The Lunar Crest Academy: Marked by The Lycans
Chapter 89: Hunted

Chapter 89: Chapter 89: Hunted

Lorraine’s POV

A bounty.

On my head.

My ears rang. My vision blurred. The words repeated, again and again, slamming into my skull like iron hammers.

A bounty on her head.

A bounty on her head.

My death.... as a reward.

And not just by order..... but as a sport. A twisted, sanctioned blood game. And I was the prey.

A quiet murmur spread through the hall. I could feel it, curiosity, approval, even excitement

My fingers twitched.

I wanted to scream.

I wanted to laugh.

Because this wasn’t justice.

This was theater.

"An interesting suggestion," the Alpha King mused, breaking the charged silence. His tone was amused now, light even, as if Astrid had offered him a new wine instead of an immediate execution

He looked down at me, and I met his eyes, even as fear roared like wildfire in my blood.

"Let the beasts play with their food," he said finally. "Let them tear each other apart. That is the law of nature. And nature," he added, sneering now, "does not spare the weak."

My fate was sealed in a single sentence.

I suddenly felt a shift beside me.

Kieran.

He was still standing in front of me, unmoved since he dropped the blade. His back was rigid, hands clenched so tight his knuckles were bone white.

His head turned slightly toward the Alpha King.

"You’ll mark her like a beast?" he said quietly. "Put a price on her life and let the savages do your bidding?"

His father tilted his head, mildly entertained.

"You suddenly care for the livestock, boy?"

"I care about the mockery you’re making of the order you claim to uphold," Kieran said, louder now, the mask cracking again. "Punishment is one thing. Public slaughter.... is another."

Alpha King only chuckled. "You defy me again?"

Kieran said nothing. Just straightened, tall and cold and beautiful and burning from within.

"Good," his father said darkly. "Let her survival depend on the very system she claims to want to destroy."

And then he turned to me.

"Run, little feral," he said softly, mockingly. "Let’s see how long you last when the whole academy wants your head."

Then, with the grace of a beast who didn’t need to rush to kill, the Alpha King slowly turned...

Not to Kieran.

But to Astrid.

His voice, when it came, was low. Sharp. Final.

"Go ahead," he said. "Put a bounty on the feral’s head."

My blood ran cold.

"Make her a spectacle," he added. "Encourage the students to make a show of it before they end her life. Let her death entertain the masses, let them laugh as they tear her limb from limb."

Astrid didn’t even flinch. She bowed her head. "Yes, Your Majesty."

I could barely breathe. My chest felt like it was being crushed from the inside out.

But he wasn’t finished.

The Alpha King turned back to Kieran then, eyes burning like twin furnaces. "And as for you"

Kieran stood still, meeting his father’s gaze with something unreadable. Not defiance. Not submission either. Just silence.

"No one," the Alpha King said, "no wolf, no alpha, no elder, ot even a Lycan, dares punish the royal Lycan family except another royal Lycan."

He took a step forward.

"I am your father," he said, each word a whip crack. "And I am your King. So I alone will punish you."

Kieran’s shoulders squared, but he didn’t say a word.

"You are hereby exiled from the Royal Lycan villa in the Lycan dormitory," the Alpha King announced, his voice booming across the hall. "Your private study, stripped. Your personal servant, dismissed. All privileges and honors that mark you as my son, revoked. Until I say otherwise."

A sharp gasp echoed amongst the attending wolves. One of the Lycans, probably. Even the nobles looked stunned. Exiling a prince, even temporarily, was unheard of.

But the Alpha King wasn’t done.

"You will walk these halls like the common scum you tried to defend. And let it be a lesson," he snarled, voice rising now. "To all who dare speak against their King."

My pulse thundered in my ears.

Kieran stood motionless, his face a mask of stoicism, as the Lycan King turned away from him and returned to his throne-like seat. The silence in the room was palpable, each heartbeat echoing like a drumbeat in the stillness.

The Alpha King’s voice broke the silence, cold and commanding. "I’ve been getting wind of some uprising happening in the west," he said, his eyes scanning the room. "A faction of people that is against the rule of the Lycans. I’m hoping for your sakes that such cancerous people haven’t gotten to this academy already. Because if they have, it’s only a matter of time before we fish you out, and we will do more than just end your pathetic life."

