Silent flame

°°°Aria°°° The park members say the skies wept the day I was born. Not with joy or celebration but with heavy rain and heavy heart. it was supposed to be the day of triumph for the Black creed park, the birth of the daughter of the Alpha Tyrique Everhart by their beloved Luna Eliana. But instead, it was a day filled with tragedy and the greatest loss that has ever occurred to Alpha Tyrique and the Black creed park.My mother took her final breath the moment I took my first breath. She died bringing me into this world and from that moment I became the constant reminder of what was lost.My father never forgave me. He never said the word aloud .He didn't have to because this silence was killing me. The way his eyes once warmed with love — turned to ice when they met mine illustrated everything perfectly without explanation."He saw me as a constant reminder of his pain, a bittersweet echo of what he'd lost. I resembled her in looks, but none of her warmth or spirit." I'm just a ghost wearing my mother's face haunting him every time he looks at me. Growing up ,I began to understand that I wasn't like the other pups in the pack house.They had love, laughter and even care. They had parents endure their tantrums,tuck them into bed and hold them when they cried. Those pups have everything I wished for. I lacked warmth and I had silence. "I grew up surrounded by emptiness. The cold, hard floor of the storage room was my comfort, and the pack's cruel whispers were my lullabies. I was denied the love and care that a daughter of the Alpha deserved." I wasn't even treated as a member of the park. I was shoved into the lowest tier of our society —"I was treated worse than the lowest-ranking members of the pack, who at least had a purpose and were acknowledged for their work. But I was seen as a constant reminder of tragedy - the one who took their precious Luna's life. They called me cursed, and I learned to live in the shadows, intimidated and never daring to look up." To make matters worse and myself small.When pups or other members of the park laughed and played, I worked When the dining hall is filled with warmth, love and food. I waited for leftovers — if they were any. The clothing I wore came from thrifts and charity donations, it's always too small or too big . No one cared if I was cold or hungry except Kai, my best friend and Maria,my mother's maid and my nanny. "My father,he would witness my struggles, see the pain I was in, and yet he would turn a blind eye and ignore me. He never stood up for me or showed me any affection, never once referring to me as his daughter. His silence was more hurtful than any words ever hurled at me. It gave the park member the autonomy to treat me however ever they wanted, it's like his silence is enabling their bad behavior towards me. After all, the Alpha doesn't regard me as his daughter, why would anyone treat me like his daughter. It was known that the late Luna, Eliana had been the core and the heart of the Black creed pack. She was strong, capable, kind and filled with compassion. Her love had softened my father's black heart, bringing light to his darkness. When she died, the tiny warmth and compassion that he possessed disappeared and he became the shadow of his former self — crueler and colder. My father, Alpha Tyrique never raised his hand on me but he possessed a more dangerous weapon than punishment, his silence, his indifference to me and he wielded it like a sword. Some moments when we crossed paths were hard and rare, he would look right through me as if I was invisible or a nuisance he could not wait to shake off. I learned to avoid him and avoid any eye contact with him . I remember one winter, when I fell ill, curled and shaking and Maria was on holiday . I curled beneath my threadbare blank in the storage room,my safe haven , the only place I could retreat and not disturbed.No one brought food or seemed to realize that I was sick. I lay there in the storage room ,half delirious , whispering my mother's name in the darkness to comfort myself.As if she might return to take me with her.But she never came. It felt like death hovered around me,yet I survived and It took part in me still. Despite facing such cruelty and neglect, a spark reignite inside me. A tiny flicker of something defiant. I told myself that if my father couldn’t love me, I would learn to love myself. If the pack wanted me to be weak, I would become strong. If they wanted me to break, I would endure. And I did. Day by day, I built armor around my heart. I taught myself not to cry, not to flinch when words turned sharp or hands pushed me aside. I trained in secret, using discarded weapons and mimicking the warriors I watched from the shadows. I read every book I could sneak from the library, learning about the world beyond the pack’s borders, about strength, power, and survival. And I listened—always listened. To the stories of my mother. Of how she stood tall and fearless, how she protected the vulnerable, how she was the only one who could soften the Alpha’s temper. They said I had her eyes. Her hair. Her chin. They said I carried her on fire. And maybe, just maybe, that’s what scared my father the most. Maybe he looked at me and saw not just what he lost, but what he could never replace. A reminder that love once lived in this house and that he let it die with her. Sometimes, I let myself imagine what it would’ve been like if she had lived. Would she have held me in her arms and whispered stories of moonlight and wolves? Would my father have smiled at me, lifted me high into the air, and taught me to run with the wind at my back? Would I have been loved? But those dreams always crumbled beneath the weight of reality. Because the truth was, I had no mother. No father. No one. I had only myself. And yet, I held onto hope. Quiet, steady hope. Not the foolish kind that begged for affection from those who withheld it, but the fierce, burning kind that turned pain into purpose. I told myself that one day, I would rise above it all. That the girl no one saw would become the woman no one could ignore. The day would come when I would no longer be the cursed child, the Luna’s ghost, the invisible one. I would reclaim my name, my worth, my place—not because it was given, but because I had earned it. And on that day, Alpha Tyrique would have no choice but to face me. To see me.To love me To realize that in trying to forget me, he had forged me into something stronger than he ever imagined. I am Aria. Not his shadow. Not his shame. Not his burden. But a flame he tried to smother—and failed. And one day, I will rise from these ashes, not as the daughter he never wanted, but as the Alpha the world never saw coming.