The Luna Who Owed Them Nothing Chapter 09

The Luna Who Owed Them Nothing Chapter 09

The first semester passes quickly.

Library, classrooms, cafeteria, training field. It is always the same four places, and I am so busy that I barely have time to think about anything else.

When final exams come around, I rank third in my class and receive an invitation to the joint warrior program in the Lycan region.

That night, after the Beta of the Lycan King delivers the invitation, I walk around the school field

alone for a long time.

Somehow, I start laughing. Then, as I laugh, I start crying.

I take out my phone and scroll through my contacts. In the end, I send Mrs. Blake a message.

[Mrs. Blake, I ranked third and was invited to join the Lycan Royal Joint Warrior Program.]

She replies almost instantly.

[You deserve it, Aria. Take it. Keep moving forward, and don’t look back.]

I stare at those words for a long time before slipping my phone back into my pocket and continuing

to walk.

That winter is especially cold.

On Christmas Eve, a classmate brings me an envelope from someone.

When I open it, I find a stack of cash and a note.

The handwriting is Damon’s.

[Mom is sick. It’s serious. She keeps asking to see you. Please come home. I’m begging you.]

There is also a train ticket inside the envelope. The destination is the final station in our pack.

The ticket is for tomorrow.

I put the money and the ticket back into the envelope and tuck it into the bottom drawer of my desk.

The next day is Christmas.

The cafeteria is closed, so a few classmates who do not go home for the holidays and I get together

to make a Christmas dinner.

We buy a turkey from the supermarket, but we coat it with way too much sauce and butter, so we

end up burning it.

Still, we gather around the turkey, laughing and joking, raising our glasses at midnight to

celebrate.

Everyone is happy.

When the clock strikes midnight, my phone vibrates.

It is a number from the pack. The message contains only a few words.

[Aria, Happy Christmas.]

I read it, turn off the screen, and place my phone face down on the table. Then I take a small bite of

pumpkin pie.

The classmate beside me bumps my shoulder, “Hey, who texted you?”

I lower my head, swallow the pumpkin pie, and smile, “Wrong number.”

That night, everyone squeezes into the dorm to watch Love Actually.

Someone falls asleep against a pillow while others keep chatting and laughing.

I sit on the windowsill with a half-finished book spread across my lap, but my eyes are fixed on the scattered lights outside.

I do not cry.

I simply sit there quietly, like a little blade of grass growing through a crack in the stone, finally reaching the sunlight.

As for the family I spent ten years desperately longing for…

I do not need it anymore.