Kelly

Seventeen

"People with 'gifts'," Mr. Davies clarified. "Some can manipulate elements, some have heightened empathic or telepathic abilities, others have a preternatural connection to living things. Like you."

My head was spinning. This was too much. My eyes went to Uncle Joseph, accusing. After all these years, I had let my guard down, convinced they wouldn't send me away. I had let myself relax out of thinking any wrong action would have them kick me out. And now, this was exactly what they were doing.

Uncle Joseph gave me a small, reassuring nod. "This isn't about sending you away, Kelly. This is about giving you a future. A future where you don't have to be afraid of your own power. A future where you can help this pack, and maybe more, in ways we can't even begin to understand or anticipate."

"Let me be blunt, Kelly-Grace," Mr. Davies said, his tone softening slightly. "Your power is raw. Untrained. What happened with Caleb was an accident likely born from a place of self-defence and reaction. You may have felt in control but next time, you might not be. You could unintentionally cause harm to yourself, or to someone else. Or others might find out about you, people who don't have your best interests at heart. There are people, and beings, who would exploit a gift like yours without a second thought. Our academy is not just a school; it's a sanctuary. A place to learn, to grow, and to be safe."

Safe. The word felt hollow. One I didn't believe. My eyes didn't leave Uncle Joseph as tears welled.

"Please don't send me away, Uncle Joseph" I begged, my voice barely a whisper.

His face softened with a familiar, weary sadness. "It's not a punishment, Kelly. It's an opportunity. We want to give you the world, not take away the only one you've ever known."

I wanted to scream. They talked about opportunities, about futures, about control. All I could hear was the sound of a door closing, of another home being ripped away from me. My cottage. My garden. Storm. The peace I had fought so hard to build for myself. A peace that kept my family close. They were asking me to trade it for a strange place full of strangers, to face more danger and unknowns. I had come to this pack with hope, hope that I would have a family that loved me a fiercely as my own had. But instead I had found hatred, contempt and disgust. Uncle Joseph had worked on my walls for years and now that he had smashed them he was feeding me to the wolves again. Literally.

Tears streamed down my face. I didn't bother to wipe them away. I didn't care what these important men saw anymore. My gaze swept over them all.

"You told me not to be afraid when I first arrived here, you said I had nothing to fear from the wolves here. I had trusted you then and found myself in danger from the very people who should have protected me in your own home. You taught me not to be afraid of the forest and helped me build my cottage, a safe haven in the midst of danger. Now you are sending me away from any safety that I have finally found and expect me to believe your word that it is safe?"

Alpha David's face was grim, but he didn't look angry as he placed a hand on Beta Joseph's arm, stopping him from responding. He looked like a man carrying a heavy burden. He nodded at my words. "We have failed you, Kelly-Grace. We failed to keep you safe when you were a child, and we failed to teach our pack how to treat a child who had faced uninmaginable horrors. We will carry that shame for our lives. This is our chance to make it right. To give you the tools to protect yourself when we cannot, because you will likely face dangers we cannot protect you from and those dangers will be due to your abilities."

I stood up so fast my chair scraped against the floor. "Don't give me words wrapped in ribbon. I understand, I am the burden you never wanted in the first place - right? The mistake you have been given the opportunity to correct -"

"Kelly, that is not true. You were never a mistake and we have never regretted welcoming you into our pack." Beta Joseph interrupted me with a sigh, and the look in his eyes, that deep, familiar pain, made me falter. But the hurt was a living thing inside me and it was boiling.

"Don't call me that," I snapped. "The one person who promised I would never be sent away is the one telling me to leave."

I turned and ran. I didn't wait to be dismissed. I didn't listen to their calls. I fled the suffocating office, not even remembering to grab my bag. I burst out of the Pack House and kept running, my feet pounding against the dirt path, away from the centre of the pack, away from everything.

I ran until my lungs burned and my legs ached, deep into the forest, past my cottage, to the small, hidden clearing where I sometimes went to be truly alone. I collapsed to my knees on the mossy ground, sobs wracking my body. The wind whipped through the trees, a mournful howl that echoed my pain. I pressed my forehead against the cool, damp earth, seeking comfort from the one friend who had protected me. The one thing I could now trust. I could feel its steady pulse beneath my forehead, a slow, ancient rhythm that calmed the frantic beating of my own heart.

I didn't know how long I stayed there, lost in grief. I longed to feel the arms of my Mama or my Daddy. I longed to hear my Sissy telling me to try it or Marky telling me he'll be with me the whole time if I get scared. My chest felt hollowed out with the sorrow, the pain, the desire to have them back with me. It had been years, and I still ached for them in a way that defied time.

The sun dipped below the tree line, casting long, skeletal shadows across the forest floor. I was so cold. But the thought of returning to my cottage, to somewhere I could be found knowing I was being sent away was unbearable. The thought of packing my things. The thought of leaving Storm.

Some goodbyes are not forever Little one.

The thought was not my own. It was deep and resonant, the same distant thunder of Storm's voice. I lifted my head, my tear-streaked face searching the shadows at the edge of the clearing. He was there, a silhouette against the fading light, watching me. He took a step forward, then another, until he was standing just a few feet away. He lowered his massive head and nudged my shoulder with his nose, a gesture of pure, simple comfort.

They are afraid for you, little one. he said gently, the thought clear and calm. The land is not as gentle as your garden. There are things in this world, and beyond it, that would see a power like yours as a tool to be broken, or a treasure to be claimed. He lay down beside me, a warm, solid presence against my side. Your Alpha sees a weapon that could be turned against him and his pack. Your Beta sees a child he can no longer shield.

I leaned into him, burying my face in his thick, grey fur. He smelled of pine needles and cold mountain streams. "It hurts," I whispered out loud, my voice raw. "Everything hurts."

The strongest roots grow from the deepest wounds. His mind-voice was a low rumble, a comforting vibration through my very bones. Go. Learn what they have to teach you. Learn their strengths, and their weaknesses. But do not forget the language of the your heart. Do not forget me. He nudged my hand with his wet nose. I will find you. I swear it. And I will always protect you.

I wrapped my arms around his neck, holding on tight. Right in this moment he was my anchor in the storm that was my life.