Greymoor Academy: I Accidentally Bonded With Four Lycan Royals! novel Chapter 183

Chapter 183: 183. Behind The Shelf I

Maisie

I stood on my toes at the very top rung of the ladder, one hand braced against the last shelf in against the stone wall, the other reaching for a dust-coated tome that continued to remain just out of reach.

The ladder wobbled.

So did I.

I hissed through my teeth and stretched a little farther, my fingers grazing the spine by a whisper before slipping uselessly away. Annoying, considering I had gained a few inches since my transition and should have been tall enough by now to stop being bullied by bookshelves.

I had been in the archives section of the library for more than an hour, losing myself in genealogy records that stretched back two thousand years. Old names. Old bloodlines. Fallen Lycan houses. Entire werewolf and human dynasties that got wiped out with time.

And the more books I consumed, the more baffled I became. It wasn’t that I couldn’t find a single thing about a bloodline named ’Thorne’. It was easy to dismiss that on the off chance that Dad had adopted a last name that hadn’t been real and Philip Gruer did have more than a few screws loose in his head.

It was that I began researching Lycan bloodlines and successions, trying to find a pattern to the succession that might help build a strong enough case against the Queen, enough to convince my mates to look once more into what happened decades ago.

But there were fewer books on Lycan history than there were on werewolf history, which wasn’t surprising. Lycans had always hoarded their history and secrets to themselves. But the few books I did find, most of which I had already read copies of in high school, none of the accounts were the same. It made little sense. There were different "first queens". There were even more varied accounts on who the first Lycan was. Or how they came about.

"...and the First Wolves and Lycans spread across the world..."

Another said:

"...the Moon Goddess gifted mankind wolves as protectors..."

Another said:

"...the Lycans, the Moon Goddess’s first children, descended from the Heavens..."

Another said:

"...and they made their way into our world by crossing the Silver Gate..."

The last one had done it for me. For an academy that had existed for several decades, built and was funded by the Lycans as another one of their generous displays of goodwill, the history section was seriously lacking and full of shit.

I reached once again for the last, dusty tome I hadn’t yet touched, and when I tried jumping the last few inches to breach the gap, I got rewarded with the ladder swerving right and knocking me right off.

A startled yelp tore from my throat as I pitched backward, stomach lurching with vertigo. The floor rushed up to meet me, but before I could crash, strong arms caught me mid-fall.

I landed against a broad chest, bridal-style, legs dangling, one of his hands braced under my thighs and the other supporting my back. Sterling grey eyes stared down at me, sharp and amused, like he’d been waiting for this exact moment.

"Careful, little traitor," Bastian drawled, his tattoos stark and dangerous looking as he blocked out all the light overhead. "If you wanted my attention that badly, you could’ve just asked instead of throwing yourself at me. Though I’ve got to say..." His gaze flicked over my flushed face, lingering on my mouth. "This method has its perks."

Embarrassment and irritation heated my cheeks and I shoved at him. "Put me down, Bastian."

His arms didn’t budge. If anything, they tightened just enough to make the position feel intimate. The corner of his mouth curved into that infuriating half-smirk.

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