Chapter 14: Amelia Silver

Roxanne’s stomach dropped the moment she saw who was inside.

A woman sat in one of the chairs facing the principal’s desk. Fair skin, dark hair pulled back neatly, delicate cheekbones Roxanne would have recognized anywhere, even after all this time.

Amelia Silver. Her mother.

Roxanne didn’t run into her arms. She simply stood in the doorway, the question forming before anything else could.

Why is she here?

Amelia looked up, and relief broke across her face the second their eyes met. She rose quickly, crossing the room, hands immediately going to Roxanne’s face, her shoulders, her arms, checking her over like her body might contradict what her eyes were seeing.

Roxanne let her, for a moment, before gently stepping back.

"I was terrified," Amelia said. "The school called and told me you’d fallen from the third floor. I nearly fainted."

Roxanne shrugged. "I’m fine."

Amelia looked at her like that answer wasn’t nearly enough. "What happened? Why were you on the third floor? Why was Arabella there? How did you survive a fall like that?"

Roxanne gave her the safest version. She and Arabella had argued. Things had escalated. Arabella had pushed her.

Something hardened in Amelia’s expression, and for a moment, the mother in her surfaced fully.

"Were you hurt anywhere else?"

"No."

Once Amelia seemed satisfied that Roxanne was physically fine, her voice softened into something more careful, more personal.

"And Dorian," she said slowly. "Are you... suffering? Because of the rejection?"

The question landed harder than Roxanne expected. She thought of the apartment. The wine bottle. The mate bond snapping into place right before he tore it apart.

She refused to let her mother see any of that crack through.

"I’ve accepted it," Roxanne said. "I’m not going to beg someone to love me."

Amelia’s face fell, sadness settling into the lines around her eyes.

"I’m sorry," she said. "Not just about Dorian. For everything. I should have been there for you."

"You weren’t."

That was all Roxanne offered. She didn’t launch into everything else sitting underneath those two words. She let the silence carry it instead.

Amelia looked hurt. Roxanne looked away.

Amelia opened her mouth to say something else, but the door opened before she could, and the principal walked in, taking his seat behind the desk.

The interruption gave Roxanne an excuse to breathe.

The principal explained that Roxanne would be permitted to remain at the academy for now, though the investigation into the incident wasn’t finished. Given the circumstances surrounding her fall, the academy had decided to place her under royal protection until things were resolved.

Amelia frowned immediately. "Royal protection?"

"The Moonstone brothers," Roxanne said quickly. "They’re involved somehow."

"The Moonstone brothers?"

"They’re bullies," Roxanne muttered.

Amelia stared at her. "Bullies don’t usually use royal authority to protect someone."

"They’re not normal bullies."

Amelia’s eyes narrowed slightly, sharp in a way Roxanne recognized from childhood, right before she asked exactly the question Roxanne didn’t want.

"Is one of them your boyfriend?"

Roxanne nearly choked. "No."

"A crush, then?"

"No."

"Not even one?"

"Mother."

Amelia’s mouth curved, faint and knowing. "You don’t have to be embarrassed."

"I’m not embarrassed. There’s nothing to be embarrassed about, because there’s nothing happening."

The principal cleared his throat, clearly done with the direction of the conversation. "The meeting is concluded," he said, a little too quickly.

Amelia rose reluctantly. Before leaving, she gave Roxanne one more look, softer now, almost worried.

"Take care of yourself," she said.

Roxanne nodded, and Amelia walked out ahead of her.

The second Roxanne stepped into the hallway, she froze.

All four Moonstone brothers were standing there, waiting.

Lucien. Roshan. Liam. Kai.

Amelia noticed them instantly, and Roxanne could practically see the thoughts assembling behind her mother’s eyes. She wanted to disappear into the floor.

Liam gave her an amused look over Amelia’s shoulder.

Amelia crossed to the brothers first, and they greeted her with the kind of practiced respect that made it obvious this wasn’t the first time royal families had crossed paths. Then she turned back to Roxanne.

