Chapter 79: Another Trap?

Adeline’s pov~

I lay flat on my bed, staring blankly up at the dark, shadowed ceiling.

My mind was a chaotic mess, endlessly replaying every single second from the RDC court.

Why did they come?

The question burned behind my eyelids. It made absolutely no sense.

I had literally screamed at Raven just yesterday, telling him to stay the fuck away from me. I had shoved him back and demanded he leave me alone.

Yet there he was today, standing like an iron wall in that court. And not just him... all four Lycan Kings showed up together to throw their weight around for a scentless nobody.

I let out a heavy, exhausted sigh, tossing my head to the side.

Then my thoughts drifted to Blake. He had dropped that strange, unsettling piece of information earlier—telling me that Zyran wasn’t the one who ordered those three omegas to slaughter me in the woods.

And then Zyran... he actually apologised to me.

Why the hell would a ruthless Lycan Prince apologise to me? What is he hiding? What are all of them playing at?

"Ugh, stop overthinking..." I muttered into the quiet room.

Frustrated, I yanked the thin blanket over my head and rolled onto my side, burying my face into the flat pillow. But sleep was nowhere to be found.

My pulse was far too restless, my body still wired from the sheer adrenaline.

As I shifted, my eyes drifted over to the other side of the dorm room.

Miya’s bed was completely empty. The sheets were still neatly folded, untouched.

Where is she this late?

I reached out, grabbing my phone off the small nightstand to check the time. The screen illuminated the dark room with a harsh white glow.

It was past twelve at night.

Just as I was about to set the phone back down, a dark black banner popped up across the top of my screen.

A new notification. From an unknown, unlisted number.

I groaned softly. Great. What kind of stupid prank is this now? Did some highborn academy bully get a hold of my contact details?

I tapped the message open, expecting some pathetic insult or a foolish threat. But as my eyes scanned the words on the screen, my entire body went completely ice-cold.

The breath hitched in my throat.

It wasn’t a vague text. It wasn’t an academy taunt.

[Unknown]: I know you are trying to find your birth parents and what happened to them.

[Unknown]: I have everything that you want.

[Unknown]: Come out of the Royal Lycan Academy right now.

[Unknown]: If you want them.

My fingers trembled slightly as I re-read the four short lines over and over again, the harsh glare of the screen burning into my wide eyes.

Who the hell is this?

After what happened last time, I should probably ignore these types of messages.

But something says they really have something I need. Because this time the text is not vague. It is clear.

But still, how do they know? How does anyone know I’m looking for my real family? Is someone stalking me? How do they know I am inside these academy walls? Have they been watching my every move since I set foot on these grounds?

Is this a trap? It had to be. It was too convenient, too targeted.

But what if it wasn’t? I was still trying to figure out who Ashley and Hailey were, trying to piece together the blurred fragments of my forgotten past. If there was even a tiny fraction of a chance that someone outside those gates held the key to my bloodline... could I really afford to ignore it?

"No... I need answers," I whispered fiercely to myself.

I threw the blanket off my legs and sat up on the edge of the cot. My heart was hammering wildly against my ribs, but my resolve hardened into ice.

I stood up, pulled the dark black hood of my hoodie over my head, and zipped it up to my chin, tucking my dark hair beneath the fabric. I shoved my phone into my pocket, checked the silver blade strapped securely inside my sleeve, and slipped quietly out the dorm door.

The academy corridors were pitch-black, silent, and damp at this hour. Shadows stretched long and thin across the marble floor as I kept my footsteps completely silent.

I turned the corner near the old, abandoned hallway leading toward the stables, and froze dead in my tracks.

Two female voices were whispering frantically just a few feet ahead, hidden deep in the dark shadows near the stone arches.

I pressed my back flat against the cold stone wall, holding my breath as the familiar tones cut through the quiet night air. My blood ran completely cold.

Miya? ...And Chloe?!

"What the fuck is happening inside this damn academy?" Chloe’s harsh, angry voice hissed from the dark, her breath ragged with pure fury.

"I don’t know!" Miya’s voice snapped back in a frantic, trembling murmur. "I am confused as fuck... I still can’t believe what you’re telling me! How can a scentless rogue like her get protected by all four Lycan Kings?!"

I stood frozen in the dark, my fingers curling into tight, white-knuckled fists inside my hoodie pockets as their poisonous words washed over me.

They were the ones...

Miya was feeding her information all along.

The pieces slammed together so fast it almost knocked the wind out of my chest.

Blake was right.

My mind flashed back to Blake. He told me that Zyran wasn’t the one who ordered the hit. I had believed that Zyran was a bloodthirsty monster trying to slaughter me in the woods. But it wasn’t him.

It was never him.

It was Chloe.

She was the shadow behind the attack. She was the one who paid those three omegas to tear me apart in the dark and dump my body in the mud. And Miya, my roommate, the girl who slept five feet away from me every single night, was her rat inside the academy walls.

She fed her everything. Every step I took, every weak moment I had... Miya was reporting it straight back to Chloe.

Chloe thought I was dead after the twins rejected me. But Miya informed her that I was not dead and was still alive in this academy, and that is why Chloe arranged for the three omegas to tear me apart.

You tried to kill me twice, Chloe. You broke my soul, you made the twins reject me because you want them to yourself, and you sent killers into the woods to end me.

Zyran didn’t want me dead.

They did. And now I know.

I glanced down at my phone screen, at the text from the unknown number.

[Unknown]: I know you are trying to find your birth parents... Come out of the Royal Lycan Academy right now.

Was this text another trap set up by Chloe?