Four Alphas Chose Her Over Me, Until I Disappeared and They Searched the World for Me Chapter 09

Four Alphas Chose Her Over Me, Until I Disappeared and They Searched the World for Me Chapter 09

Life at the Northern Frontier Research Base was even busier than I’d imagined.

My first week on the team, I was out at the desert test site with my advisor.

Days pushing 105 degrees.

Nights skimming freezing.

The wind carried nothing but fine sand.

A senior researcher on my team handed me a face towel.

“Regret it yet?”

I shook my head.

“No.”

“Homesick?”

I thought about it.

“I miss my parents.”

“Anyone else?”

“There is no anyone else.”

She gave me a look.

And let it go.

Three months into the project, the model I owned ran successfully for the first time.

Three a.m., and the whole research team was applauding.

My advisor dug a nearly flat Coke out of the fridge.

“Supplies are limited out here.”

“Consider it champagne for grown-ups.”

I took a sip.

The bubbles had died ages ago.

But it still tasted sweeter than the real champagne at Maren’s party.

Six months later, Mom and Dad got through to me on the base’s dedicated line.

Mom peered at the screen, her eyes red and raw.

“You’ve lost weight.”

“Are you eating well?”

“I’m eating great.”

Dad leaned in. “Is anyone giving you a hard time?”

“No.”

I smiled a little.

“Everyone here is too busy running experiments.”

“No time for Truth or Dare.”

They caught the edge in that.

But they didn’t push.

They just told me-Soren and the others had come looking, again and again.

“Anything you want passed along?” Dad asked.

“No.”

Just before the call ended, Mom hesitated.

“Soren’s been waiting outside your house.”

“Almost six months now.”

I nodded.

“That’s his time to waste.”

That winter, the project took its first major hit.

A sandstorm wrecked the test equipment.

We pulled four all-nighters in a row, reworking the entire plan.

On the fifth day, the data finally steadied.

My advisor clapped me on the shoulder.

“Rhea.”

“You hold up under pressure better than anyone I’ve worked with.”

I laughed.

“Lifetime of practice.”

Mom and Dad had always been busy. I’d grown up on my own-and it turned out that had made me strong

enough.

Meanwhile, back in Crown City, the four of them weren’t exactly living the lives they’d planned, either.

Soren walked away from Crownspire’s most competitive major and applied to transfer into energy

engineering.

His professor asked him why.

He said he wanted to go to the Northern Frontier.

The professor gave him one line.

“That’s not a place you get to walk into just because you want to.”

Kellan fumbled at the national hunting finals and missed the championship for the first time in his life.

At Lucian’s thesis defense, his advisor challenged him on the spot-the project was missing all of its original records.

The files I had organized and archived for him, every single one, for years.

Ronan lost the art competition he entered.

The judges told him, “The material’s lovely.”

“But there’s no soul in it.”

That was when it finally sank in-

I was never someone they could just cut out of the frame.

They’d always seen me as strong.

Independent.

My wolf steadier than Maren’s, too.

So I never needed looking after.

And so they’d put me last, every single time.

Year five.

The project entered its final stage.

I was twenty-three.

Somewhere along the way, I’d gone from the youngest intern on the base to lead of a core module.

Before the results went public, the base finally cleared one window of outside contact.

When my phone powered back on, the messages came down like an avalanche.

Soren alone had sent over two thousand.

The first one read:

[Rhea, enough.]

And the last one-sent just yesterday.

[I’m not waiting for you to forgive me anymore.]

[I just want to know you’re okay.]