“You can’t be serious…!”

Olivia’s voice was flat, but the golden ring in her eyes flared dangerously. She stood in the foyer of their shadowed home, her arms crossed tightly over her chest, fists clenched to keep her claws at bay.

“You’re sending me to a human school? Why?” The word ‘human’ came out like a growl.

Her mother, wild-haired and unshakable, stood calm as a mountain storm. “Because you are half-human, Olivia. You need to learn how to live among them.”

“I don’t want to live among them,” she snapped. “I hate them. They’re weak. Loud. Clueless.”

Her father, as cold and immovable as granite, looked up from the leather-bound book in his lap. “You need control. Your instincts are getting stronger, your shifts closer. You’ve been sheltered too long. That ends now.”

“But why now?” Olivia’s voice cracked, her body trembling. Her canines pushed at her gums, itching to emerge. “Why throw me into their world like this?”

Her mother’s fierce eyes softened. “Because if you don’t learn to control the wolf inside you in their world… it will consume you in ours.”

Silence swelled.

Olivia turned sharply, ignoring her father’s low, warning growl. Her bare feet padded swiftly up the stone stairs, and she slammed her bedroom door behind her.

She collapsed onto her bed, shoving trembling fingers through her long black hair. Her pulse thundered. Her blood ran hot. Her wolf howled beneath her skin.

Human school. Full of fragile bodies and shallow minds.

She paced the floor like a caged animal, anger brewing… until she passed the mirror and caught her reflection.

She looked like them.

That was the cruelest part. No fangs unless provoked. No claws unless triggered. Just a girl with piercing eyes and unspoken rage.

Her reflection stared back at her, daring her.

Maybe she could go. Maybe she could survive a week. Long enough to prove them all wrong.

So the next morning, Olivia stepped outside in a black coat and combat boots, her expression carved from stone.

---

Whispers started the second she stepped onto Blackridge High’s campus.

“Who’s that?”

“New girl.”

“She’s… whoa.”

The sun hid behind gray clouds, but Olivia still flinched against its brightness. Every sound stabbed her eardrums — lockers slamming, sneakers squeaking, heartbeats thudding in messy rhythms. The scent of adolescent sweat, cheap perfume, and processed food made her stomach twist.

She walked like she owned the ground. Every step was precise. Every movement controlled.

The main office secretary smiled too brightly and handed her a schedule. “Homeroom’s on the second floor, sweetie.”

Olivia didn’t answer. She turned and left without a word, posture perfect, silence sharp.

---

Inside the classroom, the hum of teenage conversation died as the teacher raised his voice.

“We have a new student today,” Mr. Rivers announced. “Olivia Nightshade. Please give her a warm welcome.”

Olivia stepped in.

The room fell into stunned silence.

Blair, the queen bee with icy blonde curls, stopped mid-hair flip. The girls beside her — Maddy and Jenna — froze in sync.

In the back row, the guy everyone secretly crushed on looked up — and his breath hitched.

Olivia was pure contrast: dark hair, sharp cheekbones, and eyes that looked too ancient for seventeen. She didn’t smile. She didn’t need to.

She slid into the empty seat by the window without a glance at anyone.

And chaos rippled behind her like wildfire.

“Who is she?”

“She’s like… dangerous hot.”

“She looks like she eats people.”

“Why does she walk like she could kill someone with a pencil?”

Blair’s eyes narrowed. She hated Olivia instantly.

---

At break, the cafeteria overwhelmed her senses.

Grease. Sugar. Noise.

Olivia took a seat at an empty table in the corner, untouched apple on her tray. Her eyes swept over the crowd — loud, dramatic humans spilling emotions across their faces without shame.

“Hi,” a soft voice said beside her.

She turned.

A girl with tight curls and warm brown eyes smiled nervously. “I’m Lila. You’re Olivia, right?”

Olivia nodded once. “Yeah.”

“You look… cool. Like a werewolf or something.” Lila laughed, joking.

Olivia’s lips curved slightly. “Something like that.”

Lila flushed, unsure if it was a joke or not. “Anyway… if you don’t want to sit alone tomorrow, I usually eat near the windows. It’s quieter.”

Olivia glanced at Blair’s table. Blair was glaring with the intensity of a predator sizing up competition.

“I’ll think about it,” Olivia said.

---

She walked home alone, her body humming with tension. Every rustling leaf, every distant car, every squirrel heartbeat — she heard it all. Her senses hadn’t calmed since morning.

When she opened the door, her parents were waiting.

“Well?” her mother asked.

Olivia peeled off her coat. “It was full of humans. I still hate them.”

But her voice had changed — the edge was there, but curiosity flickered underneath. Like something in her had stirred.

Her mother smiled faintly. “You’ll get used to them.”

Olivia didn’t reply. She went upstairs, changed into black pajamas, and opened her window.

The sky was cloudy, the moon hidden — but she could feel it rising. Pulling at her bones. Calling her home.

She didn’t belong in the human world.

But for the first time… she wondered what it might feel like to try.