The Lunar Crest Academy: Marked by The Lycans
Chapter 88: The One Who Holds the Blade

Chapter 88: Chapter 88: The One Who Holds the Blade

Lorraine’s POV

My breath hitched.

It wasn’t the cold steel of the sword that had brushed my neck moments ago. It wasn’t even the Alpha King’s bloodstained presence looming in the center of the room.

It was the moment he turned, took the blood-slick blade, and handed it to Kieran.

"You kill her."

The words dropped like thunder in my chest.

For the first time since he entered the room, Kieran’s expression shifted, just barely. A flicker of something... hesitation? disbelief?, crossed his eyes before he swallowed it whole, returning to that blank, unreadable mask he wore like a second skin.

But he didn’t say a word.

He didn’t argue.

And worse.... he didn’t refuse.

The Alpha King’s voice boomed again. "I will not repeat myself."

And then he moved.

Kieran began to walk toward me.

Each step was slow. Purposeful. Silent.

The sword hung at his side, heavy, its sharp tip trailing a faint line across the marble as he closed the distance between us.

I didn’t breathe.

I couldn’t.

My legs faltered, my blood went cold, and I stared at the monster who wore the face of the man I had once allowed myself to wonder about.

His eyes never left mine.

When he finally reached me, he stood still, just inches away.

The tip of the blade hovered just between us.

I looked up at him, really looked.

He was carved of ice and fire, of lineage and cruelty, and everything about him reminded me of power. Of danger. Of inevitability.

But still, I looked.

And what I saw in his eyes wasn’t what I expected.

It wasn’t rage. It wasn’t pity either.

It was a storm.

A violent, contained storm just behind his gaze, one that screamed without sound.

One that looked like a man at war with himself.

He raised the sword.

Slow. Deliberate.

And I refused to flinch.

If this was it... if this was how I was going to die, by his hands—

Then I would meet it head-on.

I would not look away.

Not from him.

So I stared right back.

Into Kieran Valerius Hunter’s eyes.

But I didn’t know why it hurt.

Maybe I didn’t want to know.

But as Kieran stood before me, sword raised and silent, I felt my heart begin to crack in places I didn’t even know existed.

A deep, aching kind of pain bloomed in my chest, not just from fear or the looming finality of death.... but from him.

From Kieran.

Some stupid, naive part of me....

I think it hoped he wouldn.’t do it.

I think it believed, against all odds, that he was different.

That the one who had always come for mw.

The one whom stood against his own packs to save me

The one who had stood between me and death more than once.

The one whose touch had awakened my wolf.

Wasn’t a monster.

But maybe....

Maybe that was impossible.

Not with a father like the Alpha King. Not in a world like this.

The sword rose higher.

I bit the inside of my cheek hard enough to taste blood and clenched my eyes shut, bracing myself.

This was it.

Tears rolled down my face, silent and slow.

I didn’t sob. I didn’t scream.

I just waited for the end.....

for the clean, sharp pain

for everything to finally go black.

I would’ve never thought it would be him.

That Kieran Valerius Hunter, the Lycan prince who had saved me, challenged me, tormented me... seen me...

would also be the one to end me.

And then....

Clang....

The sound of steel crashing against marble shattered the stillness like a thunderclap.

My eyes flew open.

The sword lay on the ground, glinting under the golden light, its blade wet with the blood of others

but not mine.

Kieran stood with his back to me now, shoulders squared, facing the monster who called himself his father.

"I can’t do it," he said.

His voice wasn’t loud.

But it carried authority

Every single wolf in that room heard it.

The Lycan King stilled.

The silence that followed was suffocating.

Even the walls seemed to hold their breath.

"I won’t kill her," Kieran said again, this time louder. Stronger.

"I won’t be your executioner."

And for the first time...

I saw a fracture in the perfect, cold mask of the Lycan prince.

The Alpha King’s footsteps echoed like thunder as he advanced toward his son.

Each one heavy. Measured. Deadly.

