Chapter 7: A Wolf Among Wolves

The training grounds were the last place anyone expected to find me.

I knew that because three separate people stopped what they were doing when I walked through the gates.

One young wolf nearly dropped the wooden practice sword in his hand.

Another whispered something to his companion.

A third laughed.

I kept walking.

The morning air was cold, and the smell of damp earth rose beneath my boots. Dozens of pack members had gathered to practise before the ceremony. Some sparred in pairs, while others ran along the outer track or worked on their defensive movements.

I had passed the grounds hundreds of times.

I had never entered them voluntarily.

Not since I was sixteen and a training instructor had ordered me to join the younger wolves for an assessment.

I remembered standing among them, trying to ignore their curious stares.

I remembered the instructor asking me to summon my wolf.

I remembered the silence that followed when nothing happened.

By the end of that morning, half the pack had heard the story.

The wolfless girl had tried to train with real wolves.

The wolfless girl had failed.

The wolfless girl had embarrassed herself.

I had avoided the training grounds ever since.

Until today.

I tightened my grip on the cloth bag I carried and headed towards the equipment shed.

If I wanted answers about my body, I needed to understand what it could do. I could not keep pretending that the strange healing and the voice inside me were nothing.

I needed a controlled environment.

And if I was going to discover what I was becoming, I wanted to begin somewhere people understood wolves.

Even if they had spent my entire life insisting I wasn't one.

"Nyla Graves?"

I stopped.

A broad-shouldered man stood near the sparring ring. He was one of the senior instructors, a dark-haired wolf named Garrick who had once trained Blake.

His eyes moved over me.

"What are you doing here?"

"Looking for somewhere to practise."

His eyebrows rose.

"Practise what?"

"Movement. Balance. Defensive techniques."

He glanced at the others.

Several had stopped pretending not to listen.

"You understand this is a training ground for wolves?"

"I do."

"And you have no wolf."

"I know what people say."

His mouth tightened.

"That isn't an answer."

"It's the only one I have."

A few wolves snickered.

Garrick folded his arms.

"Who gave you permission to enter?"

"No one."

"Then you can leave."

I looked at the training rings, at the wolves moving with strength and confidence, at the wooden weapons hanging from the racks.

For years, I would have lowered my head and obeyed.

Not today.

"I haven't broken any rules," I said. "I'm not asking to spar with anyone. I only want to practise."

"This isn't a place for experiments."

The word struck me.

Experiments.

Was that what I had become? A problem to be hidden? A strange occurrence that powerful people wanted to examine behind closed doors?

I lifted my chin.

"Then let me train like everyone else."

Garrick studied me for a long moment.

Finally, he pointed towards a rack of wooden practice knives.

"Take one."

I blinked.

"Really?"

"Unless you'd prefer to spend the morning arguing."

I crossed the grounds and selected a wooden knife.

It felt awkward in my hand.

Garrick positioned himself several steps away.

"Your stance is too narrow. Widen it."

I obeyed.

"Keep your shoulders relaxed. Don't grip the weapon as if you're trying to crush it."

I loosened my fingers.

"Now watch."

He demonstrated a simple defensive movement, turning his wrist and stepping aside as though avoiding an incoming strike.

I copied him.

"Again."

I repeated the movement.

"Again."

By the tenth attempt, my arm ached.

By the twentieth, my feet had begun to blister inside my boots.

But I continued.

Garrick was not kind, exactly. He corrected every mistake and made me repeat every movement until I could perform it without thinking.

For the first time in years, I felt as though someone was judging me by what I could learn rather than what I lacked.

It was a strange feeling.

I liked it.

"You're observant," he said eventually.

I lowered the wooden knife.

"Is that good?"

"It can be. You watch your opponent instead of watching the weapon. That gives you a chance to anticipate what they're going to do."

He stepped closer.

"But observation won't save you if you hesitate."

"I'll remember that."

"See that you do."

He gestured towards the next exercise.

I was reaching for another practice weapon when a voice sounded behind me.

"Well, this is unexpected."

I turned.

