"How are you, my princess?" Alpha Johnson's voice was gentle, carrying the kind of warmth every child dreamed of receiving from their father. His lips curved into a soft smile as his gaze settled on Helen.

"Daddy, I would like to see you," Helen said, her tone sharp, her eyes flickering in my direction with a look of pure disdain.

Her glance pierced through me like knives. What did I do to this girl? No matter what I said, no matter how I behaved, she always found a way to ruin my peace. It was as if my mere existence was an offense to her.

"Little Nora," Alpha Johnson said, turning to me. "I will talk to you later. I need to attend to my daughter first."

My heart clenched painfully at his words. The man who stood before me, the one who was supposed to protect me, to guide me, to value me as family, dismissed me with such ease. He chose Helen, again. He always chose Helen.

I tried to hold my composure, tried not to let my face betray the storm raging inside. "Okay," I whispered, nodding.

He rose to his feet, his presence filling the room like a shadow, and walked away with Helen without sparing me another glance.

I was left alone with my thoughts, my heart aching as though it had been torn into pieces. What was it he had wanted to tell me before Helen interrupted? Could it have been something about my dead parents? Some truth I had longed to hear? I would never know at least not now.

I sank deeper into the bed, the wooden frame creaking beneath me. The room fell silent, almost too silent, and the stillness pressed against my chest until it was hard to breathe. My mind drifted back into memories I had tried countless times to bury.

Why did life have to be this way? Why couldn't I have a father who put me first, just once, before anyone else?

I sighed and rubbed my temples. Maybe that was too much to wish for.

Everything that had happened to me lately, all the cruelty, all the whispers, made me wish I could just disappear. Maybe I could run away, like Helen's mother had done years ago. The stories still circled the pack, whispered with venom and curiosity.

When the burden of being Luna became too heavy, when Alpha Johnson stopped accepting her, Helen's mother had nearly turned into a servant within her own home. The rumors claimed it was because she and Alpha Johnson were not true mates he had chosen her, mated with her by his own will, and when the initial love faded, there was nothing left. The bond was shallow, fragile.

The pack members had complained, murmuring that it was doomed from the beginning, because only a chosen mate bond could hold true.

Eventually, Helen's mother ran away. She fled with her daughter, desperate to start over, to escape the suffocating life she had fallen into. But Alpha Johnson chased her down, tore Helen from her arms, and nearly killed her for the betrayal.

And yet... he adored Helen.

Even now, I still didn't understand why he loved her so much, why he could bend mountains just to see her smile. That girl, who wore cruelty on her lips as if it were lipstick, was the apple of his eye.

Sometimes I wondered what my uncle truly was. He wasn't just feared by the pack, he was revered. Even the elders, men who had lived through blood and war, bowed at his word. His dominance was unmatched, his power absolute. And yet... why did he treat me differently? Why was his love always so conditional?

The ache in my chest deepened.

A sudden knock on the wooden door broke my thoughts. The sound jolted me, sharp against the silence.

"Come in," I said softly, pulling the blanket tighter around me.

The door creaked open. The nurse entered first, her familiar smile bringing a small comfort. But behind her was someone else. A tall figure stepped into the room, his presence commanding, though not in the overbearing way of an alpha.

He was young, perhaps a few years older than me, yet his aura radiated strength. His pale skin carried a resemblance to my own, his curly short hair neat, his jaw strong. He was well-built, with broad shoulders stretching the fabric of his tunic, the definition of a warrior.

My breath caught in my throat. My jaw dropped before I could stop myself.

He was... breathtaking.

But it wasn't just his appearance that struck me. It was something else. Something deep in my veins stirred, a ripple beneath my skin, as if my very soul recognized him.

He smiled, and the room seemed brighter. "How are you doing, Nora?" His voice was deep, steady, the kind of voice that could anchor you even in a storm.

Shock flashed across my face. "I'm... getting better. But how do you know my name?"

The nurse chuckled lightly. "He is the warrior I told you about, the one who brought you in yesterday. If not for him, you might not be sitting here now."

