Chapter 55: I AM SO DEAD!

Aina

Aina felt like a walking corpse. Her mind was completely fried, her nerves stretched so thin they felt ready to snap at the slightest sound. She walked down the long, arching stone corridor leading away from the Herbalism Club, her heavy boots dragging against the floor.

I can’t believe you, Aina, she scolded herself violently in her head, her hands buried deep in her trouser pockets. You literally had hours to come up with a genius plan to avoid rugby practice, and you came up with... absolutely nothing. Zip. Zero. Just like your math test.

"Travis!" a bright, cheerful voice called out.

Aina snapped out of her spiral, raising her head to see Molly stepping out from a adjoining hallway. Molly fell into stride beside her, clutching a stack of heavy leather-bound textbooks against her chest. Aina swallowed hard, trying to sound as casual and boyish as possible despite the sheer panic clutching her throat. "Oh... hey, Molly. I actually should go right now. I have to get to rugby practice before Coach Vane skins me alive."

Molly paused, blinking at her in complete confusion. "What are you talking about?" Aina frowned, adjusting her glasses. "Well... I need to get to rugby."

"Oh! Didn’t you hear?" Molly smiled, waving a hand dismissively. "It’s canceled! My brothers have half the team out in the woods looking for their fated omega mate, so Coach Vane just canceled practice for everyone today." Aina froze dead in her tracks, her jaw dropping slightly. "Really?"

"Yeah!" Molly nodded brightly. "No practice today!"

A massive, overwhelming wave of pure relief washed over Aina’s entire body. Inside her head, she was practically throwing a full-blown parade. YES! her mind shrieked in absolute joy. I have been bought an extra fifteen hours before I have to face those bone-crushing monsters on the field! Thank you, Moon Goddess!

Molly continued walking, talking casually about some upcoming assignment, a cold, heavy pit settled right back into the bottom of Aina’s stomach.

Wait... she realized with a sickening shudder. The princes have the team searching the forest right now. And when they don’t find a single soul out there... they are going to realize I made the whole thing up. They are going to blow up on me tomorrow. I am in so much trouble.

Still, she forced a small nod toward Molly. Hey, I have to be happy for the extra time while I have it. "I’ll see you later, Molly!" Aina called out, splitting off from her and rushing down the hallway toward her dorm block.

She pushed the heavy door open. To her immense relief, the sitting room was completely empty, no sign of the guy she met earlier anywhere. She assumed he was probably still stuck in one of his late-afternoon lectures.

Aina bolted straight into her private bedroom, kicking the door shut and sliding the bolt into place. She marched over to her wooden desk, pulling out a heavy stack of textbooks before fishing out her completely empty math notebook.

She threw the notebook onto the desk, flipped to the first clean page, and unsheathed her pen with deadly seriousness.

"Time to plan my survival," she muttered to herself.

She pressed the tip of her pen to the paper, aggressively scribbling out three names in big, bold capital letters at the top of the page: MALRIC, VANCE, THEO.

Aina leaned over the desk, staring down at the names of the three royal brothers. Her mind fired off frantic scenarios. She drew long, jagged arrows branching down from each name, writing out all the horrific ways they were probably going to try and execute her the second they realized there was no rogue girl in the woods.

Plan A: What to do when they confront me?

Aina tapped her pen against her chin before furiously writing in all caps: DENY. DENY. DENY.

"That’s it," she whispered aloud, nodding to herself as if she were a military general outlining a battle strategy. "They can’t actually do anything to me if I just deny everything! When they come up to me all angry, yelling that there was no girl in the forest, I’ll just act completely shocked! I’ll tell them she must have run away! I’ll tell them she panicked and fled deeper into the mountains! Deny, deny, deny. Well... they’ll probably still try to beat me up anyway, but I have to stick to the story!"

Then, her eyes drifted to the bottom of the page, where she drew a large, ugly circle labeled VALKRY-RUGBY.

