Chapter 66 A Pack Of Vultures.
SERAPHINA
The cafeteria buzzed with the low hum of afternoon chatter–utensils clinking against trays, the lingering scent of eggs and meat broth hanging in the air like the ghost of an old perfume. I took another bite of my grilled chicken wrap just as the man seated across from me leaned back in his chair, one arm draped lazily over the backrest.
“Wow,” he said, loud enough for nearby tables to go quiet. “Would you look at that? Murderers do get hungry.”
The voice belonged to none other than Reed. Laughter erupted from his table like a chorus of jackals. Beside him. Cassius smirked and picked at his nails, as if we were all on a stage and he’d memorized every cue for this performance.
“This tiny mutt’s got nerves of steel, I’ll give him that,” Cassius drawled, his voice laced with mockery. “Most people lose their appetite when someone dies next to them. But him? He can still fill his stomach after killing a person.”
I didn’t blink. I didn’t look at them. I simply continued eating my grilled chicken wrap.
“How about you show us how you killed him so demonically?” Reed added with a sneer. “We’d love to steal some skills for the next trialTM
More laughter echoed in the cafeteria as they all had surrounded me like a pack of vultures.
every
direction.
1 reached for my salad next, still ignoring them. That made both Reed and Cassius visibly bristle. Cassius slammed his boot onto the bench, the toe stopping inches from my tray. Crumbs scattered in He leaned forward, voice low and saturated with venom. “You’ve got quite the appetite for someone who killed an Alpha. Did you really think you could continue to live happily in this Academy after killing someone like him?” Finally, I looked up.
Slowly.
Blankly.
My eyes met his–void of fire, void of sorrow, void of anything but silence.
It was that silence…thatjunraveled something in him. His smirk twitched, faltered at the corners. Reed’s fingers, which had been tapping against the table, went still. The others around therit didn’t speak.
In just a few days, everything had changed.
My team had failed the trial because of Dante’s death. Though it hadn’t been officially declared a death at first, the grotesque state of his body made the cause unavoidable: murder. And since I’d been found near the mountain’s base, close to where his body had been discovered, I was marked as the primary suspect.
But that was only the beginning.
The hierarchy had flipped overnight.
Those who returned from the mountain without casualties, who passed the trial, were catapulted to the top like gods among mortals Reed’s and Cassius groups returned in first and second place, respectively, which had earned them coveted spots in the top ten of the Academy’s hierarchy.
Now Reed was ranked fourth. Cassius, fifth. They dominated the Academy like self–crowned rogues, while I was their favorite prey.
What the fuck are you staring at, motherfucker?” Reed snapped, eyes burning with hate. “Lower your gaze, Seth Darven.” His voice cracked with the weight of authority he’d only just recently gained. “Know your place. We are the hierarchy now.” Cassius deliberately moved his boot to the carton of banana milk beside my plate and crushed it with a snarl. “You used to walk around like you were untouchable Humilated us in front of the Alpha instructors. Had us kicked out of our dorms and
parated. And now?” He smirked. “We’re back, and high enough to crush in uts like you under our boots.”
Winning the trial nut only earned then prestige but also erased their punishment. The prior restrictions, rules that barred
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Chapter 66 A Pack Of Vultures
them from being seen or speaking together, were dissolved. Now they roamed the academy like twin monarchs of chaos
“What the fuck are you being silent for, motherfucker?” a new voice boomed from another table.
I turned slightly, eyes catching Finn–surrounded by another group of wolves, including three from the new hierarchy–his tray barely untouched, his lunch forgotten,
“Are you gonna pretend to be innocent now? After murdering Dante?” the boy barked. “I still fucking can’t believe you were
in on it too.”
Finn said nothing. He just stared at his food and chewed slowly.
That was the worst part of it all
Every member of my team, every survivor who failed the trial, had been implicated in Dante’s murder.
My gaze shifted to Asher, lounging in the back corner of the cafeteria. He sat with his feet propped up on the table, eating in silence. No one dared sit near him, let alone taunt him–but the glares thrown his way spoke volumes. They screamed accusations without saying a word.
“What the fuck are you looking at them for, fucker?!” Reed suddenly snarled, grabbing my jaw and forcing me to face him. My fury flared. It took everything in me to keep Phina from snapping his wrist right there.
But I couldn’t. I shouldn’t.
Because
Reed saw the rage burning in my eyes and grinned, eyes gleaming with cruelty. “You can’t do a damn thing, remember?” I clenched my fists beneath the table. We were being watched. Not just me, but Asher and Finn, too.
I yanked my face away from his grip, my breathing ragged, the fury in my chest a wildfire barely held back. Cassius chuckled and leaned in. “I love that look in your eyes,” he said softly. “You can look at your little friends, but you can’t talk to them. Can’t defend them. Not even if they’re bullied… or die right in front of you. Just like we went through.”
Phina growled inside my head, loud and wild, but I stayed still. I knew that even a flicker of retaliation could make things
worse.
Because we were under strict orders–suspected of murder, we had been forbidden from interacting with each other until further notice. Being seen alone together or in unsupervised areas could be considered defiance, or worse, proof of conspiracy. They’d even placed us on separate floors of the Academy building.
that. Rock bottom.
just three days, I’d fallen all the way back to where I’d started–no, lower than that. And it was all because of Dante.
It felt like his ghost still lingered–watching, smirking, binding me with chains of his own making-
But that wasn’t the only thing gnawing at my soul.
The real reason I couldn’t breathe!
The sound of footsteps echoed sharply across the cafeteria floor, cutting through the tension like a blade. Conversation died. Everyone looked away, pretending not to see him. Of course, no one dared to call him a murderer with their eyes or gestures
But I looked up
Ronan
He strode past my table, as he had for the past three days, without glancing at me. As if I were invisible. As if I didn’t exist.
His face was unreadable, posture rigid, his stride exuding the kind of confidence that said he didn’t care about the whispers
at trailed bum–murderer. But I knew better
is aura sand otherwise.
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Chapter 66 A Pack Of Vultures
– Pearls
I could still feel the phantom of his claws around my throat… and the whisper in my ear that I felt every time he passed by in these three days.
“You shouldn’t have lied.”
Just as he was about to pass me by, his eyes met mine for the first time in three days.
Within that gaze. I saw the promise.
The threat
The hunger.
“Seraphina Nightbane, now I won’t just hunt you, his eyes said. “I’ll strip you bare.”
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