JEOPARDY: The Cursed Soldier.

8. A mere speck

You can do it.

Kayla said to herself as she walked along the palace corridors. Just act like everything is normal until you get outside. Then, find the most suitable spot to do it. Just make sure no one is following you.

Kayla was so nervous, her anxiety filled the air. She knew as well as anyone that any werewolf in her vicinity could smell it. She was in a house full of werewolves gods' sake, she needed to get herself in control.

But nerves were exactly what happened when you're so close to something you've always wanted, but also, maybe, extremely far away.

Today, on a Sunday morning and exactly two weeks since she had arrived in the Lunarheart pack palace, she was going to — finally — try to shift into her wolf form.

With all the power she felt teasing her every time she interacted with the other werewolves, she figured it was time to see if it was working.

That maybe, her wolf, who had been suppressed and starved in the silver dungeon for years, finally felt safe enough to emerge. To overpower her and take full control of their body and mind. It was what would make her complete. Finally.

You need this, Kayla. You will never know if you can unless you try.

Biting harder into the inside of her cheeks. She swallowed all the anxiety away, just like her father taught her, until she couldn't smell it. Until she felt herself sweat no more. And her heart was beating at a steady rate.

Then she resumed her walk.

She was already accustomed to being ignored by some members and nodded at by the rest. So she ignored those who ignored her and nodded back at those who did the same to her.

Thankfully, none seemed suspicious of the new girl without a scent. Either none had noticed it yet, or none thought much of it. Kayla was not sure, but asking them was out of question. All she did was thank the gods that nothing problematic had happened, yet.

When she finally reached the open field. She swallowed the urge to sigh in relief and mentally patted herself on the back.

Good. The first part is done! Up next, finding a secluded place.

As charged up as she felt in werewolf crowds, she wasn't going to try to shift in company.

What if she failed?

She hoped she didn't fail... But if she did, and the entire pack discovered that she couldn't shift... She wasn't sure what would happen to her. What they would do to her. To her father. To her small already fragile family.

She just knew that her father wanted her to keep her disability a secret. Plus she clearly remembered how hard he'd tried to make her shift from the moment she failed at 13 years old.

Kayla opened her senses, sweeping through the area, searching for the quietest and most hidden part of the grounds.

But it was a Sunday morning, and as Alex had said, it was the day most werewolves rested. In the werewolf world, it meant the day they let their wolves run through the woods. Free and unrestrained by their human counterparts.

The wolf scents were thick in the air and even stronger in the woods... miles and miles deep in the woods. Kayla's heart twisted in envy. What if she never shifted?

She shook her head. It was no time for wallowing and negativity. She was going to shift and it will be the end of all that envy. She just needed to —

Her heart stopped. Elation poured into her veins. She had found it. Somehow, deep in the woods, there was a place secluded and unoccupied by any wolf.