The Pack Left Me Behind, So I Claimed My Future Chapter 03

The Pack Left Me Behind, So I Claimed My Future Chapter 03

I took my clothes out of a cardboard box and packed them into the canvas duffel the Academy had issued me.

After twenty years in Blackwood Pack, I owned only eight outfits to cover all four seasons, a pair of yellowing sneakers by the door, and the slippers on my feet with their soles coming apart. That was everything I had.

Professor Helena had asked me to head back to campus and submit my end-of-semester course summary.

As I was leaving, I heard Mom talking loudly to Aunt Victoria over speakerphone.

“Is everything set for Evander’s trip? How did Nerys do in her coming-of-age trial?”

She asked about Evander and Nerys, but she never mentioned me.

As I put on my shoes, I heard Aunt Victoria mention the plans for Grandma’s birthday the next day. She insisted that the whole family be there.

Grandma was the only person who had ever treated me with kindness and cared about me. Her hearing was almost completely gone.

I had planned to use that $5,400 to buy her a custom hearing device for her birthday. Instead, it had paid for a briefcase, a drawing tablet, and a formal gown.

Professor Helena and I talked for a long time when I reached campus.

“The departure date has been set. You leave in one week.”

Her gaze fell on my faded black T-shirt.

“Temperatures swing sharply between day and night out there. Make sure you bring warm clothes.”

“Okay,” I said quietly, though my vision had begun to blur.

The packhouse was dark and silent when I returned that night. Every bedroom door was closed, so I assumed they had gone to bed early because we were supposed to visit Grandma the next day.

I left the lights off and quietly washed up by the glow of the streetlights outside.

When I woke the next morning, no one else seemed to be up. I waited on the couch until eight before hesitantly knocking on my parents’ bedroom door.

No one answered. When I opened the door, the room was empty.

They had left the night before. The whole family had gone together, and apparently I was not part of that family.

Grandma lived in a small town near the pack border. I made three long-distance bus transfers, then walked for another hour and reached her house at noon.

Laughter and the clatter of plates and forks drifted from the yard. I went inside and greeted Aunt Victoria first.

She nodded and returned to her conversation. Most of the food on the table was already gone, but Grandma’s plate was still clean.

Grandma pulled me into the empty seat beside her and pushed the small portion of lunch she had saved for me across the table.

“Come eat, my sweet girl.”

I desperately wanted to sit with her and tell her everything weighing on my heart. Yet the only person in the world willing to listen to me could no longer hear me.

I lowered my head and ate the food she had saved while everyone around me talked about Evander and Nerys.

After a long hesitation, I decided to tell them I was leaving while the entire family was together.

“Mom, Dad, I’m leaving next week.”

Silence fell for a single second.

“You’re nineteen. You can make your own decisions,” Mom said.

Then the conversation around the table resumed.

I was twenty. She could not even remember my age, and she did not care where I was going.

I wanted to tell them that I was the only student the Royal Werewolf Academy had selected for the Northern Frontier Wildlands Survey.

I excelled in my major. I was not the useless child they believed me to be, and I could make them proud too.

No one cared. It was not even a deliberate decision to ignore me. No one was interested enough to know anything about my life.

After lunch, Aunt Victoria organized a deep cleaning of Grandma’s house. The adults washed down the walls and cleared out the clutter, Evander mopped the floor, and Nerys washed the curtains.

I sat beside Grandma and watched them work. Even when it came to chores, there was no place for me.

Grandma took my hand.

“Maeve, how many more times do you think I’ll get to see the whole family together like this?”

I wrapped an arm around her shoulders and rested my head against hers.

“Grandma, I’m leaving for two years. What am I going to do? I don’t want to leave you.”

She could not hear what I was saying. She only reached up and stroked my face.

Just before we left, she suddenly spoke.

“My sweet girl, I can’t hear you, but I’ll support whatever you decide to do.”

I smiled and nodded.

Grandma would not blame me for being away and unable to visit her for two years. Knowing that, I had nothing left to hold me back.