Chapter 2 ~ A Little Too Good

{Ava’s POV}

My story isn’t the tragic kind people whisper about in taverns or around fire pits.

It isn’t the tale of some weak, invisible girl lost in the world.

No.

My story was messy for a much simpler, far more irritating reason:

I was good, “too good”, at everything.

Fighting. Running. Reading body language. Picking up skills I had no business mastering.

It wasn’t pride — it was fact. A fact I didn’t choose, didn’t deliberately nurture, but one the world resented me for.

If my parents had been alive, maybe they would have helped me understand why I was this way. But all I had was Calita.

Calita— the mute maid of the Alpha House. She was the closest thing to a mother I’d ever known.

She was small, frail, always bent over a broom… yet somehow stronger than everyone else combined. She found me when I was a cub, and ever since, she’d been the only constant warmth in a house that felt like a storm.

Unfortunately, storms had names.

Alpha Rayon. Luna Reeca. And their daughter, Revna.

They were the family I was staying with and I could tolerate Alpha Rayon’s coldness and Luna Reeca’s shrill cruelty, but Revna…

Revna was a different breed of nightmare.

So when I finished my chores that morning and headed for the door— innocently hoping to visit my friend. Edna, I should have expected the ambush.

“And where do you think you’re going?” Luna Reeca’s voice snapped through the room.

I froze mid-step.

She sat at the long dining table with Revna and one of her brothers, slicing meat like she’d been waiting for an excuse to cut something far more bulky.

“I’m… going to see Edna,” I answered carefully. I always watched my tone around them, like stepping on cracked ice.

Luna Reeca’s eyes narrowed. “You’re too dressed.”

“I always look clean, Luna,” I said.

“Aha. So we’re dirty now?”

Panic flickered across my chest. “N-no—”

Revna didn’t even bother looking up from her plate when she cut in. “She reeks of slum boys from the neighboring Pack. She’s definitely sneaking off to see one.”

Of course she would say that.

Revna was born with a god-tier body and a hell-tier personality, and she wielded both like weapons.

“Daughter, you may be right,” Luna Reeca sniffed. “But the real problem is that this scrote has become comfortable. Too comfortable.”

I knew where this was going.

I braced myself.

“She doesn’t train with the other wolves. She doesn’t get dirty— just look at her skin!” Reeca gestured sharply at me. “It’s clearer than mine and I’m the fucking Luna!”

Ah. There it was.

Revna clicked her tongue. “Entitled filth.”

Something inside me twitched at her words, but I stayed silent. Experience taught me that defending myself only made things worse.

Then Luna Reeca spoke the words that turned annoyance into punishment.

“From today onward, you will NOT leave this house except for Pack duty. No friends. No wandering. Since you can’t join them in training because you’re ’too good’, you’ll go there every day and clean every used weapon and gear until I say otherwise.”

My breath hitched.

“That’s too much for one pers—”

“I don’t care!” she snapped.

Revna chimed in smoothly, “She can also clean the Pack Guest Houses. All four.”

“Very good, daughter,” Luna said without missing a beat.

I felt my stomach drop.

They weren’t just trying to keep me busy— they wanted to break me.

Luna walked toward the staircase now, lifted a glass, and dropped it deliberately onto the floor.

Shatter.

“You missed a spot in your cleaning earlier,” she said coolly.

Revna smirked, grabbed the edge of the dining table, and instantly tipped it— sending every single glass, plate, and jug crashing to the floor.

“Actually, mother, she missed a lot of spots.”

Something inside me snapped.

I’d put up with their cruelty my entire life. Their taunts, their punishments, their attempts to shrink me into something twisted and small. And I’ve always mellowed but this time, the words came before fear could silence them.

“I’ve had enough!” I voiced angrily.

Both mother and daughter turned.

I swallowed hard but didn’t back down.

“When I finish everything you’ve assigned… I’m leaving DarkClaw.”

Revna blinked in disbelief while her mother burst out laughing. Hard.

“And where will you go?” she mocked. “To the gutter? To the slut valleys?”

I lifted my chin.

“No. To Moonspire Academy.”

The laughter died instantly.

Revna turned now. “You? Moonspire Academy? Are you delusional?”

“No,” I said. “I’ll graduate. Become a Royal Warrior. Pay back every coin you’ve spent on me. And then I’m gone.”

Luna Reeca stepped close enough for me to pick up every scent on her as she grew a frown. A tight one. 

“Alright. Fine,” she said. “Go. But once you leave this house, you NEVER come back. But when you apply to Moonspire, I will send a letter to ensure they drill you twice as hard as any other trainee and punish you.” She said and smiled— the kind of smile knives made.

“This is your fate… if you still want to chase that dream.”

My fists clenched at her words. 

“Yes,” I said. “I’ll leave at dawn.” I shocked them with my response and Reeca’s smile faltered for a heartbeat, and then twisted into something darker.

“Alright. Let’s see how long you last.”

**

~ The Next Morning ~

Sleep didn’t exist for me last night.

Fear and hope shared the same bed, both keeping my eyes open.

At dawn, I walked away from the Alpha House with nothing but a bag, a few coins, and a heart bruised by the thought of leaving Calita behind.

But Edna was waiting for me.

My best friend— loud, chaotic, sunshine-in-a-world-of-storms Edna. She paced beside me, determined to share this insane journey with me.

“I think I see the Academy gates!” she squealed after two tiring hours.

And she was right.

Moonspire Academy rose above the trees like a fortress carved from myth. I exhaled with my shoulders loosening.

For the first time in my life, hope didn’t feel like a crime.

**

~ The Boy ~ 

We had barely set our bags down when the noise hit us— a thunderous cheer from the training fields.

Curiosity pulled us in and we rushed to the scene. 

There, in the center of a massive circle of students, stood a tall, unfairly good-looking boy with sunlit hair and the cockiest stance I’d ever seen.

And he was reveling in it.

“Now that you all know I’m the absolute best,” he declared, spreading his arms, “I’m calling out anyone who thinks they can face me!”

Edna sighed dreamily. “He’s handsome.”

“No. He’s arrogant,” I corrected. I was immediately offended by how his character instantly dented his beauty and I didn’t know why it piqued me so much… but it did. 

No one stepped forward, and he didn’t look surprised.

He smirked. “Thought so.” He commented even more arrogantly and something hot and electric surged through me instantly.

Maybe it was my temper.

Maybe frustration from leaving DarkClaw.

Or maybe the universe simply wanted to spice things up.

But either way…

“I will,” I heard myself say.

Edna grabbed my arm, brutally shocked. “Ava, WHAT are you doing?!”

“I’m a little too good,” I whispered. “Remember?”

And I stepped into the circle.