7 years ago…

AVA

I was a nobody, or at least that’s what they told me.

They told me I was a nobody and therefore worthless; I deserved to be bullied, because being bullied would make me stronger, more resilient. I know now that it was bullshit, but when you say that to a kid time and time again, they start to believe it.

All day everyday, the heirs to the pack and even a lot of the girls in school that were about my own age made a point of making my life miserable. To begin with, it was just verbal, but in my early teens, it became physical too. I had scars across the tops of my legs and the bottoms of my back that would never heal properly because they were from before I shifted for the first time.

I got my wolf early, but they didn’t know that. I never smelled like a wolf because my wolf, Artemis, could hide her scent. Even before they can shift, wolves have a distinctive smell that identifies them; all wolves smell like the woods, with their own unique scent overlaying that.

Whilst being able to hide my scent was a nifty trick that I was told would be great for my safety whilst out and about, especially when I was older, it did mean the girls at school assumed I was human and so would never have a wolf, which just made the bullying so much worse.

I’d been able to speak to Artemis since I was seven or eight, and she was a chatty wolf, and she knew a surprising amount about my birth family. Thanks to Artemis, I knew more about my birth family than most people would if they were adopted.

I knew that Artemis was special, and that I was heir to the Eclipse Mountain pack. I knew that my parents were killed trying to protect me, and that I’d been smuggled out for my own safety. I knew that one day, Artemis and I would have both a Lycan and a wolf form.

But even with all that, I wanted nothing more than to leave when I turned 18. The bullying made me miserable, and I never had the confidence to truly do anything about it. I just needed something to happen, something to be the catalyst to give me that boost, so I didn’t feel the need to hide in the background anymore.

I had a place ready to go in my maternal aunt’s pack, I was just counting down the days until I could finally set out on my own and get away from it all.