The Lunar Crest Academy: Marked by The Lycans
Chapter 70: The Prince Kneels

Chapter 70: Chapter 70: The Prince Kneels

Lorraine’s POV

"No!" I screamed as the hoses turned, six of them, aiming directly at Kieran.

I tried to run in, to throw myself in front of him, but I couldn’t move fast enough.

The hiss came first.

Then the stream.

A clear, sizzling liquid burst from the hoses and struck him square in the chest, the arms, the face. Instantly, his skin began to smoke and blister. I watched in horror as patches of it burned open, raw, red flesh exposed beneath.

But Kieran didn’t fall.

He didn’t even flinch.

He kept walking.

Step by step.

Through it.

His uniform was already ruined, torn and clinging to the meat of him like melted plastic, but still, he moved forward, eyes locked on the warriors like a predator sizing up prey.

And then....

He lunged.

The first guard didn’t even see him coming. One moment he was holding the hose, the next his chest was split open, ribs cracked apart by claws so sharp they gleamed through the blood.

The second tried to turn away.

Kieran caught him by the neck, crushed it with one hand, then drove his claws straight through his gut, ripping upwards.

He moved like death given form, brutal, merciless.

Even as more of the burning wolfsbane soaked him, even as the skin on his arms peeled and hissed and sloughed off in shreds, he didn’t stop.

Every step left bloody prints in his wake.

Every scream from the guards echoed with terror

By the time the last one fell, Kieran was still standing, shoulders heaving.

His skin was a map of raw, red agony, patches burned nearly to the muscle, his claws still dripping with blood.

But he stood.

Slowly.

Steadily.

His breathing calmed, his back straightened, and before my very eyes, his wounds began to close.

The peeling flesh knit back together.

The blisters vanished.

His bloodied skin turned smoother—new skin blooming like fire reborn.

He looked like a fallen god rising from hellfire.

Power.

Fury.

Survival.

And all I could do was stand frozen at the edge of the doorway, trembling.

He had saved them.

He had burned to save them.

I watched Kieran, the bloodied prince of Lycans, walk toward the podium with steady, deliberate steps. Every inch of him radiated power. His eyes glowed crimson, savage and unrelenting. He stood like a god among mortals.

His voice rang out like a death toll.

"I heard you came to avenge your daughter’s death," he said, low and cold. "So tell me, Alpha, are you going to fight me yourself now, or will I have to kill through every one of your cowards to get to you?"

Alpha Ashthorne stood tall, flanked by his men, but I saw the twitch in his jaw. He was sizing Kieran up, and realizing that whatever this was, it was not the boy he had once known.

Then, to my surprise, the Alpha chuckled.

"You’re still as prideful and confident as the last time I saw you," he said with a wide, nostalgic grin. "You were just a boy then. With just a sharp teeth and no real bite."

He stepped down from the podium slowly, almost casually, the gold buttons of his coat catching the flickering light. Without breaking eye contact, he unfastened his jacket and peeled it off, then tugged his shirt over his head. The muscles beneath were ripped and hard

He tossed the shirt aside.

"Shall we, my prince?"

Kieran didn’t answer. He just moved.

They collided like two forces of nature. The sound was sickening, bone and flesh and claw crashing against each other with prim.al fury. The ground quaked beneath their feet.

It was war in motion.

I couldn’t look away.

They were fast, too fast for my eyes to follow. Claws flashed, fists blurred, bodies twisted midair. They slammed into walls, broke floor tiles, shattered the remnants of the auditorium’s stage.

Kieran ducked, spun, slammed his fist into Ashthorne’s ribs. The Alpha grunted and retaliated with a knee to Kieran’s side. Kieran staggered but didn’t fall, he spun back with a vicious hook to the Alpha’s jaw.

At first, they seemed matched, Ashthorne, the seasoned warrior, with years of battle under his belt, and Kieran, the storm that had never been leashed.

But slowly.... the balance began to tip.

Kieran’s strikes became faster. Cleaner. More brutal. _{free\we,bnovel.c o(m)}

He stopped blocking.

