Filed to story: When The Moon Hides Crown
Then-
A blur.
A breeze.
A voice, silk and shadow.
“Whoa, whoa, wait a second.”
An arm looped around my waist, warm and firm, pulling me back with shocking gentleness.
snarled and my head snapped at Ronan.
“Leave that ugly little thing,” Ronan murmured near my ear, not even flinching as the shard in my grip trembled. ” It makes me furious that you are holding a manhood.”I glared at him. It made him furious? “Let go,” I growled at him in a warning.
“Oh, 1 witt-kight after you stop trying to castrate my least favorite person that was supposed to actually be my prey.” He turned me slightly, just enough to force my eyes off Reed. “Besides, why waste a good shard on that disappointment?*
I growled, my body shaking with fury, teeth clenched hard enough to crack. Listening to him I did not castrate but my wolf refused to back down either. My blood was still boiling and all I wanted was to finish this bastard.
But suddenly Ronan’s hand came up and touched my cheek, ‘let go of him,” he whispered, looking at me calmly but his eyes spoke volumes. He was grounding me.
Reeling me back from the edge I didn’t know l’d already leapt from.
“He’s already fainted with fear,” he murmured.
I slowly glanced at Reed and his eyes really were close.
I blinked and slowly I dropped the shard.
It clattered against the ground.
Behind me, Cassius curled into himself like a broken animal, sobbing, pants around his knees.
Reed hadn’t moved. No one else dared.
And around us?Silence.
Even the wind held its breath.
I got up and faced Ronan, my breathing a little heavy, ” Why did you intervene? thought you were going to play watch dog for me.”
“I was watching,” he stepped closer to me without breaking eye contact with me,”
…just figured if anyone was gonna make you pant and growl, it should be me.”
“What?” I made a face. What did he mean by that…
Before I could understand his meaning the sharp sound of horn rang. My head snapped at the direction and I froze in realisation. The combate was over. Someone already won.
But then the door of the building was kicked open from outside and there stood Dante.
“Guys, were you in-fighting here?” he asked as if he did not know, his blue eyes filled with an evil light.
“In-fighting?!” A furious growl broke into the building as Alpha Gideon entered the building. My heart dropped in my stomach in horror. How did Alpha Gideon get here? He saw Reed, Cassius, and everyone else on the ground then fixed his red furious eyes on me. And by my condition he could easily tell who had done it.
“Alpha Seth,” he called my name the way it made my heart race in fear.Because in -fighting at Lupine Academy was…
“You are expelled from the Academy immediately.”
SERAPHINA
Expelled.
The word rang through my skull like a death knell.
My body remained coiled, fists still slick with blood, chest heaving as though I’d just sprinted through fire. But the true fire burned in Alpha Gideon’s eyes-not fury, not even outrage-judgment. Final. Irrevocable.
“I refuse,” I said between ragged breaths.
“What?” Alpha Gideon’s face contorted with rage. He was a man accustomed to silence after he spoke, a man who had never tolerated disobedience.
“I refuse to accept your decision, Alpha Gideon,” I rasped, stepping forward. I didn’t care how Ronan looked or what he might be thinking. My focus was on the Alpha who had just condemned me without trial. “There was no hearing.
No testimony. Nothing. You’ve expelled me from the Academy without a single word in my defense.”
“You assaulted eight Alphas,” Gideon snapped. “Inside Academy walls. Under Academy law, that alone warrants expulsion.”
I wiped the blood from my chin with the back of my hand, my voice flat and cold. “And what if those eight weren’t just Alphas? What if they were predators? What if I wasdefending myself?”
Dante’s voice cut in smoothly, his tone laced with mockery. “Eight Alphas allegedly attacked you, and somehow, they’re the ones unconscious or whimpering on the ground? What a convenient little story.”
Phina growled in my mind, a sharp, furious sound.
“Convenient?” I let out a bitter laugh. “Then maybe take a closer look at the Alpha with his pants around his knees.
Or the one who’s too terrified to even breathe.”
Reed hadn’t moved. Cassius was still crying like a wounded cub, clutching his broken knee. As for the others, not one of them met Alpha Gideon’s eyes. Not a single one dared to speak.
“You think I started this?” I said, my voice louder, steadier.
“You think I just… snapped?”
“He’s lying!” one of them shouted. “That Darven bastard attacked us first-!”
My head snapped toward the Alpha with the shattered nose. He flinched under my glare but continued spewing lies.
“Really?” Ronan’s voice sliced through the room-smooth, cold, lethal. “You dare lie in my presence? I witnessed everything.” He paused, eyes narrowing with icy amusement. “Or are you suggesting I’m blind?”
All heads turned to him.That Alpha lowered his eyes in fear, but still refused to speak the truth. That silence only made things worse for me.
I turned to Alpha Gideon, locking eyes with him. “I understand your anger over this brawl, but I beg you to look deeper. Nothing here is what it seems. Look at these so-called victims-bloodied, broken, afraid but nothing else to say other than blaming me for everything. Look at Alpha Ronan, whose presence is not causal. Look at Dante, who somehow received word of this fight only after it ended. Isn’t all of this suspicious?”
I felt Dante’s burning eyes on my back that I easily ignored but not Ronan’s stare. My muscles tensed-l hated using him as leverage, but right now, I was ready to do anything to stop this expulsion.