Ch. On graduation night, 8 On graduation night, 8

Chapter 8 

Damian had no answer. 

It was precisely because he’d stood there in silence that those girls had dared to assume I’d already lost the protection of Blood Moon’s future Alpha. 

And when he finally did walk over, it hadn’t been to stop them from humiliating me. 

He’d accused me of hurting Lyra in front of everyone and ordered me to leave the academy. 

When Damian said nothing, the girl hurried to explain herself. 

“Lyra told us Aria was jealous because you guys were taking care of her. She also said Aria refused to help with her birthday video on purpose.” 

“We were only trying to stand up for Lyra. 

“The academy will investigate what happened,” Damian cut her off. “Until the investigation is complete, your graduation records and pack-position assignments will be suspended.” 

The girl’s face went white. 

“You’re suspending our positions over a few words?” 

Damian stared at her. 

“You publicly humiliated the only Blood Moon researcher admitted to Frostland’s core program and tried to take her personal property.” 

“You should be grateful that camera wasn’t damaged.” 

The girl opened her mouth to plead with him, but Damian had already turned away. 

He had finally used his authority as Blood Moon’s future Alpha to stop the people who had humiliated me. 

But his protection had come far too late. 

When I had been standing in that archives building, he’d chosen Lyra. 

Punishing people after I was gone could never erase what he’d allowed to happen when I was still there. 

Rowan returned to the training hall alone and pulled his combat medal out of a cardboard box. 

There was now a visible dent along its edge. 

When I’d returned it the day before, he’d casually tossed it into the box of hardware he’d been using to assemble Lyra’s bed. 

Later, he’d had the entire box sent to the banquet hall along with the rest of her things. 

He rubbed the medal with his sleeve for a long time. 

The dent didn’t disappear. 

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Chapter 8 

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When Rowan was twelve, he’d won his first junior-wolf combat tournament. 

After the match, he hadn’t gone looking for his parents. 

Instead, he’d run across the entire training field straight toward me. 

“Aria, keep this safe for me.” 

I hadn’t understood. 

“It’s your medal. Why are you giving it to me?” 

“Because you’re the most important person to me.” 

“When I become the strongest Beta in Blood Moon, I’ll give you my next one too.” 

Now he’d passed the preliminary assessment to become a Beta candidate. 

But I would never know whether he ultimately inherited the Beta position. 

Elsewhere, Julian and Asher were trying to recover the original footage from the portable hard drive. 

Damian hadn’t fully overwritten the files when he’d deleted them. 

After several hours, they managed to restore more than a dozen damaged clips. 

One of them had been recorded when we were ten. 

Five newly shifted wolf pups raced through the forest. 

The camera shook wildly as whoever was holding it ran after them, then finally steadied beneath an ancient tree washed in moonlight. 

My ten-year-old self sat among the roots, carefully burying five stones, each carved with one of our names. 

“We’ll dig them up again when we’re eighteen.” 

Damian’s voice came from behind the camera. 

“Why eighteen?” 

“Because after that, we’ll all be going to different academies.” 

I looked down at the stones. 

“I hope we’re still together by then.” 

Rowan immediately protested from somewhere offscreen. 

“Of course we’ll still be together.” 

“No matter where we go, we’ll never leave you behind by yourself.” 

The video cut off there. 

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Chapter 8 

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Everything after that was too damaged to recover. 

The four of them stood around the black screen in silence. 

In the end, the people who had sent me away alone were the same ones who had once promised they never would. 

Then Asher remembered something I’d said before. 

Every original video had been backed up to my private cloud storage. 

He found the login page. 

First, he tried each of their birthdays. 

Wrong. 

Then the date of our first group shift. 

Wrong again. 

He even tried the day we first met Lyra. 

Still wrong. 

With only one attempt left, he entered my birthday. 

The account opened. 

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