The Lunar Crest Academy: Marked by The Lycans
Chapter 108: Unleashed

Chapter 108: Chapter 108: Unleashed

*****

The moment Kieran’s body hit the ground, Magnus Thorn didn’t waste a second. His Lycan strength surged as he crouched and swept the unconscious prince into his arms with a single motion.

"Open the damn door!" he barked at Adrian.

Adrian snapped out of his shock and rushed to the front of the car, yanking the door wide open. Thorn carefully but urgently laid Kieran on the seat, his form limp and heavy with dead weight. Felix and Adrian exchanged glances, faces pale, breath shallow. Kieran Valerius Hunter didn’t look like the prince they knew.

There was something... off.

His skin was cold, his hair soaked with sweat, and those red eyes, those unnatural, lifeless red eyes, still haunted them even with his lids now closed.

"What the hell is going on?" Felix muttered, gripping the edge of his seat.

"What was he doing out here? Alone? Like that?" Adrian added.

Magnus didn’t answer. His jaw was tight, and his foot slammed on the accelerator with a force that made the tires screech against the stone path as they peeled away into the night.

It was a wild, chaotic ride back to the academy’s central grounds.

The night had grown colder, darker, almost heavy with dread. Trees blurred past as the car sped down winding roads, headlights slicing through the gloom. The tension in the vehicle was suffocating. Kieran hadn’t stirred once, not a twitch, not a sound. His chest barely moved as he breathed, and whatever strength once radiated from him was gone.

Thorn drove like a man possessed, one hand on the wheel, the other gripping the edge of the seat as if trying to stay grounded. His mind raced faster than the engine.

If something happens to Kieran, the academy will fall.

If something happens to Kieran, the kingdom will burn.

They burst through the iron gates of the Academy Hospital, the car skidding to a sharp halt. In one powerful motion, Magnus flung the door open, yanked Kieran out, and stormed through the hospital’s glass entrance like a tornado.

"Move! Get out of my way!" Thorn roared.

Doctors and nurses turned with startled expressions as the hulking figure of Magnus Thorn barreled in, cradling the limp body of the Lycan prince.

"Clear the damn path!" he bellowed again, voice shaking the walls. "This is the heir to the entire werewolf kingdom!"

Whispers erupted immediately. Someone gasped. A nurse dropped a clipboard.

"This is Prince Kieran Valerius Hunter," Magnus thundered, glaring at the medics frozen in fear. "And something is wrong with him. You will save him. You will find out what the hell is wrong with him, and you will fix it. Do you hear me?"

The staff sprang into motion.

A gurney was rushed forward. Thorn placed Kieran down carefully, watching his face with an unreadable expression as the boy’s head lolled to one side.

The doctors surrounded the prince in seconds. IV lines were prepared. Oxygen masks fastened. Orders shouted across the room as if the very fate of the world depended on that moment.

Because it did.

Adrian and Felix stood just inside the doors, wide-eyed, barely breathing.

"I’ve never seen him like this..." Adrian whispered. "He’s always been.... indestructible."

Magnus Thorn swallowed. "The training he did... it probably broke something inside him."

Magnus turned and walked into the emergency wing after Kieran, leaving Adrian and Felix in the echoing silence of the hospital lobby.

Inside the sterile emergency room, machines beeped steadily, monitoring the vitals of a body that lay unnaturally still.

Prince Kieran Valerius Hunter remained unconscious, his face pale under the dim blue hospital lights. Despite the prince’s status, his condition was baffling. The doctors had tried everything, healing tonics, mind-stimulating herbs, even Lycan blood infusions, but nothing worked.

He wasn’t dying.

He wasn’t even injured.

But he also wasn’t there.

Eventually, the doctors emerged from the room and approached Magnus Thorn, who stood like a looming shadow in the hallway, arms crossed, jaw tight, pacing as though each step could ground his spiraling thoughts.

"Director Thorn," the lead healer said, removing his gloves with a defeated sigh, "we’ve done all we can for now."

Magnus stopped pacing, turning slowly, his eyes sharp and demanding. "And what the hell does that mean?"

"It means," the healer said carefully, "his vitals are stable. His body.... is functioning perfectly. No physical injury. No toxins. No traces of poison or drugs. He is... intact. But mentally...."

The man hesitated.

Magnus’s eyes narrowed. "Say it."

"There’s something wrong with his mind, sir. His consciousness appears to have withdrawn completely. He isn’t in a coma. This is something... deeper. Beyond medical reach. Possibly spiritual. Possibly magical. But certainly psychological."

"So what are you saying? That we wait? That we pray?" Thorn snapped, his voice rising.

The doctor stepped back slightly. "We will observe him overnight. Perhaps by morning he will return on his own. But as of now, there is nothing more we can do. I’m sorry."

With that, the doctors excused themselves quietly, leaving Magnus pacing again, running both hands through his graying hair.

"This is bad," he muttered under his breath. "This is bad... this is worse than I thought..."

Just then, Adrian and Felix approached him from the waiting area, both of them with anxious expressions.

"Sir," Adrian said, voice low. "Don’t you think it’s strange?"

Magnus didn’t stop pacing.

Felix added, "We just uncovered something huge, a cult that once tried to bring down the entire kingdom. And now, suddenly... one of the most powerful Lycan in the Kingdom is down. He didn’t fall in battle, didn’t get poisoned, he just.... collapsed. Doesn’t that sound like more than just a coincidence?"

Magnus stopped pacing. He stared straight ahead for a long beat before slowly turning to face them.

"You boys think yourselves smart, dont you?" he said gruffly

Felix and Adrian glanced at each other.

