Locked Away
{Belleza's POV}
The cold stone walls of the room didn't bother Belleza anymore.
She'd stopped counting the cracks in them around her ninth birthday. Now, at seventeen, the silence was almost comforting. Almost. If it weren't for the thick wooden door sealed with silver locks, she could almost pretend she wasn't a prisoner in her own pack.
Belleza threw herself onto the bed with a dramatic sign, arms flopping out like broken wings. "I don't understand why Luna and Alpha Phill keep me locked up."
Her wolf's voice stirred inside her mind-sharp, steady, and unimpressed.
"Maybe because you keep beating up the he weakling, they call their son."
Belleza snorted. "We were training. And I warned him-if he kept talking shit about me, I'd beat his ass. Maybe next time he'll keep my name out of his mouth."
"You can't solve every problem with your fists."
Tink's voice softened but still carried the usual edge of challenge.
"Words are words, Belleza. You can't go around attacking everyone who says something you don't like."
Belleza rolled to her side, facing the wall. The air in the room was still and heavy, but the ache in her chest was louder. Her voice quieter now.
"I know. You're right. I just... I don't fit in here Tink. The other kids-they bully me nonstop. Marie, Seth, Holly, Meg... they all act like I'm some damn freak. I thought if I taught Jason a lesson, maybe... just maybe they'd leave me the hell alone."
A tear slid down her cheek before she could stop it. "I didn't know he'd get hurt that bad. But... he started it. I wouldn't have hurt him if he hadn't said what he-said first."
Tink was quiet for a moment before responding.
"Belleza... we are different. You got to meet me at the age of three. Jason and his friends won't get to meet their wolves until there eighteenth birthday. You're playing on a field no one else can even stand on.
"Oh."
It was all she could say. She hated how small her voice sounded. She hated that part of her believed it.
Her wolf continued, gentler now. "They don't understand you. You scare them-and when people are scared, they lash out. But that doesn't mean you have to let them shape who you are. You are better than this."
Belleza sat up slowly, dragging her knees to her chest. Her long black curls fell in a curtain around her pale face, the only softness in a room built for control. Her green eyes glowed faintly in the dim light from the small, barred window high on the far wall.
"It's just... sometimes I wish I wasn't born this way," she whispered. "I wish I was just normal. No early shift. No Tink. No constant whispers and stares."
"You don't mean that."
She didn't. Not really. But the thought lingered like a shadow, cold and quiet.
She rested her chin on her knees. "Do you remember the last time someone saw you? Really saw you?"
Silence.
Then Tink said softly, " Your grandmother. The night your fathers died."
Belleza's throat tightened. That night haunted her dreams. The scent of blood, the snapping of bones, the fear that tasted like iron. The memory of her first shift: unnatural terrifying, powerful. Everything about it had screamed wrong.
She blinked hard. "And now, no one in the pack knows what you even look like," she whispered.
"Good" Tink growled. "They don't deserve to fucking know."
That made Belleza smile, just a little.
Tink's form glowed in her mind-massive, radiant, and ancient. A pure white wolf with emerald eyes that glowed like gemstones fire. She was beautiful. Dangerous. Sacred. A creature of prophecy, not myth.
A wolf not seen in generations.
Belleza had never asked for any of it and was tires of being hidden. Of being feared. But that didn't matter. Because the full moon was rising in two nights, and something was shifting inside her was changing again.
This time, it wasn't just her wolf stirring. It was her purpose.
A knock startled her from her thoughts.
Belleza stiffened, her eyes narrowing. No one ever knocked. They only shoved her meals through the metal hatch and walked away.
A soft voice followed. "Belleza"
She recognized the voice instantly.
"Alicia." she whispered. "Is everything okay?"
The only girl who ever spoke to her like a person. Not a monster. Not a threat.
Belleza stood and crossed the room in slow, cautious steps. "Yeah?"
"I... Alpha wants you out of the room."
Belleza blinked. "What?"
"I don't know why," Alicia said. "But I think... I heard something. I think a Lycan is in the territory."
That word hit Belleza like a thunderclap.
"A Lycan?" she repeated, her voice dropping to a sharp whisper. Her heart pounded beneath her ribs.
She pressed her palm flat against the door, as if that would somehow make the information clearer.
On the other side, Alicia shifted nervously. Belleza could hear the soft scrape of her boots on the stone floor.
"That's what I heard," Alicia whispered, "The scouts picked up the scent near the western ridge. Not a rogue. Something... bigger."
Belleza's breath caught.
She had never seen a Lycan in real life. But she knew the stories-how they stood taller than any werewolf, fought like gods, ruled with blood and fire and divine right. Where werewolves obeyed rank, Lycans were rank. Their bloodlines were ancient, older than the Moon Goddess herself.
"They don't just show up without a reason," Belleza murmured. "Especially not here. They are here for something."
"Exactly." Alicia's voice dropped lower. "And now Alpha Phill wants you out of your room."
Belleza scoffed. "Probably just wants to sacrifice me to them. 'Here, take-our biggest problem child.'"
"Belleza," Alicia said quietly, "they're scared."
"I know they are." She stepped back from the door, her hands curling into fists. "But locking me up like I'm cursed isn't going to fix anything. I'm not the danger here. I saved them! Why do they keep treating me like I'm the fucking enemy."
"You're not," Alicia agreed. "But you're also not normal. Not by pack standards. You know that."
Belleza looked down at her hands. Slender fingers that had broken bones, drawn blood, and cradled power too ancient for her age.
" Thanks for that reminder. Like I don't already fucking know," she muttered.
