The Lunar Crest Academy: Marked by The Lycans
Chapter 132: Fractures of the Crown

Chapter 132: Chapter 132: Fractures of the Crown

Lorraine’s POV

"Kieran!!!"

My scream tore through the crumbling air as the sound of his body smashing against the wall roared in my ears. The entire side of the building cracked... collapsed, bricks and stone falling like thunder. Dust flew up in thick choking clouds.

I didn’t think. I ran.

But before I could reach him, the Ghosthound turned toward me. Her hair swayed in wild sheets of blonde, her eyes silver-bright and terrifying. She stepped forward, her hand rising.

My body tensed, my wolf howled in my chest, but Adrian reached out and caught her wrist midair.

"It’s okay for now, Aveline," he said, calm as if this wasn’t all falling apart. "Let’s go."

He turned to me then, his eyes gleaming, a twisted mockery of the friend I once knew.

"You’re not even ready for what’s coming, Lorraine," he said. "But when you are... if you ever feel like switching sides... you know you’re always welcome with me."

Then he and the Ghosthound were gone, vanished in a streak of wind and silence.

I stood frozen for a second, heart pounding, then turned and stumbled toward the broken heap of rubble where Kieran had fallen.

"Kieran...." I whispered, kneeling beside him.

He hadn’t moved.

He was half-buried in debris, his shirt torn, crimson trailing down the side of his face like a single broken tear. His body was bruised, battered, but it was his eyes that scared me most.

They weren’t even looking at me.

They were glassy. Empty. Fixed on something far away, like his mind had fled and left his body behind.

I reached out, gently brushing my fingers over his jaw. "Kieran, hey.... hey, it’s me."

There was no response.

His chest rose and fell slowly. Painfully.

And then, his voice. It was low, hollow.

"Go."

I blinked. "What?"

"I want to be alone."

"No," I whispered, shaking my head, my throat tightening. "You don’t get to push me away like this. Not now. Not after...."

"Leave!!!"

His voice exploded out of him, vicious and unhinged.

I flinched back as if he’d slapped me.

And the worst part wasn’t that he yelled, it was how broken he looked as he did. How his voice cracked. How his fists trembled in the rubble. How the red in his eyes dulled to something hollow.

That was the first time he’d ever raised his voice at me.

And I’d never seen him this destroyed.

The Alpha King..... his father, was dead. His closest servant turned a betrayer. His own body, thrown like a ragdoll. His pain split open for the world to see.

My chest ached as the tears rose.

I wanted to fight. To stay. But his eyes begged me. Not with anger.... but with that awful, deep despair.

So I rose. Slowly. My heart bruised in ways I didn’t know it could be.

"Okay," I said, my voice a whisper

And I turned, each step heavier than the last, the sound of broken stone crunching beneath my feet.

Behind me... he didn’t move.

He just watched as I walked out

But I didn’t get far.

Just a few steps to the door and I stopped as the weight of his words settled fully in my chest

Leave.

Go.

I knew he didn’t mean it.

Not really.

He was just hurting.

And I’d be damned if I let him face that kind of pain alone.

I turned.

Kieran was still there, exactly where I’d left him, half-buried in debris, hunched, silent. His head was lowered, the mess of raven long hair falling over his face like a veil of grief. His knuckles were scraped. His entire body was coiled with a quiet, dangerous stillness.

I walked back.

Without a word, I knelt beside him again and slowly lowered myself to the floor. The broken stone was cold beneath me, but not as cold as the air that clung to him.

"I’m not going," I said quietly. "You can scream at me. You can growl, threaten, command.... I’m definitely not leaving you like this."

He didn’t respond. His eyes didn’t even shift toward me.

But I saw the tremor in his fingers.

His wounds had already healed, but he was still bleeding from within

"I know what it feels like, Kieran," I whispered, voice steady despite the lump in my throat. "To lose everything. To feel like the world is standing on your chest and you can’t breathe."

