A Curious Little Friend

Hannah’s POV

I moved through the compound quietly, my head down, that was the trick to surviving here, be useful enough not to be punished and invisible enough not to be noticed.

The social brutality of Crescenthood pack members never stops. A beta might shove past me in the hallway without a word. A group of deltas could laugh loudly about the wolf-less freak while I scrubbed nearby, knowing I could hear every word. I had mastered the art of not reacting, because that would only make things worse for me. 

This morning I was assigned to the lower courtyard garden, pulling weeds, sweeping fallen leaves, and cleaning the stone paths before the higher ranks came out for training. 

My hands were already dirty by nine o’clock, my back aching from bending over the flowerbeds.

Then the small footsteps started.

At first I thought it was my imagination, but then I heard it again followed me from flowerbed to flowerbed. I straightened up slowly and turned.

A little boy, maybe five years old, stood a few feet away with wide curious eyes and messy dark hair. He wore an oversized training shirt that reached his knees. A pup. One of the lower-rank families, probably.

“Are you the lady who cleans everything?” he asked, tilting his head.

I blinked, completely caught off guard because most children were quickly taught to avoid me. “Yes,” I replied softly. “I clean.”

He nodded solemnly. “Why don’t you have a wolf? Mama says some wolves are sleeping, Is your wolf sleeping? Does it snore?”

The questions landed gently, but they still stung. I managed a small smile, my first real one in days. “Maybe it’s sleeping. Or maybe I never had one to begin with. What’s your name, little one?”

“Eli,” he declared proudly. “I’m five. Can I help? I’m really good at pulling weeds”

For the rest of the morning, Eli became my unexpected shadow. He chatted nonstop. He asked a hundred questions like why the sky was blue, if I liked strawberries, whether the Alpha was as tall as a tree, and if I was lonely. His voice was bright and unguarded, a stream of innocence that cut through the gray monotony of my day. He even tried to help pull weeds, though he mostly just got dirt on his shirt and laughed about it.

At one point, he found a ladybug on a leaf and carefully brought it over to show me, his small hands cupped like he was holding a treasure. “See? It’s lucky. Maybe it’ll wake up your wolf.”

I could only laugh at his innocence.

For a few hours, I wasn’t the wolf-less omega. I was just Hannah. Someone worth talking to.

It was the nicest thing that has happened to me in weeks.

And somehow, that made it the saddest.

Because I knew it wouldn’t last. Soon enough, his parents would notice and pull him away. Soon enough, he would learn that associating with me was something to be ashamed of. 

The contrast between his easy acceptance and the daily cruelty I endured made my chest ache with a hollow kind of warmth. I ruffled his hair gently when he laughed, In three months, I will be gone. This brief kindness was just another thing I’d have to leave behind.

By midday, the sun had burned away the morning fog. Lena found us near the kitchen entrance. She raised an eyebrow at Eli trailing behind me like a loyal duckling but said nothing at first. Lena is twenty-five, she’s also an omega who had been transferred to the pack kitchens three years ago after her previous smaller pack dissolved. She had once told me her family had been outsiders too, her parents were immigrants who joined a pack only to be treated as second-class because they had ties with the human world. 

Two years ago, on one particularly brutal winter night, I collapsed from exhaustion while scrubbing the kitchen floors after everyone else had gone to bed. Lena found me, quietly brought me warm broth from the leftovers, and helped me finish the last section so I wouldn’t be punished in the morning. Since then,we became close and she had been my best friend, sneaking me better scraps of food, teaching me how to navigate the pack’s unspoken rules, and standing up for me in small, clever ways when others weren’t looking. She was blunt where I was silent, proactive where I had learned to endure. 

Lena pulled me aside while Eli was distracted chasing another butterfly across the path and handed me a slightly bruised apple she’d smuggled out.

“You’ve got a new admirer,” she whispered, her features softening with a rare smile. “He’s cute. But be careful, his mom is a gamma. She might not like it.”

I bit into the apple hungrily, the sweetness quenched my thirst a little. "Don't worry, he will probably forget about me by tomorrow.”

“Rough morning?” She asked.

I shook my head, glancing back at Eli. “Actually… not entirely.”

Lena followed my gaze and her expression softened for a moment before turning serious. 

“Listen, pack gossip is wild today. The Alpha’s been locked on his top floor for two whole days now. No one’s seen him. Not even Declan’s been allowed in much. The blood moon is tomorrow night, and everyone’s on edge. They say his curse is hitting harder than ever. Something’s going on, I don’t know what, but the seniors are moving around like they’re planning war or a funeral.”

“They’ve been looking for ways to help him for years, right?”

“Yeah,” Lena muttered. “But this feels different and more desperate. Just… keep your head down tomorrow, okay? Whatever storm is coming, we don’t want to be in it.” She said and turned back into the kitchen.

As Lena slipped back into the kitchens, I turned to tell Eli it was time for him to go find his mother. But the words died in my throat.

Two senior pack members Elder Marcus and another I didn’t know by name stood at the edge of the courtyard watching me. Their expressions were strange.

My stomach twisted. They looked away when they noticed me staring, but the feeling lingered like cold fingers on the back of my neck.

Eli tugged on my sleeve. “Can we pull more weeds tomorrow?”

I forced a smile for him, ruffling his hair gently. “Maybe, little one. Now go find your mom before she starts worrying.”

As he ran off waving enthusiastically, the warmth I’ve been feeling all day was replaced by the uneasy weight of those watching eyes. 

And for the first time in a long while, I couldn’t shake the sense that the shadows around me were no longer content with ignoring me.