Hybrid
Aria Swelth had learned a long time ago that being noticed was dangerous.
At home, being noticed meant a bottle flying toward her head, a hand around her wrist, or her mother's voice slurring through another reminder that Aria had ruined her life before she ever took her first breath.
At school, being noticed was different.
Not better.
Just quieter.
At school, people looked at her like she was something unpleasant left in the corner. Something stained. Something that smelled like cigarette smoke, cheap liquor, and a house no one wanted to enter.
So Aria kept her head down.
She sat in the same seat every day, beside the third-story window, because windows were exits and exits mattered. She did her work. She ignored the whispers. She pretended not to hear the chairs scrape away from her when she sat too close.
Most days, that was enough.
Today was not most days.
"You don't mind moving, right?"
Aria looked up.
A girl stood beside her desk with a notebook pressed to her chest and an easy smile on her face. Not cruel. Not exactly. That almost made it worse.
"I mean," the girl continued, glancing around the room as if everyone had already agreed, "you don't really have any friends."
The classroom went quiet.
Not silent. Never silent. There were still pencils scratching, someone shifting in their seat, the buzz of the lights overhead. But every bit of attention in the room turned toward Aria, pressing against her skin until she could barely breathe.
Her fingers curled around the edge of her desk.
Say something.
Move.
Stand up.
Run.
Her wolf stirred somewhere deep inside her, faint and muffled beneath the binding spell that had kept her trapped since she was thirteen. Not enough to shift. Never enough to save her. Just enough to warn her when danger was close.
Danger was everywhere.
The girl's smile faltered. "Aria?"
Aria's chest tightened.
The door was too far away.
The room was too full.
Everyone was looking.
Her body moved before her mind could catch up.
She turned, shoved the window open, and jumped.
Everyone gasped and ran to the window to see if she had gotten injured or died. But to their surprise, she landed on her feet. She ran into the forest directly behind the school, disappearing from their sight.
Only when she ran for over an hour did she finally slow down. Out of breath, she fell to her hands and knees. Her lungs burned. Her arms shook beneath her. For a while, all she could do was breathe and listen to her own heartbeat pounding in her ears.
After mostly catching her breath, she looked up to see something more amazing than anything she had seen before. A crystal-clear lake rested at the base of the hill, tucked between tall, ancient pines. Across the water, a small waterfall poured down a wall of stone, its mist catching the light. Directly beneath her, the cliff dropped sharply toward the shore. The tops of the trees swayed in the wind, whispering to one another like they were keeping the place secret.
She took a deep breath, taking it all in.
Her heart beat began to slow to a normal rate. It was intoxicating to feel free and calm for the first time, probably ever. She leaned back, her hands full of soft moss.
It didn't stink of teenage body odor drowned in cheap sprays. It didn't reek of cigarettes, alcohol, or old smoke soaked into clothes and furniture. It didn't even carry the sour metal smell from the factory at the edge of town.
For the first time in longer than she could remember, nothing smelled like danger.
Her wolf stirred inside her.
Aria froze at first, expecting a warning. Her wolf only ever came close when something was being thrown, when footsteps were too loud, when her mother's voice turned sharp enough to cut. But this was different. Her wolf wasn't pushing her to run. She was relaxing.
Aria didn't understand it. Since the night her mother had bound her, her wolf had never felt calm. Not once. Not fully. But now that quiet presence inside her seemed to stretch out beneath the warmth of the sun, as if this place had been waiting for them both.
Slowly, Aria lowered herself onto the moss and stared up at the clouds moving across the sky, while listening to the rush of the waterfall and birds chirping. The feeling was so unfamiliar that she almost didn't trust it.
A sound of movement in the water below shook her from her daze. Carefully, she rolled onto her stomach and peered over the edge of the cliff, making sure not to get too close. At first, she thought it was a fish breaking the surface.
Then an arm rose from the water and disappeared again.
Someone was swimming.
The peace was shattered. She scrambled to her feet, looking for somewhere to hide. She ran up a hill, into the treeline, and bent down. She had a good view of whoever it was, but doubted they'd be able to see her.
A man with rippled muscles emerged from the lake, quickly drying off. She could tell even from this distance that he was completely naked. She sheilded her eyes for a moment, then realized that it was dangerous, so she had to look.
A breeze rushed past, and his nose went into the air. He turned toward where she was hiding and quickly pulled on his clothes before climbing the hill.
She panicked again. Her heart raced, thinking about the different ways she could be tortured or hurt by someone in this thick forest where no one would know. So she ran further up the hill, racing to the top of the waterfall.
****
Her mother’s name was Justine.
Justine was a prosperous witch who lived a great life. She had no intention of romance until her eyes met Raul’s one day. Something deep within herself clicked. She could tell that he felt it as well. But instead of running to her with open arms, he walked away.
One night, Raul knocked on Justine’s window. She was ecstatic to see his face peering at her through the glass.
When she opened the window, he let himself in. He rambled for half an hour about bloodlines, what was better for the pack, and how there must’ve been a mistake. Justine had no idea what he was talking about at the time. She wasn’t aware of pack law or what bloodlines even meant; she was only completely enamored by him.
When he finally sat down, he couldn’t help himself. He was drawn to her. And she to him. But after they spent their night together, he cut their bond. That’s what he had come to do after all. Without looking back, he left from the same window and never saw her again.
Justine hadn’t known what had happened, why she felt so empty inside, but she certainly understood that he didn’t want anything to do with her.
A few months later, she found out that she was pregnant. Her family was appalled. She researched ways to get rid of the baby, magically and otherwise. But nothing worked. She only ended up harming her own health. Her parents were disappointed, treated her like an outcast, and pulled her out of school. But never disowned her or kicked her to the curb.
She spent her pregnancy researching werewolves. Endless books and papers, trying to understand what happened, how to get rid of the pregnancy, and for some clue as to what to do next. It was all to no avail. She was stuck with this.
Shortly after giving birth, her parents died in a car accident. That was the first time she picked up a bottle. She drowned her sorrows. With nothing left except a baby she didn’t want, and an empty house, she turned to alcoholism and drug use.
At first, it was only alcohol. But then it turned into weed, which turned into heavier stuff. She wasn’t looking for a solution, but something to hide her, shield her from reality. Cover up her mistakes. Most of the time, she wasn’t herself. She didn’t recognize the woman in the mirror when she woke up every day. Which only led her to drink more.