The weight of his words hung heavy in the air, a chilling reminder of the power he wielded and the consequences of defiance.

He shifted his gaze, slow as death, toward Alistair, who was still collapsed on the cold stone floor, wheezing through clenched teeth, his body a mess of bruises, blood, and chains.

"I shall let you live," the Lycan King said, voice cold enough to freeze marrow, "not because I am that merciful... but because I want you to serve as a living reminder of what happens when anyone dares to touch my son."

Alistair’s eyes fluttered.

He would carry this scar forever, the scar of killing his own father, not just on his body, but in his soul. A stain no amount of time would ever wash out.

The king stood up without another word. A god among wolves, or maybe a monster dressed in human skin. His massive figure moved with regal lethality as he walked toward the grand double doors, his black cloak licking at the blood-slick floor like living shadow. The guards rushed ahead, their boots clanging in terrified urgency as they unlatched the towering doors.

Each bolt scraped like thunder.

The heavy doors swung open. A rush of wind poured into the hall, cold and fresh and wild, carrying the scent of pine and storm... freedom. The Lycan King stepped into the pale daylight, and the moment he crossed the threshold, it was like the entire hall exhaled.

So did I.

Only then did I realize I’d been holding my breath. My lungs burned. My knees threatened to buckle. I felt like I’d just surfaced after drowning in something that wasn’t water but worse, fear so thick it had weighed down every bone in my body.

People moved again. Murmurs rose like smoke. Everyone turned to follow the king. nobles, guards, Lycans, the officials from the Academy. They scattered after him like leaves blown in a storm.

All except me.

I turned slowly toward Kieran. My heart lurched like it recognized something in him I hadn’t fully accepted until now. The weight of his presence. The storm inside his silence.

"Kieran," I called softly. _{free.webn\ove(l)(.)c(o)m}

He didn’t stop.

Didn’t even flinch.

He turned away without a word. Walked off, tall and proud, his silver hair catching the light like frost, his posture unreadable. His back was the only answer I got.

I stood there, aching.

It shouldn’t have hurt. But it did.

The hall felt colder than before. Emptier, even with all the bodies still strewn across the floor.

Blood was everywhere.

I walked forward. I stepped over bodies, asome groaning, some forever still, and tried not to look at their faces

At the massive doors, Felix and Adrian stood waiting like sentries, waiting for me like they said they would

The moment I crossed the threshold, Felix pulled me into a hug. Fierce. Desperate. His arms trembled slightly around me.

"We heard some sounds and I thought he was going to kill you," he breathed into my hair.

I let myself be held for a moment. Let myself believe that maybe I wasn’t as alone as I felt

Then Felix stepped back, and Adrian’s usual smirk was waiting. A little crooked. But still him.

"You actually survived meeting the most powerful and deadly wolf in the kingdom," he said, shaking his head with something like awe. "You’re either incredibly lucky... or completely mad."

"I’m starting to think it’s the second one," I said chuckled slightly

Felix chuckled nervously.

But I didn’t laugh. Couldn’t.

Because they didn’t know.

They didn’t know that I hadn’t really survived.

The Lycan King had spared me, but only to give me to the dozens of hungry students to devour

He was going to kill me

And not with his own hands, nno, that would be far too merciful. He was going to let this place chew me alive. He would make it seem like justice, like punishment, like a lesson for the rest of the kingdom.

A bounty

A warning to everyone that tries to speak against the system

It was only a matter of time before Adtrid makes the announcement, and then I will become.... Hunted

The most wanted wolf in the Academy.

I turned my face away so Felix wouldn’t see the crack in my smile. So Adrian wouldn’t see the hollowness behind my eyes.

"I don’t think survival is the right word," I whispered.

Adrian frowned. "What do you mean?"

But I didn’t answer. I couldn’t, not yet.

My time had started ticking the moment the king walked out of that hall. And now.... I had to move. Think. Plan.

Because the academy wouldn’t kill me the usual way. They’d starve me out, corner me, make examples of anyone who tried to help me.

And when the bounty dropped?

Every wolf who wanted a few more lunars, or those that just wants to have fun, they would come for me.

My only chance now was to become more dangerous than the price on my head.