Ch. I Hid My Supreme Rank Regret of the Pack 10 I Hid My Supreme Rank Regret of the Pack 10

Chapter 10 

Four years. Gone in a blink. 

The guaranteed advanced placement list went up at the Elite Lycan Academy, and my name sat right at the top of the Healing Department. 

Three years of advanced studies. Every award the academy could hand out, I took home. 

Three first-author papers in top Council journals. A national research grant under Professor Hayes. 

I wasn’t that useless stray anymore, curled up in a storage closet, left shivering by the drafty door just to beg my parents for a scrap of attention. 

I’d grown my own claws. Sharp ones. And I’d run clear across territories to find my own sky. 

My part-time gigs covered tuition and rent now. 

With enough left over to hit the coast for a fancy seafood spread whenever I wanted. 

New phone. Closet full of pretty dresses. 

I was living better than I ever had. Ten thousand times better than eighteen years under the Sinclair roof combined. 

The so-called family showed up a few times. 

Dad’s pack business tanked. He came sniffing around for a loan.I shut the door in his face. He stood outside my dorm screaming at me for a solid half hour before slinking off with his tail between his legs. 

Then Declan. He’d screwed up big on an enforcer contract, staring down a massive payout. He crawled to me with that shameless grin, playing the sibling card. 

I looked him dead in the face. 

I’m not your sister. Catalina is.” 

Then I had campus security drag him out. 

As for Grayson Lowe… word got around. He and Catalina hooked up Crashed and burned fast. 

Catalina traded up for some richer Alpha heir at the Healer Academy.  

So Grayson drove all the way to the academy. Stood outside my dorm in the rain all night, swearing he wanted me back. 

I almost laughed out loud. 

I chucked a busted umbrella at him in the hallway and told him to get the hell out of my sight. 

They never came back after that. 

Graduation day. The sky over Southaven was crystal blue. 

I stood by the stone marker at the campus gates in my cap and gown. 

Sunlight spilled warm across my face. 

‘Clarinda, smile!” 

The girl behind the camera waved at me. 

I turned. Grinned. Real and wide. 

Click 

Frozen forever. 

The girl in that photo stood tall. Eyes bright. Shoulders back. 

No more flinching. No more please-love-me tilt to her mouth. 

Just something steady. Something that came from bone-deep.” 

I got a print made and slid it into the clear sleeve of my wallet. 

Day one of the rest of my life. 

That night, the research crew hit the beach for a barbecue. 

Ocean wind. Bonfire cracking sparks into the dark. 

We circled up, throwing dreams around like they were nothing. 

Clarinda, what’s the plan after the advanced program? Sticking with Council research?” 

Professor Hayes, smiling over his drink. 

I looked out at the water, moonlight dancing across the swells. 

“Yeah. I want to do research that actually matters.” 

“And when I get the time… I want to travel. See what this world really looks like.” 

I lifted my beer. “To the future!” 

To the future!” 

Glass clinked bright against glass. Cold beer slid down my throat. 

Ice going in. Warmth spreading out. 

The road ahead was long, and I wasn’t looking back. 

Because my journey wasn’t behind me. 

It was out there. 

In the stars. 

In the open sea. 

Mersi 

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