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O f fucking course they have decent security on this dig. The plastic casing of the binoculars groans as I clench them tighter, squinting through the bright light of late afternoon. They look like ants down there in the valley, all scurrying around, setting up camp. Trucks moving shit tons of equipment. Specialists who’ve probably never touched a real artifact outside of a museum. They’re probably shitting themselves with excitement right now. This will be the shining moment of their entire lives. Maybe mine, too, if everything goes to plan.

No, digging around in dirt isn’t going to be the highlight of my life. This is going to be the low point that leads to the glory of the mountaintop. The struggle that’s going to set me up for good.

I’ve been searching original texts and pouring over maps for years trying to find the temple of Lunara and the wealth of treasure rumoured to be hidden there. This is the closest I’ve ever come. Historians all claim it was around here and now they find bodies—human bodies—near a temple where they think hundreds of omegas once lived.

This is it. I can sense it.

The temple is somewhere under all this sand, and if I can get close enough, I can find it.

I’m good at this shit. My mom used to say I had a nose like a bloodhound. It’s how we all knew I was gonna be an alpha long before all the hormones hit. It was a given. But it’s not really a sense of smell that helps me locate things. It’s more than that. I get this itch in my fingers, this feeling like something good is close by, and if I follow that feeling, if I get close enough, all I have to do is grab it.

But getting close will be a challenge this time. It’s not a small dig, and now they’ve brought on a security detail. I zoom in with the binoculars and note the massive man leaving the biggest tent. I’m pretty sure he’s the head of security. He’s been giving orders to other brawny looking guys and going tent-to-tent all morning. Probably introducing himself. He seems the type to do that. Always smiling, but with a sharp look in his eyes that makes it clear he’s alert and ready for anything.

By the way he carries himself and the gear he’s wearing, I’d guess he’s ex-military. And an alpha. The other three circling the perimeter probably are, too.

Even if there wasn’t security, twice as many people have arrived on the dig site since yesterday. It’ll likely double again by tomorrow.

I groan and tuck my binoculars into my bag, rolling from my belly to my back in the sandy dirt. The sun is setting, painting the sky a vivid gold, like the treasures buried in that temple.

My fingers twitch anxiously. I’ve snuck into dig sites before, but they were always small, with only a few people. All I had to do was wait until they were asleep, sneak in, let those senses of mine do the work, dig up some ancient vase or some shit, and get out. Most of the time, I try to get ahead of the bureaucrats altogether and find things on my own. I walked the halls of Misophet’s tomb long before anyone else “discovered it.” Took all the good stuff, too.

But a score like Lunara’s temple… that would be something else.

This kind of job isn’t done overnight. What I need to figure out is if the temple is right here where they’ve set up, or close by, and for that, I’m gonna need information. The kind of information all those fancy machines they’ve been hauling in all day can give me.

I’ll just wait for nightfall. Then, I’ll strike.