LEAVING HOME

The night was restless. I tossed and turned in my bed, staring up at the faint cracks in the ceiling where the moonlight slipped through. My father’s words echoed in my mind.

Warrior’s camp.

The phrase alone was heavy enough to press against my chest like a stone. I wasn’t foolish; I knew what was going on there. Grueling training. Brutality masked as discipline. Wolves are fighting to prove their worth, their strength, their right to stand among the pack’s elite.

What place did a mute girl have in a place like that?

My hands clenched against the thin blanket. I wanted to scream, but the only sound that left my lips was the silence I had known my entire life.

By dawn, the house was already awake. I could hear the muffled clatter of pots from the kitchen, the low hum of my mother’s voice. She always hummed when she cooked—something sweet on the surface but sharp when you listened too closely, like she hummed to keep from saying what she truly thought.

I stepped inside quietly. She looked up at me, her eyes scanning me as if I were nothing more than another chore she had to finish.

“You’re up early,” she said flatly, turning back to stir the pot. “I suppose you’re nervous.”

I lifted my hands and signed, I don’t want to go.

She didn’t even pause. “Of course you don’t. But what you want doesn’t matter, Amanda. Your father has decided.”

You don’t care. I signed quickly, my movements sharp.

Her head snapped toward me, eyes narrowing. “Don’t you throw your hands at me like that,” she hissed. “You think your father is the only one who suffers from the whispers? I am the Beta’s wife, Amanda. Do you know how it feels to see people look at me with pity because of you? To have them wonder how I gave birth to something broken?”

Her words hit harder than any bully’s shove. My chest ached, my fingers froze in midair. For a heartbeat, I wished I could shout, wished I could make her hear the fury that burned inside me. Instead, I signed slowly, deliberately.

I am not broken.

Her lips curled into something between a sneer and a smile. “Keep telling yourself that.”

The door creaked open, breaking the tension. My father’s scent—pine and steel—filled the room before his tall figure appeared in the doorway. His gaze moved from my mother to me, and I felt the storm in my chest ease slightly.

“Enough,” he said quietly, though the authority in his tone silenced everything. He stepped toward me and placed a firm hand on my shoulder. His touch was grounding, steady. "You do not talk to her like that. She is your daughter for moon's sake, Mina." My father said in annoyance, but my mother just kept on.

"She can't fend for herself, she can't do anything right. She is supposed to take over as the beta or even get married to a strong Alpha, but we would be lucky if she ends up with a warrior at this point," she kept on saying more hurtful words, and the more she opened her mouth to speak, the more my heart cracked.

"Then she will leave," my father suddenly said, and that stopped my mother from talking.

"Leave and go where?" she asked, and without answering, my father turned to me.

"There will be a warrior camp soon, pumpkin. There you will learn to defend yourself and, who knows, meet someone," he said with a smile, and my mother hissed behind him. but he paid her no mind and continued to talk to me.

“You’ll leave for camp in two days,” he said.

Scared nd obviously not sure, i quickly signed "Dad? Are yu sure about this? What if...?" I continued to sign to him but he cut me off.

“You need this, Amanda. You need to learn to defend yourself, to show them all that you are not weak. Not cursed. You are my daughter and no daughter of mine will be called weak,"

My throat tightened. I wanted to argue, to beg him not to send me away, but I could see in his eyes that his decision was final.

I nodded, though my heart sank.

Because deep down, I wasn’t sure if the warrior’s camp would make me stronger… or finally break me.

The next day came a bit too soon, i wanted nothing more than to leave the house.

I watched my father as he took my bags to the truck and loaded them. My mother stood at a distance, watching with her eyes glistening, or maybe that was what I wanted to think.

I turned to her, lifted my hands and signed, “Mom, I’m leaving now. I promise to come back and be less of a burden to you.”

She said nothing, just turned her head and went off into the kitchen.

My father could only shake his head and gesture for me to come over to him for a hug.

“I hope you know how much I love you. I don’t want to see you go, but this opportunity is one you need to prove yourself, not to me, but to yourself that you are not weak. You are strong. The only daughter of one of the strongest betas in the whole werewolf world,” as he said that, tears dribbled down my face, and I hugged him tighter.

***

The warrior’s camp wasn’t what I expected.

I thought it would feel like safety—a fortress where strength was forged, where warriors became legends. Instead, it smelled of sweat, dirt, and blood. The open training grounds stretched wide under the morning sun, wooden dummies lined like soldiers waiting to be beaten into submission. Swords clanged in the distance, warriors’ grunts and trainers’ barks overlapping in a chorus of discipline and pain.

I clutched the strap of my small bag tighter, heart hammering against my ribs. My father’s words from last night replayed in my head: “This is your chance. Don’t waste it.”

But as soon as I stepped into the circle of trainees, I felt every eye on me. Wolves with broad shoulders and sharp smirks, some already shifting into adolescence, others near grown. They looked at me like I didn’t belong—like prey had wandered into the den of predators.

One boy sneered, stepping forward. “What’s this? Did they run out of real recruits?”

Laughter rippled through the group.

Heat rose in my chest, but I lifted my chin. I wouldn’t show weakness. Not here. My hands moved swiftly, sharp and defiant: I’m here to fight. Same as you.

The boy tilted his head in mock confusion and twisted his mouth. “What’s that? She’s waving her hands at me. Somebody translate.”

A girl at his side snickered. “Don’t bother," I heard her say. "She’s the mute one. Everyone knows.”

The words stung sharper than claws, but I kept my face steady. My wolf stirred inside me, low and restless, but still too young to rise.

It followed me here, the stench of my disability. I had thought that at least no one would know me, but it seems news travels fast.

The trainer arrived then, his voice cutting through the laughter like a whip. “Enough.” His eyes scanned the group before settling on me. His gaze was unreadable, neither pity nor welcome—just assessment. “Amanda, is it? You’ll earn your place here. Or you won’t.”

"Alpha Lucien is not here today to watch over you, recruits. However, when he does come around, you will make sure you do not insult me by showing your weak self to him."

I didn't even know what happened, but the mention of Alpha's name made my stomach flutter, but I held it together and listened as the instructor kept on talking.

He turned, barking orders, and the group scattered into drills. I stood there for a beat longer, my pulse loud in my ears.

Earn my place.

For the first time, I wondered if this was where I would finally prove myself—or break completely.