The Girl who shouldn't exist

"Run.”

That was the last word my father ever said to me.

He didn’t shout or beg. He said it quietly… like he already knew I wouldn’t get far enough to regret listening.

The front door exploded before I could even react.

Wood flew across the living room. The smell came next…wet fur, blood, and something sharp and metallic that burned my nose.

A body slammed into our dining table, smashing it into broken wood and glass.

I froze in the hallway, barefoot, still holding my physics notebook like it could somehow protect me from whatever just broke into our home.

Three… no… four figures stepped inside.

They looked like men but they weren’t.

Their eyes glowed gold in the dark, bright and wrong. Their movements were too fast too sharp and too wild to be human.

One of them tilted his head, and his neck cracked loudly. The sound made my stomach twist.

“Where is she?” the tallest one growled.

My father staggered to his feet and stood between them and the hallway.

Blood was already soaking through his shirt.

“There is no ‘she’ here,” he said calmly, like he was arguing with annoying neighbors instead of monsters.

The tall one smiled showing too many teeth he had.

“We followed the scent for three months,” he said slowly. “Do not insult us by lying.”

My heart slammed hard against my ribs.

Scent?

My brain tried to make sense of it. Maybe they were criminals or drug dealers…maybe anything that could explain this.

Anything except what this looked like.

My father’s eyes moved toward the hallway, toward me.

And at that moment, something inside me turned cold.

He knew this would happen. “Zola,” he said softly.

The monsters’ heads snapped toward his voice.

My lungs locked and I wanted to scream at him not to say my name, but fear glued my voice shut.

My father looked back at them and smiled slightly.

“Looking for her?” he asked.

The tall one stepped closer. “We already found her.”

His glowing eyes shifted past my father and straight at me.

My body finally listened to survival.

I ran.

I threw the back door open and burst into the night. Gravel tore into my feet as I sprinted across the yard. Branches scratched my arms and my lungs burned with every breath.

Behind me…The howling started not dog howls but something deeper and hungrier. Like war screaming through the darkness.

“Catch her!” someone roared.

I didn’t look back. I couldn’t. The forest behind our house swallowed me as I ran into it. Branches hit my face and arms as I pushed through the darkness.

My chest burned as my vision blurred. I tripped over roots and rocks, falling and scrambling back up again. Fear dragged me forward like it had hands.

Then I heard a scream behind me, my father’s scream but It stopped too fast.

My legs almost gave out. Every part of me wanted to turn back. To help him, to do something and anything except run like a coward. But I remembered his face, he wasn’t scared. He was certain and this made me run harder.

The forest grew thicker. Moonlight barely reached the ground and my breathing turned rough and broken. My muscles screamed in pain and I could hear them catching up.

The heavy footsteps and the snapping of branches and also something massive hitting the ground as they ran. They weren’t chasing me like men, they were hunting me.

I burst into a clearing and almost crashed into a black SUV parked across the dirt path.

The driver’s door flew open. “Get in!” a woman shouted.

I stumbled to a stop, my mind spinning with panic. She stepped out, she was tall and wore a long dark coat, a silver streak ran through her braided hair. Her eyes scanned the trees like she was counting seconds.

“They’re thirty seconds behind you,” she said. “Trust me or die.”

“What?!” I gasped.

She grabbed my wrist and pulled me toward the car. “Move!”

The howls exploded closer behind me and that made the decision for me.

I jumped into the passenger seat just as she slammed the door and hit the accelerator. The SUV spun slightly before speeding down the dirt road, something slammed into the back of the car, throwing my body forward against the seatbelt.

Claws scratched loudly against the metal and I screamed.

The woman stayed calm. She swerved sharply, throwing whatever was clinging to the car into a tree. A loud roar echoed behind us as she reached the main road and drove even faster.

Silence filled the car except for my broken breathing.

“What… what were those?” I whispered.

She glanced at me briefly. “Your family secret,” she said.

My stomach dropped. “I don’t have family secrets. My dad sells insurance.”

“He also hid you from three powerful wolf packs for eighteen years,” she said calmly.

My brain refused to understand the sentence. “I think you hit your head,” I said weakly.

She reached into her coat and threw a folded paper onto my lap. “Read.”

My hands shook as I opened it. A strange crest sat at the top…a crescent moon surrounded by claw marks.

LUNARCH ACADEMY ADMISSION — EMERGENCY PROTECTIVE ENROLLMENT

My name was printed underneath. “I never applied for this,” I whispered.

“Your father did,” she said. “The night you were born.”

My throat tightened painfully.

“Why?” I asked.

“Because your existence breaks every treaty between wolves and humans,” she said. “And tonight, someone discovered you are still alive.”

Her words felt like ice sliding down my spine.

“I’m human,” I said quickly.

She stayed silent for a long moment.

“You believe that,” she finally replied.

The car screeched as she turned onto a narrow mountain road. Thick fog rolled across the road, swallowing the headlights.

“I don’t understand any of this,” I said, my voice shaking. “My dad…”

“Is dead,” she said bluntly.

The air disappeared from my lungs. Tears burned my eyes as I pressed my forehead against the window. I didn’t get to say goodbye. I didn’t get to ask him anything.

“Why are they hunting me?” I whispered.

She hesitated.

“That,” she said slowly, “is what the Academy intends to figure out.”

Immediately she said the last words, something slammed into the car with brutal force.

The SUV jerked violently and stopped. I screamed as my body slammed forward. My ears rang as I lifted my head, heart pounding wildly.

A man stood in front of the car. His claws were out and his teeth were sharp and exposed as he growled low in his throat. His glowing golden eyes locked onto me through the windshield.

“Give me the girl.”