Scars and Resolve

Elsa’s POV

The first thing I felt when I woke was pain sharp and unrelenting, radiating across my body like fire beneath my skin. My back throbbed with every breath, and even the simple act of opening my eyes sent a wave of nausea rolling through me.

The room was dim, lit only by the glow of a single lamp. The smell of herbs and clean bandages filled the air. For a moment, I thought I was alone, until a familiar voice broke through the haze.

“Elsa… thank the Moon Goddess, you’re awake.”

A soft hand brushed hair from my face. I blinked and found myself staring into the tear-streaked face of Lila, my best friend. She looked as though she hadn’t slept in days. Her usually bright green eyes were swollen and red, her lips pressed tight as if holding back another sob.

“Lila…” My voice was hoarse, barely a whisper.

She hushed me quickly. “Don’t speak too much. You’re hurt. You need rest.”

But I shook my head, forcing my voice out despite the pain. “You… you took care of me.”

Her throat bobbed as she nodded, tears slipping free. “Of course I did. Who else would? They…” Her voice broke, and she pressed her hand to her mouth. “They nearly killed you, Elsa.”

I swallowed hard. The memory of the whip slicing across my back flashed through my mind, vivid and cruel. My body trembled, but I pushed the fear down. “I’m still here,” I said quietly.

That was when she broke. She crumpled to the side of my bed, clutching my hand as if it were the only thing anchoring her to the world. Her shoulders shook violently with sobs.

“Why do they do this to you? You don’t deserve it..you’ve never deserved it!” Her words poured out, raw and broken. “Ever since your parents… gods, you’ve suffered enough. Haven’t you?”

The mention of my parents made my chest tighten. I closed my eyes, letting myself drift back into the memories I usually kept buried.

I had been only eight when it happened. The night fire consumed our home, when screams echoed in my ears, when smoke filled my lungs and blurred my sight. I remembered clutching Lila’s hand, too stunned to cry, while warriors carried out the bodies of my parents.

They had been loyal pack members, kind and selfless, and yet death had stolen them from me without warning. I had no siblings, no close relatives who would claim me. From that night on, I had been the orphan omega girl of Moonstone Pack.

The whispers had followed me everywhere. Pity her. Poor thing. Weak little Elsa.

I had hated those whispers more than the loneliness. I wanted to scream that I was more than a tragedy, more than the girl fate had left behind.

Lila’s sobs brought me back to the present. I tightened my grip on her hand, weak but steady. “Don’t cry, Lila. Please. I can’t bear it.”

“How can I not?” she choked out. “Every time I see you with him every time Caleb looks at you like you’re nothing I want to scream. He wasn’t always like this, but he never deserved you.”

****

At his name, a bitter ache stirred in me. Caleb.

I remembered the first time I had met him years ago, when I was sixteen and still naïve enough to believe in fairy tales. He had found me near the training grounds, sitting alone with my sketchbook.

“You draw?” he had asked, his voice warm, his smile disarming.

I had been startled that he even noticed me. Caleb, the future Alpha, the golden boy everyone adored. And yet he had sat down beside me, flipping through my sketches with genuine interest. Or so I thought.

“You’re talented,” he had said, looking at me with those soft brown eyes. “Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.”

For weeks, he sought me out. Complimented me. Spoke sweet words that filled the emptiness inside me. I had fallen fast, foolishly convinced that I was special to him. That he saw me when no one else did.

But words are easy. Promises are fragile. And love, when given to the wrong person, becomes a weapon.

***

Lila wiped at her face, her jaw tightening. “You should leave, Elsa. You should have left long ago. I don’t know why you came back.”

Her words cut, not because they were cruel, but because they were true. I thought of the stranger in the car, his words burning like a brand in my memory. If you want revenge, survive. If you want freedom, fight.

I had chosen to come back. Chosen to face Caleb rather than run. But why? Because some part of me still wanted to prove myself to him? Or because I wasn’t ready to let go of the life I thought I deserved in this pack?

My chest ached with the weight of it.

“I came back,” I admitted, “because I needed to face him. To face what he’s done to me. I’m done running. If I want to change my life, I can’t hide from him anymore.”

Lila shook her head fiercely. “He’ll destroy you, Elsa. That’s what he does. He takes and takes until there’s nothing left.”

Her tears threatened to start again, but I squeezed her hand, pulling her close despite the pain it caused me.

“No,” I whispered, my voice steadier this time. “Not anymore. He already tried to break me. He failed. I didn’t scream. I didn’t beg. And I won’t ever again.”

Lila’s breath caught, and her gaze searched mine as if looking for the girl she once knew. She must have seen it the change, the fire beginning to burn where there used to be only ash.

“You’re stronger than me,” she murmured, her lip trembling.

I shook my head faintly. “No. I’m stronger because of you. Because you never left me, even when everyone else did.”

Her tears spilled over again, but this time, I was the one who comforted her. I reached up, brushing them away with trembling fingers. “Don’t cry for me, Lila. Crying makes me feel weak again, and I can’t afford that anymore.”

She pressed her forehead against mine, her hands clutching mine tight. “Promise me, Elsa. Promise me you won’t let him win.”

A fierce resolve rose inside me. I thought of Caleb’s cold eyes, of the pain he had inflicted, of the stranger’s warning in the snow.

“I promise,” I said, my voice firm. “I won’t let him win. Everything will be different now.”

For the first time in what felt like forever, I believed my own words. I wasn’t the girl Caleb had broken. I wasn’t the orphan everyone pitied.

I was someone new.

Someone who would survive. Someone who would fight.