Greymoor Academy: I Accidentally Bonded With Four Lycan Royals! novel Chapter 81

Chapter 81: 81. Duel II

Maisie

No matter how hard they tried to reach her, my Lycan refused to surface.

I swore she was toying with me.

Soren had shown up with a platter of food that I ignored and what followed was a blur of frustration. Heated arguments erupted between the four of them about what else they could try, speaking about my body like I wasn’t a part of the conversation. Blood. Pain. Fear. Power exchange. Quinlan suggested biting me again. I flat-out refused.

Jericho did it anyway.

He sank his teeth into the curve of my shoulder without warning. I cried out and shoved him away, but it changed nothing. The fresh bite burned, the bond flared... and my Lycan still wouldn’t surface.

We ran out of ideas and time.

In exactly two hours and forty six minutes, the Queen’s guards arrived.

*****

There was something in the air. Perhaps it was the red moon, casting everything in a blush-hazed glow. Or it was the scent of fire and smoke, entwined with some sweet and mouth-watering. Or maybe it was the sound of the drumbeats that synced with my pulse, spiking it to an erratic point.

Mercer was briefing me on Tessa—her favorite moves, her dirty tricks, how she liked to psychologically break her opponents before delivering the final blow—and I knew I should’ve been listening, but I couldn’t take my eyes away from the moon nor stop my fingers from tingling and jerking with the strange urge to... dance.

The caves were far behind the castle, hidden behind a cluster of woods and ancient trees that you couldn’t have stumbled upon randomly, even by mistake.

Mercer pushed something sharp into my fingers. It was a lovely dagger of silver and ash. "I didn’t know weapons were allowed," I said, fighting off the pull to the clearing as the drums beat even faster and louder.

It was affecting the Lycans too.

Quinlan’s eyes kept switching from pitch black to blue, and Soren’s fangs were out. Jericho kept blinking hard, like it was difficult to focus and Mercer’s hair was growing, lengthening just like his nails were.

"They typically aren’t," Quinlan answered, voice thick. "But in a fight like this, no one gets to condemn you for choosing whatever methods you adopt to stay alive."

I didn’t take the dagger. "I’m not a cheat. If I win, I’ll win fair and square."

Mercer shook his head. "Everyone in that gathering knows this is anything but a fair fight."

"Thank you, for the vote of confidence," I said bitterly. "If you thought the only way I could get out of this in one piece was by cheating my way out of it, then the Queen was right. You shouldn’t have married me."

I turned on my heel and left with the guards.

When the clearing came to view, it was all I could do not to gasp.

Hundreds of Lycans had gathered. Most were already half-shifted, eyes glowing, claws extended, bodies painted in sweat and firelight.

While the ’maidens’ were stripped and brought to the fire to be ’chosen’, and then taken into the caves, the others would be hunted in the woods. Chased. Pinned. They would be brought back to the fires for the Orgia—more like orgy—for hours of raw, public ’breeding’ under the red moon.

She carried no weapons. She didn’t need any. Her body was already half-shifted elegant claws tipping her fingers, eyes dark. She looked confident. Hungry. Bloodthirsty.

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