The Lunar Crest Academy: Marked by The Lycans
Chapter 78: The Storm We Can’t Escape

Chapter 78: Chapter 78: The Storm We Can’t Escape

Lorraine’s POV

Everything happened so fast.

One second I was being dragged like a lifeless sack across the dirt, every bruise on my body throbbing with each pull, and the next, a gust of wind hit the clearing like a storm. Desmond grunted and flung me aside. I hit the ground hard, the breath knocked from my lungs as the world spun around me.

Then came the footsteps.

Heavy. Commanding.

And when I looked up, I saw him.

The Alpha King.

He looked like a more ruthless, more godlike version of Kieran. Taller. Sharper. Like a god that has lived longer than he lets on yet untouched by weakness. His presence was suffocating, like the weight of a thousand wolves pressed down on my chest. His silver-streaked hair was swept back like a crown of winter, his glowing crimson eyes brimming with power so ancient, so terrifying, it turned my blood cold.

He wasn’t just a ruler.

He was an apex predator made flesh.

My body trembled, not from fear of him, but from what his arrival meant. Something had shifted. This wasn’t a rescue. This was a reckoning.

And yet, even as his cold gaze swept across the clearing, even as his soldiers stood like immovable statues, his glowing eyes..... It landed on me at first. It was just for a moment but for that moment, I could not breath and my breath ran cold. I felt so small and minute in his presence, like I was nothing, worthless.

Then, without warning, it happened.

A blur of motion. A sudden streak of someone’s fast movement. A scream caught in someone’s throat.

Alistair.

He moved faster than I could track. One second he was standing near Desmond, and the next—he was behind Desmond, his father. A sword in his grip.

And then, the plunge.

The blade sank deep into Desmond’s chest. The wet sound of steel cutting through flesh echoed through the stunned silence. Desmond’s body jerked, a choked sound leaving his lips, his eyes wide with disbelief. Blood gushed from his mouth and wounds, drenching the ground around him.

He collapsed.

Just like that.

Desmond, Desmond Ashthorne, the powerful and feared Alpha of the BloodFang pack, felll dead

At the hands of his own son.

No one moved.

The world held its breath.

Alistair dropped to his knees in front of the Alpha King, his head bowed low, his bloody hands trembling.

"I pledge my allegiance to you," he said, voice raw, eyes burning. "To the crown. To the true order of this realm. My father’s path ends with him."

His voice didn’t shake, he didnt sound like someone that just turned on his father and killed him

The Alpha King studied him in silence, unreadable. Everyone watched, waiting for his judgment. Even the wind dared not move.

And through it all, I could barely lift my head, could barely breathe, but I saw Kieran.

His eyes were on me.

And despite the chaos, the blood, the betrayal. I felt it.

That tether. That heat.

He had come for me. He didn’t abandon me

He came to save me yet again

The wounds and burns on my body throbed.

Darkness wrapped around me like a second skin. Heavy. Suffocating. Quiet.

I was sinking.

Then, all at once.... air ceased to stop entering my lungs.

My lungs clawed for it as I jolted awake, gasping. My body screamed in protest, pain radiating from every limb. The ache in my bones was unbearable, my skin torn, raw, and tender. I felt like I’d been chewed up and spit out by death itself. And then I went into the abyss of nothingness...

The first thing I saw when I woke up again....

It was him.

Kieran.

Standing right beside the bed, unmoving. His crimson eyes glowed in the dim light of his room, locked on me like a predator daring the world to come close.

"Kieran..." My voice was hoarse, barely more than a whisper. "What... what happened?"

He didn’t speak immediately. His gaze swept over me as if checking for injuries that might have appeared since he last looked.

"I can’t remember much," I mumbled, struggling to sit up. The pain was so sharp it made my vision blur. Still, I pushed through. "I remember... Alistair. He killed his father. But why? Why would he do that?"

Kieran’s jaw tensed. "Because if he didn’t, he would’ve died too. Desmond was a.lready a dead man the moment my father stepped into that clearing. Alistair knew it."

"So, he killed his own father... to save himself?" I asked quietly, my voice brittle.