He stopped inches from Kieran’s face, his aura thick and oppressive, like a noose tightening around the room.

"What did you say?" he asked, his voice dangerously low, already crackling with fury.

Kieran didn’t flinch.

"Lorraine Anderson of the ShadowFang pack is my servant," he replied evenly. "And I am bound by honor to protect her until the period she serves me ends."

His jaw clenched.

"You taught me that a man’s honor is his pride, Father. So you should understand."

I stared.

My breath caught in my throat.

He was.... standing up to him.

Kieran Valerius Hunter was defying the Alpha King.

For me.

The disbelief hit me hard.

No one challenged the Alpha King.

No one.

But Kieran.... he just did.

The room had gone deathly silent, as if every soul was holding its breath, waiting for the inevitable explosion.

And then....

"Honor?" the Alpha King scoffed, a bitter, sharp sound that curled in the air like smoke.

He turned his back on Kieran, pacing slowly, seething.

"A weak, stubborn, and disobedient servant deserves no protection from their master," he growled.

"They deserve to be gutted like cattle and hanged for all to see."

He spat the words like venom.

My blood ran cold.

Of course. Of course this was how it ended.

Even with Kieran’s resistance, I was nothing but a speck to this man. A joke.

But then

"If you do not mind my interruption, my King," Astrid’s voice rang out, smooth and sharp as always.

I turned sharply toward her.

Of course

Of course Astrid Voss wouldn’t waste a breath trying to spare me. She is definitely going to be in support of seeing me dead

"I believe I have the perfect idea," she said, stepping forward with her cold, polished grace. "The perfect punishment for this... erring feral."

I nearly laughed.

Of course she does.

Because why end me cleanly...

I am sure she has some painful diabolical plan up her sleeves, one that will definitely not spell good for me

I huffed quietly, bitter amusement curling in my chest.

She didn’t care about justice. Or order. Or reform.

Not while I was still a feral.

Not while I was still weak.

Not while I was still useless in her eyes.

The Alpha King’s gaze shifted. Slowly, deliberately, his blood-smeared body turned toward Astrid Voss.

"You may speak," he said, his voice bored, like this was just another court hearing and not a decision about whether I lived or died.

Astrid stepped forward, eyes glinting with sadistic glee. Her heels clicked on the marble floor, precise and eager, like she’d been waiting for this moment.

"Your Majesty," she began, her voice calm but dripping venom, "I believe death would be too kind for this one."

She didn’t look at me. She didn’t need to. I was below dirt, I was nothing to her, not whilst I still refused to do her bidding

"Stubborn weaklings like her do not deserve the mercy of a swift death. No, what they need is long, cruel suffering. The kind that breaks the soul before it ends the body."

Her words slithered across the room like poison, and everyone listened. Infact, they all looked eager to hear about her perfect plan for me

"She’s already made enemies," Astrid continued. "Plenty of them. She’s a feral who doesn’t know her place, who dared to challenge order. She obviously won’t last long in the academy. But we could.... hasten the process."

My stomach twisted.

I could feel it coming like a storm about to swallow me whole.

Astrid smiled.

"Place a bounty on her head."

A ripple went through the room. My breath hitched.

"Not a large one, she isn’t worth that much. Just enough lunars to tempt the students in the academy," she said smoothly. "Announce that anyone who brings back Lorraine Anderson’s head will receive a reward. That way, her days will be spent running. Hiding. Watching her back."

She finally turned her eyes to me.

"She will suffer every second. Emotionally. Physically. Mentally. Until all that’s left of her is a crawling husk... broken, hunted, and drained. And in the end, she’ll die a death so gut-wrenching, so futile, it will serve as a lesson to every other misfit who ever thinks of raising their voice against the Lycan royal bloodline or trying to defy the order of the Kingdom."

The silence that followed was louder than any scream, I could hear my heart beating in my chest

I stared up at her, stunned, not by the cruelty. I had seen that before.

But by how much pleasure she took in it.

And how not a single person in that room looked shocked