Chapter 127: Complete Eradication

Author’s pov~

Deep under the Royal Lycan Academy, far below the classrooms and the training grounds, there was a dungeon that most students didn’t know existed.

In the darkest room of that dungeon, a girl hung from iron chains.

Chloe’s arms were pulled high above her head. Both wrists were locked in thick iron cuffs, and the chains were bolted into the stone ceiling. Her toes barely touched the cold floor. Her hair was stuck to her sweaty face, and her head hung low.

A dirty cloth was stuffed deep into her mouth. It filled it so much that she couldn’t scream, couldn’t curse, couldn’t even breathe properly.

All that came out were low, broken sobs, and they bounced off the stone walls and came back to her. She was alone in the dark, and she hated that the only voice she could hear was her own.

Think, Chloe. Think.

She closed her eyes.

I am an alpha. I am not going to die in a hole like this.

She called her wolf.

Her bones cracked. Her fingers bent and darkened. Sharp claws pushed out of her nails, and thick fur ran up her forearms. She was only halfway shifted, but it was enough. Her hands were stronger now, and she pulled.

The chains rattled. The iron cuffs dug into her wrists.

She pulled harder. Then harder again, like she wanted to rip her own hands off her body just to get out.

It doesn’t hurt.

She felt nothing. Not a sting, not a burn, not even a little ache. But dark purple bruises were already spreading across both wrists, and thin lines of blood ran down her arms.

She didn’t care. She kept pulling.

Then the door slammed open.

The sound shook the whole room. Cold air rushed in, and with it came a power so heavy and so wild that Chloe’s wolf shrank back inside her like a scared puppy. Her claws vanished. The fur sank back into her skin. Her knees went weak, and she hung from the chains like a doll.

Two tall shadows stepped into the cell.

Blake and Zyran.

Their scent hit her before she even saw their faces. It was thick, hot and strong. It was the scent of lycans who had just spent hours with their mate.

Her stomach turned.

The princes stopped in front of her. Their eyes were cold, and neither of them blinked.

Chloe stopped pulling. Sweat rolled down her forehead and into her eyes, but she didn’t dare move.

Blake looked at her wrists. Then he looked at Zyran.

"Those chains won’t work on her," Blake said, his voice flat and calm. Zyran nodded.

"Look at her. She’s trying to tear her own hands off, and she doesn’t feel a damn thing." Blake tilted his head. "But Adeline does."

Zyran’s mouth curled into a smirk. He walked a slow circle around Chloe, looking at her like she was something stuck to his shoe.

"This bitch really thought the pain-binding curse would save her," he said. "She thought we would keep her safe because every hit on her goes straight to Adeline. She thought she was untouchable."

"How terribly wrong she was."

Blake stepped closer. His voice dropped low, and it was somehow worse than shouting.

"Listen to me, you fucking snake. I would rather lock you in this cell until the end of time than let you walk around this academy anywhere near Adeline."

Chloe made a muffled sound behind the cloth. Her eyes were wide and angry.

"Oh, you want to say something?" Blake said softly. He turned his head toward the door. "Come in."

Footsteps echoed in the hallway. A middle-aged man walked in, broad and silent, with a grey streak in his dark hair. The power coming off him told Chloe he was an alpha too.

He carried a small wooden box and a glass bottle, and he didn’t look at her face even once, like he had done this kind of work before.

He walked up to Chloe and pulled the cloth out of her mouth in one rough tug.

She coughed hard and gasped for air. Her throat burned and her jaw ached. For a few seconds all she could do was breathe.

Behind her, the man set the box on a stone ledge. He opened it and began to mix something. A thick green paste, a few drops of dark liquid, some grey powder. The smell was sharp and bitter, and it made Chloe’s eyes water.

She lifted her head and looked at the two princes. Then, slowly, she laughed. It was a dry, cracked scoff.

"You really think you can keep me here?" she said, her voice rough. "You can’t do this forever. Lucas and Logan will come looking for me. They’ll follow my scent. They’ll tear this whole academy apart, and when they find me, you’ll both regret it."

For a moment, nobody spoke.

Then Blake smiled. It was a small, polite smile, and it scared her more than any growl.

"Oh, is that so?" he said. "Your brothers will track you by your scent?"

"Yes," Chloe snapped. "They will."

"But what if there’s no scent left for them to follow?" Blake asked coldly. "What if your trail ends somewhere far away from this place? What if we’ve already left a few other things for them to find instead?"

The blood drained from Chloe’s face.

"What... what are you saying?"

She took a deep breath through her nose. Then another. She sniffed the air, her own skin, her hair, her clothes.

Nothing.

She could smell stone, damp, iron and the two princes in front of her. But she couldn’t smell herself. Her own scent, the one she had carried her whole life, was gone.

"No." Her voice shook. "No, no, no. What did you do? Where is my scent? What the hell did you do to me?"

Zyran laughed. It was a low, lazy laugh, like she had just told him a joke.

"You know what’s funny?" he said. "You should be dead right now. You should have been dead the moment we found out what you did. If it weren’t for that curse, I would have ripped your throat out with my claw and thrown the rest of you to the dogs."

"Chloe, the only reason you’re still breathing is a curse on the girl you tried to ruin."

Chloe’s lips trembled. She said nothing.

Behind them, the man finished mixing. He lifted the bottle, and the paste, now thin and green, swirled inside it.

He walked over and wrapped one big hand around Chloe’s throat, tilting her head back, ready to force the medicine down.

"Stop," Blake said.

The man froze.

Blake’s voice was calm. "She won’t drink it willingly. We’d have to force it down her throat. And if you choke her, Adeline will feel every second of it. She just fell asleep, and she needs to rest. I’m not letting her wake up gasping because of this fucking bitch."

The man slowly let go of her neck. "Then what do you want me to do, Lord Blake?"

"Put it straight into her blood," Blake said. "A needle. Small and quick. The prick will only hurt Adeline for a second, and that’s a price I can live with."

The man nodded and drew the liquid into a thin glass syringe.

Chloe’s eyes went wild.

"What is that?" she screamed, thrashing against the chains. "What are you putting in me? Answer me! What is that?!"

Zyran shrugged, like she was asking about the weather.

"Something we wouldn’t waste our time on," he said, "if you were already buried in the mud, in pieces, after we killed you with our own hands."

"You can’t do this! You can’t! Please..."

The man took her forearm in an iron grip. Chloe kicked and twisted, but the chains held her still. The needle slid into the vein on the inside of her elbow, and the liquid went in slowly.

She felt nothing, but somewhere far away from them, in a quiet room, a sleeping girl frowned and shifted in her bed. That is what the two Princes thought.

The medicine moved through Chloe fast.

Her screaming turned into a groan. Her groan turned into a mumble. Her eyes rolled back, her head dropped, and her whole body went limp against the chains.

The cell fell silent.

Her chest still rose and fell. She was breathing, just deep in a heavy sleep.

Blake and Zyran stood there for a moment, looking at her. Then they turned their heads and looked at each other.

Neither of them said a word. Zyran’s mouth lifted into a slow smile. Blake’s eyes gleamed, cold and satisfied.

It was the look of two partners who had just finished the first part of a plan, and who both knew the second part was only beginning.