My Family Stole My Run I Returned A Leader Chapter 01
The summer after I graduated high school, my parents promised to take me on vacation to Tide Coast.
Every summer, during the full moon, a stretch of the coast was opened for a night run. It was a rite of passage. The first time a young werewolf joined the run as an adult, their family would add their name to the public roster.
It wasn’t just a trip. It was a declaration to the entire pack of who the family acknowledged as one of their own.
I packed a month in advance.
Swimsuits, sunscreen, my camera, and the detailed itinerary I’d made for everyone.
The night before we were supposed to leave, my sister, Bella, announced she wanted Stefan to come with us.
Bella’s shift had always been unstable. Stefan was a trainee warrior from Cedar Ridge and her safety partner in youth training.
My father looked over the flight tickets and hotel reservations, his brow furrowed.
“We don’t have enough rooms.”
I thought they would just book another one.
A second later, Mom plucked my territory ID from my hand. Without it, I couldn’t get through the airport’s border check.
“Paloma, you’re staying home.”
“Bella just agreed to resume her training,” she continued. “This is her first full moon run at the coast, and Stefan needs to be there with her.”
My brother, Tony, picked up my suitcase and shoved it toward Bella’s feet.
“She’s already packed. You can use her things.”
I looked at Stefan.
He’d once promised to take me to see the ocean after graduation, to run my first adult moonlit race beside me.
But now, all he did was take the suitcase from Bella.
“Bella’s wolf still isn’t stable.”
“She could lose control and shift if she gets anxious,” he said, avoiding my eyes. “You being there will only make her more tense.”
“Just let her relax this time.”
Bella’s eyes were red, her voice trembling as she played her part.
“Paloma, for once I just want a real family trip for the full moon.”
By real, she meant one without me.
My phone kept lighting up with airline reminders.
Three hours until boarding.
I stood in the foyer, watching my suitcase get pushed farther away. The muscles in the back of my neck coiled, but the wolf inside me didn’t stir, didn’t urge me to fight.
They would put Bella and Stefan’s names on the roster.
My place would be erased.
In that moment, I understood with perfect, chilling clarity. In the Lombardi family, in the hierarchy of the Cedar Ridge pack, I was always the one who could be cut.
I hadn’t even left for the airport, and suddenly, I never wanted to see Tide Coast.
…
“Paloma, what are you just standing there for?”
Tony’s impatient voice cut through the silence from the doorway.
He leaned against the frame with one hand.
“Bella’s worried the sea wind will be strong tonight.”
“That white jacket in your suitcase—I can’t find it anywhere.”
“Where did you put it?”
I looked at him.
I’d worked a month of part-time jobs to buy that jacket.
“In the inner pocket,” I said.
Tony nodded and turned to leave, then stopped.
“Clean the house while we’re gone.”
“Do Bella’s room, too. She just shifted, so her sense of smell is sharp. The dust will bother her.”
He said it so casually, as if it went without saying that it was my job.
Mom came out of the bedroom, holding Bella’s sun hat.
“Paloma, Tony’s right.”
“Your grades aren’t anything special, and you didn’t even place in the wolf-form training trials.”
“You don’t have anything else to do, so get the house ready for when we get back.”
She thought for a second, then added, “And don’t let those organic fruits and vegetables in the fridge go bad.”
“Blend them into smoothies for her every day and keep them in the fridge.”
“Bella can drink them when she gets back. She’ll need the energy.”
I watched her lipsticked mouth open and close.
I didn’t argue. I just nodded.
“Okay.”
Outside, Dad was urging them to hurry.
Stefan came last.
He wore a plain white shirt. He stopped in front of me and lowered his voice.
“Paloma, don’t make a scene.”
“Bella hasn’t been sleeping well, with the stress of her first shift and college applications.”
“This trip to Tide Coast is mostly to help stabilize her wolf.”
He lifted a hand, as he used to, to touch my hair.
Instinct tightened the muscles in my neck. I turned my head, dodging his touch.
His hand froze in midair, his expression stiffening.
“I’ll take you by yourself another time.”
“You’ve always been more mature than Bella.”
“So don’t make this any harder, okay?”
Mature.
I’d been hearing that word for years.
I looked at him, my voice flat.
“I know.”
“Travel safe.”
Stefan seemed a little surprised.
But he didn’t dwell on it. He just nodded.
“Stay home and wait for us.”
The door slammed shut.
The car pulled out of the driveway, and the house fell silent.
I stood there for a long time, until my legs began to go numb.
My phone screen lit up.
The final boarding reminder for the ticket I’d bought with my own savings.
I unlocked my phone, opened the booking, and hit refund.
After the fee was deducted, the amount that came back was pitiful.
I didn’t care.
I walked into the living room and looked at the itinerary on the coffee table.
I’d stayed up for nights making it.
It listed Stefan’s favorite seafood restaurant.
The sunset pier Mom wanted to photograph.
The deep-sea fishing charter Dad wanted to book.
I’d even marked the beaches Bella should avoid, the ones where the sea wind was too harsh for her.
I picked up the pages, tore them in half, and threw them in the trash.
Then I went back to my room.
It was small. It had been the family’s storage room.
After I’d been brought back from my grandmother’s house, it became my bedroom.
I grew up in the old district of Gray Valley. Even after I came back to my parents, they treated me like a guest—a temporary inconvenience.
There wasn’t even a proper desk in the room.
I dragged an old cardboard box out from under the bed and started packing.
A few pieces of clothing, faded from countless washes.
Some old exam prep books and a handful of personal items.
My phone vibrated.
It was a message from Mr. Carter, the academy’s college counselor.
“Paloma, Gray Harbor University has confirmed your full scholarship.”
