Chapter 15: Moonball

Roxanne woke up already regretting the fact that she had to go to school.

Yesterday sat heavy in the back of her mind, refusing to let her forget it. She had come to Moonstone Academy hoping for a fresh start.

Instead, she’d somehow ended up with four royal Lycans attached to her like a curse she couldn’t shake.

Isla was already up, humming as she dug through her closet, chattering about upcoming classes, a club fair happening later in the week, and at least three separate pieces of gossip she’d already collected before breakfast.

Roxanne got dressed in silence, only half listening.

Isla noticed. "Still thinking about your mom?"

"A little." Roxanne didn’t elaborate, and Isla, to her credit, didn’t push.

"What about the royal protection thing?" Isla asked instead.

Roxanne groaned. "I don’t need four people following me around."

"They’re the Moonstone brothers."

"I know who they are. I don’t understand why that’s supposed to make it better."

Isla gave her a look like she’d just admitted to not understanding gravity. "They’re basically the most famous students in the entire academy."

"Being famous doesn’t make them less annoying."

They left the dorm together, and Roxanne had almost convinced herself the day might start peacefully.

Then she stepped outside and saw them.

All four. Lucien, Roshan, Liam, and Kai, waiting near the courtyard like this was simply where they belonged now.

Roxanne stopped so abruptly that Isla nearly walked into her. Liam spotted her first, his face lighting up. "Morning, favorite thief."

"I didn’t steal anything."

"That’s not what I meant." He fell into step beside her without waiting for permission.

"Is this really necessary?" Roxanne asked.

"We’re accompanying you to breakfast," Lucien said.

"I know how to walk to the cafeteria."

"I know."

He didn’t argue further. He simply kept walking, which somehow made it harder to fight him than if he’d actually tried to justify himself.

Isla was clearly struggling not to smile.

"Don’t," Roxanne warned.

Isla looked away immediately, though her shoulders were still shaking.

The cafeteria was loud and crowded, and Roxanne chose a table tucked away from the busiest section, hoping for five minutes of peace.

It lasted about three seconds.

Liam dropped into the seat across from her. Roshan sat beside Lucien. Kai took the end of the table without a word.

Roxanne stared at the arrangement. "Seriously?"

Liam glanced around theatrically. "What?"

"There are literally hundreds of empty seats in here."

"And yet fate brought us here."

"I don’t believe in fate," Roxanne said, sharper than she meant to.

A brief silence followed. Liam didn’t push, reading something in her tone he chose not to poke at. Instead, he asked what classes she had that morning, and Isla filled in the details before Roxanne could decide whether to answer.

"What are you actually good at?" Liam asked eventually.

"I can handle myself."

"That’s not an answer."

"I’m good at plenty of things."

"Name one."

"I used to play basketball," Roxanne said, mostly to make him stop asking.

Liam’s interest sharpened instantly. "You play?"

"Used to."

"Interesting."

Roxanne realized, a beat too late, that she’d just handed him something he was clearly going to use against her.

Wolf Control class came next, and it was the first real glimpse Roxanne had gotten of what the academy actually valued. The instructor explained, with more seriousness than she expected, that strength without discipline was dangerous — not just to the wolf carrying it, but to everyone standing nearby.

The exercise was simple in theory. Draw out a small piece of their wolf nature without fully shifting. Claws. Hearing. Sight. Scent. Control, not transformation.

Roxanne managed for the first minute.

Then the sensations overwhelmed her all at once. The room got too loud, conversations from across the space suddenly sharp in her ears. Smells layered on top of each other until she couldn’t separate them. Her whole body tensed, and the harder she fought it, the worse it got.

"Calm yourself," the instructor said.

Easier said than done, especially with the entire room watching, especially with four royal Lycans among them.

Kai didn’t rush over. He simply watched from a few feet away, and when he finally spoke, his voice was quiet and completely unbothered.

"Stop fighting it."

"I know what I’m doing."

"Then do it."

The bluntness annoyed her more than it should have. But something about it also worked. She stopped trying to crush the sensation and focused instead on managing it, one piece at a time. Slow breath. Loosen her shoulders. Let the sound settle instead of fighting it into silence.

It worked.

The instructor gave a small, approving nod. Kai said nothing, but Roxanne caught the faint flicker of approval in his eyes anyway.

Outside after class, Liam immediately started imitating her intense, focused expression from the exercise.

"Stop that."

He didn’t.

"I will hit you."

"There she is," Liam said, grinning. "I like this version of you. The one that looks like she wants to murder everyone."

"You make it very easy to want that."

He laughed, unbothered, then added, "I’m starting to think you like me."

"I don’t."

"You thought about that answer for way too long."

She rolled her eyes and walked ahead, but she was smiling before she caught herself and made it stop. She didn’t want to enjoy this. She didn’t want to get attached to anyone.

Not again.

Further down the hallway, Dorian saw her.

She was laughing. Surrounded. Comfortable in a way he hadn’t seen since before everything fell apart between them. Liam said something else, and she laughed again, and something tightened uncomfortably in Dorian’s chest.

Kai walked beside her. Then Roshan. Then Lucien, close enough to matter.

Four royal Lycans, all orbiting a girl he’d rejected weeks ago.

He told himself it meant nothing. He’d made his choice. He’d chosen Arabella.

So why did this bother him?

"What are you looking at?" Arabella asked, appearing at his side.

"Nothing," he said, though his eyes drifted back one more time before he forced himself to look away.

At their next class, Joanna approached Liam and Kai with the easy familiarity of someone who’d known them far longer than Roxanne had. She asked Liam about an upcoming academy event, the conversation light and practiced.

Then her eyes moved to Roxanne, and her smile shifted into something smaller. Not unfriendly. Just deliberate.

"I didn’t realize the royal protection assignment included socializing," Joanna said.

Roxanne understood exactly what she meant.

Before she could answer, Liam said simply, "It does now," without moving an inch away from Roxanne’s side.

Joanna’s expression flickered. Kai noticed. So did Roxanne.

The classroom lesson had barely started when an announcement interrupted it, the instructor’s voice replaced by an academy-wide notice.

Moonball season was beginning.

The room erupted immediately, students already trading names, arguing over teams, buzzing with a kind of excitement Roxanne hadn’t seen since she arrived.

"Are you playing?" Isla asked.

"I don’t know."

Liam turned around at that, entirely too interested. "You play?"

"Used to."

His grin widened. "Good."

"What does that mean?"

"You’re playing with us."

"Absolutely not."

"We’ll see."

Roxanne looked to Lucien for backup. He offered none.

"Moonball is a supervised academy activity," he said evenly. "Given your circumstances, participating in supervised events is preferable to isolating yourself."

"You’re all insane."

"You’ll survive," Liam said.

"Probably," Kai added.

Roxanne turned to him in disbelief, which only made Liam laugh harder. Even Roshan’s mouth twitched at the corner.

For the first time since arriving at Moonstone Academy, Roxanne found herself laughing along with them instead of simply enduring them.

She’d come here expecting to be alone.

Instead, somehow, these four brothers had already worked themselves into her daily life, and she had absolutely no idea how to stop it.

Moonball was supposed to be a school sport.

Somehow, Roxanne had a feeling playing it with the four Moonstone brothers was going to become a much bigger problem.