The 18th Time They Lost Me Chapter 01

The 18th Time They Lost Me Chapter 01

I lived in my parents’ house the way you’d live in a motel.

Basic slippers. Basic toothbrush. A room the size of a closet tucked under the stairs, where I always felt forgotten.

I didn’t even have a key. Every time I came home, I had to wait for someone to let me in.

My name wasn’t even in the Silver Moon registry. Not once. Not ever.

Years ago, my parents followed our Alpha out to build a second territory.

My brother Silas Sterling had rare lineage potential, so they took him along, grooming him to be the next Beta.

When they left, I stayed behind alone.

My sister Maya Sterling was always the fragile one. Coddled from birth. Mom couldn’t stomach leaving her behind in our declining old territory.

So I stayed behind with my grandmother in the old pack house that everyone else had already forgotten. She died eight years ago.

Eighteen times. My parents had tried to register my pack identity at the Silver Moon’s pack hall eighteen times.

Today made eighteen. We hadn’t even made it through the front doors when Maya called.

She’d drifted too close to the territory’s edge and needed a ride back.

I squeezed the registration form so hard it wrinkled. My voice barely came out. “It’s only three minutes…”

Dad was already hanging up and walking toward the curb. He didn’t look back.

Mom tucked a strand of hair behind my ear. “We’ll be quick, Quinn. I promise.”

I didn’t answer.

At five o’clock, the pack hall’s doors swung shut in front of me.

I watched them disappear down the road, and whatever I’d been holding onto let go of me first.

I pulled out my phone. Accepted early admission to King’s University and filed to transfer my pack registration to Crown Ridge, the pack that housed it.

I realized this was no longer the place where I belonged.

I was done waiting for one.

Earlier, at the curb, my parents had reached the car in seconds, like they’d already forgotten I was behind them.

The registration form crumpled in my fist. Its edges caught the wind and fluttered like they were trying to leave too.

Dad’s phone rang while he walked.

He picked up and frowned. “The dinner reservation? Yeah, cancel it. Something came up.”

My nails bit into my palms. Today was my birthday.

For once, Dad had wanted to make it special. He’d booked a table at a nice restaurant.

“Maya’s been there a bunch of times,” Dad had said this morning. “Quinn deserves a turn. All five of us, a real sit-down dinner.”

Silas came jogging up to the curb, his shirt buttoned wrong.

He didn’t even glance at me. “Where’s Maya? I’m going after her.”

He’d promised to take me to the arcade after I finished registering. The claw machines. Our thing.

But the second Maya needed something, every promise he’d ever made me vanished.

All three of them crammed into the car. Mom was halfway through rolling up the window before she noticed me still standing on the curb.

She dug through her purse and pressed a bill into my hand. “Get your stuff together, grab a cab home, okay? Be safe.”

She hadn’t even looked at it. A small amount of cash.

I’d never gotten an allowance.

Dad was already facing the driver. “Go.”

The black sedan slid into traffic and left me standing there.

I held the small amount of cash in my fist and walked for two hours.

It was dark by the time I got home.

My heels were sore from the long walk. Every step felt like walking on glass.

A pack officer was waiting by the door, holding two boxes of provisions and two boxes of frozen treats.

“Summer rations. Records show two pups at this address.”

“Both shares are here. Just need a signature.”

I grabbed the clipboard and signed with fingers I could barely feel.

The officer looked me over. “You the older one or the younger one?”

I finished signing, looked up, and smiled. “Neither. I’m just passing through.”

Inside, birthday streamers trailed from the living room all the way down to the stairwell.

A banner hung across the wall. “Welcome home, Quinn.”

Broken glass was scattered across the floor—pieces of a crystal wolf figurine.

Silas had gotten it for me.

He must have knocked it off the table on his way out the door.

He always thought I loved the figurine itself.

It was the only one in the store that had five wolves.

A family. The one I kept dreaming I’d have.

I crouched down and picked up every shard, one by one. Wrapped them in tissue. Slipped them into my pocket.

A broken gift was still a gift. Maybe they really had planned to celebrate.

I held onto that, and it was enough to pull me to my feet.

I washed my hands and made dinner for five, same as always. Then I waited for them to come back with Maya.

Maybe, just this once, they’d stay.

I reheated everything twice. Then a third time. The food went cold anyway.

They never came back.

I scooped out a small bowl, ate alone at the table, and crawled into my room under the stairs. The bed was barely wide enough to turn over in.

Fifteen minutes left until my birthday was over.

Then the front door opened.