The True Alpha of Lupine (Seraphina and Ronan) novel Chapter 38

Chapter 38 Suspicious

SERAPHINA

Expelled.

The word rang through my skull like a death knell.

My body remained coiled, fists still slick with blood, chest heaving as though I’d just sprinted through fire. But the true fire burned in Alpha Gideon’s eyes–not fury, not even outrage–judgment. Final. Irrevocable.

“I refuse,” I said between ragged breaths.

“What?” Alpha Gideon’s face contorted with rage. He was a man accustomed to silence after he spoke, a man who had never tolerated disobedience.

“I refuse to accept your decision, Alpha Gideon,” I rasped, stepping forward. I didn’t care how Ronan looked or what he might be thinking. My focus was on the Alpha who had just condemned me without trial. “There was no hearing. No testimony. Nothing. You’ve expelled me from the Academy without a single word in my defense.”

“You assaulted eight Alphas,” Gideon snapped. “Inside Academy walls. Under Academy law, that alone warrants expulsion.”

I wiped the blood from my chin with the back of my hand, my voice flat and cold. “And–what if those eight weren’t just Alphas? What if they were predators? What if I was defending myself?”

Dante’s voice cut in smoothly, his tone laced with mockery. “Eight Alphas allegedly attacked you, and somehow, they’re the ones unconscious or whimpering on the ground? What a convenient little story.”

Phina growled in my mind, a sharp, furious sound.

“Convenient?” I let out a bitter laugh. “Then maybe take a closer look at the Alpha with his pants around his knees. Or the one who’s too terrified to even breathe.”

Reed hadn’t moved. Cassius was still crying like a wounded cub, clutching his broken knee. As for the others, not one of them met Alpha Gideon’s eyes. Not a single one dared to speak.

“You think I started this?” I said, my voice louder, steadier. “You think I just… snapped?”

“He’s lying!” one of them shouted. “That Darven bastard attacked us first-!”

My head snapped toward the Alpha with the shattered nose. He flinched under my glare but continued spewing lies.

“Really?” Ronan’s voice sliced through the room–smooth, cold, lethal. “You dare lie in my presence? I witnessed everything.” He paused, eyes narrowing with icy amusement. “Or are you suggesting I’m blind?”

All heads turned to

him.

That Alpha lowered his eyes in fear, but still refused to speak the truth. That silence only made things worse for me.

I turned to Alpha Gideon, locking eyes with him. “I understand your anger over this brawl, but I beg you to look deeper. Nothing here is what it seems. Look at these so–called victims–bloodied, broken, afraid but nothing else to say other than blaming me for everything. Look at Alpha Ronan, whose presence is not causal. Look at Dante, who somehow received word of this fight only after it ended. Isn’t all of this suspicious?”

I felt Dante’s burning eyes on my back that I easily ignored but not Ronan’s stare. My muscles tensed–I hated using him as leverage, but right now, I was ready to do anything to stop this expulsion.

“And you,” I said quietly, meeting Dante’s eyes, “arrived suspiciously fast, only after it was over. Yet here you are–calm, spotless, uninvolved? Please don’t treat others like they don’t actually have brains to understand your game,”

Dante’s expression remained perfectly composed, all innocence and cool detachment. But Alpha Gideon’s silence stretched long, and that disturbed him.

8:18 PM P.

“Well, this is what I call a mess,” Alpha Hugo muttered, dragging a hand through his silver–streaked hair. Frustration roughened his voice, the kind of irritation that came from long years spent dealing with youthful disasters.

In stark contrast, Alpha Jude leaned forward, elbow resting lazily on the desk, chin balanced on his hand. His eyes, cool and unreadable, fixed on me with a stare that felt like a slow dissection.

“Alpha Seth Darven,” he said, voice calm but laced with sharpness, “give me one good reason why I should sit here and waste my time on this performance of yours. Let me guess the ending, just another reckless boy who made a fucked up mess but doesn’t wants to deal with the consequences.”

The air shifted sharply. There was something almost rogue–like in his bluntness–so casual, so cutting. It didn’t match the polished decorum expected in a place like this, Lupine Academy’s highest chamber of judgment.

But I steadily met his gaze, my voice calm. “Because I am innocent.”

The atmosphere instantly thickened. Eyes snapped to me–some curious, others skeptical.

Alpha Jude chewed on a fingernail, still not looking away. “Got any proof?”

“Proof of my innocence?”

“You could call it that,” he said, voice dry.

“Then may I ask,” I replied slowly, “is there any proof that I was the one who attacked those Alphas?”

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