Chapter 60: This Is My Place

The academy grounds were already alive with movement by the time Roxanne arrived with Isla, students streaming toward the Alpha Challenge field in the pale early light. The four brothers were waiting near the entrance, Liam yawning dramatically enough to draw attention from three separate groups of passing students.

"Whoever scheduled a qualifier at seven in the morning deserves consequences," he announced.

"You suggested we stay out until midnight," Lucien said, checking through a bag of equipment with the same methodical calm he brought to everything.

"That’s completely unrelated."

Roshan had his eyes fixed on a small printed map of the course, already tracing the layout in his head. Kai, meanwhile, noticed something the others hadn’t. He held out a wrapped piece of bread toward Roxanne without a word.

"You didn’t eat," he said.

She took it without arguing, the gesture so ordinary now that neither of them made anything of it.

The qualifier itself wasn’t designed to be dangerous, only thorough, a course built to test everything they’d developed over the past several weeks. Wolf control sections gave way to speed trials, which folded into combat rounds, scent tracking, and a final strategic push toward the finish line.

What struck Roxanne most, moving through it, was how naturally everything unfolded now. She called out a route adjustment, and Liam followed without questioning it. She flagged a detail in the scent trail, and Roshan recalculated their approach on the spot. Lucien deferred to her instinct at two separate checkpoints without hesitation. Kai never once moved to shield her from anything, trusting instead that she could handle whatever came at her directly.

Near the final stretch, their path split into two options. One route cut faster through unstable terrain, risky but quick. The other looped safely around, slower, nearly guaranteeing they’d lose their position in the standings.

Everyone turned to Lucien.

Lucien turned to Roxanne. "Your call."

She studied both paths for a moment, noticing something the others had missed, a subtle shift in the ground cover on the dangerous route that suggested it had been recently reinforced rather than left unstable.

"The fast route," she said. "It’s been fixed since the last team came through."

Nobody argued. They followed her lead without a second’s hesitation, and the team crossed the finish line together, well ahead of the closing time.

They’d qualified.

The announcement of individual placements followed shortly after, and Roxanne’s name appeared high enough on the list to qualify on her own merit, no combined team score required to carry her forward.

The reaction around her was immediate and warm, students who’d once whispered about royal hangers-on now cheering as genuinely as anyone else. Isla practically tackled her in a hug. Liam celebrated like he’d personally crossed the line first. Roshan offered a quiet, satisfied smile.

"You earned it," Lucien said.

Kai simply nodded at her, and she smiled back, understanding exactly what that small gesture meant coming from him.

Later that afternoon, the official qualifiers were posted for the entire academy to see.

MOONSTONE TEAM — QUALIFIED.

Beneath it, standing entirely on its own line:

ROXANNE SILVER — INDIVIDUAL QUALIFIER.

Not attached to anyone. Not marked as someone under royal protection, not filed beneath a Moonstone name or tangled up with Dorian’s family influence. Just her own name, earned and standing alone.

Walking back with Isla past the academy’s main entrance later that evening, Roxanne found herself pausing at the exact spot where she’d first arrived months earlier, terrified and certain she’d have to survive this place entirely by herself.

"Would you still leave," Isla asked, "if you had the chance?"

Roxanne looked toward the courtyard, where the four brothers were visibly arguing about something trivial, Liam’s voice carrying loudest over the others.

"No," she said.

That was all that needed saying.

Isla bumped her shoulder against Roxanne’s. "For what it’s worth, I remember what you looked like that first week. You barely talked to anyone. You ate lunch alone twice because you were too proud to sit with me until I basically forced you."

"I wasn’t that bad."

"You were exactly that bad." Isla laughed, but there was warmth underneath the teasing. "I just mean — look at you now. People know your name because of you. Not because of who you’re standing next to."

Roxanne let that settle for a moment, watching a group of younger students cut across the courtyard, laughing about something from the qualifier. A few months ago she would have envied that kind of ease without ever imagining she’d have it herself.

"I didn’t think I’d want to stay," she admitted. "Not really. I thought I’d survive it and leave the second I could."

"And now?"

Roxanne glanced toward the brothers again, still arguing, still loud, still entirely hers to claim as friends, teammates, whatever this had become.

"Now I can’t imagine leaving," she said.

The brothers found her again before the day ended, and this time there was no talk of royal status or academy politics between them, only a small, ridiculous celebration entirely centered on her. Liam presented her with a handmade card declaring her an "Official Moonstone Team Member," complete with crooked lettering and a hastily drawn crest. Roshan handed her another bookmark, this one slightly more elaborate than the last.

"The next stage will be harder," Lucien warned.

"You’ll be ready," Kai said.

Roxanne looked between all four of them. "You know I’m not going anywhere, right?"

Liam grinned. "We were hoping you’d finally figured that out."

That evening, back in her dorm, she found the official Alpha Challenge qualification notice waiting on her desk, along with a second envelope tucked beneath it that she hadn’t been expecting. She opened it carefully.

MOONSTONE ACADEMY — ADVANCED TRAINING PROGRAM.

She’d been selected for a program reserved for students who’d qualified for the next tier of academy training, a level she hadn’t even known existed until this moment.

One line near the bottom caught her attention immediately.

Attendance is mandatory.

Roxanne set the letter down and looked out toward the academy grounds through her window, lights still glowing faintly across the darkened courtyard.

Tomorrow wouldn’t simply be more of the same. Whatever came next would ask something different of her, something beyond everything she’d already proven she could handle.

She was ready to find out what.