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“What’s wrong?” I sign, after a second of hesitation.
He shakes his head. Something’s definitely wrong, but I’m not sure he can tell me.
Adam doesn’t seem to enjoy talking, which is why he likes to be around the only other person in this town who doesn’t talk. Alina and I have taught him some ASL, and he’s always happy to use it, but it seems like he doesn’t have the words for whatever’s bothering him today.
“Come eat,” I sign, before I rise to my feet and take his hand.
He comes with me to the table and Cora mumbles something I can’t quite read before she darts into the kitchen. Adam sits between me and Alina at the table, while Astor takes her usual seat at the other side, digging into her soup and sandwich combo before Cora comes back out with a plate made up for our little visitor.
He signs his thanks as she sets it down.
She beams back at him. She knows what he means.
The kitchen staff know a little ASL. They expect me to read their lips for anything important that isn’t basic or simple, and I can understand why.
I’m an aberration.
Nightshade’s pack has a long history of rejecting wolves born with imperfections.
That’s because our ancestors knew we needed to be better and stronger than any other pack.
Anything that could weaken our standing was deemed unacceptable.
We’re here to protect the rest of the world from a supernatural threat.
We can’t afford not to be the best of the best.
In theory, that’s understandable.
In practice, it’s evil.
Alina knew that. It’s why she refused to let the Alpha banish me to The Abyss as a child.
Once it became obvious that I couldn’t hear, I was deemed defective. A weak link in a chain that needed to remain unbreakable. I would be rejected, like others had been in the past.
Alina refused to let me be sent away.
She argued that those rules were antiquated, and that my disability made me strong, not weak.
My guardian went up against the pack’s Alpha to ensure I wasn’t sent to my death for being different.
She forced him to accept me, and he ostracised her for that.
I know she would be in a better position in the pack if she hadn’t fought for me.
We have one of the most arduous jobs in the pack for a reason.
Astor’s here because she’s easily distracted, Emily because she’s always tired, and Cora because she’s kind of nitpicky about how things should be done. And of course, they’re all past their child-bearing years. The Alpha wouldn’t have any of his most valuable women working their fingers to the bone like we do.
Those women, his potential mates and Lunas, were given the most important positions in the pack, and their whims are catered to as if they’re princesses in waiting.
While the bravest person I know is treated as closely to a slave as anyone is in this town.
It’s unfair, but I know there’s nothing I can do about it.
I can think of worse fates.
I wouldn’t want to be one of the princesses.