Realization washed over me, followed by gratitude. My lips curved into a small smile. "Thank you... Thank you so much for saving me. Who knows what would have happened if you hadn't found me in time?"

He laughed gently. "I'm glad you can talk now. Yesterday, you were so unconscious, I thought you had died." His tone was playful, but the seriousness behind his eyes betrayed his words.

Relief and something else, something unexplainable warmed my chest.

"I'm Warrior Ellia," he said, stretching out his hand.

I hesitated for a moment, then placed my hand in his. "I'm Nora Anderson."

The instant our skin touched, a wave of heat surged through me, flooding my veins. It wasn't the tingling spark of a mate bond that the elders often described. No, this was different. Stronger in some ways, and yet not romantic.

It was as though my blood itself recognized him.

I stiffened, trying to hide my reaction, but Ellia's eyes narrowed slightly, as if he had felt it too.

A warm, almost electric current pulsed between us, leaving me breathless. My heart raced, not with desire, but with confusion.

What was this?

It couldn't be a mate bond. I had read enough, heard enough to know how a mate bond felt desire, passion, yearning. But this was something deeper. Something primal.

Like family.

I pulled my hand back quickly, my mind whirling. Why did this stranger, this warrior I had never met before, feel like... home?

Ellia tilted his head, studying me with unreadable eyes. "Strange," he murmured.

"What's strange?" I asked, my voice lower than a whisper.

For a heartbeat, silence hung heavy in the air.

Finally, he smiled again, but it didn't reach his eyes. "Nothing. I'm just glad you're safe, Nora."

But I wasn't convinced. That moment that spark lingered in my veins like an unspoken truth.

And I knew, deep down, that this wasn't the end. Whatever connected us wasn't chance.

It was blood.

"I have to take my leave now, Nora," Elias smiled, his dimples pressing into his cheeks like they were carved just for moments like this. "The Alpha has me running errands all day. I just came to see if you finally woke up." His voice carried a playful tune, like he was trying to hide the weight of his duties behind light words.

"Alright," I chuckled, though it sounded thinner than I wanted. My lips pulled into a smile, genuine this time. "Thank you for coming. I really appreciate your kindness. Thank you once again."

He paused for a second, his eyes lingering on mine like he wanted to say more. Instead, his shadow stretched across the pale wall of my room as he turned toward the door. "I will see you around after you're discharged," he said, his voice echoing softly, almost too gentle for a warrior.

"You'll be discharged tomorrow, Nora. You are already healing, and I can see you're getting stronger," the nurse added with a bright smile. Her presence always reminded me of sunlight breaking into a dark room temporary, but warm enough to make you forget for a heartbeat how cold the world really was.

As soon as they left, silence poured in, thick and heavy.

"Oh, shit," I muttered under my breath, covering my face with the thin hospital blanket. Why can't I just stay here? I don't even like medication, but these three days of lying in this room have given me a kind of peace I've never tasted before. Peace that doesn't exist outside these walls.

Outside, Helen waits. Her cruelty. Her sharp tongue and sharper eyes. The rot of her presence, the constant reminder that I don't belong, that I am the stain no one wants to see.

Why can't I just disappear?

The door clicked shut and the sound echoed through my bones. My chest ached as I looked around. No Ellias, no nurse, no warmth. Just silence. The kind that presses into your ears until it feels like the world is holding its breath.

The room suddenly felt colder. A shiver ran down my spine and I wrapped the blanket tighter around me. Alone. Always alone.

Why does it feel different after Ellias  leaves? Why does the emptiness sharpen, almost like something inside me reaches for him, only to grab air? First the Alpha, now Ellias  both holding back pieces of something I'm not allowed to see. Something I'm too small to understand.

What is this feeling?

I stared up at the ceiling, my thoughts clawing through me. If only I could see the Moon Goddess, maybe she would have the answers. Maybe she would tell me why I was cursed to live this way wolf-less, unwanted, unloved.

