Four Alphas Chose Her Over Me, Until I Disappeared and They Searched the World for Me Chapter 03

Four Alphas Chose Her Over Me, Until I Disappeared and They Searched the World for Me Chapter 03

Kellan blinked.

“Just keep it at your place. Why bring it back all of a sudden?”

“I was afraid I wouldn’t get another chance.”

He clearly didn’t catch my meaning.

He just shoved the medal at Maren. “Then you hold onto it for me.”

He looked back at me. “Perfect timing, actually. I’m buying Maren a mattress.”

“You’re strong. Come help me carry it.”

I didn’t move.

Maren jumped in quickly. “That’s okay.”

“Isn’t Rhea leaving for Northreach? She must be busy packing.”

Kellan glanced at me. “You think everyone’s a pampered little princess like you?”

“She’s a tomboy. She could pack her whole life in ten minutes. What’s there to be busy about?”

I turned and walked away.

He didn’t even chase after me to ask when, exactly, I was leaving.

Lucian was at the library. I returned the sketchbooks he’d been storing at my place.

Inside were the landscapes we’d drawn together over the years.

He took them without a second glance—then his eyes landed on the vintage camera around my neck.

It was a gift from the four of them, so I could record the years we spent growing up together.

Nearly every memory the five of us had ever made lived inside that camera.

Lucian said, “Leave the camera too.”

“Maren wants to make a coming-of-age video—something to introduce the five of us when she starts college.”

I froze. There wasn’t a single photo of Maren in that camera.

“It’s mine.”

“I’m just borrowing it. It’s not like I won’t give it back.” Maren had just finished shopping and come to find Lucian, her eyes fixed longingly on my camera. “Rhea, don’t be mad. I only wanted to pick out a few pictures of everyone as kids.”

“But our childhood doesn’t have you in it.”

Her face went white.

Lucian looked at me with open disapproval.

“Did you have to put it so harshly?”

“She just wishes she’d met us sooner.”

“So she gets to take my past to patch up her regret?”

Lucian seemed to run out of patience.

He grabbed the camera bag hanging off the back of my chair.

“It’s a few days, tops.”

“Stop turning everything into a tragedy.”

I reached for it. He sidestepped me.

“Once the video’s done, I’ll have Soren return it.”

I stared at him for two seconds.

Then I let go.

“Fine.”

There was nothing left on that camera I couldn’t afford to lose.

I could lose all four of them. What were a few memories next to that?

Ronan was the only one who came looking for me himself.

He caught me at the entrance of the pack compound.

“Finally tracked you down.”

He tossed me a portable hard drive.

“It’s all the footage our parents filmed of us. Took me forever to sort it out.”

“You’re the best editor. Make Maren a coming-of-age documentary for her eighteenth birthday.”

I nearly laughed out of sheer rage. “She doesn’t have eighteen years of footage.”

What exactly was I supposed to cut?

Ronan answered like it was the most reasonable thing in the world.

“That’s why we use ours.”

“We cut out the scenes with you in them.”

“Drop in a few photos of Maren, and it’s done. Easy.”

So even our memories—Maren had to take my place there, too?

I looked down at the hard drive.

Our first time riding bikes. Our first camping trip. Every birthday the four of them had ever spent with me.

And now they wanted to cut me out.

Slot Maren into my place, hand her a complete childhood that was never hers.

“Fine.”

I took the hard drive.

Ronan blinked, caught off guard. “That was fast.”

“Didn’t you all say I’d sulk for a couple of days and get over it?”

He rubbed his nose. “As long as you’ve come around.”

From start to finish, not one of them asked the only question that mattered.

When, exactly, I was leaving for Northreach.