The Lunar Crest Academy: Marked by The Lycans
Chapter 140: The Deal That Was Made

Chapter 140: Chapter 140: The Deal That Was Made

Kieran’s POV

Astrid had mentioned bringing my mother to the fight, that made me really furious

I didn’t wait. I didn’t think.

I punched the code panel beside the underground exit, and when it blinked red, denying access, I let fury take over. My fist collided with the reinforced metal door, and the entire wall groaned with the impact. Again. And again. Until the thick steel gave way, until the air of the woods hit my face like a slap.

But it didn’t calm me.

It only made me angrier. I stepped outside, breathing hard, the scent of earth and pine clawing at my nose. The woods were still, but my mind...m my mind was a battlefield.

I wasn’t angry at Astrid.

I wasn’t angry at Adrian.

I wasn’t even angry at Aveline.

I was angry at myself.

I was too weak.

Too damn weak.

And now.... now my father was dead.

Gone.

And the shame of it clung to my skin like a curse. The Alpha King, the strongest Lycan in the world, brought down by a mind controller while I stood here, breathing like I even deserved to.

And now they want to bring my mother into this.

My mother.

I clenched my fists so tightly, my claws sliced into my palms.

They had no idea. None of them did.

I loved my mother more than life itself. Always had. But they didn’t know what it meant to bring her into this war.

When I was a kid, I used to think she was weak. She looked it, her steps were always slow, her gaze distant, her voice low like it couldn’t rise above a whisper. Compared to my father, she seemed like a shadow in the background. A quiet ghost. And I hated him for that. I thought.... I thought he was the reason she was like that.

Then one night, one awful night, I caught him in the royal quarters. My mother was asleep in their bed, and he was injecting something into her veins. I’d never seen him move so carefully before, like he was handling a bomb.

I was so full of rage.

I stormed in, screaming, What the hell are you doing to her?

He didn’t even flinch. Just turned and said, "Go back to bed, Kieran."

Of course, I didn’t. I fought him that night. And I lost, brutally

The next day, my mother called me into her chambers, and I expected lies. Excuses. Anything to cover for him. Cause that was what she always does.

But she didn’t lie.

She told me the truth.

She was born a ghosthound.

Not a werewolf. Not a Lycan. Something else entirely. Something darker. Something ancient and cursed.

"A ghosthound is a demonic creature," she’d said, her voice steady despite the storm behind her eyes. "Not born from moonlight, but from blood. With a hunger that never fades. A body of steel. A soul torn between power and ruin."

I remember sitting on the floor, listening with wide eyes.

She told me that when it comes to raw power, strength, and speed, no creature rivals a ghosthound. Not even the Lycans.

And for a moment, I thought it was cool.

Born that strong? Without having to train? Without having to bleed and sweat and shatter bones to get there?

What a gift, I’d thought.

But then she looked at me with this broken smile.

"It’s not a gift," she said. "It’s a curse. Because every day I wake up with the hunger. This ache inside me to rip and tear. And when I lose control, I can’t tell friend from enemy. I can’t tell my son from a threat."

That was why they used the wolfsbane.

It wasn’t my father poisoning her.

It was her choice.

The wolfsbane dulled her senses. Weakened her enough to stay lucid. Enough to choose not to kill.

That night, after she told me what she was... I couldn’t look at either of them the same way again.

My mother, the soft spoken Luna who always lookrd like the world weighed too heavily on her shoulders, was the most dangerous creature alive.

And my father, the brutal, cold, untouchable Lycan King?

He was the only one strong enough to love her through it.

I gained a new kind of respect for him that night.

It was strange, how the same man who had trained me to the brink of collapse, who pushed me to break and bleed and rise again, had also spent every single night sleeping beside someone he knew could kill him in seconds.... and yet never once flinched.

He didn’t fear her.

He protected her, from others, abd from herself.

He loved her in the way only a monster could be loved.

He did what had to be done, even when it looked cruel. Even when I didn’t understand. That’s what power is, restraint. That’s what leadership is, sacrifice.

But as time passed.... she started changing.