If I had my wolf, she would be my friend. My companion. My other half. I've heard so many stories  whispers in the corridors, drunken boasts at the feast fires, gossip from young wolves fresh after their first shift. They say your wolf speaks to you, becomes your comfort when the world turns cold.

They say it's like having a sister who never betrays you, a brother who never abandons you. They say your wolf teaches you strength, whispers courage when you think you're too weak to rise.

But me? Nothing. Silence.

I've never shifted. Never heard that voice in my head. Never felt that bond everyone else seems to carry so easily.

Every time I see a packmate talking to themselves in low murmurs, their eyes glazed in that tell-tale way, I know it's their wolf. I see the tiny smiles tug at their lips, the secret conversations I'll never be part of. And jealousy burns me alive from the inside out.

Why me? Why was I chosen to be less?

Maybe the Moon Goddess is punishing me. Maybe she hates me the way the pack does. Maybe that's why she never gifted me with my wolf.

I turned on my side, pressing my palm against my chest as if to calm the storm inside. The truth waiting for me tomorrow made my stomach churn.

Even with my health unsteady, I still have to leave. Still have to face Helen's cruelty again. Still have to pretend I'm strong when all I want is to break into a thousand pieces.

I sighed, long and heavy, trying to empty the pain out of me. The room blurred as my eyelids grew heavy.

And then, without warning, I drifted.

At first, I thought it was sleep. But it wasn't.

The world around me changed, slow and strange, until the white walls melted into silver shadows. The ceiling dissolved into a night sky, painted with a thousand stars that pulsed brighter than I'd ever seen. The air carried a hum, soft but unshakable, like it wanted to speak but couldn't yet find the words.

My breath caught.

This wasn't the hospital.

I looked down at myself, but my body shimmered like smoke, fading and solid all at once. A dream  but no dream I'd ever known.

And then I saw it.

The moon. Full, luminous, so close it felt like I could reach up and touch it. My chest ached at the sight, my heart beating against my ribs like it was trying to answer some call only it could hear.

A voice not spoken, but felt  brushed through me like the wind.

"Nora..."

I froze. My hands trembled. My heart skipped so hard it hurt.

Who was that?

The sound was soft, distant, but familiar in a way that tore me open. Like a whisper I'd been waiting my whole life to hear.

I spun around, searching the silver shadows. Nothing. Only the stretch of stars, the endless pull of the moon above.

But the voice came again, clearer this time.

"Nora..."

The air grew colder. My skin prickled. My chest tightened as if invisible hands were pressing down, forcing me to listen.

Was it?

Could it be?

My wolf?

Tears stung my eyes before I could stop them. My throat closed around a sob I didn't dare release. For the first time, I felt the brush of something inside me. Something that wasn't just my loneliness screaming back at me.

But then the silver sky began to crack. A shadow cut across the moon. Darkness swallowed the stars one by one, like teeth biting through light.

And just as the voice was about to speak again, the entire world shattered into blackness.

I gasped awake, my chest heaving, my blanket damp with sweat. My heart thundered in my ears so loud I thought it would burst.

The hospital room was back. White walls. Silent air. Empty bed beside mine.

But I wasn't the same.

Because for the first time in my life, I wasn't sure if I was truly alone.

And somewhere deep inside, I swore I heard a faint, broken whisper a voice cut off too soon.

Tomorrow, Nora.

I swallowed hard, pressing my fist to my chest. Tomorrow. Something waits for me tomorrow.

But is it my wolf? Or something far more dangerous?

The night after the dream was long. I kept turning and turning until my back ached. The voice kept coming back like a sting soft and strange. Nora... I kept hearing it. I don't understand this dream at all. What did it mean? Is the Moon Goddess playing tricks on me? Or is my head finally breaking from all the loneliness?

I drifted, and the sleep was thin. This time, nature came into the dream, wind through trees, the smell of wet earth. It felt safe for a little while, like a hand I hadn't known I wanted. But peace never lasted. I woke with the beeping machine and sunlight in my face, my heart hammering like I had run a long way.