She slumped back in her chair, staring at the circle with absolute dread. Okay... rugby. How do I survive rugby without dying of asthma or getting exposed as a girl?

Aina took a deep breath and wrote down her final, desperate solution: ACCEPT DEATH / BREAK A LEG.

"It’s the only logical way," Aina justified out loud to the empty room, her purple eyes dead serious behind her glasses. "On the very first play of training tomorrow, I am going to intentionally throw myself into the path of the biggest player on the field. I will let him run straight into me and break my leg. A broken leg means a four-week medical exemption! I am fully willing to sacrifice one leg to save my lungs and keep my secret safe!"

Satisfied with her terrifying yet effective survival plan, Aina slammed the notebook shut.

Malric

The cold morning light washed over the dense pine forest, casting long, eerie shadows across the damp earth.

Malric stood near the edge of the clearing, his arms crossed over his massive chest, his jaw set in a rigid, deadly line. He hadn’t slept a single second. For the last twenty-four hours, he, Vance, and Theo had been relentlessly pacing the perimeter while their trackers scoured every inch of the territory.

A soft rustle of leaves echoed from the thick canopy above, and a pale figure dropped gracefully onto the forest floor.

It was the final vampire students, one of only twenty-five vampires attending Moonside Academy. The vampire dusted off his dark coat, bowing his head respectfully toward the three royal brothers.

"Report," Malric growled, his eyes burning with lethal impatience. "Prince Malric," the vampire spoke softly, his voice echoing in the quiet woods. "I have thoroughly searched the entire northern quadrant, the deep caves, and the high ridges. Just as the others reported... I did not find a rogue. Not a single soul has walked through these woods in months."

Something inside Malric completely snapped.

A dark, volcanic rage surged through his veins, his fists clenching so hard his knuckles turned stark white. He was exhausted, frustrated, and deeply humiliated.

"That little liar..." Malric snarled, his deep voice trembling with pure, unbridled fury. "He lied to my face." Vance stepped up beside him, shoving his hands into his leather jacket pockets, a bitter, vicious smirk spreading across his face. "I told you! I literally told you that little Travis Whitelock boy was lying! I told you from the very beginning!"

Theo walked over, his eyes cold and calculating. "And how exactly is he going to pay for this? He has wasted our entire time—time that we should have spent searching places where our fated mate might actually be. He played us for fools." Malric bared his sharp fangs, a low, murderous growl vibrating from his chest. "Everyone calm down. We will make him pay."

"Oh, please!" Vance scoffed loudly, rolling his eyes at Malric. "You’re not going to do shit! You know as well as I do that we can’t touch him out in the open. Headmaster Roiner will humble us expeditiously, and we’ll end up dead or worse."

Malric turned his head, his eyes narrowing into dangerous slits as he looked at Vance. "Nah. I’m not going to do it to his face in the hallways."

Vance paused, brow furrowing. "What do you mean?"

A dark, sinister smile slowly spread across Malric’s face. "I have had Travis placed directly onto the Shadow Fangs roster. We have Valkry-Rugby training today."

Theo’s eyes lit up with instant, sharp realization.

"I am going to make sure he regrets the very day he was born," Malric purred dangerously, taking a step toward his brothers. "We are going to hide it completely under the sport. It’ll just look like we’re playing hard during practice. So make sure he gets a brutal, thorough beating out on that field today."

Malric paused, raising a stern finger. "But... do not beat him so badly that he can’t speak. I know for a fact that he knows where our fated omega mate actually is. He was the only person in that room with her yesterday, and he will tell us where she went. I am sure he is just playing games with us."

Malric gritted his teeth, his wolf roaring for vengeance. "We’re going to show him exactly what we are capable of. Hit his jaw, break his spirit, and then... he will finally open his mouth and tell us everything."

Vance ran a heavy hand through his hair, as exhausted as he was, a dark, wicked grin spreading across his face.

"I cannot wait," Vance hissed.