He started attacking more

Ashthorne swung wildly, and Kieran caught his wrist mid-air, then twisted it with a snap. Tge Alpha growled in pain, but Kieran didn’t give him time to recover. A punch to the stomach. A claw to the chest. A swift, calculated elbow to the face that cracked something deep and vital.

Blood sprayed across the floor.

I gasped, hands trembling.

Kieran wasn’t holding back anymore.

Ashthorne staggered, clutching his side, breathing hard now. His earlier arrogance was gone, washed away in the flood of pain.

Kieran didn’t slow.

He surged forward and delivered a blow that sent the Alpha sprawling across the ground, skidding through broken tiles and blood.

And still, Kieran walked.

Not rushed.

Not winded.

Just terrifyingly calm.

Ashthorne coughed, red spilling from his mouth, and slowly pushed himself up to his knees.

His eyes met Kieran’s.

There was no amusement in them now.

Just fear.

Real, raw, bone-deep fear.

But Kieran didn’t look like he was done, as he moved closer to him

I wanted to move, to run to him, to stop him.

But before I could take a step more...

Suddenly, I felt it, a sharp, searing pain on the side of my neck.

My breath caught.

Sharp claws. Cold, precise, and deadly. They pressed against my meck, my carotid, ready to slice.

"Move a muscle and that will be the end of you," came a smooth, menacing voice from behind me.

Alistaire.

My entire body froze. My heart thundered so violently, I was sure he could hear it. My limbs trembled with the effort not to jerk away from the icy pressure on my throat. I didn’t dare swallow.

"Enough!!" Alistaire bellowed.

His voice rang rang across the blood-soaked auditorium like a gunshot. And Kieran, Kieran stopped.

He turned.

And the moment his eyes landed on me, they widened. Just a little. But I saw it.

The flicker of something close to fear.

Not for himself. For me.

"Don’t even think about moving, Kieran," Alistaire warned, his voice now calm, calm and chilling. "No matter how fast you are, I’m sure my claw can slash her carotid faster."

I felt the claw press in just slightly, enough for a sharp sting to bloom, followed by a trickle of warm blood sliding down my throat. My skin burned.

"What do you want me to do?" Kieran asked, his voice low, dark.

"Kneel," Alistaire said simply.

Kieran didn’t move. His eyes locked on mine. Fury and something else, something raw and terrifying, boiled just beneath the surface of his expression.

"The Lycan prince kneels for no one," he said through clenched teeth.

I flinched as Alistaire’s claw pushed in deeper. More blood. My knees nearly buckled.

"I won’t repeat myself, Kieran," Alistaire said, his tone still maddeningly composed. "Kneel before me"

And then, Kieran moved.

Slowly. Deliberately.

He bent his knee. Then the other. His body lowered until he was kneeling, but his posture didn’t shrink. He looked like a storm crouching.

Even kneeling, he looked like a god of war.

And for a split second, I forgot the claw at my neck.

Because Kieran had just surrendered, for me.

And before I could even process that.....

"No!"

I screamed as Alpha Ashthorne, who had been still just moments ago, suddenly lunged up from the ground. In one fluid motion, he grabbed a silver sword that had fallen near the podium and plunged it straight into Kieran’s back.

The sound.

The wet, horrible sound of silver meeting flesh.

Kieran’s body arched as the blade sank deep. A gasp tore from his lips, but he didn’t scream.

Blood spilled from his mouth.

My heart stopped.

"Kieran!" I screamed.

Time shattered around me.

Pain, hot and unbearable, exploded in my chest, like something had cracked open inside me. It wasn’t just grief or fear. It was rage. Sacred, molten rage.

A scream tore fro.m my throat. But it wasn’t just a scream. It was power

Raw power

The air around me twisted violently. The ground rumbled. Wind roared.

And then it happened.

A surge of energy burst from my body like a shockwave.

Everyone was thrown.

Alistaire went flying like a broken toy, slam.ming into a far wall with a loud, satisfying crack. Alpha Ashthorne was hurled backwards, crashing through shattered seats in the auditorium.

The entire auditorium trembled under the weight of something..... something in me.

The moment Kieran fell, I rose.

And in that sacred silence that followed, I heard it.

A voice. Not mine. But.... Mine

For the first time in my life, I heard my wolf’s voice

"Lorraine." It called.