“The Morningwatch pack also approved your provisional membership. Once you complete the transfer, you’ll be able to live in the protected student district.”
“There’s one more confirmation form to sign. When can you come by the school?”
I stared at the words, my fingers slowly tightening around my phone.
“I’ll be there tomorrow.”
After sending the reply, I set my phone on the bed.
My eyes landed on the framed photo on the corner of the desk.
It was a picture of Stefan and me from his eighteenth birthday.
In the photo, he was beaming, and I was looking at him with a fondness I hadn’t learned to hide.
I picked up the frame and pulled out the photo.
Then I threw it into the trash can with the shredded itinerary.
…
Early the next morning, I went to Cedar Ridge Academy.
In his office, Mr. Carter pushed a stack of documents toward me.
“Paloma, this is the full funding offer from Gray Harbor University.”
“Only a handful of incoming students each year receive both a university scholarship and provisional membership with the Morningwatch pack.”
“I’m truly happy for you.”
I picked up the pen, then paused.
“For the confirmation form and the pack transfer…do I need a guardian’s signature?”
He blinked.
“If you’re under eighteen, yes.”
He glanced down at my file, then smiled.
“I almost forgot. You turned eighteen last week.”
“You can sign for yourself.”
My eighteenth birthday.
I gripped the pen, my knuckles turning white.
Last Wednesday had been my birthday—the day an adult werewolf could decide their own pack affiliation.
That was also the day Bella decided she desperately needed a vanilla cake from Laurel Bakery.
My parents and Tony had driven into town to buy it for her.
Stefan had stayed behind to help her with her shift control training.
Not one of them remembered it was my birthday, too.
“Paloma?”
Mr. Carter’s voice pulled me back.
“If your family has other ideas, you can still talk to them first.”
“Moving to Gray Harbor is a big deal. Once you leave Cedar Ridge, you’ll lose access to the pack link here.”
I took a breath and signed my name on the last page.
“That won’t be necessary.”
“I’m making this decision for myself.”
Mr. Carter looked at me for a long moment, then called in the pack registrar in charge of transfers.
The Morningwatch provisional acceptance papers were already on the desk. The moment I severed my old affiliation, the new membership would take effect.
I placed my hand on the registration seal and said clearly,
“I, Paloma Lombardi, voluntarily sever my affiliation with the Cedar Ridge pack.”
A knot of pressure tightened in my chest. Then, the familiar thrum of the pack’s collective consciousness receded from my mind, leaving a hollow silence.
In the next instant, Morningwatch’s provisional connection settled over me. It was light, a simple feed of safety alerts and student district notices, but it was enough to prove I wasn’t a stray, unprotected.
The registrar stamped the seal.
From that moment on, the Lombardi family could no longer use their status in the Cedar Ridge pack to dictate my life.
Mr. Carter didn’t try to persuade me again.
“All right. I’ll submit the paperwork today.”
“The university will arrange your housing and freshman orientation. You’ll probably leave in about two weeks.”
I thanked him and walked out of the office.
The sunlight outside was blinding.
I sat beneath a tree and took out my phone.
A red notification dot had popped up on my social media.
It was a new post from my mother.
A series of photos. Everyone looked deliriously happy.
There were shots of them walking through the surf.
A table piled high with seafood, and a photo of Stefan and Bella together.
In the picture, Stefan was bent over, applying sunscreen to Bella’s back.
Bella was smiling sweetly.
The caption read:
“Perfect family full moon trip.”
“As long as Bella’s happy.”
There was also a screenshot of the public roster.
Under the Lombardi family listing, my name was nowhere to be found.
A string of comments was already blooming beneath it.
Aunt Lisa had asked, “Why didn’t Paloma go?”
My mother had replied quickly.
“Bella’s wolf gets tense around her. Bringing Paloma would have just caused trouble.”
I stared at those words, my fingertips growing cold.
So that was the story they were willing to tell the entire pack.
They didn’t know that during all those years at my grandmother’s house in Gray Valley, I had to get up before dawn to make breakfast.
They didn’t know that in the coldest part of winter, I had to wash the family’s laundry by hand in the backyard.
And they didn’t know that to pass the territory joint exam, I spent countless nights studying under a streetlight.
I calmly tapped ‘Like’ on the post, then closed the app.
Two weeks.
In two weeks, I would be gone.
When I got home, I started cleaning.
The living room, the stairs, the kitchen, the dining table—I cleaned every corner.
Then I went into Bella’s room.
Her room was large and south-facing, flooded with sunlight.
Her closet was packed with new clothes from the current season.
Expensive skincare products and wolf-form training aids sat on her desk.
After I finished mopping, my gaze landed on her nightstand.
A blue velvet jewelry box sat there.
The lid wasn’t fully closed. Inside was a sapphire necklace in a gold setting.
It was the gift Stefan had given her for her eighteenth birthday.
I’d seen that necklace before, in a note on Stefan’s phone.
Back then, he’d written:
“Eighteenth birthday gift for Paloma.”
In the end, it wound up around Bella’s neck.
At the time, Stefan had told me:
“Bella just had her first shift. She really likes this color.”
“You don’t wear much jewelry anyway. Let her have it.”
“I’ll buy you something better later.”
I hadn’t made a fuss. I hadn’t cried.
From that day on, I simply stopped thinking of the necklace as mine.
I closed Bella’s bedroom door.
I went back to my little room.
And I tucked my admission confirmation and Morningwatch provisional membership papers deep into my backpack.
They were my ticket out of here.
That night, I lay on the hard wooden bed and stared at the ceiling.
Over the past three years, I had finally learned one thing.
Life was much easier when you stopped expecting anything at all.