Claimed By The King(s) Of Kings

Aina - One Week Later

A week of hating the night and loving the day had passed, and the train finally arrived at the Capital Train Station. Not once had Aina left her cabin during the journey; every time she found an excuse, convincing herself it was safer to remain hidden.

She never tested her disguise on anyone but herself, never discovered whether others would truly believe she was a boy. That uncertainty gnawed at her, but she buried it beneath layers of caution.

Her old, worn-out backpack clung to her shoulders as she stepped down from the train. She wore a suit provided by the VIP service, a luxury she had squeezed out of the ticket price, and for the first time she felt justified in spending ten silver coins on a single ride.

The train had delivered her to Mentos, the capital station, named in honor of Centos.

The resemblance between the two stations was uncanny, both sprawling, both alive with sellers and citizens rushing about. Even though they were similar, Mentos carried an air of refinement.

The people there dressed better, their fabrics richer, their jewelry brighter. Perhaps it was because wealth pooled deeper in this city than in Centos, and prosperity left its mark on every garment and every face.

The bustle pressed in on her, voices rising and falling like waves. Aina lowered her head to her armpit and discreetly sniffed herself for the fourth time since stepping off the train, desperate to confirm that the dissenting cream still masked her scent. She was an omega, and that alone made her vulnerable.

Alone, she was even more exposed, a target for any Alpha who might catch the faintest trace of her. Relief flooded her when she confirmed the cream still held. She nodded to herself, steadying her nerves, and pulled her gaze back to the glowing screen of her phone. The GPS guided her onward, one hour away from the Moonside.

It was already four o’clock. She had to reach the academy by six, or they would assume Travis was not coming. That thought tightened her chest, a reminder of the fragile balance she walked.

Shoot, I need to get going, she thought, urgency sparking through her veins. She pushed against the tide of bodies, weaving through the crowd, forcing her way toward the exit.

After what felt like hours of aggressive shoulder-barging and wrestling through the crowded corridors, Aina finally elbowed her way through the glass sliding doors of Mentos Train Station.

Outside, the oppressive weight of the station dropped away, replaced by the chaotic roar of open-air commerce. Back in Centos, stepping out of the station meant instantly hitting a dense suffocating forest and damp mud. Here in the Capital, the wilderness had been tamed.

Vast, rolling hills of soft emerald grass stretched into the distance, stitched together by a massive, gleaming two-lane asphalt road that cut through the landscape like a freshly laid ribbon.

Right at the edge of the station terminal sat the bus depot, and it was absolute frenzy. Looking at the scene Aina wondered if it was always this busy or did she just come on the wrong day.

There were dozens of towering, double-decker buses idling in messy rows, belching white exhaust into the cool afternoon air. Drivers and conductors stood on bumper rails and wooden crates, screaming at the top of their lungs to be heard over the engine roars, waving bright paper tickets in the air.

"Central Market! Express route to Central Market! Two bronze coins, get on board!"

"District Four! Straight down the highway, no stops! Step right up!"

"Downton West! Last call for Downtown West!"

Aina adjusted the straps of her worn-out backpack and checked her phone screen again. 4:15 PM. She had less than two hours to reach Moonside Mountain, which was where Moonside Academy sat perched at the edge of the Capital’s border. Yes, the school took inspo from the mountain name when it was being named.

Taking a deep breath, she plunged into the sea of screaming bus drivers, pushing through the crowds to get to them. "Excuse me! Hey! Are you going up to Moonside Mountain?" she shouted, craning her neck up at a heavily bearded driver who was violently slamming the side of his rusty blue bus.

The driver didn’t even bother to look down at her. "Moonside? Are you out of your mind, kid? That’s on the dead edge of the territory! We’re going straight into the heart of the Capital. Out of the way!"

Before Aina could try to convince the driver to drive to Moonside she was shoved aside by an angry woman carrying three oversized tote bags. Gritting her teeth, she stumbled over to a red bus idling three lanes over approaching the driver. "Hey! Sir! Does this bus drop off near Moonside Academy?"

"Moonside?" The second driver scoffed, waving her off with a dismissive flick of his wrist. "Not a chance. Nobody goes all the way out to that mountain unless they’ve got private transport. Move it, kid, you’re blocking the line!"

Panicking slightly, Aina asked three more drivers, receiving the exact same blunt rejection every single time. She stood in the middle of the chaotic depot, the breeze rustling her atrocious bowl-cut hair, a cold knot of dread tightening in her stomach. If she didn’t show up by six, Moonside Academy would mark Travis Whitelock as a no-show.

Her entire high-stakes escape plan, the dye, the contact lenses, the terrible haircut, the scent-dampening cream, would explode before it even began and she’d be right back at whitelock territory forced to become a breeder.

"Hey, excuse me, sir?" A light tap landed on her shoulder.

Aina flinched and spun around, her heart jumping straight into her throat. Standing behind her was a young man wearing a crisp, dark navy uniform with silver stitching along the collar. He had soft, sandy-brown hair, warm hazel eyes, and an easygoing smile that immediately broadcasted his nature, a Beta. Harmless, polite, and completely devoid of the aggressive, suffocating aura of an Alpha.

"Are you alright?" he asked kindly. "You look like you’re about to faint." Aina cleared her throat, instantly dropping her voice into a low, rasping fake-masculine pitch. "Uh, yeah. I mean, yes. I’m trying to figure out how to get to Moonside Academy, but none of these buses go up the mountain."

The guy broke into a warm laugh. "Well, of course they don’t! Public transit isn’t allowed anywhere near the Academy grounds. Are you going to Moonside?"

"Yeah," Aina nodded quickly, her pulse pounding. "First year."

"Oh, perfect!" The Beta gestured with his thumb toward a sleek, pristine silver coach parked further down the pavement, completely separated from the chaotic, rusty public buses. "Please, come with me then. The Academy provides a designated private bus for all incoming students arriving at the station."

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