My Four Childhood Friends Abandoned Me for My Best Friend Chapter 01

My Four Childhood Friends Abandoned Me for My Best Friend Chapter 01

The morning after the First Moon Rite, Obsidian Pack announced the results. Every wolf our age had made their choice.

My four childhood friends, the ones everyone said would lead Obsidian Pack someday, turned down Northreach Lycan Academy.

All four of them chose to stay in the human world.

“The pack matters, but nothing matters more than the five of us staying together.”

They wanted me to do the same. Leave the pack. Stay with them.

And Kael Arden, the Alpha heir I’d been secretly in love with for years, sealed our mate bond beneath the laurel tree.

The day my acceptance letter arrived, I ran straight back to the pack house.

“She got her acceptance. We don’t have to keep this up anymore, right?”

I froze. My hands went cold.

“Who’d actually leave the pack if they had a choice? Nobody wants to be a rogue out there. We just needed her to go quietly.”

“Does she think she’s special? She’s been tagging along since we were kids, acting like she’s one of us. What, does she actually think she’s the pack princess?”

“She’s always been a loner. The other girls never liked her anyway. Of course we’re staying here with Elena.”

Every word cut straight through me. My wolf surged under my skin, snarling, clawing to get out.

I shoved the door open.

They saw my glowing, wild eyes, and for a split second, panic flashed across their faces.

Not Kael. Kael didn’t flinch.

“You’re the one who always told us to be more inclusive of Elena. We’re finally treating her like a princess, and you’re throwing a fit?”

“Go live your life out there. Don’t worry. We’ll come visit you with her.”

I forced a smile.

They didn’t know my acceptance was from Hawthorne Defense Institute. They didn’t know I’d already signed a classified NDA.

They picked her over me. So I’d leave them all behind and never look back.

…

“Lillian,” Kael said, surprised. “You’re not making a scene. You’re actually keeping it together. I’m impressed.”

He expected tears. Maybe a meltdown. I gave him nothing.

“If I did lose it, would you still leave with me?”

No one answered.

Kael adjusted his glasses. He wouldn’t meet my eyes.

“We were going to stay in the human world. But Elena… she said she couldn’t handle it out there. Too dangerous, too complicated. She needed the pack’s protection. She needed us to stay.”

The others nodded.

“Your wolf is strong. You’ve hunted with us, trained with us, grown up right beside us. But Elena’s different. She doesn’t have a wolf. She’s human. She can’t go back to the world that hurt her, not without us. She wouldn’t survive.”

“Then why didn’t anyone tell me?”

Kael’s expression remained blank.

“She needs us more than you do. You’ve always been independent. You’ll be fine on your own.”

The rest of them stood there looking completely unbothered, like they hadn’t just torn my whole world apart.

“I understand.” I made myself smile.

Of all the wolves our age, I was the only one with white wolf blood. The elders treated me like a rare prize. And those four boys had always protected me. When we played pack games as kids, they used to fight over who got to be my protector.

Kael… even back then, he’d always been the one who played my mate.

We’d been inseparable our whole lives. I never imagined we’d end up standing in the same room with nothing left to say.

The silence stretched.

“Elena’s eighteenth birthday is in a few days. Don’t ruin it by throwing a tantrum.”

It was Ronan Voss who said it. The same Ronan who’d called me a tagalong five minutes ago.

He couldn’t remember where he left his own pack crest, but he knew another girl’s birthday by heart.

“Oh.” I looked down. “I already got her something. She likes human-made jewelry, so I ordered a set.”

He scoffed. “She doesn’t want that. She wants your Moonstone Blood Pendant.”

The air caught in my throat.

The Moonstone Blood Pendants were sacred. The Elder Council had brought them back from the Lunar Shrine the year the five of us were born.

Five stones. One for each of us. They sealed the Pack Bond between wolves born in the same generation, a bond that was supposed to last forever.

My fist closed around my pendant. “Not happening.”

“Then give her the ceramic wolves.”

Ronan had already pushed past me into my room before I could stop him, pulling all five figurines off the shelf.

“Here. Keep yours. She only wants the four that belong to us.”

We’d made them together when we were ten.

Now the only one left on the shelf was the white wolf. Sitting there by itself. It looked pathetic.

My wolf roared. “Touch those and you’re dead to me, Ronan!”

I lunged after him. My claws slashed the side of his wrist.

Before I could get any closer, the other three stepped between us like a wall.

Ronan stood behind them, staring me down. Not a shred of guilt on his face.

“Fine, we’re done. You say that every time you throw a fit. It doesn’t mean anything.”