"I have to get back to the estate," she said. "Your stepfather is hosting another feast." Her expression flickered, apologetic. "I hope you’ll come home for the holiday."

Roxanne gave a noncommittal sound that wasn’t quite a yes.

Amelia’s gaze lingered on her a moment longer before she turned and walked past the brothers, giving each of them a final look. Her eyes stayed on Liam half a second longer than the others.

Then she was gone.

The moment she disappeared around the corner, Liam spoke.

"So..."

"Don’t," Roxanne said.

"We’re your bullies?"

She closed her eyes. Of all the things he could have chosen to remember.

"Forget that conversation happened."

"Which one of us does she think is your boyfriend?"

"I will end you."

Liam looked thrilled by the threat.

"She asked if we were your lovers," Roshan said, entirely serious.

Roxanne spun toward him. "You were listening?"

"The door wasn’t soundproof."

Liam laughed outright. Roxanne wanted to sink through the floor and never resurface.

"You denied having a crush on us," Kai added quietly.

She stared at him. "Because I don’t."

Kai simply nodded. "Interesting."

Then he walked off, and that single word bothered her far more than it had any right to.

Lucien finally cut through the teasing. "We need to go."

"Where?"

"Class."

Roxanne started walking on her own. Lucien followed anyway.

She glanced back. "Why are you following me?"

"The royal protection arrangement starts immediately."

She groaned. "I need four guards now?"

"We’re not your guards."

"Then what are you?"

"Your protection."

"That’s the same thing."

"I prefer royal escort," Liam offered, falling into step beside her.

"I prefer being left alone."

"Unfortunate," Liam said, smiling.

The five of them made their way down the hallway together, and Roxanne quickly understood exactly how this was going to look. Students stared. Whispers followed. She was surrounded on all sides by the four most talked-about men in the academy, and there was absolutely no way to pretend otherwise.

"Does everyone always stare at you like this?" she asked.

"Yes," Liam said, unbothered, drifting closer to her side.

She stepped away. He followed.

She stepped away again. He followed again.

She finally stopped. "Are you doing this on purpose?"

"Doing what?"

"Walking beside me."

He glanced at the empty space on his other side, as though considering it seriously. "I like this side."

She gave him a look that did absolutely nothing to discourage him.

By the time they reached the classroom and Roxanne sat down, she noticed her hands had gone cold, the aftereffects of the morning finally catching up with her. She rubbed them together without thinking.

Roshan noticed. He didn’t say anything. He simply slipped off his jacket and draped it over the back of her chair.

She looked at it, then at him. "What is this?"

"A jacket."

"I can see that."

"Then why did you ask?"

She had no answer for that. He turned back toward the front of the room before she could come up with one.

She told herself she didn’t need it.

She didn’t take it off.

Before the professor arrived, she found her gaze drifting toward the hallway, her mother’s face surfacing again in her mind, uninvited.

Lucien noticed.

He didn’t ask what had passed between them. He simply said, quietly, "You don’t have to talk about it."

"About what?"

"Whatever you’re thinking about."

That was all. He faced forward again, and Roxanne studied him for a moment longer than she meant to.

Irritating. Nosy. Overbearing. Strange.

And, somehow, different.

She shut that thought down before it could go any further. She wasn’t interested in any of them. She didn’t need anyone, least of all four royal Lycans who seemed to have appointed themselves her permanent shadow.

The professor walked in, and Roxanne finally let herself relax.

Then she looked around the room.

Liam was sitting beside her. Roshan was directly behind her. Kai sat across the aisle. Lucien was already positioned near the front, close enough to watch the entire room without appearing to.

All four of them. Every class. Apparently indefinitely.

Roxanne sank lower into her chair.

She had spent weeks trying to escape one man who hadn’t wanted her.

Now four men seemed determined never to leave her alone.

And somehow, she had a feeling this problem was going to be much harder to solve.