"But smart," Thorn continued, stepping closer to them, "can get you killed."

Adrian’s jaw clenched, but he didn’t back down. "So you think it’s connected."

Magnus exhaled slowly, eyes glinting in the low light. "It might be connected, or it might not be, no one really knows"

He paused, staring back toward the hospital room where Kieran lay.

"But you" he suddenly turned to both boys, voice sharp as a blad "you will speak nothing of this. To anyone. Not your dorm mates. Not your friends. Not even in whispers. If a single word escapes your lips...."

His eyes gleamed red as his canines subtly lengthened.

"I’ll have your heads. Is that clear?"

Felix and Adrian both nodded, their throats dry.

Magnus’s face relaxed just a fraction, and he gestured for them to go.

"Back to your dorms. Stay out of this from now on."

As they turned to leave, Felix couldn’t help but glance one last time through the hospital window.

Prince Kieran still hadn’t moved.

His chest rose.

His chest fell.

But the prince wasn’t there.

And something else might be waiting to take his place...

The night was quiet, too quiet for Magnus Thorn’s liking.

The air outside the Academy hospital was cool and unnaturally still, like the hush before a violent storm. Magnus stood beneath the pale moonlight with his long coat billowing behind him as he called one of the academy’s most trusted guards, Koa, a quiet, disciplined warrior who had been loyal since the days of the last Lycan war.

"This message," Magnus said lowly, handing him a sealed, black-inked scroll laced with his blood sigil, "is not to be tampered with, not to be delayed, and not to be entrusted to anyone but the King himself."

Koa nodded grimly, eyes flickering briefly with gold. "Yes, Director Thorn."

"Ride through the night. No stops. If anyone asks, you’re on patrol. You’ll tell the Alpha King that the Crimson Hunt is rising again. That their mark has appeared within the Academy walls." Magnus took a step closer, his tone darkening. "Tell him they’re planning a war, and his son might be caught in the middle of it. Tell him... the Lycan Prince is losing the Total Lycan Ascension battle."

Koa didn’t flinch. He nodded once, firm and obedient. "Consider it done."

Without another word, Koa turned, shifted into his sleek black wolf form, and tore through the forest path in a blur, heading toward the Royal Mountains.

Magnus exhaled slowly and rubbed his temple, the weight of the night pressing down like a crushing boulder. Then he turned on his heel and headed back into the hospital.

The corridors were dim and quiet, lit only by the soft pulse of magic, infused lamps. A few nurses passed him and bowed slightly. He didn’t return the gesture. He was already halfway to Kieran’s room, his boots echoing in steady rhythm.

He reached the door. Pushed it open.

And froze.

The bed was... empty

Sheets were still rumpled. The monitors had flatlined, not because of death, but because they were unplugged.

Magnus’s eyes swept the room, and then locked onto the wide, open window.

The curtains fluttered like ghosts in the night wind.

The ground outside was three stories down. But for a Lycan, especially the Lycan Prince, it might as well have been a few steps.

Magnus stepped to the window slowly, eyes narrowing as he scanned the shadows.

"Kieran..." he whispered. His voice was a mixture of concern and..... fear.

Because whatever Kieran had become when he vanished from that bed...

It wasn’t just a boy trying to recover.

It might be a wolf unleashed.

Lorraine’s POV

I don’t remember drifting off.

One minute I was staring at the cracked ceiling of the feral dorm’s common room, the faint moonlight painting jagged lines across the stained walls. The next, I was gone, lost to exhaustion.

My body ached like hell.

Every inch of me throbbed from the brutal sparring match with Astrid. Today had been.... humiliating. I’d landed a single claw across her cheek, just one shallow scratch. And she rewarded me by snapping my right arm and slamming me so hard against the floor that my ribs cracked like dry twigs. She said nothing, just walked off after training, leaving me in a pile of my own sweat and pain.

I’d only made it to the couch by crawling. I hadn’t even changed. My bloodstained shirt stuck to my back, and my bruises pulsed like drums under my skin.

Still, I was proud.

I’d lasted longer. Hit harder. Healed faster.

My wolf stirred deep within me, almost content.

But now.... now something was wrong.

Even in sleep, my senses twitched. My ears perked. My nose flared. Something sharp sliced through the room, a swoosh, too quick, like air splitting. I didn’t even think. My eyes flew open, heart hammering.

And I smelled him.

The scent hit me like wildfire.

That wild forest musk.

The cold, earthy spice of his skin.

The intoxicating storm in his presence.

Kieran.

I shot up from the couch so fast my bruised bones screamed. And there he was.

Standing in the middle of the common room.

Moonlight silhouetted his towering frame. His black coat clung to him like shadows. His hair was damp, disheveled. His eyes....

Oh Moon Goddess... his eyes.

Red. Deep, lifeless, and wrong.

But I didn’t care. I couldn’t stop myself. My heart leapt and so did I. I threw myself at him, arms flinging around his chest, needing to feel that he was real, that he was home, that.....

He didn’t hug me back.

His body was tense. Cold.

And then....

His hand snapped around my throat.

I gasped, legs kicking as he lifted me effortlessly off the ground. My nails clawed at his wrist, but he didn’t flinch. His grip was strong. Too strong.

"Kieran...." I choked out, but then his voice cut through the room like a blade.

"Finally," he said.

It wasn’t his usual voice. It was darker. Rougher. Hollow.

"Finally, I get to fully have you," he growled, eyes boring into mine. "To myself.... alone."

My breath caught. My heart stopped.

This wasn’t just Kieran.

This was something else.

Something unchained.

Something.... dangerous.