Chapter 166: Arena of Wolves

Adeline’s POV~

When I reached the dining hall, Raven and the dowager luna were already sitting there. She told me to sit and eat, so I did, and Raven’s eyes kept finding me over the table, slow and heavy, again and again. He didn’t say a single word. What was he thinking? Did he know something I didn’t? Was he worried? Angry? Or was he just looking at me because he couldn’t stop?

When I finished eating, Raven finally spoke.

"I will take her to the academy," he said, pushing his chair back. "The car is ready, grandma."

The dowager luna nodded with a smile, and I followed him out.

The car rolled to a slow stop in front of the Lycan academy, and the engine went quiet. For a moment neither of us moved. Through the tinted window I could see the tall stone gates and the students walking in, and my stomach twisted so tightly that I had to press my hand against it.

"Adeline," Raven said, and his voice was soft, much softer than I had ever heard it. "You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to. You don’t have to force yourself, and no one will think less of you. Do you understand that?"

I turned and looked at him. He had leaned closer, his dark eyes fixed on my face, and he reached out and tucked a loose strand of hair behind my ear. Then he pressed a kiss to my forehead, slow and warm, and held it there for a heartbeat longer than he needed to.

He looked genuinely worried. Yeah, he must be. The prince who made grown alphas shake was afraid for me, and I didn’t know what to do with that.

"I’m definitely doing this," I said, and I smiled so he would believe me, even though my hands were trembling in my lap. "I’m not scared at all. And why should I worry about anything? I have Four Lycan Royal Princes’ protecting me. What could possibly go wrong?"

He let out a low chuckle, and the tension in his shoulders eased a little.

"Well, hell yeah, you do," he said. "We have a small meeting this morning, but as soon as it ends we’ll be at the grounds. Do you really think we would miss watching our brave girl shift into her wolf for the first time and fight? This is your first combat, Adeline. We’ll be there before you even start."

I nodded, took a long breath, and stepped out of the car.

The corridors of the academy were loud and crowded, full of whispers and stares that I felt on my skin like needles. I kept my head up and searched every face for someone familiar. Sierra? Kai? Or even Adrian?

Sierra.

After what I had heard that night, I couldn’t think of her the same way anymore. I had heard Blake say it clearly. Sierra had been hired by the dowager luna to look after me from the very first day.

Suddenly everything made a terrible kind of sense. She was the only one who had sat beside me on that first day, so casually, when all the highborns were busy whispering and despising me because I was scentless. She had bought me salve when I was wounded badly. She had eaten with me, laughed with me, and talked to me like I was normal. She never once asked me about my missing scent, and when I finally asked her why, she said it was just a first sight vibe.

But it was never a vibe, was it? It was her royal service. She was working for the dowager luna of the second throne, after all.

Strangely, I wasn’t angry. I understood now why Adrian had told me not to tell Sierra anything.

She was the dowager luna’s loyal one, and everything I told her would reach someone else’s ears. But I still didn’t know for sure that the dowager luna was doing all this for a bad reason. Maybe she was only trying to protect me. Or was what Adrian said the truth? Were my saviors really my enemies?

I couldn’t believe that blindly. I couldn’t.

"Adeline!"

I was pulled out of my thoughts as Sierra came running toward me with her arms wide open. She hugged me tightly and then pushed back to look at my face, her eyes bright and happy.

"Hey, girl! I was waiting for you. Come on, let’s go. It’s you first combat training!"

I smiled, and it hurt more than I expected. How could someone hug me like this and still be lying? How could I want to believe her so badly?

Kai appeared at the other end of the hallway and walked up beside her. He gave her a small kiss on the cheek as they hugged, and then he turned to me with a big grin.

"Adeline, Sierra told me you’re participating in the combat training," he said. "That takes a lot of guts, you know that? Don’t worry about a thing. We’ll be the ones shouting the loudest for you, I swear."

"Especially me," Sierra cut in, still smiling wide, hooking her arm through mine. "Of course. It’s my best friend’s first combat. I’m not going to sit quietly while you do something this brave."

Best friend. The words landed in my chest like a stone. I swallowed hard and nodded.

"Thank you, both of you," I said, and my voice came out steadier than I felt. "That means a lot."

We walked together down the long corridor, and the closer we got to the grounds, the louder the noise became. The roar of voices, the stomping of feet, and the metallic smell of old blood drifted through the open doors.

Then we stepped out into the sunlight.

The grounds were huge, a wide circle of packed earth stained dark in places, and every inch of the stands around it was filled. The whole academy had come to watch. Hundreds of faces, hundreds of eyes, and all of them turned toward the arena like hungry wolves waiting for the math to begin. High above the crowd, on a raised podium, stood four empty seats, waiting for the princes.

I stopped at the entrance of the arena, my heart pounding in my ears. This was it. In a few minutes, I would walk into that circle, and everyone who had ever laughed at me would see exactly who I was.