Chapter 115: The Mysterious Note

Author’s POV~

Dowager Luna Gwen’s commanding gaze sweeping over the grounds before she turned slightly toward the line of elite royal guards standing in strict, unyielding formation behind her.

The moment Adeline was out of sight, the softness in her eyes disappeared.

What remained was the cold authority of the woman who ruled the Second Throne.

She singled out the captain of the guard with a sharp flick of her wrist.

"Step forward," Gwen ordered, her voice carrying a cold, effortless authority.

The armored wolf guard immediately strode forward, snapping his heels together and bowing deeply from the waist.

"Yes, Dowager Luna," he rumbled respectfully, waiting for his orders.

Gwen’s expression remained an unreadable mask of ice, but her words shattered what little composure the surrounding students had left.

"Change the academy food menu immediately."

The guard looked slightly surprised but quickly lowered his head.

"Make sure the kitchens are rewritten to include all of her favourites, every single dish, precisely as she likes them. I don’t want her having to ask for anything. Make sure the kitchen knows exactly what she likes. If I find out she has gone a single day eating substandard meals in this academy, every chef on this campus will be replaced immediately."

Gwen instructed, her tone dropping into a sharp, uncompromising command.

The guard nodded firmly.

"Yes, Dowager Luna. I’ll inform the head chef immediately."

A collective gasp echoed silently through the petrified crowd.

Change the entire academy menu? For her?

The guard didn’t hesitate for a single second. He lowered his head even further, his voice firm and steady.

"It will be done immediately, Dowager Luna," he replied respectfully.

With a sharp turn, the guard dismissed himself, hurrying off toward the main kitchens to execute the royal command.

Gwen watched him go for a brief second before her eyes hardened once more. She didn’t spare another glance at the cowering students, the trembling highborns, or the broken figure of Chloe still whimpering in the dirt.

Turning her back on the chaos, the Matriarch of the Second Throne made her unhurried, majestic way toward the main academy entrance.

Gwen walked toward the entrance without looking at anyone.

Two royal guards followed several steps behind her.

~

Adeline’s POV~

As soon as I reached the heavy doors of my dorm building, I wrenched myself out from under his arm, stepping back as if his touch had burned me. I refused to meet his dark, burning gaze, my words tumbling out in a rapid, desperate stream.

"I will find my way to the entrance myself after taking my things," I stammered, keeping my head down, my pulse hammering wildly against my ribs.

"You don’t have to come inside. I’ll be out in a few minutes, so you can just—" He cut me off instantly.

"I’ll wait right here," Raven said, his deep voice carrying a quiet, absolute finality.

I finally glanced at him.

He stood there with his hands in his pockets, his expression calm.

"Make it fast."

I frowned.

"I said you don’t have to wait."

"I heard you."

"Then why are you still standing here?"

His eyes met mine.

"Because I said I’ll wait."

That quiet certainty somehow made arguing with him feel useless.

"I won’t take long," I muttered.

"I know."

I turned around before he could say anything else, and walked straight into the building. The moment the door closed behind me, I released a breath I hadn’t realized I was holding.

My heart was still beating too fast.

I didn’t have much to pack. In fact, there was nothing truly necessary here for me to take, no cherished belongings, no memories I would miss.

This room had never really felt like home anyway.

It was only a place where I slept.

A place where I stayed until the next day.

I walked over to the small wooden desk, snatched my phone up off the surface, and shoved it into the pocket of my hoodie.

My chest rose and fell in shallow, jagged breaths. What is happening to me? Why did Gwen invite me to a royal family dinner? And that word... did he really call me ’love’?

My mind spun in circles, a chaotic storm of fear, confusion, and a terrifying, magnetic pull that I hated myself for feeling.

I turned sharply toward the door, ready to leave, ready to face whatever cold trap was waiting for me outside.

Then, I stopped dead in my tracks.

My mind reacted slowly, lagging behind the sudden, sharp prickle of intuition at the back of my neck. I felt something mysterious lingering in the air.

Slowly, I turned my head back, towards the center of the room.

