Greymoor Academy: I Accidentally Bonded With Four Lycan Royals! novel Chapter 240

Chapter 240: 240. Not Your Usual Combat Training I

Maisie

Maybe I needed to hear myself say it. Maybe I needed one person to believe me and not look at me like I was some monster. But I couldn’t stop the yell, the desperate cry to be heard.

"I didn’t–I never wrote that!"

The second the words left my mouth, Juliette’s expression changed to shock, and then confusion. And then, the panic hit me. The fear.

My gaze flicked to the corners of the bathroom, to the vents, the mirror, half-expecting to find the glint of the camera lens.

She could be watching. She was always watching. Listening. It was too soon to be so damned careless. She could hurt my mates. Kara. Kisten. Bastian. Ryder. No one had heard from or seen them in months, but I knew she still had them in holding, and even if I tried to go to bed at night, telling myself I didn’t care about them, and I was only doing this because of my mates, I knew every hostage the Queen kept was an indirect tie to me.

Too much was at risk for a silly emotional outburst.

Juliette rushed forward, grabbing my hand and squeezing tightly. "I knew it. It was forged, wasn’t it? Something happened at Samhain?" She gasped. "We have to tell–"

"You can’t," I cut in harshly.

Her brows married together and her eyes tracked mine. "But–"

"No one," I repeated. "Don’t ask me why. I can’t tell you why. The less you know, the safer you’ll be. The safer they are."

I didn’t even want to know what the Queen would do to her if she caught wind of this conversation.

Juliette leaned in, her eyes heavy with sympathy. "You do not have to carry this all on your own, mon ami. Jenny is still hurting, yes. But when you were gone, she and Regina walked the halls every day, pulling down every death poster with your name on it. Regina got suspended for punching a senior in the face for name calling you." Blue eyes tracked mine. "They fought for you, even if it made the targets. Maybe most people here act like sheep, but you still have people who are willing to stand in front of you and shield you. You only have to trust us enough to let us."

Tears pricked my eyes.

The problem wasn’t that I didn’t trust them. It was that I trusted them too much and I knew without a doubt that if we were to trade places, they would, without a heartbeat, give their lives, jump in the line of fire to keep me safe. They already had.

"I do," I croaked. "And that’s why I can’t."

Juliette’s nose reddened and she sniffled. "Maisie," she said softly and Gruer climbed up her neck, sitting on her head as she wrapped her arms around me, crushing me into her embrace, ignoring the skunk and gore on me.

"Ça aussi, ça va passer," she whispered against my ear, rubbing her hand up and down my back as I sobbed in her shoulder.

This too shall pass.

***

"For the benefit of the first years and new students, I am Warren, and this is not your regular Combat training," Instructor Warren’s voice echoed all over the new yard that stretched farther than the training halls ever did.

Hundreds of students stood in uneven rows across the packed concrete, the mid-morning air tangy with sweat and fatigue.

Soren was right. Greymoor had changed significantly. If I thought Warren’s previous regimen was primed to murder us all, then this was focused on complete annihilation. Running up and down the new hilled tracks with weighted packs that bellied our individual sizes as an idea of ’warm up’ exercises was downright diabolical. Even the usually agile like Cole and Damen were panting.

Show off.

The laughter halted and a morose air filled the yard as he continued, "Settlements on the east and southern borders have fallen. And while that means the number of rogue attacks we’ve received have reduced by a whopping ninety percent, it also means something is coming our way. When it is done feasting on the rogues, our towns and cities are next. Your families are next. You are next."

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