Four Alphas Chose Her Over Me, Until I Disappeared and They Searched the World for Me Chapter 06

Four Alphas Chose Her Over Me, Until I Disappeared and They Searched the World for Me Chapter 06

Beyond the car window, the city fell away, building by building.

Until there was nothing but open wasteland.

I sank back into the seat.

For the first time in my life, no one could ping me out of nowhere.

Run this errand.

Edit that video.

Clean up their messes.

The quiet was so complete it felt almost foreign.

At that same moment, in Crown City,

Maren’s party was already underway.

Kellan stood on a ladder, hanging the last string of fairy lights.

Lucian was fine-tuning the projector.

Ronan cut into the cake decorated for five.

Soren checked the time.

7:05 p.m.

I still hadn’t shown up.

He texted me.

[Where are you?]

Failed to send.

He froze for a second.

Tried again.

[Rhea, quit it with the blocking.].

Failed to send again.

Kellan came over.

“Still throwing her tantrum?”

“She blocked me.”

Ronan snorted.

“How old are we?”

“She’ll cave soon enough and add us all back.”

Before he’d even finished,

the doorbell rang.

Soren was on his feet almost instantly.

But when the door opened,

there was only a courier on the other side.

“Ronan Mercer?”

“Your same-day delivery.”

The box was torn open.

Inside sat the portable hard drive.

Ronan plugged it into the laptop.

The folders were completely empty.

No first camping trip.

No sixteenth birthday.

No beach photo of the five of us.

Just one new document.

And a single video file, titled “To the Five of You-Together Forever.”

They opened the document first..

[You wanted a past without me in it.]

[Now you have it.]

The living room went dead silent.

Soren grabbed his jacket.

“Her place. Now.”

Kellan frowned.

“Are you serious?”

Soren was coming apart at the seams. “She’s different this time. Something is actually wrong.”

All four of them bolted out the door-too rushed to spare even a minute for the video I’d left behind.

When they reached my house,

the front door was locked tight.

The curtains were drawn shut.

Maren said quietly,

“Is Rhea hiding from us on purpose?”

Soren pulled out the spare key.

The one I’d given him when I was ten.

I’d told him back then-

if I ever got locked inside my own house,

he could come in and save me.

When the door swung open,

the emptiness inside made your chest tighten.

My room held nothing but a bed and a desk.

A few empty hangers swayed gently in the closet.

The competition files were gone from the shelves.

My passport.

My Pack ID.

My medications.

All of it, taken.

The smirk finally slid off Kellan’s face.

“She’s really gone?”

Lucian bent down and picked up the admission agreement from under the corner of the desk.

The one Soren had shoved there with his own hands

just yesterday.

He flipped the cover open.

The very first line was a bold-print confidentiality notice.

[Alpha King’s Special Research Program Early Admission Agreement]

[Admission date: June 28]

[Project location: Northern Frontier Classified Research Base]

[Upon enrollment: no private correspondence, no personal visits, and no unauthorized external inquiries.]

Below that was my signature.

And the date signed

was the night of that Truth or Dare game.

Lucian’s fingers tightened around the page.

“She wasn’t waiting for fall. She left. Today.”

Soren snatched the agreement out of his hands

and flipped straight to the last page.

All the color drained from his face.

One final line sat at the very bottom.

[Initial closed assignment period: five years.]

Kellan couldn’t wrap his head around it.

“Five years?”

“She won’t be back for five years?”

No one answered.

Maren stood by the door, treading carefully.

“Maybe Rhea just wanted to scare everyone.”

Soren rounded on her.

“She sealed off her own communication privileges. All of them.”

It was the first time he’d ever used that voice on Maren.

The wounded look on her face froze solid.

And the group chat, still open on the table,

still wore the name she’d changed it to the night before.

[we are six] had become [Crown City Five].

She’d carved me out of it-and demoted me to some stranger from up north.

This time,

it really was just the five of them.