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.
I pressed on. “I’ve heard that you, Alpha Gideon, value justice above all. That you are a man of integrity. So I ask for a hearing, a chance to defend myself properly. If I’m found guilty after that, I will pack my bags and leave the Lupine Academy without a word, respecting your decision.”
1/2
8:18 PM P.
Chapter 38 Suspicious
My words echoed through the building.
+8 Pearls
Alpha Gideon stared at me, searching my eyes for deceit. His gaze lingered, sharp and penetrating. Then he turned to Ronan, studying him for a long moment. His eyes swept over the eight injured Alphas sprawled across the floor. Finally, his attention landed on Dante.
Silence thickened, everyone’s eyes on his changing expression.
“Fine,” he said at last.
Ireleased my breath, my wolf relaxing in my mind for a bit. However it did not last long.
The next thing I knew, I was standing in the center of the Academy’s disciplinary chamber–the Grand Office of Alpha Instructors. Alpha Gideon sat in the central seat of judgment, flanked by two senior Alphas: Alpha Hugo and Alpha Jude.
I had only seen these two commanding Alphas from a distance before–handsome, middle–aged, and clearly not men to be trifled with. But now, standing before them in the flesh, I could feel it: their presence radiated a power no less formidable than Alpha Gideon’s.
Their eyes swept the room–first to Ronan on my right, then Dante on my left, and finally to the limping figures of Cassius and Reed, the latter’s left arm wrapped in a fresh plaster cast. Both had just staggered into the disciplinary chamber, their injuries stark reminders of the earlier chaos.
“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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