They Sent Me Away. I Never Came Back.

The door behind me opened.

Damian, Rowan, Julian, and Asher froze in the doorway with Lyra beside them, bottles of champagne in their hands for what was supposed to be a celebration of their Moonvale acceptances.

I pulled out my phone and photographed every message on the projected screen.

Damian was the first to recover.

As the current Alpha's son and Blood Moon Pack's designated heir, he was used to making decisions for everyone else.

“Since you've already seen it, I'm not going to lie to you.”

“Lyra only just came back to Blood Moon. She's suffered enough out there, and her health isn't strong. She'd never survive the Northern Pack's climate.”

He looked straight at me without the slightest trace of guilt.

“You're different. You've always known how to take care of yourself.”

Lyra's eyes reddened as she caught Damian by the sleeve.

I didn't look at her.

I pointed at the screen instead.

“Who made the four fake applications to Frostland?”

Damian answered without hesitation.

“I did.”

“And whose idea was it to play Truth or Dare?”

Lyra's eyes instantly filled with tears.

Rowan, Blood Moon's future Beta, stepped in front of her at once.

“It was a decision we all made. Don't look at Lyra like that.”

I nodded and turned back to Damian.

“And promising to mark me once we reached the North? Was that part of the plan too?”

Damian's throat moved.

His gaze shifted away from mine.

“You told me you'd never choose a mate who was willing to leave you alone in another territory.”

“If I hadn't promised to go to Frostland with you, you wouldn't have signed.”

He knew how I felt about him.

More importantly, he knew exactly which promise would make me choose what they wanted.

Lyra suddenly reached for Julian's phone.

“This is all my fault. I'll contact Frostland right now.”

“I'll go north with Aria. You four can stay here.”

All four of them moved around her at once.

Asher, Blood Moon's future Delta, responsible for tracking and combat operations, snatched the phone out of her hand.

“Our Moonvale acceptance letters are already here. What good would calling Frostland do now?”

“But what about Aria?”

Lyra's shoulders shook as she cried.

“She'll be all alone so far away. She's going to be miserable.”

Damian pulled out a tissue and gently wiped away her tears.

“She can take care of herself.”

“You've barely been back in the pack. Don't throw away your future because you're upset.”

I stood only a few steps away and watched all four of them gather around Lyra to comfort her.

That was answer enough.

They couldn't bear to send Lyra north.

But they had no problem lying to send me there alone.

Julian, Blood Moon's future Gamma, adjusted his glasses. His voice was calm, as if he were analyzing a strategy report instead of explaining why they'd betrayed me.

“Aria, I admit the way we handled this wasn't completely honest. But the outcome benefits everyone.”

“Frostland is still one of the best academies in the werewolf territories. With your grades, you'll succeed no matter what program you choose. You're only going there for school. You can still come back to Blood Moon during breaks.”

“We stay here with Lyra, you go to Frostland, and no one's future gets hurt.”

“Except my right to choose.”

The room went still.

Rowan's expression darkened.

“You already wanted Frostland. Their mentors contacted you twice. Every time you turned them down, you still couldn't bring yourself to let it go.”

“We just helped you make the decision.”

“Wanting to go somewhere and being tricked into signing a contract by the people you trust most are not the same thing.”

“You weren't helping me choose.”

“You were making sure my choice worked best for Lyra.”

Rowan opened his mouth, then closed it again.

Because I had wanted Frostland.

My father was Blood Moon Pack's chief wolf-core researcher, and I'd grown up in his laboratory.

Frostland's research had been my dream for more than a decade.

But because I couldn't bear to leave them, I'd turned Frostland down twice.

I'd even considered giving up the research program I loved most just so I could stay local and attend Moonvale with them.

Now I realized how close I'd come to sacrificing my future for four people who didn't care what I wanted at all.

I turned to leave.

Damian instinctively stepped into my path.

“Where are you going?”

“Home.”

“What about us?”

I looked at him.

His expression stiffened.

“Aria, don't say things you'll regret just because you're angry.”

“I admit I promised to mark you in the North because I needed you to sign. But that doesn't mean my feelings for you are fake.”

He frowned as if he were offering me an incredibly generous compromise.

“I can keep dating you until school starts. And when I have time, I'll visit you at Frostland.”

“You've always wanted to be with me. Now I've agreed. What else are you unhappy about?”

So in his mind, pretending to love me for two months was enough to make up for the entire betrayal.

Lyra spoke softly in his defense.

“Aria, Damian really does care about you.”

“When you fell asleep on the couch last night, he even covered you with a blanket.”

I almost laughed.

He tricked me into signing away my future, then put a blanket over me while I slept.

Apparently, I was the lucky one.

“Then I hope the five of you stay together forever.”

I took off the moonstone pendant around my neck and placed it in front of Lyra.

Five wolf pups were carved into the stone, running side by side.

We'd made it after the five of us shifted together for the first time when we were ten.

“Haven't you always said you regretted missing our childhood?”

“You can have this too.”

Lyra hesitated before taking it.

Damian's frown only deepened.

“What is wrong with you today?”

“Didn't you always say the five of us would never separate?”

“That was before.”

I stepped around him and headed for the door.

My phone vibrated in my pocket.

【Frostland Academy's transfer vehicle will arrive in Blood Moon territory in forty-eight hours.】

【Once you confirm early entry into the five-year classified research program, your pack transfer will begin simultaneously. Upon completion of the transfer, all mental bonds connecting you to your former pack will be automatically severed.】

【Confirm?】

Frostland wasn't merely an academy.

Its wolf-core research division operated a classified facility inside Northern Pack territory.

Ordinary students attended classes normally and went home during school breaks.

Classified-program researchers were different.

We were required to transfer our pack affiliation to the Northern Pack, and for five years, we could neither withdraw from the program nor transfer out.

Damian and the others had forged ordinary Frostland applications.

The contract I had signed carried the same academy crest.

But mine was for the classified program.

They had never bothered to ask what the difference was.

They simply assumed I'd come home during every break.

They had used a lie to make one choice for me.

This time, I would make my own.

I pressed Confirm.

They thought this would be like every other argument we'd ever had.

They thought I'd get angry, cool down, and eventually come back.

But this time, they were going to lose me for good.