Chapter Two: The Girl Who Shouldn’t Exist
1127 Words
Chapter Two: The Girl Who Shouldn’t Exist
Ava Pov…
That night, I sat at the edge of my creaky bed, hands tucked beneath my thighs to keep them from shaking. My room was cold, bare, and quiet, but my mind was anything but.
I couldn’t stop thinking about him.
Alpha Kyran.
I’d only seen him for a few seconds—less than a moment really—but it had changed everything. The pull I felt was impossible to explain. It was like my entire being had been waiting for that one glance. That one heartbeat.
And he didn’t even look my way.
A wave of embarrassment tightened my chest. I drew my knees up and rested my chin there. Why would an Alpha like him ever feel the bond with someone like me? I was wolfless. Useless. A burden even in my own home.
The door creaked open.
I didn’t turn. I didn’t have to. Clara's perfume always entered the room before she did.
“Why is the laundry still here?” she asked, her voice dripping with contempt.
I stood slowly and gestured toward the basket in the corner. “I was about to take it out,” I said.
Clara scoffed. “You're always about to do something. Always just a second too late.” She paused. “Kind of like your whole life.”
She turned and left without waiting for a response, muttering something cruel under her breath as the door clicked shut behind her. I didn’t ask her to repeat it.
I never do.
…
The next morning, the pack courtyard was buzzing with noise. I followed the murmurs and gasps to the heart of the village, where a crowd had gathered beneath the steps of the Pack field.
I stood on the fringe, hugging my arms to my chest.
The beta stood tall above the crowd, his voice loud and urgent.
“Our Alpha has fallen ill,” he announced. “No one knows what caused it. No healer has been able to break the fever or wake him.”
A hush fell. Then whispers. Gasps. Confusion.
Fallen ill?
But I saw him yesterday. He was healthy—strong. It didn’t make sense.
The beta continued, “Anyone—no matter your rank or bloodline—anyone who can help the Alpha will be greatly rewarded.”
My heart stuttered just listening to those words.
I could help. I wanted to help.
But the moment I lifted my hand, fingers trembling, someone snatched me from behind and yanked me out of the crowd.
It was Clara.
She pulled me into the alley beside the bakery and spun me around.
“What do you think you’re doing?” she hissed.
I held up the herb pouch in my hand. “I got the things Mother sent me for. I was just heading home.”
She didn’t even look at the pouch. Her eyes were locked on me.
“Were you raising your hand?” she asked. “Were you seriously about to volunteer?”
I said nothing.
She stepped closer, her voice low and venomous. “You? Heal the Alpha? You don’t even have a wolf. You don’t belong in that crowd, Ava. You don’t belong anywhere.”
I tried to step around her, but she blocked my path.
“You’d embarrass us again, just like you always do,” she spat. “You think the goddess gave you a little life to move around and now you matter? You’ll always be the cursed girl. The mistake. The one no one wanted.”
And with that, she turned and walked away, leaving my insides hollow.
…
That night, sleep refused to come.
I stood by the small window near my bed, watching the quiet street below. My fingers gripped the sill tightly as I tried to make sense of it all.
The Alpha was dying. The bond between us was real—I felt it. What if this was fate's way of giving me a chance to matter?
I had to try.
I grabbed my cloak and slid silently out of my room, careful not to wake anyone. The house was still, shadows clinging to every corner as I crept outside.
The wind bit at my cheeks, but I didn’t stop. My legs carried me through the village, past shuttered windows and darkened homes, until the Alpha Pack House towered before me once more.
The front was guarded. Too risky.
I slipped around the side, heart pounding in my throat, and pushed open the servant’s door. Inside, the hallways were dark and hushed. I moved quickly but cautiously, navigating the familiar corridors until I reached the Alpha’s wing.
His room stood at the end of the hall—massive doors, slightly closed.
No guards.
No one.
I pushed the door open and stepped inside.
It hit me instantly—the strange heaviness in the air, like something had curled itself around the Alpha’s room and refused to let go.
Kyran lay motionless in the bed, shirt sticking to his sweat-soaked skin, chest rising and falling in shallow, uneven breaths. He looked nothing like the man I’d seen the day before. He looked… broken.
I knelt beside him, slowly reaching out.
“Please work,” I whispered.
My hand touched his forehead, and the heat made me flinch. He was burning from the inside out.
I closed my eyes, searching for the light inside me—the energy I’d used so many times in secret. The warm pulse flickered in my core, and I guided it forward, letting it pour from my palms and into his body.
A soft glow lit the space between us.
His breathing steadied. The tightness in his face relaxed. The fever began to fade.
I stayed there for what felt like hours. When I finally pulled away, I felt drained but relieved. He would live.
My gaze lingered on him, and something in my chest cracked open. He was mine. The bond was real.
Would he finally feel it now?
Would he see me?
I lifted my hand to touch his face, just once. Just to remember.
That’s when his fingers closed around my wrist.
I froze.
He didn’t open his eyes—but he moved.
“M…mate…” he whispered, breath rough and broken.
My heart stopped.
He felt it.
Even in sleep. Even near death.
“I’ll… find you…” he murmured.
A tear slipped down my cheek as I gently pulled free from his grasp.
But I couldn’t stay. Not now. Not like this.
I turned and slipped out of the room. Before I get cut.
…
What I didn’t know… was that Clara had followed me.
And now, she knew What I Just did.
- Writer
