Chapter 3

At seven the next morning, I returned to Blood Moon Academy to collect the last of my graduation records.

I had barely stepped into the archives building when laughter sounded behind me.

“Well, if it isn't Aria, top of the entire graduating class.”

Several girls blocked the stairwell.

The one standing in front was a friend Lyra had only recently made.

She looked me up and down, then suddenly reached for the camera hanging around my neck.

“So this is the camera that recorded your precious childhood together?”

My father had given me that camera for my tenth birthday.

Our first group shift, our first time running through the forest together, and every birthday after that had all been captured on it.

The videos Asher had given me on the portable hard drive had originally been backed up from this camera.

I caught the girl's wrist.

“Let go.”

“What's with the attitude?”

She deliberately raised her voice so the entire floor could hear.

“You just happened to grow up with the four pack heirs. Did you really start thinking that made you Blood Moon's future Luna?”

The girls around her immediately laughed.

“Too bad they've chosen Lyra now.”

“Damian only agreed to date her yesterday, and she's already been dumped today. If that were me, I'd be too embarrassed to stay in the pack.”

More and more people slowed down to watch.

I lifted my eyes toward the other end of the hallway.

Rowan was carrying Lyra's graduation files.

Julian was checking her Moonvale enrollment documents.

Asher had her breakfast in his hand.

Damian stood between them.

As Blood Moon's future Alpha, he only had to say one word and every girl around me would have scattered.

But he didn't come over.

Once, someone had spread a rumor that every achievement I'd earned was only because the four heirs had helped me.

Damian had forced that person to apologize to me in front of the entire academy.

He'd promised no one would ever be allowed to humiliate me again.

Now he simply stood there and watched.

Lyra hurried toward us.

“Stop. Aria's only upset with me.”

The girl gripping my camera gave a short laugh.

“You're too kind, Lyra. Asher only asked her to edit one birthday video for you, and she acted like you were stealing her whole past.”

Lyra's eyes immediately filled with tears.

Damian finally walked over.

But the first thing he did was pull Lyra behind him.

“Aria, if you're angry, take it out on us.”

“Don't dump your feelings on Lyra.”

I hadn't even spoken to her.

I couldn't be bothered explaining.

In a few hours, I would be leaving Blood Moon Pack for good.

I had no intention of wasting my final morning here in some disciplinary hearing presided over by the future Alpha.

Damian glanced at me.

“Go home and change. Stop causing trouble at the academy.”

I took my camera and walked away.

Half an hour later, I had just finished changing when someone started pounding on my front door.

The moment I opened it, Damian and the other three walked straight inside with Lyra behind them.

“Where's the moonstone pendant?”

Rowan didn't waste time.

“Lyra only realized it was missing after she left the academy.”

I stepped into the hallway and blocked their path.

“This is my home. You don't have the right to search it without my permission.”

Asher looked at me coldly.

“She lost it right after the confrontation with you. Who else would take it on purpose?”

“Get out.”

No one listened.

Asher walked straight into my bedroom and pulled open a drawer.

The others started going through my closet and desk.

For werewolves, a bedroom was the most private part of someone's territory.

For eighteen years, these four had walked into mine without ever knocking.

I used to mistake that complete lack of boundaries for closeness.

Now I understood.

They had simply never believed my refusal deserved to be respected.

Rowan opened the closet and stared at the few clothes left inside.

“Why did you pack everything away?”

Julian glanced at the suitcase beside the wall and answered for me in his usual calm voice.

“She wants us to think she's actually leaving.”

Asher scoffed.

“Aria, you're an adult. You're seriously still playing runaway?”

Damian's eyes landed on the cover of my Frostland early-entry contract.

“Frostland doesn't officially open until fall.”

He looked at me.

“What, are you planning to disappear from Blood Moon today?”

That was when I saw Lyra slip the moonstone pendant out of her sleeve.

She quietly pushed it into the narrow gap between my desk and the wall.

A second later, she bent down.

“Found it.”

Lyra picked up the moonstone and looked at me, her eyes slowly turning red.

“Aria, if you regretted giving it to me, you could've just said so. I would've returned it.”

“You didn't need to steal it back and make everyone search for it.”

“You just put it there.”

Her tears fell instantly.

Damian moved in front of her without hesitation.

He clearly had no intention of asking whether I was telling the truth.

I was about to order them out again when Lyra looked past his shoulder toward my still-lit computer screen.

Asher's hard drive was still connected.

Eighteen years of our shared memories were open on the screen.

“Can I use these in my coming-of-age video?”

“No.”

I shut the laptop.

Rowan stepped in front of me.

“Asher already gave you the hard drive.”

Lyra lowered her eyes.

“Forget it. I don't want you all fighting because of me again.”

She turned as if she were going to leave.

Damian's expression darkened.

He reopened the laptop and took the mouse from me.

“If you don't want to be in the video, then delete yourself.”

“Don't touch my things.”

He ignored me.

He selected every clip that included me and hit delete.

I reached for the mouse.

Asher grabbed my arm before I could stop him.

“They're just a few videos. Don't make us force you.”

“From now on, you won't appear in any of Blood Moon's memorial videos.”

Damian pulled out the hard drive and tossed it back at me.

“Finish the rest tonight.”

Then he left my bedroom with Lyra.

He thought that threat would frighten me.

In one more hour, it would become reality.

After they were gone, my phone vibrated in my pocket.

【Frostland Academy's transfer vehicle will arrive in one hour.】

I tightened my grip on the handle of my suitcase.

And the four people who believed they knew me better than anyone else—

right up until the moment they walked out of my room—

still hadn't realized I had been saying goodbye.