"My family... they were framed. Slaughtered. And I could do nothing. They dragged me through the mud, beat me, treated me like I was a disease, an abomination given birth to by traitors"

I paused, blinking past the burn of tears. "I still remember the sound of the claws and swprds slashing as the cut through my parents. And I remember the silence afterward. The kind that makes you wonder if your heartbeat is too loud."

"So I know what it feels like to be ripped apart, Kieran. I know how unfair and cruel this whole damn world can be. I know what it feels like to lose everything and still have to keep going."

Slowly, I reached for him again, this time laying my hand over his, warm against bloodied knuckles.

"You just lost your father. And maybe you had your differences. Maybe he wasn’t perfect. But he was still your father. And he was still yours. That kind of grief.... it carves deep."

Still, he didn’t speak. Didn’t move.

But I refused to give up.

"I don’t care what you say, I’m staying," I said, shifting closer until my shoulder touched his. "You’ve saved me more times than I can count. You’ve pulled me back from the edge. Now it’s my turn to sit with you on the ledge and hold your hand so you don’t fall."

And then, without thinking, I moved closer, sliding past the broken stones, and wrapped my arms around him.

He didn’t hug me back.

But he didn’t push me away either.

I could feel the tension in his body, the way he was fighting the crack in his composure with everything he had. He was breaking. I could feel it in the way his breath shuddered against my shoulder, the way his fingers twitched like he wanted to hold on, but didn’t know how.

So I held him tighter.

"I’m right here," I whispered.

"You’re not alone."

*******

The air in the academy had changed to something darker.

A dark, bone-deep stillness rolled through the corridors like a silent storm cloud. It wasn’t loud. It didn’t scream. But it warned. Every student who caught sight of them that day, Adrian Vale and the girl at his side with tangled blonde hair and unreadable silver eyes, felt the shift.

They weren’t just walking.

They were claiming.

Adrian’s posture was effortless, hands tucked in the pockets of his uniform coat, his expression unreadable, calm, precise, cold. But it was the girl beside him that made the world pause. Aveline Vale. The Ghosthound. Her presence was unnatural, the air around her humming with suppressed power, as though the very walls of the academy flinched in her wake.

No one dared to breathe too loudly as they passed.

No one dared to speak.

Students instinctively pressed themselves to the walls, staring and holding their breath as the duo swept past, a slow trail of unease left behind in their path.

They went straight to the Administrative Block.

The marble halls echoed with their synchronized steps until they reached the tall glass doors of the Announcement Room, the heart of academy-wide communications. Without hesitation, Adrian pushed the doors open amd they entered like they owned the place

Inside, several staff members were seated at control panels, working through messages and reports.

"Hey, you can’t be in here, this room is for directors only," one of them said, turning sharply in his chair. "Where’s your clearance...?"

Adrian didn’t spare them a glance as he locked the door behind them locked with a soft finality.

Then he looked at his sister.

"Go ahead," he said calmly, like he was asking her to pass the salt at dinner.

Aveline turned her head, a ghost of a smile tugging at the corner of her lips.

And then....

Her eyes flashed silver.

Before a single staff member could reach for a weapon or an alarm, the room erupted in chaos.

A blur of motion. A flash of light. A sudden scream that was cut off midway.

Blood painted the floor.

One second, a man was trying to stand, the next, his body was thrown against the wall, head twisted at a brutal angle. Another was bisected cleanly at the waist, his scream not even fully formed before silence consumed him. Fingers, limbs, torsos, none of them stood a chance.

Aveline moved like a possessed storm.

Silent. Efficient. Merciless.

By the time she stopped, blood dripped from her fingers and pooled beneath her bare feet. Her hair fell back into place over her eyes as if none of it had happened. She didn’t even seem winded.

Adrian stepped casually over one of the bodies, brushing a speck of blood off his collar.

He moved to the console, flipping a switch.

A loud, echoing siren tore through the academy like a scream. Students everywhere froze. Heads turned. Hearts skipped.

Then Adrian’s voice echoed from every speaker in the academy:

"To every student and staff of Lunar Crest Academy... report to the auditorium. Immediately. You don’t want to miss what comes next."