16

16
Jane
The next morning, I stood on the training grounds before the sun came up, my body shaking with nervous energy. This was my chance to change the broken girl I’d been into someone who could never be hurt like that again.
“You’re early,” Alpha Tommy said as he came closer. “Good. That tells me you’re serious about this.”
“I am,” I said, my voice steady despite the storm of feelings inside me. “I’ve never been more serious about anything in my life.”
“Then let’s begin.”
The training was brutal. Every muscle in my body screamed in pain as Alpha Tommy pushed me beyond what I thought I could do. My hands bled, my body hurt, but I wouldn’t quit.
Every punch I threw carried the weight of my pain. Every time I dodged was powered by my determination to never be powerless again.
“You’re stronger than I expected,” Alpha Tommy said after I managed to stay standing through another hard session. “Most people would have given up by now.”
“I can’t give up,” I panted, wiping blood from my split lip. “This is all I have.”
Days mixed into weeks. I trained until my body gave out, then forced myself to train more. Amira and Ella begged me to rest, their worry touching, but they didn’t understand.
They didn’t know what it felt like to be so broken that you had to rebuild yourself from nothing. They didn’t understand that every bruise, every moment of pain, was proof that I was becoming someone new.
Everything was going smoothly—my training and my focus. We trained every day except Sundays, which Alpha Tommy spent with his wife. Their love is beautiful, something I can’t help but admire.
In the kitchen one evening, I found Jack sitting alone.
“Hi, Brother,” I greeted him.
“Hello,” he responded.
“Are you hungry?” I asked, grateful for the distraction. “Should I make you something?”
He nodded, “Yes, please.”
“Okay. Please sit down. I will be fast. It will be ready soon.”
My brother took his seat and watched me as I made his food. After I was done with the food, I served it to him, and he dug in and began to eat.
“How is it? Do you like the food?” I asked as he ate.
“It’s delicious,” he said after tasting the food, and his simple appreciation meant more to me than any grand gesture could have. “Thank you.”
After finishing, he offered to wash the dishes, but I refused. He insisted for a bit, but eventually agreed to let me handle it.

After a month of endless training, something changed inside me. The broken girl was still there, but she was protected now by layers of strength and determination. When I finally landed my first punch on Alpha Tommy, the satisfaction that roared through me was intoxicating.
“You’re getting stronger,” Alpha Tommy acknowledged. “But there’s still more to learn.”
I was thrilled by his words. The Alpha then announced that I’d be training with his Beta, who had a different fighting style.
Training with the Beta was different—harder in some ways, easier in others. But when I finally beat him, standing over his fallen form with my chest heaving and my body singing with power, I felt something I’d never felt before: pride. Not in what someone else thought of me, but in what I’d done for myself.
“This is the new me,” I whispered to myself that night, staring at my reflection in the mirror. The girl looking back wasn’t the same one who’d been crushed by rejection. This girl had scars, yes, but they were proof of her battles, not her defeats. “No one will ever look down on me again.”
The Alpha then announced that I could be fighting the pack’s strongest warrior, a test of my strength.
Now, standing in the arena facing the pack’s strongest warrior, I felt no fear. The crowd’s energy buzzed around me, but all I could hear was the steady beat of my own heart. This giant before me was scary, and deadly, but I had been made in the fire of my own pain and came out as something unbreakable.
I wasn’t fighting for recognition or approval. I was fighting for the girl who’d been told she was nothing, proving once and for all that she was everything she’d ever needed to be.
The warrior stepped forward, and I smiled—not with arrogance, but with the quiet confidence of someone who had nothing left to lose and everything to prove.
Let the battle begin.