Sienna stood beside the entrance, accompanied by two female wolves. She wore fitted training clothes and carried herself with the same effortless confidence she displayed everywhere else.

Her eyes settled on the wooden knife in my hand.

"Have you decided to become a warrior, Nyla?"

"No."

"Then why are you here?"

"To train."

She laughed.

The sound carried across the grounds.

Several wolves looked over.

"That's ambitious."

I placed the knife on the rack.

"Is there a reason you came here, Sienna, or did you simply want to hear yourself speak?"

One of her companions gasped.

Sienna's smile vanished.

Garrick cleared his throat.

"If you ladies are here to train, take your places."

Sienna looked at him.

"You're allowing her to participate?"

"She's learning basic defensive movements."

"But she has no wolf."

Garrick's expression hardened.

"And yet she is standing here, listening to instructions and doing the work. If you have a problem with that, you may take it up with the Alpha."

Sienna said nothing.

For the first time that morning, I saw her lose an argument without having the last word.

I returned to the exercise.

I could feel her watching me, but I refused to look in her direction.

After another half hour, Garrick paired the trainees for a basic defensive drill.

He did not pair me with a wolf.

Instead, he placed a wooden training post in front of me and instructed me to practise dodging imaginary strikes.

I was beginning to feel ridiculous when a shadow fell across the ground.

Blake.

He had arrived without the usual group of guards, dressed in dark training clothes. His gaze moved from Garrick to me and finally to the wooden knife on the rack.

"What is happening here?"

Garrick answered before I could.

"Nyla requested permission to practise basic defensive movements."

"And you agreed?"

"She has been following instructions."

Blake looked at me.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

I almost laughed.

"Would you have allowed it?"

He didn't answer.

I picked up the wooden knife.

"I don't need permission to learn how to protect myself."

His expression changed.

For a moment, I thought he might order me to leave.

Instead, he glanced at Garrick.

"Continue the lesson."

Then he walked away.

I watched him go, unsettled by the fact that he hadn't argued.

Perhaps he was beginning to understand that I would no longer accept being kept in the dark.

Or perhaps he simply had more important things to worry about.

I returned to the exercise.

---

The incident happened shortly before noon.

Garrick had allowed me to practise with a padded training staff. I was moving through a defensive sequence when a shout rose from the far side of the grounds.

A young wolf had lost control during a sparring exercise.

He was larger than his opponent, with dark fur spreading over his arms and face as his transformation began. His breathing became ragged, and his eyes flashed gold.

His partner stepped back.

"Call it off!" Garrick shouted.

But the young wolf didn't seem to hear him.

He lunged.

His opponent stumbled, striking the ground hard enough to knock the breath from his lungs.

The transformed wolf turned towards him again.

"Stop!" someone yelled.

The young wolf snarled.

His claws lengthened.

The fallen trainee tried to crawl away, but the other wolf sprang forward.

I moved before I could think.

I dropped the training staff and ran.

"Nyla!" Garrick shouted.

I reached the fallen trainee just as the transformed wolf struck.

I pulled the injured man sideways.

The claws caught my shoulder instead.

Pain exploded through me.

I cried out and stumbled backwards, my hand flying to the torn fabric of my shirt.

Blood soaked the material.

For one terrible second, the training grounds became silent.

Then the transformed wolf turned towards me.

His eyes were wild.

I should have run.

Every sensible instinct told me to get away from him.

But the fallen trainee was still on the ground, and the wolf was standing between him and the others.

I raised my hands.

"Stop."

The word came out quietly.

The transformed wolf snarled and advanced.

Something inside me answered.

A low growl rose from my chest.

It was not a sound I had ever made before.

The entire training ground seemed to freeze.

The wolf in front of me stopped moving.

His ears flattened.

His body lowered towards the earth.

I stared at him.

I hadn't meant to do anything.

I didn't even know what I had done.

But he was no longer looking at me like an easy target.

He was looking at me as though he had encountered something he recognised.

Something he feared.

Then he backed away.

One step.

Another.

