Kelly

Eighteen

The next day I didn't move from that clearing. Storm had stayed with me.

I don't know how long I had slept for before I woke with a start. A twig snapped nearby. I scrambled up, my heart in my throat, but it was only Storm. He was on his feet, his ears pricked, his yellow eyes fixed on something beyond the trees. He let out a low, warning growl.

"Kelly?"

The voice was familiar. Noah. He stood at the edge of the clearing, looking uncertain and out of place in his clean jeans and hoodie. He held my backpack in one hand. He wouldn't meet my eyes, instead focusing on a point just over my shoulder.

"Dad sent me," he said, his voice quiet. "He thought... he thought you might want this. I also brought you a sandwich and some water."

I just stared at him. In all the years we'd lived in the same house, we had barely exchanged a dozen words. He was Caleb's shadow, a ghost in my peripheral vision. To see him here, now, offering me food, was more surreal than the unknown wolf who kept watch over me.

"It's not poisoned," he added, a little defensively, when I didn't move.

I slowly walked toward him, my feet silent on the moss. Storm watched me, his body tense but still. I took the backpack from Noah's outstretched hand, my fingers brushing against his. He flinched, a barely perceptible movement, and I realised he was afraid of me.

"Why are you here, Noah?" I asked, my voice flat.

He finally looked at me, and I saw not fear, but a deep, unsettling guilt in his eyes. "What they did to you... what Caleb did... it wasn't right. It never was." He took a deep breath. "And what they're doing now... sending you away... it's not right either." He looked from me to Storm, a flicker of awe in his gaze. "My dad said this school would teach you control. I think he's afraid of what you can do. But I think he's more afraid of what will happen if you don't have control and he doesn't have the power to protect you." He hesitated, then lowered his voice to a whisper. "My brother has always been angry and unthinking. He never thinks before he acts. After you left yesterday, my dad told me that he thinks that Caleb would have killed you if he had been allowed to stay here and grow in the way he was; it was just a matter of time. He doesn't think there was a way to have stopped him. He's worried about what could happen the next time a packmate acts like Caleb did out of fear of you - because there is fear of what you could do growing in the pack. I understand why you've isolated yourself from the pack, but that on it's own is causing some of the fear because no one knows you." He didn't say it, but I felt the words - I wasn't born here, I am not truly pack.

But his words hit me with the force of a physical blow. Kill me. I had known Caleb hated me, but I had never, ever imagined it would come to that. I thought about what would happen to him if he had. He would be sentenced to death by the pack for killing another pack member. I could see why Beta Joseph was so worried.

Noah looked at me with an earnestness that was so different from his brother's cruel taunts. "You have a chance, Kelly. A chance to be more than just 'the Beta's charity case'. A chance to be someone that nobody would ever dare to hurt again. Someone who could protect children just like you." He thrust the water bottle and a wrapped sandwich into my hands. "Just... just be careful, okay?"

I took the food, my fingers numb. I didn't know what to say. This boy, the quiet shadow of my tormentor, was the first person to speak to me with such brutal honesty after years of silence. It was disarming, so I just nodded.

He took a hesitant step back. "I should go. Dad sent me to look for your. They're waiting for you back at the cottage. There are... things to prepare. I think you are going to the school today."

With that, he turned and disappeared back into the trees, leaving me alone again with Storm and a sandwich that suddenly felt like a heavy anchor pulling me toward a future I didn't want. I unwrapped it and took a bite, chewing mechanically.

Storm nudged my leg. The boy carries a heavy weight, that one. He seeks to balance his brother's cruelty. He looked at me, his yellow eyes serious. What he says is true. But the path they offer is not the only one

I sighed, stroking the thick fur on his head. "But it's the only one I have right now."

Then walk it. But know you are not walking it alone. he said, before he turned and loped back into the forest, leaving me with my thoughts and a half-eaten sandwich.

The walk back to my cottage was long. Every step felt like a betrayal. Like I was walking to my impending doom. Or execution. Both felt similar. My garden, my source of pride, already looked wilted. They would die without me. Death was starting to feel like it was surrounding me again.

Beta Joseph stood under the awning, leant against the stone wall he had helped me rebuild. He had changed out of his work wear from yesterday and was in his usual jeans and flannel shirt, but he looked like the same cold stranger who had picked me up from the airport all those years ago. He stood up as I approached, his eyes roving over me, assessing, before holding the door open for me to go inside. Alpha David was sat at my small table while Luna Elise was going through my drawers and putting things into a suitcase laid out on my bed. It was already half filled with my clothes. They had already packed for me. I wouldn't be given the option to do that for myself.