The nurse was there with her same glowing smile. She must keep a sun in her pocket because she always comes in like a bright thing. "Good afternoon, Nora. How are you doing today?" she said like she always asked and always meant it.

"Afternoon?" I muttered. For a second I lost time. Past two already? Where did the morning go? At home, I was up by seven. I go for a run in the cold air, come back, and help in the kitchen. Now I lie in a bed and someone fusses and calls me brave. It felt strange.

"I would like to use the restroom," I said, my voice small but steady. I didn't wait for permission. I swung my legs out of bed and stood. My legs felt both wobbly and like they had something to prove.

"Wow!" she gasped when I walked toward the door. Her surprise made me pause in the middle of the room. "You have fully recovered, Nora." She came closer, eyes bright. "Remember, you couldn't even stand three days ago." Her voice was warm and a little proud. "I'm so happy for you."

Her words sat weird in my chest. Happy for me? Someone actually happy that I could walk again? I forced a smile. "Thank you," I said. My mouth did the thing it always did smile to hide everything else.

I went to the restroom and splashed water on my face. I watched the girl in the mirror. Dark eyes, a face that once could hold laughter easily, now thin and tired. The bandage around my head made my hair stick out funny. I blinked until the room stopped spinning and felt a little steadier.

When I came out, the nurse was ready with teasing eyes. "Let's get that asshole off your head," she said, poking at the bandage like it was a plaything. I laughed. It felt like a small crime to laugh, but I did. I sat on the bed edge so she could unwrap it. The bandage came off and the air hit my scalp cold. Nothing big under there, just the same head I had always had, but somehow unwrapped felt like starting again.

Then someone knocked. Not the soft polite knock. A confident knock. I looked at the door and my heart jumped because I knew that knock.

He walked in like he belonged in sunlight. Ellias. His face was familiar and kind, like a song you remember the first time you hear it again.

"How are you doing, Nora? I'm here to take you to your floor," he said. His voice made my whole body warm and unsure.

"Ellias, one day I will just cut off that hand that you use to knock like the owner of this hospital," the nurse joked and we all laughed. It felt like a tiny thing just a laugh but it landed in me like something soft and real.

"Thank you, Ellias, for everything," I said, because I meant it. He nodded like it didn't matter and smiled like he always does. For a second I wanted to ask why he kept coming back. Why did a warrior like him spend time visiting me? But the words got small and I swallowed them down.

Once the bandage was off, we left. The walk to the pack building was quiet. The air felt different outside: sharper, smelling of wet leaves and the distant smoke from the kitchen. The pack house stood like it had always stood tall and empty at the top. It has three floors that mean something. Omegas down low. Gamma and family on the first. Beta on the second. Alpha on the last. Only Alpha Johnson and his daughter sleep at the top. My room is on Gamma's floor and I can never figure out why. There are plenty of empty rooms on other floors. I'm thankful for the gamma floor though if I were closer to Helen I might have stopped breathing.

We walked in silence through the hall. My steps echoed like someone counting time. I felt small. My chest is tight. The halls smelled of stew and old wood and the laughter that leaks out at night. People stared sometimes but looked away quickly when I caught them.

Then Helen stood there leaning like someone who never has to hurry. Her smile was sharp and false. "Finally back, Nora?" she said like she found the right shade of pretend concern. Her voice was full of that honey that makes bees die.

I felt my stomach drop. She moved closer to Ellias like she belonged to him somehow in a way I could not name. "Thank you, Ellias, for bringing my cousin home," she said, all sugar and ice. I stared at her. Cousin. The name sounded strange on her lips. She had never called me family like that. Why pretend now?

Ellias looked at me for a second then at her. "I'll see you tomorrow, Nora," he said. His voice was soft and real when he said my name like that. Then he walked away with her, leaving me on the steps like an old shoe.

I watched them go. My chest was tight and I wanted to scream but had no sound left. He left me. Just like that. For a second the world moved slowly and I felt hollow as a drum.

I climbed the stairs to my room like an animal with a weight on its back. Each step was a small thing that pushed me forward. When I reached my door I slammed it hard and all the air left me.

