jumps out of the ring and walks to gather her stuff. When she sees Riley, she stops and looks at her for a while and says "That's how you win a fight. I'll see you at school." Then, she leaves the gym and Enzo too jumps out of the ring to say to his dad "Now do you believe there something off about her? She was able to win a fight against the alphas son."

Back at the pack house, everyone was talking about this human girl who was able to beat an alphas son. "We need to question her and see what she is," says one of the pack members. "I've already done that. I couldn't find anything out from her. I know she's probably from another country, as she has an accent," says Riley. The alpha and Luna of the pack are listening to everything everyone has to say and were trying to put the pieces together to who this new girl was. "Ok, so we know she is something supernatural wise and that she is from another country, but we don't know what she is. Alright, this is what we are going to do. Enzo you're going to try and get close to her and make her trust you so she tell you about what she is, Riley you are going to invite her to our house so we can get to question her and everyone one else is going to try and find out something about this Maria girl. I will ask other pack leader if they know anything. Meeting dismissed." Everyone leaves the room apart from Riley (who doesn't like the plan). "I don't want to use Maria. She truly is my friend. Please don't make me do this." Her father looked at Riley and could see in her eyes that she really meant what she had just said. He gave out a long sigh and said, "You will do as I say and for the pack. Now go to bed. You have school in the morning." Riley gives up and leaves the room. As she is staring up at the ceiling, she feels torn between her friend that helped her without even knowing her and her pack- who has been there since she was born, but doesn't know what goes on in her life.

It's the next day and everyone is in their second lesson apart from Maria who is late. Maria still hasn't turned up by the time its break and Riley was beginning to get worried. "Look at that, your bestie already had enough of you and left you all alone." Riley recognised the voice straight away. It was Sara's. Sara walked up to Riley and started to laugh in her face and just as she was about to say something, Sara gets punched in the face and falls to the ground with a loud thud. "I told you what would happen if you started to bully and be spiteful to her again," says Maria. Riley looks at Maria and was surprised that she turned up and was protecting once her again. Enzo runs over to where his mate and sister were. "Why did you just punch my girlfriend?" You could see the rage on his face and he was looking straight at her. Maria's face was completely blank. Remaining calm, Maria showed no emotion or fear and said, "Do you not know?" "No I don't." Maria smiles at Sara and you could tell she was scared because she knew that when Enzo finds out the truth, he will be furious with her. "Let me enlighten you in the situation, then. Your girlfriend over here has been bullying your little sister from the beginning of school and you haven't even realised that it has been happening right under your nose." When Maria was talking, she kept taking a step towards so that they are only a few inches away. She could see the anger leave his face just to be replaced with dread and disappointment. She enjoyed seeing this because she knew he finally realized what a horrible brother he had been to Riley. Enzo was so so disappointed, but not in Riley but in himself. "Is this true? Has she?" Enzo looks at Riley and she nods after thinking about how to say it for a while and quickly runs to class when the bell goes. Maria then follows after her. "Is what she was saying true?" Enzo soon snapped out of his self-pity and scowled at Sara. "It was only a one-time thing. You've got to believe me," lie's Sara. "You're no longer my girlfriend and stay away from me and Riley or you'll have to deal with me." Enzo walks away from Sara and leaves her sad and upset.

It was the final lesson and Riley still hasn't done her part of the plan and asked Maria to come over to the packs house. Maria notices that Riley has something on her mind and decides to ask her about it. "You want to tell me something? I can tell something is bothering you." Riley thinks about asking her, but remembers that she helped her out earlier. "No. I was just wondering why you were late to school." Maria didn't believe her, but decided to let it go. "I overslept. My body and mind probably thought it was a weekend. I certainly wish it were." The bell rings for the last time and everybody starts to go home.

Enzo decided to take a walk before going home. He was thinking about all the things he wasn't noticing. Thinking how he would ever make a good alpha one day if he can't even see if his sister was being bullied. In the distance, he saw a familiar face. Maria. He walks over to her and sits next to her on the park bench. The birds were singing and there was a slight breeze. People were out running and playing with their dogs in their simple lives. There were only a few trees so there wasn't a lot to see. "Your thinking about how you could ever trust Sara again aren't you. Funny thing is, I'm wondering if I can trust your sister too." Enzo looks at Maria with a confused look and replies "How are you wondering if you should trust Riley? Your life is perfect compared to mine." Maria laughs. "You think my life is perfect? My life is far from perfect. I don't even know if I can trust people, even if they are my friend. People like your sister." "Come over to my house tomorrow night and I will show you that you can trust my sister and just so you know, my sister is one of the only people in this world that is trustworthy. " Maria takes a while to decide if she wants to go to the pack house, but then also realizes that she can get some answer to both the past and the present. "Ok. I'll come." Enzo smiles and walks off. "Enzo. Would you take a bit of advice from a girl?" Enzo turns around to face Maria. "If it's from you then yes." says Enzo to Maria. "People do things for either the right or the wrong reasons. I don't know why Sara did what she did, but I do know it was for the wrong reason. Then again, some people that are special to you or mean a lot to you should be given a second chance." Enzo gives out a sigh and looks at the ground. "What I am trying to say is that some people in your life deserve a second chance, but you should never forget what they did," says Maria. "You're not that bad and other people will start to realize that if you trust them and thanks for the advice. It means a lot." Then, Enzo carry's on walking leaving Maria sat on the park bench thinking of how this meeting at the pack house will go.

When Enzo comes home, he can hear shouting from his parents coming from his office. He races to the hall and shouts "What is going on in here?" "Your sister over here chose her new best friend, Maria, over her own family by not doing listening to what her alpha and father said." "Yes I didn't do as you said because I'm not going to use someone just for your plan when they have helped me. Unlike you lot." There was silence in the hall and you could probably hear a pin drop in the tense air. "Well there is no need to worry as I asked Maria to come over tomorrow night and she agreed." The alpha had a great big smile across his face showing how he was proud of him. "Are you serious? How could you both do this?" Riley's dad rolls his eyes at his daughter in annoyance. "Of course you're so proud of your favourite son and I'm not even surprised you did what he asked. You're like a little lost puppy following his orders and what he tells you without having the guts to stand up to him when what he is doing is wrong! Your plans working, so well done, but in the process, you just lost a daughter and a sister!"

Riley storms out of the office and pack house and ignores every shout from her parents and the other pack members. Riley runs and runs deeper and deeper into the forest until she force shifts out of anger and frustration, transforming into her wolf. Riley's wolf was a deep brown colour like dirt and was small for her size. Her fur was short, so short that when the wind howled, it didn't even move. Feeling the grass and dirt between her claws, she dug her paws deeper into the ground. Her eyes were bright yellow and they shined brightly in the darkness. Her tail was long and was touching the ground when she stood tall and proud. Her senses were heightened and everything felt better. She could hear the branches brush together and could see every little strand of grass move when the wind blew. She opened her mouth and let out a roaring howl that made some of the leaves around her fall off of the branches and drift onto the ground. She showed her sharp teeth and how deadly they could be to anyone that annoyed her. She felt free. When she was doing this, she could suddenly sense that someone saw her transform and Riley then notices her mistake. Maria saw her transform into her wolf!