There was silence for a moment before Alicia spoke,
"Fuck! I didn't mean it like that." Alicia hesitated. "I just mean... they keep you in here because they can't control you. But maybe that's not a bad thing."
Belleza looked up. "Did you just something rebellious?"
"I've been hanging around you too long."
Despite herself, Belleza laughed-a small, dry sound, but real.
Alicia's voice tuned gentle. "Come on. The Alpha gave me clearance to bring you out. I figured we could go to the woods behind the training field. Just for a little while. You could use some fresh air."
Belleza hesitated. Her mind spun. She wasn't used to choices.
Then she said, "Let me grab my combat boots."
As she moved to grab them, Tink stirred in the back of her mind.
"Something's coming, Belleza."
"I know, " she whispered. "I can feel it."
She crossed the room and pulled on her boots-scuffed leather, worn at the heels. The only pair she had.
Then she opened the door.
Sunlight sliced into the dim room like a blade.
Outside stood Alicia, her brown curls tied back in a messy bun. Her stance was nervous, but her eyes-bright hazel and steady-held something else.
Hope.
Belleza didn't smile. But she stepped through the threshold anyway.
The hallway stretched before her-empty, narrow, and unfamiliar after years of being shut away.
This was freedom.
And freedom always came with a cost.
Every step she took felt strange. Her bare feet brushed over stones tiles she hadn't walked on in years. The air smelled different out here-sharper, cooler. Less like rust and dust, and more like pine, leather, and wet soil. The scent of the pack, of wolves, of blood.
It made her stomach turn.
Alicia walked beside her in silence. Her fingers were laced in front of her, tightly knotted, her shoulders stiff with nervous tension. She didn't glance over, but Belleza could feel the weight of her presence-protective but unsure, like she wasn't entirely convinced this was a good idea.
They passed a pack guard near the stairwell.
He flinched when he saw Belleza.
Didn't speak.
Didn't breathe.
Just stepped aside like she was a storm rolling through.
Belleza didn't look at him. But the corner of her mouth twitched.
"Guess I'm still the monster," She muttered under her breath.
"You're not," Alicia said softly.
"I don't need you to lie for me."
"I'm not lying. I just think maybe you've never seen yourself the way other might... if they weren't afraid."
Belleza stopped at the end of the corridor, her head turning slightly. "And how do you see me?"
Alicia swallowed. "Like a girl who's survived more than anyone gives her credit for. And who's a hell of a lot stronger than she knows."
Belleza blinked, caught off guard. She'd expected the usual half-hearted attempts to make her feel better. Not... that.
"You rehearsed that?" she asked.
Alicia huffed a laugh. "Maybe."
They stepped out the back exit and onto the edge of the training field. Grass grew wild here, curling up between broken fence posts and dry patches of dirt that hadn't seen combat in months. Beyond the field, the tree line loomed like a waiting mouth-dense, old, and whispering.
Belleza inhaled deeply.
Fresh air filled her lungs, sharp with the chill of late spring. Her wolf stirred inside her chest, humming with energy. It was the first time she'd been outside in almost a year. Her skin tingled beneath the sunlight.
She didn't know whether to cry or run. But noticed the sky above was starting to turn pale gray, streaked with soft clouds. The forest ahead looked darker than she remembered.
It was waiting for her.
"You, okay?" Alicia asked.
Belleza nodded, but didn't answer. She closed her eyes. Listened.
The forest called to her. Every leaf on every tree seemed to reach for her with invisible hands. Her legs ached to run. Her blood burned.
She opened her eyes.
Something was coming.
No-someone.
"Do you feel that?" she said aloud, not even sure if she was speaking to Alicia or Tink.
"I feel it too," Tink replied, voice barely more than a whisper.
Belleza stepped away from the field, toward the trees.
"Belleza-" Alicia warned.
But she didn't stop.
The moment her boots met the soft moss of the forest floor, something inside her clicked. Her senses sharpened-like a veil had been lifted. The sounds of distant birds, the scamper of squirrels, the buzz of insect wings-they all came alive around her.
Then the wind shifted.
And Belleza froze.
A scent hither like a slap-sharp and rich. Musky, warm, electric. Like power wrapped in thunder. Her entire body reacted. Her legs trembled. Her stomach clenched.
"What is that?" she whispered aloud, though she already knew the answer.
Alicia had gone still behind her. "That's... not anyone from our pack."
The air changed again.
And Belleza's heart skipped a beat.
Suddenly, she was aware-acutely, painfully aware-of every part of herself. Her breathing. Her heartbeat. Her skin. The thrum of her wolf, pacing like a predator beneath the surface.
"He's here," Tink said, her voice tight. "The Lycan."
Belleza turned her head slowly toward the far ridge, eyes glowing brighter now, glowing green. Her lips parted, breath shallow.
She didn't know who he was.
But she knew what he was.
A Lycan.
And somehow, she could feel him too.
Not just his scent. Not just his presence.
His pull.
The mate bond. It had to be.
"Oh, Goddess," she whispered.
Something ancient stirred in her soul. Something not even Tink could explain. The threads of fate tugged at her spine, whispering promises and warnings all at once.
She stumbled back a step, eyes widen. Her hands were shaking. The air felt too thin.
Alicia appeared behind her, panting from running. "Belleza-what's wrong? What happened?"
Belleza didn't look at her. She was still staring towards the trees, toward that unseen presence drawing her in like a whisper she couldn't ignore.
Then, finally, she said, "He's not here by accident."
Alicia's eyes widened. "Do you think he's after the Alpha? Or-?"
Belleza cut her off. "He's here for me."