The wolfsbane was losing its grip on her. Her body was adapting, developing a resistance. It didn’t knock her out the way it used to.

She started slipping.

First, it was the livestock. One day the entire royal pen was torn apart, blood everywhere, animals ripped to shreds. I still remember the stench.

She stood outside in the field, shaking, barefoot and crying, soaked in blood she didn’t even realize wasn’t hers.

My father covered it up. Told the kingdom it was some strange outbreak. But I saw it in his eyes, that quiet, flickering panic.

We upped her dosage. At first it helped, slowed her down, kept her asleep longer. But eventually, even that wasn’t enough.

The only way left was to keep her unconscious indefinitely, pump so much wolfsbane through her veins that she’d remain locked inside her own mind, trapped in sleep just to keep everyone else alive.

And that’s what she is now.

Right now, my mother lies in a hidden room beneath the royal castle.

Asleep.

Unmoving.

Wolfsbane vines wrapped like wires into her skin, feeding her a constant drip just to keep the world safe.

She is not just any ghosthound.

She’s the ghosthound. Fast. Brutal. Ravenous. A predator without pause. A creature born of old blood and wrath.

And Astrid, she wants to wake her up?

No. I can’t let that happen.

Because if my mother wakes up and that bloodlust takes over....

She won’t just tear through Adrian. She’ll tear through all of us. Through me. Through Lorraine.

I had made up my mind.

They were all mad. Astrid, Magnus, everyone, for thinking there was any scenario where waking her up was the solution. My mother was not a sword to be unsheathed. She was a catastrophe. And if she woke.... the world wouldn’t survive it.

So I walked.

I walked away from the underground, from the hideout, from whatever sense of logic they were trying to build in that tomb of a bunker.

I was going back.

Back into the academy.

Back into the war.

Back to kill Adrian and Aveline with my own two hands.

No more planning. No more debates. No more waiting.

I would sneak in. I would rip their throats out. I would end it.

Even if it killed me.

I was halfway across the clearing, past the trees, past the thick veil of leaves and wild grass when it hit me.....

A deafening roar exploded inside my head.

It felt like my skull was cracking open, like lightning had slammed through my spine. My legs gave out. The world tilted.

And I fell hard.

Darkness swallowed me whole.

And when I opened my eyes again, I wasn’t in the woods.

I was back in the abyss.

Pitch black nothingness.

And there he was again.

Him.

My wolf. The other me. The one made of rage and power and raw instinct. The powerful part of me that was caged

He stepped forward, his eyes blazing red and his voice booming like thunder.

"You are a fool, Kieran," he snarled. "A damned fool."

I clenched my jaw but said nothing.

He kept coming, circling me like I was prey. "You think you can just walk back into that academy? That you can single-handedly face Adrian, Aveline, and an entire army of Crimson Hunt loyalists who would bleed the ground dry for them?"

I still said nothing.

"You won’t survive. You know you won’t survive."

He stopped in front of me, his face inches from mine.

"And yet you still march toward your death like a stubborn little cub."

I bit my tongue. Because I knew he was right.

I knew.

I wasn’t strong enough. Not yet.

I couldn’t protect Lorraine.

I couldn’t protect anyone

And I couldn’t even avenge my father.

Not like this.

But I couldn’t let them wake her either. My mother. The only real danger worse than Adrian. The only one strong enough to level the world, and fragile enough to be broken by it.

So what choice did I have?

None.

There was only one option left.

I looked up at him.

Straight into my own red-glowing eyes.

"Alright," I said, the words like ash on my tongue. "I’ll do it."

He tilted his head.

"I’ll give you what you want," I said slowly. "I’ll give her up."

His eyes flared brighter.

"I cant continue to hold back. Merge with me," I said, voice hard. "Let’s end this. Let’s ascend fully. The Total Lycan Ascension. You and me, no more walls."

My wolf stilled.

For the first time... he smiled.

"You’ll give up on Lorraine?" he asked, as if testing me one last time.

A lump caught in my throat. My fists clenched.

"She’s not mine to protect anymore. She is strong enough to protect herself now"

He studied me.

Then, with a slow, haunting grin, he nodded.

"So be it"