Born One Minute Too Late, But I Was the True Alpha Chapter 06

Born One Minute Too Late, But I Was the True Alpha Chapter 06

### Verlan

We decided not to call Arden.

Lenora said she needed time to understand what she had done.

Father agreed.

I agreed too.

Arden had walked out before. She usually went to Nightglass, slept on the couch, and returned the next morning with coffee for everyone.

This time, morning came without her.

At breakfast, my training meal was not on the table.

“Where is it?” I asked.

Lenora looked up from her phone.

“Where is what?”

“My meal.”

“Ask the kitchen.”

Arden always checked my nutrition plan with the cook. I had never thought about it until no one did.

Brielle came downstairs holding a torn silver dress.

“I need Arden to fix this.”

“She’s still sulking,” Lenora said. “Wear something else.”

Father entered with a stack of folders.

“Declan, these border reports are incomplete.”

I opened the first one.

Columns of numbers filled the pages.

“Arden usually highlights the changes.”

Father stared at me.

“Then learn to read them yourself.”

His tone made me angry.

Aiden had created the format. She knew where every paftol changed, which supply route flooded, and which warriors had missed training

I had always assumed she enjoyed doing it.

The second day passed.

Then the third.

No one called her.

Lenora said Arden wanted attention. Father said refusing to give it would teach her a lesson.

I told myself they were right.

On the fourth morning, I went to Nightglass.

The sign was gone.

Paper covered the front windows.

A man I did not recognize opened the door.

“We’re closed for renovation.”

“Where is Arden?”

“The previous owner?”

Previous.

The word struck harder than it should have.

“She transferred the lease.”

“When?”

“Last week.”

I rode home too fast.

Arden’s bedroom door was open.

I had passed it every day without looking inside.

Now I did.

Her clothes were gone.

Her books were gone.

The photographs from the wall were gone.

Brielle’s boxes and my strategy equipment remained.

There was no sign that Arden had ever lived there.

Father called Westbridge Academy.

The principal spoke for less than two minutes.

When Father lowered the phone, his face had changed.

“She transferred to North Coast.”

Lenora stopped arranging flowers.

“Without permission?”

Father looked toward her.

“I signed the consent form.”

I remembered the graduation hall.

Arden holding out a document.

Father signing without reading because Brielle was crying and everyone wanted the scene to end.

“When is she coming back?” Brielle asked.

“She isn’t,” Father said.

Silence settled over the room.

My wolf paced inside me.

I opened the Pack link and searched for Arden.

Her connection was gone.

She had filed an adult transfer the morning she turned eighteen.

She was no longer a member of Greyhaven Pack.

I had spent my whole life believing Arden could never leave me.

I was her twin.

Her future Alpha.

Her protector.

But standing in the empty half of her bedroom, I finally understood what she had said at the celebration.

She had not left to punish us.

She had left because she no longer wanted as.