The scent was too light, barely a ghost in the corners of the room, but I was sure of it, it was an Alpha.

My own sense of smell wasn’t the sharpest, nor was it the worst, but a foreign trace like this didn’t just appear out of nowhere.

This isn’t Miya’s scent...

Someone had been here.

Someone had just slipped away before I walked in.

My gaze traveled frantically around the room, searching the shadows for a hidden figure, a trap, anything. But everything was still in place. The bed was made. The desk was clear.

Yet, something was deeply, chillingly off.

My eyes locked onto the bedside table. I noticed something sitting there that hadn’t been there the moment I left. I remembered placing my phone beside the lamp.

There had been nothing underneath it.

A detail I knew for an absolute fact I had never left behind.

A crisp white piece of paper, peeking out quietly beneath the base of the reading lamp.

My feet moved on their own, taking hesitant steps across the floor until my fingers reached out and pulled the note free from beneath the base of the lamp.

I unfolded the paper and read the words scrawled across it.

I know you didn’t come out of the academy because you didn’t believe me when I said I know about your parents, but that is the truth.

So this is the same person who sent me those text messages? That person is inside this Royal Lycan Academy? Too close than I thought.Who is this?

But I understand you can’t trust anyone who just walks up and claims they know about your family history. So, I will tell you something that will make you believe me.

Your mom is Omega Scarlett. I know her.

I know your parents. I know what really happened to them.

My eyes widened. My breath completely vanished from my lungs. Everything inside me went still.

Scarlett.

My mother’s name.A name I had kept buried deep inside me.

A name I had never mentioned to anyone.

~

Author’s POV~

"No, no, no, please leave me! Where the hell are you taking me?!"

The desperate, terrified female voice echoed harshly through the cold, damp stone walls of the underground dungeon. Heavy footsteps scraped against the floor as two massive alpha guards dragged the struggling female forward. She kicked and fought with every ounce of energy she had left, but her frantic resistance was entirely useless against their brute strength.

"Where am I?! Why am I in this place?!" she yelled out in pure terror, her voice breaking into a ragged sob.

Neither wolf answered.

Their faces remained cold.

Their grip only tightened.

The woman looked around desperately.

The dungeon was pitch-black, suffocating, and completely deserted save for the three of them.

There was no single soul around to hear her screams. Without a word of pity, the two alpha guards forced her down and tightly bound her wrists to the heavy wooden arms of a chair with thick, rough ropes.

One of the guards grunted, patting down his jacket before looking at his companion. "Stay here and watch her," he ordered coldly. "I will go look for the Prince and tell him the work is done."

The second guard nodded, crossing his arms over his chest as his partner turned and vanished into the shadows of the hallway.

Left alone in the freezing dark, the female gathered every last pound of her remaining strength. She threw her head back and screamed into the emptiness. "Someone help me! Is someone there?!"

She tugged violently against the ropes, the coarse hemp cutting raw into her skin until it began to bleed. Panic clawed at her throat. Her mind raced in a frantic, confused blur.

’Prince? The Prince asked them to kidnap me? I was returning to my dorm but someone caught up with me from behind and knocked me out. When I opened my eyes I was already been dragged away by these two Alpha guard into this dungeon which is beneath the Royal Lycan Academy.’

Desperate and running out of options, she squeezed her eyes tightly shut, to let her wolf take over, to fight her way out of this nightmare.

Heavy, deliberate footsteps echoed from the darkness of the corridor.

She froze.

"Planning to escape already?" a deep, smooth, and utterly chilling voice cut through the silence. "Well, of course... you are not leaving this dungeon alive."

Her eyes flew open. She gasped, her breath hitching in her throat as a tall, imposing figure slowly stepped out from the deep shadows of the archway.

The dim torchlight caught the cruel, flawless angles of his face.

Prince Zyran.

The ruthless, merciless heir of the Third Throne.

She stared up at him, her entire body trembling uncontrollably despite her desperate try to stay calm.

"P-Prince Lord... Zyran...?" she whimpered, her voice shaking so hard the words barely came out.