Filed to story: When The Moon Hides Crown
“And you,” I said quietly, meeting Dante’s eyes, “arrived suspiciously fast, only after it was over. Yet here you are-calm, spotless, uninvolved? Please don’t treat others like they don’t actually have brains to understand your game,”
Dante’s expression remained perfectly composed, all innocence and cool detachment. But Alpha Gideon’s silence stretched long, and that disturbed him.
I pressed on. “I’ve heard that you, Alpha Gideon, value justice above all. That you are a man of integrity. So l ask for a hearing, a chance to defend myself properly. If I’m found guilty after that, I will pack my bags and leave the Lupine Academy without a word, respecting yourdecision.”
My words echoed through the building.
Alpha Gideon stared at me, searching my eyes for deceit.
His gaze lingered, sharp and penetrating. Then he turned to Ronan, studying him for a long moment. His eyes swept over the eight injured Alphas sprawled across the floor.
Finally, his attention landed on Dante.
Silence thickened, everyone’s eyes on his changing expression.
“Fine,” he said at last.
Freleased my breath, my wolf relaxing in my mind for a bit. However it did not last long.
The next thing I knew, I was standing in the center of the Academy’s disciplinary chamber-the Grand Office of Alpha Instructors. Alpha Gideon sat in the central seat of judgment, flanked by two senior Alphas: Alpha Hugo and Alpha Jude.
I had only seen these two commanding Alphas from a distance before-handsome, middle-aged, and clearly not men to be trifled with. But now, standing before them in the flesh, I could feel it: their presence radiated a power no less formidable than Alpha Gideon’s.
Their eyes swept the room-first to Ronan on my right, then Dante on my left, and finally to the limping figures of Cassius and Reed, the latter’s left arm wrapped in a fresh plaster cast. Both had just staggered into the disciplinary chamber, their injuries stark reminders of the earlier chaos.
“Well, this is what I call a mess,” Alpha Hugo muttered, dragging a hand through his silver-streaked hair.
Frustration roughened his voice, the kind of irritation that came from long years spent dealing with youthful disasters.
In stark contrast, Alpha Jude leaned forward, elbow resting lazily on the desk, chin balanced on his hand. His eyes, cool and unreadable, fixed on me with a stare that felt like a slow dissection.
“Alpha Seth Darven,” he said, voice calm but laced with sharpness, “give me one good reason why I should sit here and waste my time on this performance of yours. Let me guess the ending, just another reckless boy who made a fucked up mess but doesn’t wants to deal with the consequences.”
The air shifted sharply. There was something almost rogue
-like in his bluntness-so casual, so cutting. It didn’t match the polished decorum expected in a place like this, Lupine Academy’s highest chamber of judgment.
But I steadily met his gaze, my voice calm. “Because l am innocent.”
The atmosphere instantly thickened. Eyes snapped to me
-some curious, others skeptical.Alpha Jude chewed on a fingernail, still not looking away.” Got any proof?”
“Proof of my innocence?”
“You could call it that,” he said, voice dry.
“Then may I ask,” I replied slowly, “is there any proof that I was the one who attacked those Alphas?”
SERAPHINA
Silence followed my words, a silence so taut it hummed in my ears.
Alpha Jude’s fingers paused mid-thought against his chin.
Alpha Hugo leaned back in his chair, exhaling stowly through his nose, though his expression remained unreadable.
“No recordings?” I asked, tilting my head as my eyes flicked to Reed and Cassius before shifting back to the instructors. “No witnesses beyond those in this room?
Then it’s all hearsay, isn’t it? And if that’s the game we’re playing, l’d prefer mine be heard in full.”
Reed shifted uneasily. Cassius refused to meet my gaze, chewing the inside of his cheek like it might erase the whimpering he’d done earlier.
“I asked a question,” I said again, calm but firm, directing it at the two Alphas. “Is there any proof I struck first?”
“Why does this hearing revolve around who struck first?”
Dante lazily interjected from the corner, his tone almost bored. “You assaulted them. They’re injured. You’re not.”
Ronan’s voice cut through the air like a blade-smooth, cool, and terrifying in its certainty. “Injuries don’t prove guilt. They only prove who lost.”All eyes snapped to the two of them. Curiously, they never looked at each other, not even while arguing.
The Alpha instructors exchanged a glance, clearly mind-linking. Then Alpha Hugo leaned forward and asked me directly, “Alpha Seth, let’s start at the root of the matter.
Did you attack them?”
My muscles tensed. The truth could doom me, declare me guilty before this hearing even began. But I straightened my spine and nodded.
“I did.”
Their expressions hardened in unison.
“But,” I continued before any of them could speak, “I had a reason.”
Alpha Gideon’s voice cut in, sharp as a whip. “And what reason could possibly justify the extent of violence you used? A broken hand, a shattered knee-“
I glanced at Ronan.
His expression was unreadable-no worry, no tension, as if this dangerous hearing had nothing to do with him. He looked like a man watching a play he already knew the ending of.
“Alpha Ronan,” I said meaningfully.
He rolled his shoulders in a casual shrug, then, without a word, nodded toward the door. A moment later, it opened.Alpha Asher entered quietly, bowed respectfully to the instructors, and approached the desk. He placed a small black glass bottle in front of them, then stepped back.
Alpha Hugo lifted it with a puzzled frown. “What is this?”
“That,” I said, my voice unwavering, “is Alpha Ronan’s cologne. Tampered with. Reed and Cassius laced it with a rare wild berry known to trigger rut in unmated Atphas.
Their intent was to humiliate me by making me lose control, and drag Ronan down with me.”
The air in the chamber shifted. Alpha Gideon’s gaze snapped toward Reed and Cassius like a bullet-sharp, deadly, and full of rage.
‘ “Tampering to force an Alpha into rut?” he snarled. “Are you out of your damn minds?”
“It’s a lie!” Reed shouted, his voice cracking. “We never-he’s framing us!”