Chapter 83
Nadia’s POV
They say that when you die, your life flashes before your eyes.
I always thought that was just a human myth, something they tell themselves to make death seem less terrifying.
But as I felt the wolf poison spreading through my body, burning my veins and squeezing my heart, memories washed over me like ocean waves–Adrian’s ocean, the scent I’d first fallen in love with when I was just thirteen years old.
My mother died when I was nine. Cancer, the human doctors said–one of the few diseases that even werewolf healing couldn’t overcome.
My Father never quite recovered. He buried his grief beneath an endless parade of women, coming home late smelling of perfume and sex, leaving me to navigate the treacherous waters of adolescence alone.
No one teaches a teenage girl how to manage her first period when it comes early, how to handle the stares when her body develops faster than her peers, or how to hide her tears when she catches her reflection in the mirror–round face covered in angry red acne, body swelling no matter how little she eats.
Other teenage girls were blooming flowers, while I was just a crooked, misshapen weed.
“We don’t have training gear in your size,” the equipment manager announced loudly during combat class when I was fourteen. Maybe you should train with the adults instead of the juniors.”
Laughter rippled through the group of young wolves. I felt my cheeks burn with shame as I mumbled that my regular clothes would be fine. The Alpha’s son, Adrian, was watching from across the training field, but he was too important, too perfect to notice someone like me.
It got worse as we grew older. At sixteen, I weighed nearly 210 pounds, my face was a battlefield of cystic acne, and my self–esteem had withered to almost nothing. I’d learned to make myself invisible, to find the shadowy corners where no one would notice me, to hold my tears until I was safely alone.
That’s where I was–curled in the hidden alcove behind the pack’s storage building–when I overheard them.
“Fifty bucks says you won’t do it,” Cam Matthews challenged, his voice carrying clearly in the afternoon air.
“Do what?” another boy asked–Tim Rankin, I thought, recognizing his nasal tone.
*Ask out Nadia Bennett,” Cam replied, followed by howls of laughter from the others. “Loser of today’s fighting match has to ask the fattest, ugliest girl in the pack to the Spring Moon Dance.”
‘I’d rather die,‘ Tim declared emphatically. “I’m not desperate enough to screw a whale.”
“You think she’d even fit through the door to the dance?” another boy chimed in.
“Probably break the floor if she tried to dance!”
I pressed my fist against my mouth, biting down on my knuckles to keep from making a sound. Their words weren’t new–I’d heard variations of the same cruel jokes for years–but they still cut as deeply as any claw.
“If we’re talking about who’s taking Nadia anywhere, a deeper voice interrupted, “it’ll be none of you.”
The laughter stopped abruptly. I peered through a crack in the wall and saw Adrian standing there, his tall frame radiating the authority he’d inherited from his father.
“Alpha’s son,” Cam muttered, his previous bravado evaporating.
“Future Alpha, Adrian corrected coldly. “And I don’t appreciate hearing my pack members being discussed this way.” His amber eyes narrowed dangerously. “Twenty miles. All of you. Now. And if I hear any more of this kind of talk, you’ll be running laps until your legs fall off.”
The boys scattered like frightened rabbits, leaving Adrian alone. I tried to shrink further into my hiding place, but somehow, he knew I was there.
1/3
Chapter 83
You can come out,‘ he called softly. “They re gone.”
Humiliation burned through me as I stepped out, unable to meet his eyes. What must he think, finding me cowering like a pathetic Omega!
“Why do you let them talk to you like that?” he asked.
I shrugged, still staring at the ground. ‘What am I supposed to do?”
“Fight back,” he said simply. “I’ve watched you in training. You’re stronger than most of the boys your age. Your reflexes are good. Your biggest problem is thai you don’t believe in yourself.”
My head snapped up in shock. Adrian had noticed me during training?
The Alpha’s son, three years my senior and already being groomed for leadership, had paid attention to awkward, fat, pimple–faced Nadia Bennett?
“You could be an excellent warrior,” he continued, his eyes assessing me with unexpected seriousness. “You have all the physical attributes. You just need more confidence and better technique. If anyone gives you trouble again, tell me. I won’t have pack members treating each other this way.”
It wasn’t a dramatic moment. The earth didn’t shift beneath my feet. Angels didn’t sing. But something fundamental changed inside me that afternoon.
For the first time in years, someone had seen past my appearance to the potential beneath.
Someone believed I could be more.
That night, I made a silent vow to myself: I would become a warrior so formidable that no one would dare mock me again. And when Adrian became Alpha, I would stand at his side as Beta–his protector, his right hand.
That same evening, I cut off my long hair with kitchen scissors, leaving it short and practical. From that day forward, I maintained that short style, never letting it grow past my ears again.
I also removed every mirror from my room, packing them away in boxes and storing them in the attic. If I was to remake myself as a warrior, I couldn’t afford to be distracted by appearances anymore.
I knew it was almost impossible. Female Betas were rare; fewer than five existed across all North American packs. And none of them had started from where I was–overweight, untrained, and unsupported.
But I had a purpose now.
Every morning, I woke three hours before the others to run. Every evening, I stayed late at the training grounds, repeating combat moves until my muscles screamed. I studied strategy and pack politics, forcing my mind to absorb concepts that didn’t come naturally to me.
My body didn’t cooperate easily. I’d lose ten pounds only to gain back eight. The acne would clear for a week, then erupt worse than before due to stress and hormonal fluctuations.
The taunts continued–now behind my back rather than to my face, but still there.
But as a human philosopher once wrote, “He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.”
My why was Adrian
When I finally shifted at seventeen, everything changed.
My wolf form was powerful, coal–black and swift. I became slender and athletic, the werewolf metabolism transforming my body completely. Even the acne that had plagued my entire adolescence gradually disappeared.
Some boys who had once mocked me even invited me to the Spring Moon Dance, but I refused them all. I spent that evening in the training grounds instead -I had no interest in the pastimes that captivated most other girls!
The day Adrian personally selected me as one of his guards was the proudest of my life.
