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Chapter 3

Author: Eternity
The school held its annual awards night at the end of November. The student with the highest academic record was supposed to walk into the auditorium with their family and receive a medal onstage.

Josie straightened my collar. “Your parents are really coming?”

“They said they would.”

I didn’t tell her how many times I’d heard that before. She could smell my nerves anyway, but she let it go. She slipped a peppermint into my palm and hurried off to claim a seat in the front row.

Every other student had someone beside them. A grandmother held her grandson’s hand. One father was still wearing his paramedic uniform after a night shift. Just before my name was called, I saw Mom and Dad come through a side door.

Someone recognized them and smiled. “You made it. Nora’s still waiting.”

They hadn’t come for me.

Lena’s patrol coach was evaluating her in the building next door. Mom had rescheduled a clinic meeting, and Dad had postponed a border inspection. They could both clear their calendars for Lena. They only remembered I was at school after someone steered them into my auditorium.

“How much longer?” Mom whispered. “The coach leaves at nine.”

Dad glanced at the aisle leading to the stage. “She’s registered with your pack. You walk with her.”

“With everyone watching? It’ll look staged.”

“So I should do it? Half my officers are in this room.”

The principal called my name.

Applause broke out, and Josie shot to her feet in the front row. She shouted loud enough for the whole auditorium to hear, but not loud enough to drown out the argument behind me.

“You’re her father.”

“She’s yours this year.”

I walked between them and down the aisle alone. The spotlight followed me. The school photographer raised his camera, hesitated, then took the picture anyway.

Onstage, I accepted the medal and shook the principal’s hand. In the photo, there was empty space on both sides of me.

Josie hugged me when I came down. She didn’t tell me my parents were busy, the way everyone else did. “Are you okay?”

“Right now, I am.”

In the building next door, Lena received a recommendation from her coach. Mom rushed over to hug her. Dad posted a picture of the three of them that same night.

No one noticed the medal around my neck. I didn’t see it clearly myself until Josie sent me the photo she had taken.

When I was little, I thought one more win would finally be enough. By then, I understood that Lena didn’t have to win anything to be held.

That night, I hung the medal beside my desk in the dorm. My name was engraved on the front. No pack crest. No Alpha’s seal. Just mine.
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  • The Unwanted Pack Daughter   Chapter 13

    The following August, Josie visited me in Portland. She brought another copy of the graduation photo from Ms. Bennett and a bag of the same peppermints she’d handed me on awards night.We hugged at the airport and laughed like we were back in the school hallway. This time, neither of us had to rush away and explain why my parents were late.My temporary independent status was about to end. A pack near Redwood had offered to accept me. I read its membership agreement, joined several open runs, and met the deputy commander responsible for new members.I used to think joining a pack meant finding a parent who wanted me enough to keep me. Now I knew belonging could be a choice an adult made for herself.I gave myself one full night before signing.From the apartment balcony, I listened to someone walking a dog below while Josie and April fought over the remote in the living room. My wolf didn’t push me one way or the other. She waited.The next morning, I went to the pack office and wrote

  • The Unwanted Pack Daughter   Chapter 12

    I returned east in July for a search-and-rescue technology showcase. Redwood had chosen me to present our improved signal-prediction model.Josie met me at the station and asked whether I wanted dinner at her parents’ house. “Mom bought that bread you like,” she said, then rushed to add, “But you don’t have to come. You can sleep first if you want.”I went with her.Warm bread filled the house with a familiar smell as soon as the door opened. Josie’s father leaned out of the kitchen. “Are you two still planning to compete over who can chop vegetables into the most perfect little squares?”“Yes,” we answered together, then burst out laughing.Their house had never treated my presence like an extra responsibility someone had been stuck with.After the showcase, I arranged to meet Mom and collect a box of notebooks from her house. She offered to send a car. I said I would take the train, and she let the matter drop.The code on the front door was still Lena’s birthday. Mom opened it befor

  • The Unwanted Pack Daughter   Chapter 11

    Lena came alone in June. She wasn’t wearing a patrol jacket, and she hadn’t brought the luggage our parents usually packed for her. She stood outside the station holding a paper bag with two sandwiches she’d bought on the way.“Smoked turkey okay?” she asked.“It’s fine.”The relief on her face was so obvious that I nearly smiled.We walked along the river while we ate. She told me Dad had started holding her to the same standards as the rest of his trainees. Mom no longer canceled every plan at the first sign Lena felt unwell. She sounded almost resentful when she talked about it.“I used to think them fussing over me meant I was doing everything right,” she said. “Now they make me own my mistakes. I know that’s probably healthier, but sometimes I miss how it was.”“You’re allowed to miss being taken care of. Admitting it hurt me doesn’t erase the good parts for you.”She stopped walking and tightened her grip on the paper bag. “At awards night, I saw them leave your auditorium. I kne

  • The Unwanted Pack Daughter   Chapter 10

    Spring fieldwork began in a steady rain. Redwood, the county rescue service, and two nearby packs each sent a team into the mountains with portable radio repeaters. Our goal was to test the dead zones predicted by the model before another rescue went wrong.I was assigned to the eastern route with a research assistant named Callum. He could repair almost any piece of field equipment, but an old knee injury made him slow when he shifted. He had no problem admitting it.“Give me the equipment pack,” he said. “You can handle the sprinting.”I shoved a spare battery into his hands. “If you fall behind, I’m leaving a trail of granola bars.”“Make them chocolate, and we’ve got a deal.”We gave each other a hard time all morning, but we worked well together. That afternoon, one test segment produced results far outside the model’s range. I checked the coordinates and discovered that our map still treated a recently opened construction tunnel as solid rock.One of the partner representatives l

  • The Unwanted Pack Daughter   Chapter 9

    After New Year’s, Redwood received a formal request from Black Pine. The pack wanted to license our rescue model and map the communication dead zones along its mountain patrol routes.The request itself made sense. The problem was on the last page, where Dad ordered that I attend the training “in my capacity as a member of Black Pine Pack.”Dr. Miller forwarded the document. “You may take the job or turn it down. Your scholarship doesn’t depend on it.”“I’ll train them, but I’m not one of their members.”She sent the contract to legal, who rewrote it as an ordinary agreement between Redwood and Black Pine. The pack accepted the change immediately. Dad messaged me in private.[It’s one line in a contract. Do you really need to make a thing out of it?][Yes. You and Mom used lines like that to decide where I lived, who paid my bills, and who didn’t have to show up. My name is mine now. No one fills in that box for me.]The training took place over video. Black Pine’s deputy commander, se

  • The Unwanted Pack Daughter   Chapter 8

    Two months into the semester, Dad sent me an old picture. I was nine, grinning through the gap in my front teeth while holding a map booklet Black Pine patrol gave to young wolves.[I remember how much you loved patrol when you were little. I guess your research grew out of that.]I stared at the picture for a long time. I had found that booklet in a box of discarded supplies. Dad remembered seeing it in my arms, but he didn’t know I had read it until the cover came loose.He was finally searching for pieces of my childhood. He was years too late.Mom mailed me a box of clothes with a note that said, [It gets cold there.]Most of the clothes were things Lena had outgrown. One sweater still had her name written inside the cuff. I texted Mom that I would sort through what I’d left at Sea Cliff in the spring and she could donate everything else.[I’m not cleaning out old clothes,] she replied. [I’m trying to take care of you.]I didn’t argue. Care shouldn’t arrive in a box and leave the r

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