The pack did not expect it to be me.
I didn't expect it either.
That was the strangest part, not the fall, not the silence afterward, but the way my body had moved before my mind could interfere. As if something inside me had finally decided to stop asking permission.
We were halfway through sparring rotations when it happened. The morning air was sharp, mist still clinging to the ground, the clearing scarred with footprints and claw marks from weeks of training.
Wolves stood in loose clusters, some stretching, some already bruised, all of them buzzing with restrained aggression.
Rhea called out my name.
A ripple moved through the group. Not surprise but with curiosity. I felt it like a brush of cold air against my skin.
"Again?" someone muttered behind me.
I stepped forward without comment.
My opponent was Kade. He was older, heavier, and carried himself like someone who had never been challenged by anyone smaller. His confidence rolled off him in waves, careless and loud.
He grinned when he saw me. "Try to last longer this time."
I didn't answer.
Rhea stepped back, raising her hand.
"Begin."
Kade lunged immediately, fast and aggressive, claws flashing. The old me would have retreated. The new me didn't move at all.
Time slowed.
I saw the way his weight shifted too far forward. Felt the imbalance ripple through the ground beneath my bare feet. My body adjusted without conscious thought, muscles aligning, breath steadying.
I stepped into him.
My shoulder hit his center just as his momentum peaked. I twisted, pivoted, and used his force instead of fighting it.
The impact was brutal.
Kade crashed into the dirt with a sharp grunt, the sound of air leaving his lungs echoing across the clearing. The earth shook beneath us.
Silence followed.
Not the awkward kind. The stunned kind.
I stood there, frozen, staring down at him.
My hands trembled, my heart slamming against my ribs so hard it hurt. I hadn't meant to do that. I hadn't planned it.
I'd simply known.
Kade groaned, trying to sit up. Someone rushed forward, then stopped when Rhea lifted her hand.
"Stay," she said sharply.
She looked at me like she'd never seen me before.
Around us, the pack shifted. Bodies angled differently now. Conversations died mid-breath. Even the wolves who had never bothered to learn my name were staring.
I felt exposed. Bare.
And then I felt him.
The alpha didn't raise his voice. He didn't need to. His presence alone cut through the clearing like a blade. When I looked up, he was already watching me, eyes dark, expression unreadable.
He crossed the distance slowly, deliberately, as if giving everyone time to absorb what had happened.
"You didn't overpower him," he said, voice calm.
My throat tightened. "No."
"You didn't rely on strength."
"No."
"You anticipated."
The word hung in the air.
Rhea exhaled under her breath. "She read him."
The alpha's gaze didn't leave me. "You moved before he committed."
"I didn't think," I said honestly. "I just… felt it."
Something flickered in his eyes then.
Interest, sharp and dangerous.
"That's instinct," he said. "Not the wild kind. The quiet one."
Kade finally pushed himself upright, his pride clearly more wounded than his body.
He glared at me, confusion and anger warring on his face.
"You got lucky," he snapped.
I met his gaze, my voice steady despite the storm inside me. "No. You were loud."
The clearing went dead silent.
I hadn't meant to say that out loud.
The alpha's mouth twitched.
Rhea let out a low whistle.
Kade looked like he wanted to argue, then stopped. Something in the way the others were watching him and watching me, made him think better of it. He turned away stiffly, jaw tight.
The moment passed.
But the shift didn't.
Training resumed, but nothing was the same. Wolves sparred with more caution now, eyes flicking toward me when they thought I wasn't looking. Some avoided me entirely. Others watched with a new, calculating interest.
No one laughed anymore.
I felt it in my bones, the recalibration. The unspoken reassessment.
They weren't waiting for me to fail.
They were waiting to see what I would do next.
By the time training ended, exhaustion weighed heavily on my limbs, but my mind refused to quiet. I slipped away toward the forest, needing space to breathe.
I didn't get far.
"You felt it, didn't you?"
The alpha stood ahead of me, leaning against a tree like he'd been there all along.
"I felt a lot of things today," I said carefully.
He nodded. "The pack did too."
I folded my arms, suddenly self-conscious.
"Am I in trouble?"
"No." He studied me for a long moment.
"You're inconvenient."
That startled a laugh out of me. "I don't think that's a compliment."
"It's not an insult either," he said. "You don't fit our expectations."
"I never have."
"That's obvious." He straightened. "Most wolves gain strength first. You gained perception."
I frowned. "Is that bad?"
"It's unpredictable."
The word settled heavy in my chest.
He stepped closer, close enough that I could feel the weight of him again and not crushing, but present. Testing.
"You didn't resist me last night," he said quietly. "You didn't submit either."
"I didn't feel the need to."
His gaze sharpened. "You should have."
"Why?"
"Because resisting dominance without instinctive submission can provoke aggression."
"Did it provoke you?" I asked.
A pause.
"No," he admitted. "It intrigued me."
That didn't make me feel safer.
"Listen carefully," he continued. "The pack will adjust to you now. Some will seek to test you. Others will seek to protect you."
"I don't want protection," I said.
A corner of his mouth lifted. "You don't get to choose that yet."
I sighed, rubbing my arms. "So what am I to them now?"
He considered me for a long moment. "A question."
That night, sleep refused to come.
Every time I closed my eyes, I felt it again, the moment my body moved, the way power had flowed through me without effort. It wasn't intoxicating. It was unsettling.
Because it hadn't felt borrowed.
It had felt like it belonged to me.
I pressed a hand to my chest, breathing slowly.
Deep inside, the quiet thing stirred, not eager, not hungry, just… awake.
Waiting.
And for the first time since this curse,or gift,had claimed me, I realized the truth:
I hadn't killed the werewolf and become one.
I had killed the version of myself that believed power had to roar to exist.