Chapter 111: One Slip, Total Shock

Author’s pov~

The Dowager Luna Gwen swept her gaze across the silent, petrified crowd one last time before falling on Chloe.

"Next time you open your mouth to talk about her," the Dowager Luna spoke coldly, her eyes remaining sharp, dark, and lethal, "make sure you are ready to see hell."

Chloe couldn’t even nod. She just stared at the dirt, her whole body shaking violently in pure terror.

Before the heavy silence could settle any deeper, a fresh wave of pressure rolled over the courtyard.

Another figure emerged from the distance.

The crowd didn’t just part, they scattered in sheer, blind panic, scrambling out of the way instantly from just the crushing, undeniable scent of a dominant royal Lycan.

Raven.

He strode forward with long, heavy steps, his dark eyes fixed entirely on the scene.

But the moment his eyes landed on Chloe lying on the ground, something dark flashed across them. He came to a halt right behind the Dowager Luna.

Gwen turned her face sideways the moment she felt his familiar, suffocating scent and heavy presence pressing into the air. Her tone was still sharp and authoritative, but the terrifying, blood-freezing edge she had used on Chloe and others softened just a fraction.

"Seems like you haven’t been taking care of a few things," Gwen said to him quietly, her eyes narrowing. "A pack of miserable little gnats running their mouths and talking rubbish about her right in the middle of your academy? Shouldn’t trash like this have been wiped off this campus by now?"

Raven didn’t blink. His jaw tightened as he looked down at Chloe, still whimpering on the ground, before shifting his gaze to the rest of the petrified students.

"These dirt-scratchers just keep coming back, looking for trouble again and again," Raven replied, his voice a deep, gravelly rumble of pure disgust.

"They are too blind to understand their place. No matter how many times you warn them, they crawl right back out of the mud."

Raven slowly turned his cold, predatory gaze away from the cowering crowd. His eyes locked onto Lucas, then onto Logan, and finally back to his grandmother, the Matriarch of the Second Throne.

"Do you even know what pack they belong to?" Raven whispered to his Grandmother, a dangerous edge to his voice.

Before Gwen could answer, Lucas and Logan forced themselves forward, bowing their heads so low their chins nearly touched their chests. Desperation leaked through their voices.

"We apologize..." Lucas stammered out, his face completely drained of color as he tried to shield his disgraced sister. "Please, Dowager Luna... we apologize for our sister’s behavior. She didn’t know—she was out of line—"

"We apologize," Logan echoed hurriedly, his voice shaking.

Raven let out a short, cold, humourless smirk.

Gwen looked between the terrified twins and her grandson, her eyebrow arching slightly. She turned back to Raven.

"What pack?" Gwen asked dismissively, her tone laced with pure disdain.

Raven’s smirk widened just a fraction, a dark, knowing glint in his eyes.

"It’s the Crescent Pack," Raven whispered smoothly, watching the realisation dawn. "The very same Crescent Pack belonging to these two twins right here. Crescent pack with Twins. Did it click, Grandmother?"

The Crescent Pack.

The twins.

Her gaze immediately shifted toward Lucas and Logan.

The twins.

Now it clicked.

Her eyes sharpened.

These are the twins who rejected Adeline.

But Gwen hadn’t expected Raven to know.

A sharp look flashed across the Matriarch’s ancient eyes, a silent, piercing message directed straight at Raven. ’You already know about the rejection? You know about the twins?’

Raven met her intense stare head-on, giving her a slow, smug look that clearly answered. ’Of course I do.’

But she hadn’t known that Raven had already discovered about Adeline’s rejection and who the twins were. And somehow... that surprised her.

A momentary flash of shock rippled through Gwen.

She hadn’t expected Raven to track down the truth about the rejection so fast, nor had she expected him to uncover the deeper connections right under the academy’s nose when she was the only one who knows about Adeline’s rejection and she was so sure she had never let it slip and so did Adeline.

Adeline only told The Dowager Luna about the twins.

The Dowager Luna already knew the twins were from the Crescent Pack, but the name alone hadn’t registered in her thoughts amidst the chaos. But the moment Raven brought up the twins, and linked them directly to the pack, everything clicked into place with terrifying clarity.

The brief surprise hardened instantly into cold, unadulterated fury.

Gwen’s gaze snapped away from Raven, turning back toward Lucas and Logan.

Her eyes boring deep into the two highborn heirs who suddenly looked completely lost, utterly confused, and terrified out of their minds, having no earthly idea what the royal wolves were whispering about.

~

Adeline’s POV~

I walked into the academy grounds. I moved past the outer edges of the courtyard, where the crowd stood frozen like statues, staring at something in the center without muttering a single word.

A wave of crushing, undeniable Alpha and royal Lycan scent rolled over the stone stronger than all other highborn Alpha wolves gathered here. My instincts flared, and I immediately turned my head toward the epicenter of the chaos.

I paused dead in my tracks.

Standing stiffly in the middle of the crowd was Sierra, her expression tight and guarded.

Without a second thought, I immediately walked toward her, my footsteps light against the pavement. I reached out and gently placed my hand on her shoulder.

"Sierra?" I asked softly, breaking her concentration.

Sierra immediately snapped her head around, her eyes flying wide. "Adeline!"

Before she could say anything else, my gaze drifted past her, drawn to the heavy, pulsing energy at the front of the courtyard.

I saw a familiar figure slumped and whimpering on the cold marble floor.

Chloe.

And right beside her, standing tall and severe in her immaculate royal attire, was a towering, majestic figure.

My gaze instantly softened, the walls I usually kept so tightly locked around my heart melting away in a fraction of a second.

A warm, genuine smile curved naturally across my lips.

Without thinking about where I was, or who was watching, the name slipped past my teeth.

"Gwen?" I called out.

Every single student, highborn, and heir stopped breathing. Shock ripped through the crowd like a physical blow.

Utterly, mind-numbingly paralyzed shock.

"She addressed the Dowager Luna of the Second Throne by her first name... without any titles?"