The Lunar Crest Academy: Marked by The Lycans
Chapter 29: Blood Costs

Chapter 29: Chapter 29: Blood Costs

I stood there in the middle of the hospital lobby, surrounded by the stench of blood and death, and yet, all I could feel was rage.

"Help us!" I shouted again, my voice hoarse, but not from weakness, from fury. "Please, someone help!"

The nurse didn’t even turn.

She just walked away.

Callum was lying just outside the sliding glass doors, bleeding, pale, barely breathing. Felix was hunched over him, trying to keep pressure on the wound. Elise was leaning against the wall with the girl she was supporting, blood trailing down her arm from a gash on her shoulder, but she hadn’t said a word. None of them had. They were just... waiting. Like they’d already given up.

The nurse had looked us over once, just once, then pulled out her sleek little tablet and said in the driest voice I’d ever heard, "We’ll need two thousand lunars up front to begin treatment. The rest of the bill will be provided to you as care progresses."

Two thousand lunars.

I couldn’t even begin to imagine that kind of money.

"We don’t have that!" I’d told her, my voice rising with panic.

She didn’t blink. "Then I’m sorry. We cannot help you."

And then she walked off.

Just like that.

I stood there now, heart pounding so violently I could hear it in my ears. This couldn’t be real. This couldn’t be how the world worked. I looked around at the pristine white walls, the polished tile floors, the nurses and doctors moving about like robots.

No one met my eyes.

No one cared.

"We’re not asking for a handout," I hissed under my breath. "We’re not begging for luxury. We’re trying to save lives!"

I took a step toward the main counter. Another nurse walked past me, eyes straight ahead like I didn’t even exist.

I slammed my fist on the desk. "LOOK AT ME!"

The sound echoed through the lobby, but still, no one flinched.

No one cared.

My vision blurred with tears—not from sorrow, but frustration so heavy it threatened to crush my lungs

"These people are dying! Do you hear me?! Callum is dying! He stepped in front of me to protect me, and now he’s bleeding out and you can’t even look me in the eye because I don’t have money?!"

A few heads turned this time, but not with sympathy.

With annoyance.

I was disturbing the peace.

I was in the way.

I looked back at the group, at Felix, hunched and trembling but still pressing down on Callum’s shredded shoulder. At the others who had made it with us, bloodied and broken, too tired to even cry out.

The hospital was supposed to be the one place in this godforsaken academy that prioritized life. That’s what they were trained for. That’s what those uniforms stood for. But here? Here, those white coats were nothing but shields for indifference. Tools to protect the powerful and discard the weak.

They wouldn’t help us.

Not unless we could pay.

And we couldn’t.

I swallowed the lump in my throat, turned back to Felix, and forced the tremble out of my voice. "Wait here," I told him. "Keep pressure on his wound. Whatever you do, don’t let him close his eyes."

"Lorraine, where are you going?" Felix asked, his voice cracking.

I didn’t answer.

I couldn’t.

Because if I opened my mouth again, I’d scream, and I couldn’t afford to lose control right now.

I turned and ran.

Out of the hospital.

Down the polished steps.

Into the bright sunlight that burned against my skin, my legs pounding against the pavement as I sprinted through the Academy grounds like a woman possessed.

I didn’t even know exactly where I was going.

But my feet did.

Astrid Voss.

Head of all the Academy operations. The face of every punishment. The hammer behind every law.

She was the one who enforced this system, this cold, merciless, twisted system where lives were bartered like coin.

If anyone could override the hospital’s policy... it was her.

Then I would have to get her to help us

Because I wasn’t going toblet Callum die.

Not like this.

Not after everything he did.

Not while I still had breath in my body.

I didn’t even remember racing through the halls. My feet pounded against the cold marble, lungs burning as I ran, every pulse in my body screaming one name, Astrid Voss.

The moment I reached the Administrative Wing, I didn’t pause to think, didn’t knock, I slammed the door open. The wood cracked against the wall, the echo sharp and jarring in the silence of her pristine office.

Astrid Voss looked up from her paperwork slowly, like I was nothing more than an irritating stain she couldn’t quite scrub off. Her eyes narrowed, cold and venomous.

"Lorraine Anderson," she said icily. "If you ever barge into my office without knocking again, I swear on the Moon Goddess, that will be the last door you ever walk through in this academy."

I was shaking, panting, but I didn’t flinch. "We need help. The ferals are dying. Bleeding out on your hospital floor and your staff won’t even look at them without a deposit."

She leaned back in her chair with a slow, deliberate motion, like I was boring her. "Then pay. The rules are clear, every student is responsible for their own medical bills. You were all told this on your first day."

"I don’t have any lunars!" I shouted. "We barely survive as it is. They’re hurt, Callum is hurt, his arm is gone. He’s barely breathing. And you’re standing here telling me the rules?"

Astrid tilted her head. "If you knew you couldn’t pay for treatment, perhaps you should’ve considered that before leading a rebellion." Her lips curled into a small, mocking smile. "Actions have consequences, Miss Anderson."

"Consequences?" My voice cracked. "You think this is about consequences? We were attacked, slaughtered! And you’re sitting behind this desk like it’s just a regular day at the academy!"

She rose from her seat slowly, towering with authority and venom. "It is a regular day. You ferals step out of line, and you pay the price. No one forced you into protest. You want to be martyrs? Fine. But don’t come crying when the world shows you how little it cares."

I was trembling now, not from fear, but rage. Despair. My throat felt tight. "So that’s it? That’s your final answer?"

"You can leave now," she said, already turning back to her papers. "I have works that require my attention."

I stood there a moment longer, waiting. Hoping. Begging that maybe she’d change her mind, even just slightly. That maybe, deep beneath the ice that coated her soul, there was a sliver of decency. But there was nothing. Just silence and the sound of pen scratching paper.

I turned and walked out.

Each step away from her door felt heavier than the last. I had no lunars. No medical support. No power. My hands were shaking, my heart breaking, my thoughts spinning with panic.

Callum was dying. Elise. Felix. The others, ferals who had dared to believe in something, in me.

I had led them out there. I had asked them to stand. I had told them we would be heard.

But the academy hadn’t listened. Astrid hadn’t listened.

And now, my last hope, the only person who might still be able to help me, was him.

Kieran Valerius Hunter.

The Lycan prince. _{f\r(e)ewe.b no\vel.com}

The same one who challenged me to bring the ferals together. The one who watched our protest in silence. Who came only to turn and walk away.

I didn’t want to see him. I didn’t want to beg him. But I had no choice now.

Not if I wanted to save what little I had left.