His breathing slowed, and the wildness in his eyes began to fade.

Garrick rushed forward with two guards and forced the young wolf to his knees. Within moments, the danger had passed.

The training ground erupted into voices.

"What happened?"

"Did you hear that sound?"

"How did she make him stop?"

I barely heard them.

I was looking at my shoulder.

The wound burned, but the bleeding had already begun to slow.

The torn edges of my skin were drawing together.

I pressed a hand over it.

No.

Not again.

A hand caught my wrist.

Blake stood beside me, his face pale with anger and something dangerously close to fear.

"Let me see."

"I'm fine."

"Let me see, Nyla."

He pulled the torn fabric away from my shoulder.

His expression changed when he saw the wound.

I watched him watch it close.

Neither of us spoke.

Around us, the other wolves had fallen silent.

Garrick approached slowly.

"Alpha, what just happened?"

Blake didn't look at him.

"Everyone return to training."

Nobody moved.

His voice became sharper.

"That was an order."

The wolves scattered reluctantly, though many continued looking back at me.

Blake took my arm.

"We need to speak."

"About what?"

"Not here."

I pulled away.

"No. Not another private conversation where you tell me nothing."

His eyes flashed.

"This isn't a game."

"Neither is my life."

For a moment, I thought he might lose his temper.

Instead, he looked at the fading wound on my shoulder.

"You made that wolf stop."

"I know what happened."

"How?"

"I don't know!"

My voice cracked.

I stepped back, breathing hard.

"I don't know why my wounds disappear. I don't know why I can hear things nobody else hears. I don't know why a wolf twice my size suddenly backed away from me. And I'm tired of everyone looking at me as if I should have the answers."

Blake's expression softened.

"Nyla—"

"Don't tell me to calm down."

He fell silent.

I pressed my hand against my shoulder.

"All my life, people have told me what I am. Wolfless. Weak. Unwanted. I've believed them because I had nothing to prove otherwise."

I looked directly into his eyes.

"But something is happening to me, Blake. And this time, I'm not going to let you decide what it means."

He stared at me.

Then, quietly, he said, "I don't think you're wolfless anymore."

The words settled between us.

For years, I had wanted to hear them.

I had imagined Blake saying them with a smile, perhaps after a healer discovered some hidden sign of a wolf inside me.

Instead, he sounded afraid.

And somehow, that frightened me too.

---

That evening, Mara helped me clean the wound.

By then, the skin on my shoulder had closed completely. Only a thin pink line remained, and even that was fading.

Mara examined it with wide eyes.

"This is impossible."

"I know."

"Do you think it has something to do with the howl?"

"I don't know."

She sat beside me.

"Nyla, what happened on the training grounds wasn't ordinary. Everyone saw it. People will talk."

"Let them."

"That's easy to say now. But if the council finds out—"

"They already know something is wrong with me."

Mara frowned.

"That's not the same as knowing what you can do."

I looked towards the window.

The moon was rising beyond the trees.

For a moment, I thought I heard that strange inner sound again.

A faint, distant howl.

I closed my eyes.

This time, I did not feel frightened.

I felt something else.

Recognition.

As if some part of me had spent years searching for a voice and had finally heard it.

I opened my eyes and looked at Mara.

"I think I've been listening for something my entire life."

"What?"

"My wolf."

She reached for my hand.

"Then maybe it's time you stopped listening to what everyone else says and started listening to yourself."

I squeezed her fingers.

For the first time, the idea did not seem impossible.

I might have a wolf.

I might possess abilities nobody in Blackthorn understood.

And I might be far more dangerous than the pack had ever imagined.

But I was still Nyla Graves.

I was still the woman who had spent her life trying to earn a place among people who considered her less than them.

I would not let whatever was awakening inside me turn me into someone cruel.

I would learn to control it.

I would discover where it came from.

And if the truth frightened the people who had kept me ignorant for so long, that would no longer be my problem.

Tomorrow, I would begin searching for answers about my mother.

Tonight, I would allow myself to believe that something inside me had finally awakened.

Even if I had no idea what it wanted.