When The Moon Hides Her Crown - Chapter 16: Chapter 16

SERAPHINA
Why am I here again?
I asked myself as I stood within the ancient ruins, cold wind howling through shattered stone arches. Silver light bathed the crumbling walls, and there in the clearing he was.
The rogue.
Kneeling beneath the full, bloated Moon, he chanted in a language I didn’t recognize. I tried to move, to speak, but the air felt thick around me, like I was drowning in it.
Then his head snapped toward me, red eyes locking onto mine.
Unblinking.
A jolt of cold shot through me.
I woke with a strangled gasp, tangled in sweat-soaked sheets, my skin clammy and damp. Had I been dreaming?
I sat up in my bunk, the dark room around me filled with the steady, heavy breathing of Alphas lost in sleep.
My chest heaved as I struggled to shake the memory. The rogues. That cursed place. Why had I ended up there when the others hadn’t? What were they doing, still living in those ruins in the first place?
I checked the clock and my eyes widened, five in the morning.
Everyone was still asleep. The room was dim, save for the faint glow of dawn trying to seep through the curtains. This was my chance.
Grabbing my towel, I slipped from my bed, careful not to make a sound, and padded down the empty hallway toward the showers. The stone floor was icy beneath my feet. I slipped into the bathroom and quietly clicked the lock behind me.
Thanks to Dante and Ronan yesterday, I hadn’t even managed to return to my room. When I finally did grab my clothes, I couldn’t get a proper shower. Alphas were always in and out of the showers; some smoking inside, others just lurking around with no intentions of sleeping when morning was so close.
With no hope of privacy, I’d done what I could, washing my face, hands, and legs, throwing on a loose long-sleeved T-shirt and sweatpants before crashing for what little rest I could steal. But now, with the Academy still cloaked in sleep, I wasn’t about to waste this golden opportunity.
The cold water hit my skin and I felt alive again. After so many days, a real, uninterrupted shower was almost too good to believe.
Phina’s voice surfaced in my mind.
“If we want to shower daily, it has to be now. While everyone else sleeps.”
I nodded to myself. It’s the only way to avoid suspicion.
Freshly cleaned and dressed in my neat Academy uniform, I stepped out of the shower room just as the wake-up bell echoed through the dormitory. Lights flicked on one by one, Alphas groaning and cursing as they dragged themselves from their beds.
But Ronan’s bed was empty.
I froze. Where was he?
Had he even been in his bed? Now that I thought about it, I’d never seen him there whenever I woke in the middle of the night.
A sharp knock on the door startled me. The dormitory assistant entered, carrying a basket.
“Laundry’s in,” he announced, setting the basket down.
“Right on time,” Cassius grinned, jogging over to grab his and Reed’s uniforms.
After the last trial, all of our uniforms had been sent for cleaning.
One by one, everyone collected their sets. When it was my turn, I reached for mine, but noticed something.
There was no uniform labeled for Ronan.
Why?
Confused, I grabbed the paper-wrapped parcel with my name on it and the moment I unfolded it, my blood ran cold.
The black-and-gold uniform was shredded. Tattered beyond repair. Across the back of the shirt, smeared in sticky white paste, were the words:
‘Attention-seeking mutt.’
Cassius let out a sharp laugh behind me, reading it aloud. Reed joined him, while Finn’s eyes widened as they darted between the ruined uniform and my expressionless face.
Suddenly, Reed slung an arm around my shoulders, leaning in close.
“Did you really think you were hot shit because you caught Ronan and Dante’s attention, little mutt?” he sneered, his sharp gaze cutting to the side of my face. “Yesterday’s trial was nothing. Survival here…that’s the real battle. And trust me, you haven’t even seen the start of it.”
His lips curled into a cold grin as he pulled away, leaving with Cassius trailing after him, snickering.
I stared down at the destroyed uniform in a daze.
I only had two sets. The one I was wearing. And now this shredded mess.
“They completely ruined it,” Finn said quietly, coming to my side.
“They?” I asked, lifting my eyes to him. “You know who did this?”
Finn hesitated before speaking. “Jealous wolves, there’s a lot of them.”
“Why would anyone be jealous of me?”
He sighed, his voice low. “Everyone saw it yesterday. Ronan and Dante fighting because of you. Two hierarchy wolves clashing over a newbie, it’s unheard of. Then you, who everyone expected to die in the Cursed Forest, came back without a scratch. You earned their attention. That alone made you a threat to the others without you even realizing it.”
I clenched the shredded fabric in my fists. “So this all happened because of those two assholes.”