Chapter 44 – The Weight of Their Words

Chapter 44 – The Weight of Their Words

I sat outside the cave, breathing in the cool morning air. The rocks beneath me felt rough, but I didn’t mind. It was better than staying inside all the time, where the walls pressed too close and the silence grew too heavy. Out here, I could hear the trees whisper when the wind moved through them, and I could see the sun breaking free from the clouds.

It was strange how peaceful it felt. Almost like I didn’t belong in the middle of fear and secrets, but in a place where nothing could touch me. My fingers traced a line across the dirt, drawing shapes that didn’t mean anything. For once, I let myself breathe without thinking too much.

But peace never stayed for long.

I heard footsteps before I saw them. At first, I thought it was Elara, or maybe the Alpha coming back earlier than I expected. But when I lifted my eyes, I saw faces I didn’t know well. Wolves from his pack. Their clothes looked worn, their eyes sharp, and their mouths set in firm lines. There were three of them, two men and a woman, standing just a few steps away like they weren’t sure if they should come closer.

Still, I felt their stares pressing into me.

“Why are you here?” one of the men asked. His voice was low, but there was nothing kind in it.

I blinked, unsure if he meant the cave or this land in general. “I… I just came to sit outside for a while,” I said softly.

The woman crossed her arms and tilted her head, her eyes narrowing. “That’s not what he means.”

The second man stepped forward, and his words came sharper than the first. “We want to know why you’re here at all. In our home. In our Alpha’s care. You don’t belong here.”

My heart stumbled in my chest. I looked down at the dirt again, my finger frozen on the shape I had been drawing. I wanted to ask them what they meant, but the truth already clung to their words.

They didn’t want me here.

“I didn’t ask to come here,” I whispered, though my voice trembled as soon as it left my lips. “I didn’t choose any of this.”

“Maybe not,” the woman said, her tone sharp like broken glass, “but he chose you. Our Alpha chose you. He listens when you speak. He watches you more than he watches his own people. Do you know what that feels like? To be cast aside while a stranger sits in the place where his attention used to be?”

I looked up at her, shocked. My mouth opened, but no sound came out.

The first man clenched his fists at his side. “We bleed for him. We follow him. But now, everything is about you. Your strange powers, your face, your presence. And what have you given in return? Nothing.”

His words burned more than the morning sun. I wanted to tell them they were wrong, that I wasn’t trying to take anything from them. But the way their eyes pierced me made the words stick in my throat.

The woman stepped closer now, her shadow falling over me. “We hear the whispers. You are not one of us. You come from the ones who hurt us. And yet he keeps you, protects you, like you are something precious. Tell me, why should we accept that? Why should we see you as anything but a danger?”

I swallowed hard. My chest tightened, my hands curling into fists in my lap. “I never wanted to be a danger,” I said quietly. “I never wanted to take him away from you.”

The second man let out a bitter laugh. “But you did. Even without trying, you did. He doesn’t even see us anymore. Doesn’t hear when we call. His eyes are always on you. Do you think your powers will save you? Do you think they make you worth all of this?”

His words cut through me like a blade.

I had only just begun to understand the strange visions, the way my fingers tingled when I touched objects, the flashes of things lost and hidden that appeared in my mind. They frightened me as much as they amazed me. But to hear them now, spoken as if they were nothing, as if I was nothing… it hurt.

“I didn’t ask for these powers,” I said, my voice breaking. “I don’t even understand them fully. But I’m trying. I’m trying to understand who I am and why this is happening to me. Do you think that’s easy?”

The woman’s lips pressed into a thin line. For a moment, her eyes softened, but it was gone before I could hold onto it.

“Go back,” she said flatly. “Go back to where you came from. Leave before you bring more ruin to this place. You don’t belong with us. You never will.”

My chest rose and fell quickly, my breaths sharp and uneven. I wanted to scream that I had nowhere to go back to, that my old home was no longer safe, that everything I had known was gone. But the words tangled inside me like broken threads.

Instead, I sat there, silent, their voices echoing in my ears long after they turned and walked away.

I stared at the dirt again, at the shapes my finger had drawn. They looked like nothing, but in that moment, they felt like me—shapes without meaning, without belonging.

The air felt heavier now, the peace of the morning shattered into pieces I couldn’t put back together.

For a long time, I sat there, trying to hold myself steady. But no matter how still I kept, their words clung to me.

“You don’t belong here.”
“You took him from us.”
“Go back.”

Each word pressed against me like a weight I could not push away.

I thought I had begun to see a place for myself here. I thought maybe, just maybe, I was finding something worth holding onto. But now… now I wasn’t sure.

Maybe they were right. Maybe I was nothing but trouble.

Still, deep inside me, something whispered—soft but firm.

No. You are more than what they say.

I pressed my hands against the dirt, grounding myself in the earth beneath me. My heart still ached, but I refused to let their voices be the only truth I carried.

Even if no one believed in me, I would find the strength to believe in myself.

And yet, as I sat there, alone with the weight of their words, I couldn’t help but wonder how long I could carry it before it broke me.