That simple, ordinary object broke me. A suitcase for leaving. Tears streamed down my face as my hands shook at my side. I sank to the floor, the injustice of it all crashing down on me.

Beta Joseph didn't try to comfort me. He just sat on the floor opposite me, his back against the wall, and waited. The only sound in the room other than my ragged breathing as I stifled my sobs, was Luna Elise going through all my things and packing them in that suitcase. I hated her for it. I hated them all for what they were doing.

"Kelly-Grace," Alpha David started gently, once my crying had subsided to sniffles. "We are so sorry it has come to this."

"Sorry doesn't fix what you are doing," I mumbled into my knees. "You are taking away everything I have ever known. Again."

"This will always be your home Kelly-Grace, you leaving is an opportunity for you to grow." Luna Elise said softly as she sat on the bed next to me, she reached over and put her arm around me but I flinched away. "You are powerful, Kelly, and that is going to become stronger as you get older. When you return you'll be able to help tend to our pack. You will be able to protect our pack in a way that no one else can."

"So I am being shipped off to be moulded and trained to your liking then without my consent, as though I am nothing more than a toy." I snapped at her.

"No," Beta Joseph said, his voice firm. "We are giving you a fighting chance. The world is not this pack, or your cottage. The world is a much bigger, and a much more dangerous place. What happened with Caleb is just the beginning. What happens when you feel threatened by a human, and your power lashes out? The consequences would be devastating, not just for you but for all of us. Secrecy is our survival."

"So my safety is tied to how useful I can be to you? That is what you're saying? That is why you sent Caleb away - he was no longer useful?" I scoffed at them all, my face tear stained and my anger hot. He was the son of the Beta. I wasn't a fool. He would come back after he was 'trained'.

Alpha David shook his head. "No. Caleb left because he was a danger to you. We are asking you to leave so you can be a safety to us all. One day, you will understand that our choices are not easy, and they are not always kind."

I wanted to scream at him. To tell him that he didn't get to decide what was best for me. But the fight had gone out of me, replaced by a hollow, empty ache. I had lost this battle before it had even begun. I felt the weight of my Papa’s worn leather bracelet on my wrist, the last connection I had left to the only people who loved and cared for me unconditionally.

Luna Elise finally finished packing, and closed the suitcase. She'd packed my sketchbooks, notebooks and my pens and pencils, which was a small mercy. "We need to go now, Kelly-Grace, you need to be at the school before nightfall." Her voice was kind, but it held the unyielding tone of a decision already made.

I pushed myself up from the floor, my legs stiff and numb. I didn't say a word. I just walked to the door, grabbed my coat and stepped outside, not bothering to look back. They had already packed everything else.

Beta Joseph followed me out, grabbing the suitcase. Alpha David and Luna Elise were right behind him. We walked in silence down the path towards the pack's main garage. I could feel the forest watching, a silent, mourning witness to my departure.

As we reached the main drive, I saw a sleek, black car waiting, its engine humming softly. Mr. Davies was standing beside it, leaning against the passenger door. He looked as out of place here as a shark in a trout stream. He gave a small, tight smile as we approached.

"Ready for your new life, Kelly-Grace?" he asked, the question a formality.

I refused to answer. I turned to Beta Joseph, my gaze locking with his. "This is the second family I am losing." I said, my voice dangerously quiet. "Tell me, Beta. Was the second one even real?"

His face crumpled. The stoic mask he wore so well shattered, and I saw the raw, agonising pain in his eyes. He reached for me, but I flinched away. His hand dropped to his side.

"It was real, Kelly. More real than you know. And that is precisely why you have to do this." His voice was thick with emotion. "Please, don't hate me for this."

"I don't hate you," I said, the lie tasting like ash in my mouth. "I just don't know you."

Alpha David stepped forward, his expression grim. "Your tuition and board are covered by the pack. This is our investment in you, and in our future. You will have holidays. You can come home."

Home. The word was a mockery.

I looked from his stern face to Beta Joseph's pleading one. I saw Luna Elise standing by, her hands clasped tightly, her own grief a palpable thing. They saw this as a grand, noble sacrifice. They were sending me off to war, to be forged into a weapon for their protection. And they had the gall to call it an opportunity.

I turned my back on them and walked to the car. I didn't say goodbye. I didn't look back. I slid into the plush leather seat, the foreign scent of the car filling my lungs and making me feel sick. I stared out the window, my face a blank mask as Mr. Davies got in, started the engine, and drove us away from the only home I had left.