The Lunar Crest Academy: Marked by The Lycans
Chapter 131: The Boy Who Wore the Mask

Chapter 131: Chapter 131: The Boy Who Wore the Mask

Lorraine’s POV

I stood frozen, my feet rooted to the ground, my heart hammering like a warning drum in my chest.

The Ghosthound, this terrifying girl with haunting eyes and hair like a tangled veil of grief. had just lunged into Adrian’s arms. And he.... he hadn’t flinched. He hadn’t pushed her away.

He held her.

Even Kieran noticed. His clawed fingers slackened, and Thorin fell to the floor with a thud, gasping for air and clutching his bruised throat.

My eyes flicked between all three of them, Adrian, the Ghosthound, Thorin, trying to piece it together, trying to make sense of something that made no sense at all.

"What the hell is going on?" I whispered. My voice barely made it past my throat.

Adrian gently pulled away from the Ghosthound, Aveline, he’d called her. His hand rested on her shoulder with a tenderness I had never seen from him before.

Then he looked at me.

His smile was faint, but it wasn’t warm. It was sad, like he was disappointed.

"You weren’t supposed to find out this early," he said. "This wasn’t part of my plan."

I felt the words like a slap.

Plan?

"What plam?" I asked, my voice rising. "Adrian, what the hell are you talking about?!"

Kieran immediately stepped in front of me, his body tense, the glow in his eyes reigniting like a flame

"It’s him," Kieran growled. "He’s the one. The mind controller. The mastermind behind everything. He’s the one who spelled Elise. He’s the one behind the Crimson Hunt."

"No." I shook my head violently. "No. No, you’re wrong. You’re wrong. This is Adrian. Adrian. He’s my.... he was our.... he.... he helped us! He helped me! He stood by me when no one else did!"

Adrian laughed.

And it wasn’t the kind of laugh that came from amusement. It was something darker. It was mocking. It was real.

"Oh, Lorraine." He tilted his head slightly, grinning now. "I’m so proud to hear you say that. Truly. It means I played my charade well. So well."

He clapped his hands slowly, theatrically.

"Kudos to me, you know? I mean, do you know how exhausting it was to constantly pretend I cared? To keep smiling through all your little feral sob-stories? To act like your endless whining and sad little speeches meant anything to me?"

My stomach twisted. My breath caught in my throat.

"And Aveline?" he continued, gesturing toward the Ghosthound now standing silently beside him. "She is my sister. My blood. I didn’t get you to free her just for fun Lorraine. She’s my weapon. The ace. The final nail."

He stepped closer, and Kieran immediately blocked him from getting any nearer to me.

"But I have to admit," Adrian added, smirking. "I did grow fond of you, Lorraine. At least the version of you I created in my head, the perfect, naive little puppet who really believed we were friends."

I wanted to speak.

I wanted to scream.

I wanted to rip his lying mouth off his smug face.

But all I could do was stand there, everything in me unraveling at once.

"You’re lying," I said quietly, even though I already knew deep down... he wasn’t.

Adrian’s smile twisted, sharp as a blade. "I wish I was."

"Why..." I whispered again, my voice hollow, barely making it past my lips. "Why are you doing this?"

I couldn’t understand. My brain refused to stitch the pieces together. The Adrian standing before me was a complete stranger, yet I knew him. Or thought I did.

He’d eaten with us.

Laughed with us.

Fought beside us.

He was our friend.

"You were friends with Elise," I said shakily, as my hands trembled at my sides. "You... how could you do that to her? How could you let her suffer like that?"

His smirk twitched at the edges, but he didn’t look guilty. If anything, he looked.... tired....bored.

"I didn’t hurt Elise," he said. "Not directly. But yes... I allowed certain things to happen."

"But she was your friend!"

"And Aveline is my sister," he shot back sharply, his voice cracking for the first time. "And I’ve watched her rot in that cage while everyone in this gods-forsaken school walked around like nothing was wrong."

I stared at the blonde girl, Aveline, the Ghosthound. She stood silently behind him now, gaze hollow, her long hair veiling half her face like a phantom’s curtain.

"But you told me..." My throat dried. "You told me she was dead. That the Alpha King had her killed for spilling soup on Kieran’s shoes during a royal visit. You said... that was why you hated Kieran."

Adrian chuckled, slow and sharp.

"Well," he said with an exaggerated shrug, "I didn’t exactly lie, now did I?"

His eyes glittered with something vicious, something unhinged.

"For one, I do really hate Kieran," he spat. "So that part? That was true. In fact, that was the main reason I approached you, Lorraine. From the very beginning."

My chest tightened.

"What?"

Adrian smiled again. "I’ve been watching the Lycan prince for a long time. Always so controlled. So unreadable. He doesn’t react to anything. Always that calm, royal ice-mask on his face."

He stepped closer now, his voice quieter. "But then you showed up. And you, you riled him up. You made him react. Rage. Care. Love. You made him show all that. So I thought, ah, she’s the key. If I can’t read Kieran directly, maybe I can read him... through you."

