Chapter 55: "I Wish You’d Fuck Off!"

Adeline’s pov~

Fuck!

Five highborn females.

Dressed in tailored silk academy uniforms, their arms crossed over their chests, their faces twisted into arrogant, malicious grins.

The girl standing in the centre, a noble from a prominent eastern pack with caked-on foundation and sharp, dark eyeliner, stepped forward, her eyes gleaming with wicked excitement.

"Well, well, well. Look who finally decided to crawl out of her dark little hole," she sneered.

"Did you really think you could just walk away like that, Adeline? Did you honestly think pulling a pathetic, dramatic scene in front of everyone was going to get the Lords’ attention and make you look like some mysterious heroine? You really are a fucking pathetic bitch! A scentless one by the way."

"Look at her, always hiding inside that hoodie and acts like she don’t want any attention but the part she plays was really well scripted. I really have to tell her that she was pretty amazing playing slutty tricks to get the Four Princes attention," another one sneered with a flawless grin on her face.

I stopped dead in my tracks, my jaw clenching hard beneath my hood.

I didn’t have time for this childish, highborn stupid trash.

"You’re nothing but a pathetic, scentless bitch," another girl beside her spat, taking a step closer, her manicured nails digging into her own arm.

"Lord Zyran is going to rip you apart for the stunt you pulled yesterday. You actually dared to lay your filthy hand on a Lord of the High Thrones? You dared to slap him in front of the court? You are going to pay with your life, your soul, your blood, and everything you own. You won’t survive the week."

"Oh! You probably wouldn’t survive a day, let alone a week?" another one scoffed.

"It is a miracle you survived the night after your dumb stunt. Just make sure you have your pathetic last wish ready."

I stood there in complete silence.

The cold marble floor felt like ice under my shoes. My heart was pounding, not out of fear, but out of absolute, suffocating exhaustion.

I was so sick of it.

I was so damn tired of every arrogant, highborn noble in this realm treating me like a piece of dirt they could kick around whenever they were bored, or maybe jealous.

I let out a low, dry scoff.

I lifted my head slowly, letting the dim morning light hit the bottom half of my face, a cold, dead expression settling over my features.

"Yeah," I said, my voice dangerously low, flat, and stripped of any emotion. "I actually do have a wish. Want to know what it is?"

The leader of the group blinked, slightly caught off guard by the total lack of panic in my voice.

She tilted her head, her smile turning sharper. "Oh? Is it? Enlighten us, scentless. What is your little wish?"

I glared straight into her eyes, my gaze hollow and lethal.

"Fuck off. I wish you’d fuck off," I muttered coldly, my teeth grinding together. "Get the absolute fuck out of my way."

The girls’ expressions shattered in an instant. Their wicked, smug smiles vanished, replaced by sheer shock and raging disbelief.

"How dare you, you little bit—" the lead girl roared, her face twisting in fury.

"Unless," I cut her off sharply, stepping right into her personal space without an ounce of hesitation, my voice cutting through her outrage like a rusty blade, "you want me to put a few deep, permanent scratches across those terrible, powder-covered faces of yours. Honestly, the only thing that terrifies me right now isn’t Lord Zyran or your stupid threats... It’s the thought that I might actually have to look at what your terrible faces look like once all that fake makeup gets wiped off."

"You fucking bitch—!" she shrieked, raising her hand, her knuckles white as she prepared to strike me.

Before her hand could even move an inch down, the words died instantly in her throat.

The air in the corridor violently shifted. The temperature dropped ten degrees in a split second, a suffocating, heavy pressure rolling through the hallway like a wave of dark thunder.

A figure emerged from the shadow right behind me. A shadow fell over me from behind, but I didn’t turn around.

I didn’t even need to turn around to know who it was.

The heavy, suffocating scent of dark cologne and highborn blood washed over my senses instantly.

One of the Lycan princes.

Definitely, it has to be one of them.

I confirmed it the second I looked at the looks on those girls’ faces.

Their furious, ugly expressions melted away instantly.

Their faces transformed from highborn rage into sickening, desperate, pick-me smiles.

Their postures softened, their eyes widening with fake, innocent sweetness as they practically melted on the spot, trying to look as appealing as humanly possible to the monster standing behind me.

I didn’t turn around.

To my surprise, the girls immediately parted like the Red Sea, scrambling backwards against the stone walls to make a wide, clear path.

The second the gap opened, I didn’t waste a single breath.

I broke into a fast stride, walking straight past the girls without giving them another glance, my eyes darting frantically down the long, arching hallway.

There she is.

Near the end of the corridor, standing by the heavy oak library doors, was Sierra.

"Sierra!" I rasped out under my breath, my legs moving faster, my heart hammering against my ribs as I rushed straight toward her.

I reached Sierra in a flurry of movement, grabbing her upper arm and yanking her.

"Whoa—Adeline?!" Sierra gasped, her eyes wide with shock as she stumbled back.

Her hand immediately flew to her chest, her breathing frantic.

"What is wrong with you? Did something happen to you?"

"Listen to me," I rasped, my voice dropping into an intense, dark whisper. "Listen to me right now, Sierra. You cannot—under any circumstances—tell a single living soul about what I said yesterday."

Sierra blinked, her expression shifting from panic to sheer confusion, her sharp eyes narrowing as she searched my face. "What are you talking about? What did you say yesterday?"

"The blood!" I hissed, leaning in so close I could feel the heat radiating off her skin, making sure my voice didn’t carry even an inch into the echoing corridor. "About Lord Raven, about spitting his blood after our confrontation! You can’t repeat it! If anyone asks, if anyone tries to drag information out of you, you never heard it. You know nothing! Do you understand me?!"

Sierra froze, her brow furrowing deeply as she absorbed the raw, frantic terror bleeding out of my pores. "Wait... what? Adeline, why? What happened? Did Raven come to you? Did he do something to you last night?! What the fuck is going on—"

"Just don’t ask me why!" I cut her off, my voice cracking under the suffocating weight of my desperation.

I squeezed her arm tighter, my eyes wide, dark, and wild as I stared straight into hers.

"Please, Sierra. I am begging you. Do not ask me why. Just promise me you won’t tell anyone. Not a word. Not a whisper. Just don’t tell anyone."

Sierra stared at me in complete, stunned silence. She let out a long, slow breath, her posture softening as she gently reached up and placed her hand over mine, prying my locked fingers off her arm.

"Okay," Sierra whispered softly, her voice firm, steady, and utterly serious. "Okay. I won’t say a word, Adeline."

The second those words left her lips, the invisible, crushing weight pinning my lungs dissolved. I let out a massive, ragged sigh of relief.

"Thank you," I breathed, my voice barely a thread in the dark alcove.

I pulled my hoodie down lower over my brow, stepping back into the brightly lit hallway alongside her. We fell into step, walking briskly down the grand corridor toward the main lecture halls.

"Are you going to be okay?" Sierra asked under her breath, casting a worried, sideways glance at me as we navigated through the sea of highborn students chatting and laughing around us.

"I’m fine," I said, keeping my eyes locked straight ahead.

"You don’t look fine," Sierra countered, her tone sharp with genuine concern.

I kept my mouth shut, my mind spiraling back into the dark abyss of my own thoughts as we pushed open the heavy double doors of the classroom.