Chapter 47 47
ARIELLE'S POV
I’d thought the next seven days would be a peaceful stretch – a perfect, calm week after the admission drama, a chance to breathe before diving into college life and the unsettling reality of my new, temporary home. I was wrong. It was the exact opposite.
Even though I’m wolfless, I’ve somehow always been one of the busiest people in the pack. There’s always something that needs a human touch, or so it seems. And despite me being days away from starting a new chapter, my mother didn’t spare me this week. If anything, she piled it on.
It was like she was making a point. While the other young female wolves my age were in their final preparations—practicing shifts, running territory drills with their mentors—I was given a different set of tasks. I inventoried the entire linen closet. I re-organized the archives in the pack library, a job dusty enough to make me cough for hours. I was sent to oversee the human contractors repairing a section of the outer wall, as if my presence would make them lay bricks faster. Each chore came with that look from her—the “be-humanly-useful” look. Since I couldn’t prep like the others, I could at least make myself marginally helpful through sheer busywork.
She seemed utterly unconcerned that I might need a break, or just… space. The last few days had been a whirlwind of heartbreak, confrontation, and major life decisions. My nerves felt frayed, and my body ached from both emotional tension and physical labor. But the Icy Luna’s schedule waited for no one.
On Thursday morning, I was hauling a box of old ledgers to the storage shed when my phone buzzed in my pocket. I paused, wiping sweat from my brow with the back of my hand, and looked around furtively to make sure my mother wasn’t watching from some window. The coast was clear. I pulled the phone out.
It was Mandy. I answered, trying to sound normal and not like I’d just been wrestling with decades-old account books. “Hello, Mandy.”
“Hey! How’ve you been? I thought I’d see you before now!”
I looked around at the half-finished chores littering my day and just shrugged, even though she couldn’t see it. “Fine, I guess. It’s been… busy. What’s up?”
“You should come today! To see your apartment! My uncle already had it all ready, and I can show you around. It’ll be fun!”
“Oh. Is it necessary…?” I paused, realizing how dumb that sounded. Of course I had to see where I’d be living. “Well…”
“What do you say? You’re coming? Please?” she wheedled.
“No, I’m…” I trailed off, trying to think of an excuse that wasn’t ‘my mother has me doing slave labor.’
“Okay, what about tomorrow?” she asked, her voice softening with understanding.
I wanted to say yes. But tomorrow was Friday, and I had my usual training session. Only this time, it wasn’t with one of the Gamma trainers. My mother had informed me at breakfast, in that tone that brooked no argument, that she would be overseeing my “final preparatory session” before college. It was unusual, and I couldn’t dare skip it. It would be intense, and probably humiliating.
My shoulders dropped. “I ain’t gonna make it tomorrow, Mandy. I… I have to do personal training with my mother.”
“Oh,” she said, the disappointment clear. “It’s fine. Though, he did ask that you come tomorrow. But I’ll make a perfect excuse! I’ll just tell him you’ll make it the day after.”
“That will be fine,” I said, relief washing over me.
“Perfect! You can check it out on Friday, then you can move in on Saturday!” she chirped, already planning.
I listened, but my mind drifted. Friday. How was I going to get my mother to let me step out of the pack on a Friday? She’d want me doing more pointless chores or, worse, more ‘training.’
“By the way,” Mandy added, “I heard the administration is organizing an orientation for us incoming freshmen. This weekend!”
“Really?”
“Yes! Didn’t you get the email?”
“I… haven’t checked my email in days,” I admitted. The thought of sifting through official college messages felt like another task on the pile.
“Well, you should!”
“Yeah. Thanks for the update!” I said, but my mind was already racing. An orientation. A mandatory orientation. That was it. That was my perfect, legitimate excuse to get out on Friday. I could attend the orientation—which was necessary—and then slip away to Dead Moon to see the apartment. A real, sanctioned reason to leave the territory.
“I’ll hang up now. See you soon!” Mandy said.
“Take care.” I pocketed my phone, a new plan forming, and stepped out from behind the shed toward the open training grounds.
I almost collided with Aunt Everly. “Hey, Arielle. Have you seen Sheila?”
“Not since last evening,” I said. “Isn’t she around?”
Aunt Everly’s expression was tight with mild worry. “No. Actually, she didn’t come home last night.”
I knew that look. I knew Sheila. She’d probably gone partying with some of her high school friends, the ones from the city but definitely not from our pack, which is why she couldn’t just stumble back before dawn.
Speaking of the devil, a whirlwind of motion caught my eye. Sheila came jogging onto the field, not walking, but doing a series of show-off backflips and cartwheels across the grass, finishing with a flourish. Her usual wild brown curls were tamed into a sleek, fierce ponytail. She looked energetic, sharp, and more like a quintessential Alpha’s daughter in that moment than I ever had. Lolz.
She reached her mother and threw her arms around her in a dramatic hug. “Mom! I’m so sorry! I crashed at Stacy’s place. We were studying and I just… passed out. It was wrong of me not to call.”
Aunt Everly pulled back, her hands on Sheila’s shoulders, her eyes searching her daughter’s face. She chided her, her voice firm but not angry. “Why didn’t you at least send a text? I was worried.”
I saw the tiny flicker in Sheila’s eyes, the way she couldn’t quite hold her mother’s gaze. She was lying. She plastered another big, smacking kiss on Aunt Everly’s cheek. “I know, I know. It won’t happen again. I was just so tired, my brain turned off.”
Aunt Everly just rolled her eyes, seeing right through the performance but choosing, for now, to accept it. “Alright. Your punishment is twenty laps. Now. Go linger over your offence.”
Sheila gave a mock salute. “Yes, ma’am!” She shot me a quick, ‘save me’ look as her mom walked away.