I swallowed hard, bile rising in my throat.

"So I made friends with you," he said, as casually as someone reciting a grocery list. "Played the loyal noble. I was so convincing, wasn’t I?"

He tilted his head and stared at me, his tone softening for a fleeting second.

"But somewhere along the line.... I started to like you."

He looked down and shook his head with a bitter laugh.

"It was flimsy. Weak. But it was there. Something in the way you kept fighting even when everything broke you. I... admired it. I admired you. So yes, Lorraine, my feelings were genuine. For a little while."

My voice cracked.

"Then why?"

"Because you couldn’t see anyone but him," Adrian hissed, the venom returning to his voice. "You kept choosing him. Over and over. No matter how I stood beside you, no matter how much blood I spilled for you, you kept going back to Kieran Valerius Hunter."

He stepped back with a bitter, twisted smile.

"So I gave up. Without even trying. I walked away from those feelings and went back to what I was always meant to do. Burn this academy. Bring down the Lycans. And save my sister."

I stood there, throat closed, heart shattered. The boy I had trusted, confided in, leaned on, he had been watching me. Using me. Manipulating me.

Kieran hadn’t said a word. His jaw was locked tight, his hands clenched at his sides, but the fury in his eyes was uncontainable.

Adrian looked between us both.

"And the tragic part of all this?" he said. "You still don’t understand how deep this game goes. What we’re standing on isn’t just cracked ground. It’s a buried empire of blood, manipulation, and lies."

His gaze darkened.

"And I’m going to burn it all to the ground."

"What is your motive, Adrian?" My voice trembled, but I didn’t care. "Why? Why all this?"

He looked at me, really looked at me, like I was a child trying to make sense of the dark. And then his gaze dropped, his fists clenched, and for the first time, I saw something real behind the madness.

"Hate," he said. "That’s my motive."

His voice was a low snarl, every word sharp with years of buried pain.

"They killed my mother. And they took my sister away. Locked her in a dark room. Strapped her to a hospital bed. Stabbed her with needles. Monitored her like she was some cursed experiment, like she wasn’t even human. The Ghosthound. That’s what they called her. But she was just Aveline. Just a scared little girl who cried when they snatched her away from her family."

My heart broke as he spoke, but I couldn’t let myself forget everything he’d done.

"They said she was dangerous. Unsafe. That keeping her caged was for our safety. But what about her safety?" His voice cracked, his jaw clenched. "They stripped her of everything. And my mother... she couldn’t bear it. She died slowly. From grief. From heartbreak."

He turned to me then, voice hollow.

"I was left alone. Useless. I didn’t even know what to do with my own pain."

He paused. And then his voice changed, low, dark, laced with something unholy.

"That was when he found me. The leader of the Crimson Hunt. He took me in. No judgment. No rules. He trained me. Gave me purpose. Promised me revenge. And told me we’d get my sister back. No matter what."

The room was dead silent.

"I came here for her, Lorraine. But I didn’t know where they were keeping her. No record. No whisper. It was like she didn’t exist anymore."

He gave me a look then. Cold and twisted and almost grateful.

"But then you came. Stubborn. Loud. And powerful. So I decided to use you in the end"

The words hit me like ice.

"I got to Alistair Ashthorne. Slipped into his mind. Planted a crimson knife in his locker. Told him to call my name when they tortured him. Cause I knew if I got arrested, you’d come running. I knew if I told you to find the Ghosthound, you’d rip apart the academy just to save me. And you did. You found her."

His smile returned. Hollow and wild.

"Thank you, Lorraine. Really."

I couldn’t speak.

The betrayal was too thick in my throat.

But Kieran’s growl cut through the tension like thunder.

He stepped forward, crimson fire burning behind his eyes.

"One more question," he said, his voice low and deadly. "Was it you?"

Adrian tilted his head. "Come again?"

Kieran’s voice shook with restrained fury. "Did you get to the Alpha King? When he visited the academy... did you use your mind-controlling filth on him? Did you force my father to...." He stopped himself, breathing heavily. "....to kill himself?"

I gasped.

The Alpha King is... dead?

Adrian didn’t even blink. "He needed to go."

"What?" I choked.

"We’re reshaping the kingdom, Lorraine," he said casually. "No more Lycan kings. That era is over. The Crimson Hunt has already begun its purge. This world is ours now. And your royal daddy?" He chuckled. "He wass weaker than I expected."

Kieran’s eyes went completely red.

The floor beneath us cracked.

And then he was gone, superspeeding toward Adrian with a roar that shook the walls.

But before he could even lay a finger on him

"Brother!!!"

Aveline.... no, the Ghosthound.... moved.

One second she was behind Adrian, the next she was between them, eyes glowing with eerie silver light. She screamed.

A sound like no other.

The shockwave hit Kieran mid-run, sending him flying back with more force than he had charged. His body slammed into the far wall with a sickening crash, dust and stone exploding around him.

"Kieran!!!"