Kelly

Eight

For the next week, my new world became these books. I would wake up, eat my bland breakfast with Marcy, and then hide away in my room. The library books were my escape. I learned about the Great Wolf Fenris, who the Moon Goddess had turned into the first werewolf to protect the forests. I learned about the three original packs: Sunstone, Shadowclaw, and Moonfall, and how all other packs, including Mountainside and my home pack, had split from them over the centuries.

But my favorite was the book about the Silverstream Pack. I read about their founders, a mated pair who had been lost and guided home by the light of the moon on the water. They believed the river was a direct connection to the Goddess, a living, breathing source of power and wisdom. They were known for their healers and their seers, wolves who could see futures woven into the water's flow. It sounded so magical. So beautiful. So different from the stern, silent world of Mountainside.

I was so lost in my books, I almost didn't hear the quiet knock on my door one afternoon. I expected it to be Beta Joseph, maybe checking on me again. But it was Marcy. She was holding a little blue plate with a piece of cake on it. It was a simple square cake with chocolate frosting.

"I thought you might like a snack," she said, her voice a soft whisper. "It's my special recipe."

My tummy bear rumbled. It looked delicious. I hadn't had cake since Sissy's birthday, months ago.

"I… I shouldn't," I whispered, my eyes flicking to the door. "Aunt Charlotte…"

Marcy smiled, a real smile that crinkled the corners of her eyes. "What Charlotte doesn't know won't hurt her. Besides, a growing pup needs more than soup and sandwiches." She set the plate on my desk. "Don't worry. I'll come take the plate back, just make sure you leave no crumbs."

Then she winked and left, and I was alone with the cake. I took a small bite. It was the most wonderful thing I had ever tasted. The cake was moist and sweet, the frosting rich and dark. I ate the whole piece, licking every crumb off the plate. It was so much better than Sissy's birthday cake, though I could never say that out loud. For a few minutes, the ache in my chest wasn't so bad.

My visits to the library became my new routine. Almost every day after lunch, Beta Joseph would take my hand and walk me there. He never spoke much on the walks, but he also never rushed me. He would wait patiently while I picked out my books, always watching from the doorway, like a silent guardian. I read about those, they always look after the princesses. But I didn't think I was a princess, so I didn't know why Beta Joseph was my silent guardian.

Ms. Genevieve warmed up to me. Each day she would recommend new books, telling me little stories about their authors or the history behind them. Sometimes, she'd let me help her put the returned books back on the shelves.

I'd stand on a small wooden stool and carefully place each book in its rightful spot, my fingers tracing the letters on their spines. It felt important. Useful. And eventually time passed and I grew.

Soon I was 10. I spent a lot of my time in the forest. Beta Joseph had kept me out of school for a number of weeks to help me settle in and get used to the pack and during that time he took me to the library everyday - much to Aunt Charlotte's disgust. She hated him spending time with me. She hated the space he allowed me to have in their house. Quite simply, she hated me.

The pups at school followed Caleb's lead and Caleb followed his mother's lead. On my first day of school in the pack, I learnt just how much Caleb didn't like me.

I was nervous when I walked into the little school building that morning. Clutching my new bag that Beta Joseph had bought me and wearing my brand new shoes. I didn't want to go. I didn't want to leave the safety of the library and Beta Joseph's quiet presence but I had to. I had to go to school. Daddy had always said that school was where you learned how to be a good wolf. How to fight and run and hunt. I wanted to be a good wolf. Maybe if I was a good wolf, my wolf would come and I could finally have a friend.

I didn't have a friend here.

Caleb made sure of that.

One day at lunch in my first few weeks at the pack school, I sat by myself as I had everyday since I started, under a big oak tree, the kind Sissy said were good for climbing. I was picking at my sandwich when Caleb and his friends came over. He was older than me, bigger, with the same dark, serious eyes. He had two other boys with him, one tall and skinny, the other short and stocky. They were all looking at me like I was a bug they wanted to squash.

"Well, well, look what we have here," Caleb said, his voice loud and mean. "The little orphan. Found a new pack to leech off of yet? Didn't I tell you ages ago you needed to find somewhere else to go?"

The other boys snickered. I didn't say anything. I just stared at my sandwich, my hands starting to shake. Marky always said to ignore bullies. They thrive on your reaction. So I didn't give them one.

"Cat got your tongue, death-stench?" the tall one said. "Or are you just too dumb to talk?"

I tried to remember what Marky had said to do if ignoring them didn't work. He said to try and make a joke, or to walk away. I couldn't think of a joke, and they were blocking my way. My skin felt prickly and hot. My breathing started to get faster, like it had that day in the kitchen with the berries. Not again. Not in front of them.

Then Caleb reached out and snatched my sandwich right out of my hands. He took a big bite out of it, chewing with his mouth open. "Hmm, not bad. For the food of a weakling." He looked at the other two boys. "Let's see what else she's got."

He grabbed my bag and dumped it upside down. My new books, my pencils, and the little drawing I'd done of my family from memory all fell onto the grass. I felt the first tear as I stood and watched them stomp on all my things, but more than anything I watched as their feet crumpled and tore at the faces of my Mama, my Daddy, my Marky and my Sissy. My chest felt like someone was squeezing me. Tighter and tighter and tighter. Until it didn't have any where else to go.

Then Caleb was on the ground below me. His mouth was moving and his face was scrunched up with the little vein at the top of his head showing. But I couldn't hear him. I couldn't hear anything. I could only see my Mama's face being all torn up and how cold her arm was when I wrapped it around me. I could only see Marky's pale face with his blank eyes as the laid over the couch watching me and Mama sleep. I tried to blink that away, I didn't like seeing them like that. But then all I could see was blood again but this time on Caleb whose nose was bleeding and bent hard to the left side and his eyes were crying. His mouth was still moving and I wondered what he was saying. His face was red from the blood and what I assumed what his yelling. He was wriggling like crazy underneath me which made me realised I was sitting on his chest with his arms pinned. Like a switch the world flooded back to me.

The other boys were screaming. Caleb was screaming for me to get off him, to leave him alone, to stop hurting him. Teachers were shouting and running towards us. My ears started ringing with all the noise. My hands hurt from how hard I was clenching them. I didn't remember clenching them the way Marky and Daddy taught me to. I didn't remember swinging or putting my weight into it, just like Marky and Daddy taught me to. But I must have to end up here. My whole body was trembling, and my knuckles were bleeding. I looked down at my hands as if they belonged to someone else. A stranger. A monster. No, Marky hit people who were mean and Daddy said that was him sticking up for the people who can't because no pack wants a meanie. A meanie erodes trust in a pack - whatever that means.

"That's enough!" A deep, commanding voice cut through the chaos. It was the school principal, a large, broad-shouldered man named Alpha David. He wasn't the main Alpha of the whole pack, but he was the Alpha in charge of the school. His power washed over the yard, a heavy, suffocating blanket of authority that made everyone freeze. Even me.

He strode over, his face like thunder. He looked at Caleb, who was now sitting up and clutching his nose, blubbering. Then he looked at me, his eyes sweeping over my torn books, my broken pencils, and my crumpled drawing of my family. His gaze lingered on the drawing for a long second before returning to my face.

"Kelly-Grace Mortan. My office. Now," he said, his voice leaving no room for argument.