The Lunar Crest Academy: Marked by The Lycans

Kieran's POV

Rage burned through me like wildfire, scorching every vein, every nerve, until my vision clouded into a black haze. My claws slid out with a sharp snap, my fangs elongating, my body trembling not with fear, but with fury. No one was going to touch Lorraine. Not while I still drew breath.

The Leader raised his arms, a twisted smile curling his lips as though he were welcoming my fury.

"Show me what you've got, boy," he taunted "Let's see if you're worthy of her."

A snarl ripped from my throat before I could stop it. I lunged, claws aimed straight for his chest.

He moved like water. Effortless. Graceful. He slid aside as if I had been nothing more than a breeze brushing past him. My claws sliced the air where his flesh should have been.

I pivoted, launched another strike, faster this time, slashing upwards. Again, nothing. He bent back lightly, letting my claws miss his throat by inches. It was like he wasn't even trying, like I was a child swinging at shadows.

I didn't relent. Strike after strike, swipe after swipe, I pushed harder, faster, my muscles burning with exertion, my chest heaving, but still he danced around me like I was nothing. The smirk on his face made it worse. Every dodge, every sidestep was deliberate, mocking. He wasn't fighting me. He was playing with me.

Finally, he sighed. Actually sighed.

"This is getting boring." His voice was cold, cutting. His hand moved to his coat, unclasping it. "Let's end this quickly, shall we, boy?"

He slipped the coat off his shoulders, letting it fall to the ground. Beneath, he wore only a plain dark shirt. But his eyes, his eyes changed. The glowing dark red hue that spread through his irises froze me. My stomach dropped. His fangs bared, sharper than mine, his claws lengthening far beyond what they had been before.

My heart thudded

No. It couldn't be.

He was a Lycan

And nog just a Lycan. He was…. ascended.

But that was impossible. Only the royal family, the Valerius bloodline, could undergo full ascension. That was our gift, our curse, our inheritance. How? How had he, a man outside my family, outside the bloodline, become ascended?

I had no time to question. He lunged, and the world blurred.

His speed tore through the air like thunder. I barely managed to block his first strike, his claws clashing against mine with bone rattling force. The courtyard erupted into shock and gasps, student and soldiers scattering back to the edges as if the air itself had become a storm.

We collided again, fists, claws, fangs, each impact shook the ground beneath us. The fight was brutal, animalistic. We weren't men anymore, we were beasts, supreme beings locked in a struggle that split the air and cracked the earth.

I struck with everything I had, muscles straining, bones threatening to snap under the sheer force. He met me every time, his strength towering, his precision flawless. Still, I refused to falter. I couldn't. Not with Lorraine watching. Not with her life hanging in the balance.

A low chuckle escaped him even as we fought. "You are tougher than I thought, boy."

The words were meant to mock, to belittle, but before he could say more, I felt my fist connect with his face

My knuckles smashed against his jaw, the force whipping his head to the side. His lip split, a thin rivulet of blood dripping down his chin.

The courtyard went silent. Gasp after gasp rose like a chorus, filling the air with disbelief.

I had hit him.

The Leader straightened slowly, dragging the back of his hand across his bleeding lip. When he looked at me again, the smirk was gone. His eyes had darkened into something far worse.

The air stilled. The morning itself seemed to pause. A tremor shook through the earth, subtle but powerful, like the heartbeat of the world had quickened in fear.

Then he moved.

Faster than before, faster than I could track. One moment he was yards away, the next his fist slammed into my stomach. The breath wrenched from me, and before I could recover, another blow struck my jaw, then another, then another.

He didn't stop. His fists became a storm, raining down on me in a blur of motion. I hit the ground, and still his strikes came. My body jerked beneath each impact, my blood spraying across the dirt, staining my shirt, my skin, the earth itself.

But I didn't scream. I wouldn't give him that satisfaction. I clenched my teeth, tasting iron as his claws tore into me, as the bones in my ribs groaned and cracked under the assault. Blow after blow, unrelenting, merciless, yet I bit down the agony.

Through the haze, I heard her voice.

"Please! Let him go! Stop, please!"

Lorraine.

Her voice cracked, raw with desperation. I forced my head to turn, to see her tied against the tree, her cheeks streaked with tears, her body trembling as she fought her restraints.

