They Sent Me Away. I Never Came Back. novel Chapter 11

Chapter 11 

My father didn’t try to persuade me. 

He simply nodded. 

Over the next few years, the project failed more times than I could count. 

Equipment was destroyed in blizzards. Simulated wolf-core samples were ruined when the temperature controls malfunctioned. There were stretches when we spent days inside the testing zone recalibrating data and rebuilding entire models from scratch. 

But no one here treated my independence like an excuse to dump everything on me. 

My mentor asked for my opinion. 

My teammates took over when my wolf core became unstable. 

And every result was credited according to actual contribution. 

Little by little, I adapted to life at Frostland. 

Eventually, even the pain left behind by the severed childhood bonds disappeared completely. 

Meanwhile, Damian and the others enrolled at Moonvale Academy. 

Damian transferred into wolf-core engineering, hoping it might qualify him for access to Frostland. 

But recruitment for the classified core program had long since closed. 

He submitted several applications anyway. 

Every response said the same thing. 

[Applicants may not enter a classified research facility on the basis of a personal relationship.] 

Rowan failed his first formal Beta succession trial. 

When the match ended, he instinctively looked toward the stands. 

But there was no longer anyone there waiting to keep his medal safe. 

Julian’s strategy research was returned because key early-stage experimental records were missing. 

Only then did he realize those perfectly organized files had never appeared on his desk by themselves. 

Asher eventually recovered the footage from the portable hard drive and edited a new documentary. 

He titled it The Fifth Empty Place. 

He didn’t insert Lyra into the childhood that belonged to me. 

And he never deleted another frame that contained my face. 

Their lives weren’t destroyed because I left. 

They simply had to start carrying the things they had once assumed I would always carry for them. 

In the fifth year, Frostland’s extreme-cold wolf-core stabilization system passed its final trials. 

The technology could reduce wolf-core damage during a young wolf’s first shift and help wolves stationed long- term in the Northern territories resist loss-of-control episodes. 

Before the official launch, the facility lifted the first phase of its communication restrictions.