Tongue Tied

After the day I spoke to those two pack members about me just trying to help and my apology for almost killing their Alpha, not much has changed except for the fact that the members are not trying so hard to hide what they are saying. I've been hiding in my room for a few hours now, just trying to avoid listening to pack members speak about how dangerous and unreliable I am. I feel so insecure, but I know I must stay strong and ignore what they all say. I close my eyes for a moment to suddenly get a flash of a ton of wolves surrounding a house- wait that's this house. There were so many wolves, so many colors. They all looked angry and ready to pounce on whoever got in their way. But there was a feeling in my stomach that something wasn't right. These wolves didn't look like the ones from this pack and I somehow knew something was going to happen.

Opening my eyes, I realized I was covered in sweat, probably in fright. I quickly raced out of my room, realizing there were still members talking about me while giving me suspicious eyes.

"Apollo, Ezra!" I call, trying to warn them.

"Why do you need them?" a woman approaches me. She is carrying a sword with some cleaner. "Are you planning on killing them and completing your entire plan?" she asks, a ferocious look in her eyes.

"Where are they?" I ask, fearful and panicky.

"Are you okay?" She asks, noticing the fear in my eyes.

"Where are they?" I ask again, quickly glancing around, searching for them.

"In the basement." As soon as she said that, I heard a bunch of howls outside. The woman's eyes widen before looking towards me. "You know I hate you, but we werewolves were all trained for this, so I recommend you stay in this house where it's safe," she says with an eye roll with annoyance before leaving me and heading outside along with everyone else. Her words struck me. Was I not good enough to defend this pack? Am I strong enough to protect an entire pack of werewolves? 

The woman's words repeat in my head as I slowly and sadly walk to my room. I lay in bed, thinking of the woman's words. I wasn't strong enough for this pack. Why was I made to be the Phoenix?

Outside of my room, I heard some pack members yelling that they saw some movement outside and heard some howling. After the statement, I heard everyone beginning to yell instructions about the incident and I heard a bit of panic in their voices. They were scrambling to prepare for what's to come. I stayed lying in bed, not sure what I could do to help with how weak and uncontrollable I was. I heard Apollo and Ezra's voice right outside my door before it opened.

"What are you doing in here?" Apollo asks as a few members run past them from behind.

"Avoiding confrontation" I shrug my shoulders as I sit up.

"Okay. Stay here. I don't know what I would do if something were to happen to you," Ezra speaks up before they close the door and begin to walk away, probably to where all of the members were panicking. 

As I heard screams and howling, I felt like something very awful was going to happen, but I wouldn't be able to do anything, after all, I was anything but prepared. The panic in my blood grew, but I just couldn't put myself in danger especially after Apollo and Ezra told me to stay.

"Stella!" My father barges into my room. "What are you doing here?" He asks, zooming right to the window to check outside before standing right in front of me.

"I'm just staying safe," I tell him, doubtful of my powers.

"What do you mean?" He asks, a worried look crosses his face while he stares at me.

"The pack members don't believe that I can protect them, neither does Ezra or Apollo," I explain, a look of sadness crosses my features. "They don't believe in me, why should I believe in myself?" I ask, looking at my hands.

"Because you have been practicing and working overtime for a while now. You have proven that you are strong and independent and reliable," He explains. "If someone doesn't believe in you, I will always believe in you, but not only that, you should always believe in yourself. It might be a struggle, but you should look and see yourself in my eyes. You have been working hard in controlling and building up your powers and even if the pack members think they don't need you, they do. You are the strongest person, I mean Phoenix, who can protect and fight for this pack. They need you, Stella. Even if they think they don't, they do. If you don't help fight then this entire werewolf species will go extinct and this world may come to an end," He explains, holding my hands in comfort.

At his words, I felt myself grow stronger and more confident. I guess I just needed someone to believe in me.

"They need me?" I ask in thought. "I need to fight them," I keep speaking in thought.

"Yes. They need you. Please don't let them down, Stella," He tells me, trying to hide the fear in his eyes.

I won't let them down. At his last word, I stand up. I roll my neck to stretch it while I feel myself grow stronger by the steps I take. 

"Let's send these rogues back to hell," I say, my confidence growing every second. I open the door using my power before floating down the stairs of the house. I close my eyes for a moment to inspect the entire forest where the rogues have surrounded. As I see a small pattern in how the rogues are settled in where they are standing, I smirk before I whirl around in my wind storm and I am suddenly placed right in front of Apollo. I shoot a huge gust of wind straight ahead, making the wolves whimper. As I noticed, there were some of our pack members fighting whereas others were defending. 

"Defend," My father says loudly to where I can hear before I see him shoot water at some more rogues. I smirk before I shoot fire at another line of werewolves. Suddenly, I saw a pack member get thrown against a tree. I teleported myself quickly to the wolf, putting up a fire shield around us before I closed my eyes carefully and pressed on the member's chest before I felt the injury quickly heal. 

"Get into the house. We got this," I tell them member. They nod before I see them running towards the house. I stopped watching the naked man running to the house as I looked way ahead using my vision before I used my speed power to zoom through the fighting werewolves and to two specific ones.

"Leave them alone," I tell the rogue who was pretty big. Another rogue steps forward, and the familiar fur makes my eyes widen. "Carter?" I ask, shocked. I know I never truly got to know him, but the thought of him just going against the pack surprised me.

Carter steps in front of me with a scowl on his face, making me gasp. The other two werewolves continued to fight, as I was watching Carter. I saw the two werewolves scratching, tackling, and biting each other, making each other bleed, but Carter was making it difficult to get to the two.

"Move out of my way, Carter," I tell him with a warning in my eyes. All he does is just growl at me and snarl his teeth while preparing to pounce. "I don't want to hurt you, Carter. If you stop now, I will not hurt you," I give him another chance.

The next thing I knew, Carter pounced on me. He had tackled me to the ground while snarling his teeth. Each time he tried to bite me, I would dodge it. When he tried to scratch me, I tried my hardest to block. I mean he got me a few times, but suddenly, I noticed his teeth growing sharper and more dangerous before I knew I couldn't give him another chance. I grew a flame of fire in my hand before I quickly shot it to his face, making him jump back in pain. Before I knew it, Carter was lying on the ground, whimpering.

Remembering the two wolves fighting, I look over at them, watching them both bleeding. I wasn't sure how to help. Should I step in? Should I let them fight and take another glance around to make sure everyone in the pack is okay? I know the decision was difficult, especially since one of them was Apollo.