Chapter 112: A Mother’s Embrace

Adeline’s POV~

Heads whipped around. ​Dozens of eyes blew wide open, staring at me as if I had just grown a second head. Even Sierra turned back to me, her lips parted slightly in sheer, unadulterated disbelief.

​Then, the whispers started, trembling and frantic, buzzing like a nest of angry hornets across the stone.

​"Did she just...?"

​"She addressed the Dowager Luna of the Second Throne by her first name? Without a single title?!"

​"What is going on here? Is she completely insane?!"

​The gasps rippled through the petrified students, their brains scrambling, failing, and burning out as they tried to process the impossible thing they had just heard.

My gaze flicked over to Lucas and Logan.

They were staring at me as though I had just walked out of a nightmare, their faces entirely drained of color.

​And right at that exact second, the crushing weight of reality slammed back into my chest.

​My smile faltered.

My eyes widened slightly as the sudden, deafening silence of the academy crashed over my ears like a physical wave.

​Damn it.

​That was the exact moment I realized I had completely messed up.

I had been too overjoyed, too relieved to see a familiar face in this academy grounds, and I had casually called her by her first name in public, just like we used to do when it was only the two of us behind closed doors.

Where Gwen wasn’t the terrifying Dowager Luna of the Second Throne.

She was simply Gwen.

The woman who had always treated me like I was her own.

But this wasn’t behind closed doors.

This was the Royal Lycan Academy, and hundreds of wolves were watching.

I swallowed hard.

Slowly, I looked back at her.

Gwen was already staring at me.

I couldn’t read her expression. I don’t know what she’ll do. I don’t know how she will react to this. My heart began pounding.

Would she be angry? Would she correct me in front of everyone? Would she remind me that she was the Dowager Luna?

My lips parted immediately. ​Panic clawed at my throat, and I immediately stumbled over my words, trying to fix the disaster.

"D-Dowager Luna..."

​Her face instantly lit up as soon as her eyes met mine.

The cold, ancient, terrifying mask that had just frozen the entire courtyard melted away in a single breath.

As soon as her sharp gaze locked onto me, her expression softened into something impossibly warm and tender. I couldn’t help it, a soft, relieved smile slipped back onto my lips as well.

​A few yards away, Raven stood frozen.

He looked even more shocked than everyone else combined. Even he, her own flesh and blood, always addressed the Dowager Luna as Grandmother Gwen or with her strict royal titles.

​Yet, the Matriarch walked past all of them as if they didn’t even exist.

​She closed the distance between us, stepping right up to me, and wrapped her arms gently around my shoulders, pulling me into a warm, protective embrace.

​"Oh, sweetie... come here," she whispered softly against my hair.

She held me like she hadn’t seen me in years.

Like I was something precious.

Something she had been worried about.

Something she had been waiting to see with her own eyes.

​A collective intake of breath swept through the crowd. Then the entire courtyard went silent.

​Everyone was utterly shattered. They couldn’t believe their eyes or their ears. The Dowager Luna’s voice had completely transformed, it wasn’t the voice of a ruthless monarch. It was the voice of a doting mother.

I could practically hear everyone’s thoughts.

​She was smiling.

The Dowager Luna of the Second throne is smiling.

​It was the very first time in living memory of them that the Dowager Luna had smiled. And she was smiling only for me. Not even for her own grandson, Raven.

I had just called her by her name.

And instead of punishing me or correcting me...

She hugged me.

I felt dozens of eyes burning into my back.

​Naturally, a wave of burning jealousy and blinding envy rippled through the highborn students.

​My fingers twitched nervously at my sides.

I wanted to hug her back.

I wanted to hold her tightly.

But I didn’t dare touch her back, hyper-aware of the thousands of eyes burning holes into my back.

​Then, my gaze shifted, falling on a tall, familiar figure walking closer to us through the parting crowd.

​As soon as my eyes met Raven’s dark, intense gaze, my stomach did a violent flip.

Memories rushed into my mind.

Memories I desperately didn’t want to remember right now.

What we had done.

How close we had been.

The way his hands had touched me.

The way his voice had sounded.

Heat rushed to my face.

​I immediately looked away. Anywhere. A million times anywhere, just not at him. I suddenly became very interested in the stone floor.

​My mind was already racing in a hundred different directions, bombarded by a storm of unanswered questions.

​Why is Gwen here? What is she actually doing at this academy? Why is Chloe whimpering on the floor like a broken dog? And why do the twins look like they’ve just seen a ghost?

​My first instinct whispered a dark truth.

Chloe must have run her venomous mouth straight to the Dowager Luna. That girl couldn’t keep her mouth shut even if her life depended on it.

​Slowly, Gwen pulled back from the embrace. Her ancient eyes swept over me, taking in my appearance from my face down to my shoulders, her motherly concern overriding everything else.

​"Sweetie," Gwen spoke softly, her thumb gently brushing a stray lock of hair from my cheek. "Have you been eating properly?"

I blinked.

"What?"

She frowned. "You look pale." Her fingers gently touched my cheek.

"And you’re thinner." She looked genuinely upset.

"When was the last time you ate a proper meal?"

​"No, no..." I stammered. "I’m fine, Gwe—" ​I caught myself mid-word, panicking as I tried to correct my slip-in-law. ​"—Dowager Luna Gwen!"

​Before I could pull away, she immediately took both of my hands into her own, holding them.

​"Oh, sweetie, stop with the titles," Gwen whispered, her gaze fierce and unwavering as she looked right into my eyes. "You can call me whatever you want... and I strongly suggest you never use those Royal titles with me again."