"He did what he had to," Kieran said, voice calm but firm. "He wanted to live."

My fingers curled weakly around the blanket. "And... did your father really forgive him?"

"He’s currently locked up," Kieran answered, his gaze hardening. "The academy is holding a conference with the Alpha King tomorrow. A council session, of sorts."

I blinked. "And?"

"And he wants you there," Kieran said.

My breath caught. "Me?"

Kieran gave a single nod. "Yes. He didn’t say why. But my father doesn’t summon people on a whim. If he’s asking for you... there’s a reason. A very important one."

I swallowed hard, my heart thundering.

The Alpha King. The ruler of all werewolves. The one whose name was spoken in hushed tones. The one who could sentence entire packs to death with a word.

Why would a king like him want to meet someone like me? A lowly, unwanted, nearly broken feral.

I took a shaky breath, trying to make sense of it. But there were no answers, only questions, heavy and endless, pressing down on me like the weight of destiny itself.

******

Lorraine stared at Kieran, still trying to ground herself, still trying to push through the fog of pain and confusion pressing down on her, when his next question cut straight through the haze.

"How did Alistair capture you?"

She blinked. Slowly. "He... he took me after he beat me... right in front of the Lycan dormitory gate."

Kieran stiffened. His red eyes darkened, pulsing with barely contained fury. "Why were you in front of the gate, Lorraine?"

Her lips parted, but nothing came out at first. Then, finally, she muttered, "I... I wanted to see you."

Kieran’s breath hitched.

"I didn’t know how you were doing," she continued, her voice soft and raw. "You were stabbed because of me. I didn’t know if you were alive or...." her voice cracked, ".....so I came. I knocked... and knocked until I got tired. That was when Alistair came."

Kieran’s fists clenched. "You felt guilty?" he growled. "Why the hell would you feel guilty? I got stabbed because I wasn’t fast enough to stop Desmond. That’s on me."

"You weren’t fast enough because you were distracted," Lorraine said, her voice rising now. "And you were distracted because of me."

His eyes flared. "So you felt guilty... and brought yourself to the dorm gates to get beaten to a bloody mess? That was your great plan?"

"Will you blame me?" Lorraine shouted back. "I was worried about you, Kieran!"

Silence.

Then, his voice, colder, sharper. "And who the hell are you to worry about me, Lorraine?"

Her breath caught. "Kieran?" she whispered, stunned by the sudden harshness in his tone.

He began to pace, red eyes burning holes in the floor. His hands trembled at his sides, jaw tight, lips pressed in a hard line.

Lorraine pushed herself up, ignoring the biting pain. "What’s wrong with you, Kieran? Why are you getting angry at me?"

He spun on her, voice thundering. "You, Lorraine! You are what’s wrong with me! Why the hell do you keep putting yourself in situations that get you so close to death, do you have any idea what that does to my wolf?! How angry, how panicked we get when we think you’re dying?!"

"Well, it’s not my fault that almost everyone in this damned academy wants me killed!" Lorraine fired back.

Kieran snarled low in his throat, pacing again.

Lorraine’s voice dropped into a quiet, bitter note. "And why would your wolf care about me so much anyway? Why would he be worried and angry over a feral like me?"

Kieran stopped dead.

Then, with a dangerous intensity in his voice, he said, "Because you make us angry, Lorraine. Can we ever go one damn week without you getting into some kind of trouble? Without us running to save you over and over and over again?"

Her fists curled. "Well I didn’t ask you to save me every time, did I?! If me getting into trouble angers you so much, then why the hell do you keep saving me?!"

Kieran’s voice exploded. "Because I am unable to stop myself from yearning for you!!"

Lorraine froze, her breath stolen.

"What...." she whispered.

Before she could finish the thought, he was there.

One blink.

One breath.

And he was there in front of her.

His hand tangled in her hair, the other curling around her waist like she might vanish if he didn’t hold her.

And then.....

He kissed her.

Not softly. Not gently.

It was wild and reckless and furious and desperate, like a storm that had finally burst after being bottled for far too long.