My bed swallowed me. I let my tears fall the way they wanted to. They came fast and hot and messy. I sobbed until my throat hurt and my chest felt raw. I held my pillow and my body shook. I asked the same question I have been asking for as long as I can remember Why am I living? What am I for? What good am I if all I get is cruelty and fake smiles?

I hit the bed again and again with my head, like a child wanting the noise to stop. Pain is simple. Sometimes simple is easier than the tiny cuts of silence people give. Helen takes every small thing that could make me smile and crushes it under her shoe. Even Ellias. Even a little kindness. She will steal and spin and put on a curtain so everyone claps.

I calmed after a while but the ache stayed. It sits like a stone in my chest. I stared at the ceiling and my mind wandered back to the dream's voice. Nora... I pressed my palm to my heart like I could hold the sound inside me. I whispered to the dark because I had no one to tell.

"Moon Goddess," I said, voice barely there. "If you hear me, please. Please let me know what it feels like to be loved. Let me feel it once. Please."

The words were simple and small and I said them like begging someone for a piece of bread. I felt foolish and fragile but I could not keep it inside me. My wish was not about power or revenge. It was about one small thing I want more than anything love. Not the kind Helen hands out like coins, but the kind that holds you. The kind that says you are not nothing.

The night grew quiet. The house sighed around me. I waited for thunder or an answer or the world to shift under my feet. Nothing came. Only my own breath and the slow beating of the heart that feels too big in my ribs.

I lay there and thought of the pack clearing. I remembered times I had watched from the edge when I thought no one could see. Fires. Howls. Old songs. People tied to the moon like they were children held tight. I always stood back and watched and wished I could step into the fire and become whole.

The wind outside moved the curtains and the moonlight cut a line on the floor. I counted the seconds between my breaths like they were beads on a string. I felt empty and hungry and so tired. I felt like I had been wearing a mask for so long that I forgot my face.

For a while, I remembered small things Ellias's laugh, the nurse's hand on my bandage, Helen's fake voice. I thought of the way Ellias had said my name before he left. The warmth of it sat in me like a small match. I wanted to hold onto that light so bad. I wanted a life that felt like that light.

I drifted toward sleep and then woke again to a sound downstairs. Not loud-mostly a low hum of voices and the clatter of people preparing. The pack was getting ready. I could hear footsteps and the tinkle of metal. Someone laughed and the sound bounced up to my room like it wanted to tease me.

I pressed my ear to the pillow and listened. Preparations. The clearing will be full tomorrow. I imagined the fires and the drums and the old women singing the songs the Moon taught them. I imagined the whole world gathered around the moon and me in the middle of nothing.

My tears started again. Quiet at first, then steady. I let them fall and didn't try to stop them. They were heavy and valueless and true. I felt like a child who keeps asking for a story and gets none.

I whispered again into the dark. "Please," I said, "let me know what love is. Just once. Please."

The room held my words for a long time. The moon painted my hands white. I closed my eyes. The house around me breathed and the world went slow. My body wanted to sleep but my heart was awake like a bird.

I thought of tomorrow then. I did not know what tomorrow held. I could feel something in the air tighten like a string pulled taut. I couldn't say what would happen. I only knew I had to go through it, that I could not avoid the thing tied to the moon and the pack and the songs.

My fingers hooked under the pillow and I sucked the cloth to my face. Tears soaked the edge and the salt burned. I made myself a promise small and shaky but a promise.

If nothing else, I would go and stand. I would be there. I would see them and sing if I could. I would not hide. Maybe that was brave. Maybe it was stupid. Maybe nothing would come of it. But I could not keep living in the waiting. I needed to step into something even if it broke me.

My voice dried up at the thought and I pressed my palm to my chest like I wanted to feel my pulse steady. My eyes closed and the house whispers turned into memory and the rain outside tapped a soft rhythm.

I let the silence hold me a little longer and then I said out loud into the dark, the single word like a stone dropped in a deep well.

Tomorrow.