Greymoor Academy: I Accidentally Bonded With Four Lycan Royals!

Chapter 244: 244. Panic

Maisie

So, I panicked.

I wasn’t exactly thinking. This wasn’t factored into my plans, and just thinking about sitting through that conversation made me suffocate with fear. And before I knew it, I was sliding up the window and running.

Stupid, I know.

But I just needed to get some air. Alone. Somewhere I wasn’t being watched. Or questioned.

A wolf barked in the distance, and not even one second later, eight more howls erupted around me in the woods.

Clearly, I had underestimated how much the Council wanted me dead. It hadn’t even been fifteen minutes since I went out for fucking air, and yet and I was being chased like a hardened criminal.

Oh shit.

I was a hardened criminal.

Branches whipped my arms. My boots skidded on wet leaves. Behind me the underbrush rustled with the movement of heavy paws striking roots and leaves, the click and firing of rifles, and orders being barked by the uniformed men chasing me.

”Maisie Adams!” a man’s voice boomed through the woods. ”Stop where you are! You are under arrest by order of the Council. Surrender and you will be transported to the facility for processing.”

I kept running.

”This is your final warning!” The voice was now closer. So was the sound of barking wolves and dogs. ”Refuse to comply and we are authorized to use lethal force. Stop or you will be shot.”

My lungs burned.

They were going to shoot me either way. They had the Queen’s crest on their uniforms. I was alone. It was the perfect way to die. She would probably implicate me for something new that would make killing me justifiable.

”I just wanted to get some air!” I screamed over my shoulder for what felt like the hundredth time, voice cracking with pure outrage and terror as I forced my legs to move faster. ”I wasn’t running. I just needed air!”

A massive wolf the same height as me crashed through the trees to my right, saliva flying from its jaws, eyes locked on my throat and I yelped in alarm as it launched itself at me.

I twisted hard, felt its teeth snap shut on empty air, and drove my fist into its ribs. The impact sent it slamming into a trunk with a pained howl, and I heard the crunch of bone as I half-stumbled—

Gun fire went off and the tree trunk beside my head exploded. Another and I cried out as pain ripped through my knee cap.

I tumbled, falling hard against the earth, an angry sob tearing out of me as I clutched my shot knee.

The guards caught up, as did their hunting wolves, and I was soon surrounded by a horde of guards, more than a dozen rifles aimed for my head.

”I did nothing wrong!” I yelled. ”You kept chasing and shooting at me. I was just going for a walk!”

The one I assumed to be the head guard, a hybrid with a wicked scar splitting the bridge of his nose, strolled forward. He handed the leash of the wolf that had nearly taken my head off to another man.

The cold mouth of his gun pressed against my forehead.

”The Prince’s orders were to keep you here until he came,” he said, dragging the barrel slowly over the side of my head, using it to tuck a strand of my hair behind my ear. ”But I do not serve the Prince.”

I jerked my face away from the metal. ”Don’t touch me.”

He smiled.

Then the gun cracked against the side of my skull so hard, the world exploded into splotches of whites and blacks, my ears ringing with white noise. I hit the dirt, vision swimming.

Before I could push up, he was already on a knee in front of me, the barrel tracing a line down the side of my neck.

My vision cleared enough to see the leering in his eyes and my body went cold.

”I was at the wedding, you know,” he murmured. ”And the duel after. I hoped you would lose. Many of us did. It’s not every day we get fresh blood at the Red Moon rite.”

The cold metal dragged lower, popping the buttons of the shirt someone had put on me while I was unconscious.

I kicked hard at his knee, catching him off guard, and he swore as I tried to knock the gun aside. My nails caught his right and he snarled and slapped me across the face.

Blood flooded my mouth and I lost balance. He snarled, slammed me back down and pinned my throat to the dirt with his forearm.

”Stay down,” he hissed.

”Touch me and I’ll kill you!” I snarled, thrashing.

”Stop it, Terence,” someone said. ”We don’t have the time for this.”

”We don’t often get the full bred females like this,” he said, almost to himself, his eyes lowering to my cleavage.

His hand strayed down, yanking hard at the shirt. The buttons wants flying and I realized I was going to have to kill him.

I really didn’t want to get blood on my hands.

I exhaled, letting my Lycan surface–

An ungodly shriek ripped through the woods.

It was nothing human, nothing animal I’d ever heard in my whole life. It was horrifying, like my ears were being stabbed and my brain was being torn to shreds by claws.

Every man around me staggered, hands falling over their eyes. I cried out as I felt my ears began to bleed. Every guard around me, every wolf recoiled, faces contorting in pain.

The air chilled. And something came out of the trees, dropping from above so fast, I only caught a blur of it.

But it was enough to make my bladder full. It was mottled, wrong in every way, wrong shaped limbs, a grotesque head, too many joints, grey skin. It hit the guard on the farther end, his scream cutting off mid-note as it ripped him to pieces before it ever took flight.

There was a second of silence before the guards opened fire at the skies in blind panic. Bullets tore through the leaves as they yelled, ”What the fuck is that thing?!”

I stayed frozen to the ground. Because I recognized it. Not just in passing from the books I’d taken from the library, but from my dreams of the rift.

I couldn’t be sure, but it looked like one of the many hundreds that had been racing for the rift.

It was here. I had... brought it here.

Oh Goddess.

It moved faster than any Lycan or creature I had seen, plucking off the guards, shredding them, eating them, splattering them against the trees and...

I couldn’t stop staring at it. Couldn’t move as screams and roars and pleas echoed around me. Blood misted the air, splashing across my face.

How... how were we supposed to fight that thing? How many had slipped through?

The head guard managed to get three bullets through its center, but it only turned and swooped down, malformed wings beating as its massive jaw unhinged and took his head clean off in one bite.

My body finally got the message at that, and I scrambled backwards on my elbows, then forced myself onto my feet and ran.

Pain tore through my shot knee and my leg gave out. I hit the ground hard, screaming through my teeth, hands clutching at the shattered joint as blood poured hot between my fingers.

Couldn’t I have one fucking pleasant, normal week? Why did everything always have to happen when I was severely under prepared?

I risked a glance back and surely enough, it was coming for me.

Trying to get on my feet again hurt like a bitch, and it was pretty much useless.

The thing crossed the clearing, while I crawled back. And back. My nails curled in the dirt as its milky white gaze focused on me.

It stopped directly above me, blocking out the sun. Massive wings slammed down on either side of my body, caging me under it.

The smell of blood poured over me as its head lowered, until I could feel the heat of its breath on my face.

It inhaled a long breath, and when it spoke, it was in a voice like a hateful hiss.

”Thorne.”

It’s jaw widened. And it aimed for my throat.