Chapter 5

The night I left Logan, I stood in the pouring rain for a long time.

In the end, I knocked on Professor Miles's door.

The white-haired Beta scholar looked at my soaked, wretched figure and didn't ask a single question.

He simply stepped aside to let me in, just as he had in the past when I was his most promising student: silent and accepting.

My eyes instantly stung, and tears began to stream down my cheeks.

When I had given up a full scholarship to insist on marrying my supposed "true love," he had been the one most vehemently opposed.

On the day of the bonding ceremony, he had even refused to attend, sending only a short message:

"Sienna, relying on an Alpha's pity might save your wolf, but it will destroy your spirit."

"In this dog-eat-dog world, a hand that is always held out is the hand of a beggar. You will always be on your knees."

Time had proven Professor Miles right.

At first, Logan would still boast about my academic achievements at social events, praising me as a "smart Luna."

Then, Chloe entered the picture.

She cooed to Logan that my academic theories were useless in pack management, that I carried the unrefined wildness of an Omega and needed to be re-educated in the ways of high society.

And so, I became the pet that needed to be "tamed."

I was the one begging him for every coin, and he would hand it over with those pitying eyes, as if bestowing charity upon a stray dog.

When I had cried enough, shivering as I clutched a mug of hot cocoa,

Professor Miles finally pushed up his glasses and spoke slowly, "I hope you haven't forgotten all your biology while you were warming that Alpha's bed."

"There's a project in the reserve on Rogue genetic mutation. It involves going deep into the mountains to collect wolf blood samples. It's dangerous and it's dirty. Are you in?"

I was stunned for a moment. I had expected ridicule, not a lifeline.

The professor looked at me. "What? Gotten too used to being a pampered Luna? Can't handle the hardships we academics endure?"

I wiped away my tears, a real smile finally gracing my face for the first time in three years.

"I can handle it. Professor, as long as I don't have to be that damn Luna anymore, I'd rather shovel wolf droppings for a living."

Professor Miles grunted, but the corner of his mouth quirked up. "Since you've agreed, get cleaned up. Science waits for no one. There's no time for you to wallow in melodrama."

Under his arrangement, I quickly joined the research team.

At first, I had a hard time adjusting to the harsh conditions of the wild.

But as time went on, the knowledge ingrained in my bones began to reawaken.

As I expertly tracked prints and analyzed data in the mud, I felt a dormant sense of purpose stirring within me.

The stern team leader patted my shoulder with a thumbs-up. "Sienna, at first I was worried you were just a pretty face along for the ride. I never expected our former Luna to be the real deal."

I smiled, wiping a smudge of mud from my face. "Because I've learned the only one you can truly rely on is yourself."

Just as we were all laughing and joking around the campfire,

a mocking voice shattered the peace. "My goodness, isn't this our Luna?"