Chapter 0017
I stood frozen in Elijah’s study, completely stunned by his words. His calm, steady tone was so casual, yet the authority behind it
felt like a punch to the gut. My mind raced, trying to process what he had just said.
my voice.
“What?” I blurted, unable to hide the confusion in my
How could he be so calm about this?
Elijah leaned back in his chair, his eyes never leaving mine.
“A Luna doesn’t need to prove to the pack that she didn’t do something,” he said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the
world. “What matters is that she knows her truth and moves with confidence.”
I stared at him, dumbfounded. How could he say that so easily? That rumor had ruined me before, I didn’t see why it wouldn’t do
the same now.
“But if I don’t prove myself, the rumors will only get worse, I protested, my voice rising in frustration. “That’s how I got
expelled in the first place–because I couldn’t provide evidence.”
Elijah’s expression remained unreadable, as if my protest hadn’t affected him in the slightest.
“You don’t need to prove what you didn’t do,” he said, his tone measured “All you need to prove is that the paper wasn’t your
professor’s creation.”
My heart stuttered. Could it really be that simple? The thought had never occurred to me.
I’d been so caught up in defending myself, trying to prove what I hadn’t done, that I’d never considered another angle.
“The next step is finding a way to make that clear,” Elijah continued, as if reading my thoughts. “We’ll start tomorrow.
The rest of the night passed in a blur, my thoughts racing faster than I could control
It
It wasn’t until the next day that I realized just how serious Elijah was. He had arranged an interview with my former college
professor, Professor Dalton, under the guise of a professional discussion about the possibility of branching the Silvermoon
company into academia.
The moment I walked into the room; I felt my heart tighten in my chest. There he was–the man who had single–handedly destroyed my academic career. Dalton sat across from me, clueless to the real reason he was here.
Elijah was setting up the computer and camera that showed his board of trustees the office and Professor Dalton in real–time. Elijah had expertly disguised the interview as a favor, subtly hinting that an esteemed position might be in the professor’s future
if the conversation went well.
I took my seat across from Dalton, feeling the tension in my shoulders rise. Elijah sat quietly on the couch to the side, observing like a wolf watching his prey. The room was silent, save for the ticking of a clock somewhere in the background.
+15 BONUS
Elijah began with a few neutral questions, easing Dalton into the conversation. The professor answered smoothly at first, clearly confident in his responses. But I could see the trap being laid–slowly, methodically.
Elijah shifted the conversation, guiding it toward my thesis, the one Dalton had claimed as his own.
I felt my pulse quicken. This was the moment I’d been dreading and anticipating in equal measure
“My mate’s paper,” Elijah began smoothly, “contained an interesting section on ancient werewolf totems, which you described in your interview as original research. Can you elaborate?”
I stiffened at the word “mate,” but there was no time to dwell on it now. Dalton, on the other hand, smiled, completely unaware
of the shift in tone. He launched into a rehearsed explanation of the “research” he’d conducted, claiming the insights as his own.
That was his mistake.
The totems had been a pivotal part of my thesis. I had spent countless hours poring over ancient texts, researching obscure
folklore that barely anyone knew existed. My original draft, the one Dalton had stolen, didn’t contain the proper citations, but I
knew the sources inside and out.
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