But The Leader didn't stop.

Each punch drove me deeper into the ground, rocks splitting beneath my back. He was furious now, his strikes no longer calculated but fueled by something darker, something primal.

But I still refused to cry out.

I let the pain surge through me, let it tear me apart from the inside, but I wouldn't give him what he wanted. If I screamed, if I begged, then Lorraine would see weakness. And I could not, would not, let her lose hope in me.

I clenched my jaw so hard I thought my teeth would shatter, blood bubbling in my throat as I forced myself to endure.

The more silent I stayed, the more enraged he grew. His strikes doubled in speed, each one threatening to rip me apart.

Lorraine's POV

I had never seen someone bleed that much and still remain silent.

Kieran's body was a blur of pain, each punch from The Leader coming so fast I could barely follow with my eyes. The sickening crack of fist against bone echoed in the courtyard, faster, harder, relentless. His head snapped back, blood sprayed across the ground, and still, still he didn't scream.

Why? Why wasn't he screaming? His jaw was clenched, his expression stone, as if he had chosen silence over surrender. But his silence tore me apart. Every strike seemed louder than thunder, shattering not just his body but my sanity.

The Leader was going to kill him.

"No... stop!" My voice broke as it tore out of me. "Stop! Please, I beg you.... STOP!"

The courtyard swallowed my cries. No one moved, no one answered.

I twisted against the ropes biting into my wrist, the bark of the tree scraping my skin raw. My throat burned with sobs I couldn't swallow back. My eyes sought Adrian, maybe, maybe he would move. Maybe he would step in. He had to.

"Please," I choked out, tears blinding me. "Please help me. Don't let him kill Kieran. Please, Adrian, please!"

But Adrian's face was carved in stone. Unmoving. Unfeeling. His blue eyes were cold, locked on the carnage as if nothing in him could be stirred. I knew then, he was never going to help.

A hollow sob burst from me. No one was going to save Kieran. No one but me.

My body strained uselessly against the ropes, but my mind, my soul, reached inward.

To her.

The wolf that had always been a whisper at the edge of my existence, elusive, silent. She only seemed to stir when Kieran's life dangled on the edge of death. And wasn't that now? Wasn't this worse than anything we had faced?

"He's dying!" I screamed inside my own head. My tears spilled hot, soaking into my torn dress. "Please, please, I'm begging you! Come out, please! You always come when he's in danger. He's about to die! Do you hear me? He's going to die right here in front of me!"

My chest heaved, raw from crying. The desperation tasted like blood in my mouth.

"I'll do anything," I swore to her, clutching the promise like a lifeline. "Anything you want, I'll give it. Anything at all. Just help me. Please! Kieran can't die, not now, not like this."

For one endless moment, nothing happened. The ropes dug into my wrist, my sobs wracked my body, and Kieran's blood painted the stones. The Leader's fists didn't slow.

Then....

A ripple. A faint stir, like a sigh brushing the back of my mind.

And suddenly, I wasn't in the courtyard anymore.

The world around me dissolved, swept away in a rush of wind, and I became the wind. I surged forward, invisible, untethered, soaring through the academy grounds. Past the courtyard. Past the towers. Through the stone walls and locked doors, gliding as if nothing could hold me back.

And then....there.

I entered into a room

And there she was, Aveline.

She lay on the bed, her blonde hair spilling like sunlight across the pillow, her face serene, as if locked in a dream. The wind.... me, drifted closer, closer until it touched her. Until it pressed against her eyes.

Her lashes fluttered.

Her eyes snapped open.

And at that exact instant, I was ripped back into myself.

My own eyes shot open, lungs dragging in a broken gasp, and I was back, back against the tree body trembling.

Kieran was still there, still bleeding, still teetering on the brink of death.

"What... what just happened?" My voice broke, too quiet for anyone to hear over the chaos. My mind reeled, unable to process it.

Before I could make sense of it, the world shifted again.

A violent swoosh cut the air, sharp as a blade.

And then, blonde hair. A streak of gold lightning.

She collided with The Leader, knocking him away from Kieran with a force that rattled the stones underfoot. The courtyard gasped, the sound of bodies flinching as one.

My heart stuttered. My breath caught.

Aveline.

"Aveline No!!!"

Adrian's voice split the silence, raw and unguarded for the first time.