Deviant Kings: Claimed by The Four Lycan Kings

Adeline’s pov~

"You are my best friend and I like you!"

A dry, bitter chuckle escaped my throat, though the sudden movement made my split lip sting.

I looked down at my hands, my fingers nervously tugging at the frayed threads of my cuffs. "Because you like me? Come on, Sierra. That’s a human answer. You’re a highborn werewolf. There has to be a reason you chose to sit next to the weird, scentless girl on the very first day of the semester instead of joining the elite cliques."

"Okay, fine, you want a deeper reason?" Sierra leaned back, sitting cross-legged on the floorboards, her stubborn smile softening into something real, something incredibly human.

"I don’t know how to explain it properly without sounding like a total dork. But the second I saw you in the classroom on our first day, I felt that pull. The besties pull. Just this instant, a loud voice in my head said, ’Hey, look, that’s your best friend right there.’ It was an at-first-sight vibe, I guess."

I lifted my head, staring at her through the dim light of the dorm room. The ice around my chest felt like it was cracking, just a little bit. "An at-first-sight vibe," I repeated softly, the words foreign on my tongue.

"Yeah," Sierra said, reaching out to gently squeeze my hand.

"A total, unexplainable instinct. Wolves rely so much on scent to tell us who someone is, but when I looked at you, the silence in your scent didn’t scream ’defect’ to me. It just felt like peace. Like a break from all the exhausting, aggressive alpha bullshit I’ve had to deal with my entire life. So no, I’m not going to interrogate you about being wolfless. You’re Adeline. You’re the girl who sits beside me in our class and ghosted me on our lunch yesterday. That’s the only identity I care about."

I let out a small chuckle at her reply. A genuine smile.

Sierra’s eyes drifted down from my face to the way my left arm was still locked rigidly against my ribs. Her soft expression sharpened back into that focused, stubborn glare.

"Where else are you hurt?" she asked, her voice dropping into a demanding, protective register. "Remove the hoodie, Adeline. I need to see the rest of the damage."

My grip tightened on the fabric. "No," I said instantly, my voice tight. "No, Sierra. I can handle the rest by myself. You’ve done enough with my face."

"Oh, stop being so damn stubborn," she countered, reaching out toward the hem of the sweatshirt. "Just let me see. If the bruising is deep, or if the skin is broken near the ribs, this mild salve won’t do anything. I’ll need to go down to the alchemy labs and grab a stronger liquid extract. Don’t play the hero with me right now."

I looked at her determined eyes and realized she wasn’t going to back down. With a defeated sigh that caught painfully in my chest, I slowly reached up with my good arm.

Every movement was a battle against the white-hot agony flaring in my shoulder and torso. Gritting my teeth, I pulled the heavy black hoodie over my head and tossed it onto the mattress.

Beneath it, I was just wearing a tight black tank top over my bra. The cool air of the dorm room hit my skin, making the goosebumps rise instantly.

"Alright," I whispered, my fingers trembling as I gripped the bottom hem of the top. "Just... don’t freak out."

Slowly, carefully, I began to roll the fabric up from my waist, exposing my midriff and moving up toward my ribcage.

Sierra went completely still. Her breath caught in her throat, and the slight, stubborn smile she had been wearing vanished entirely. She froze, her hands hovering in the air as her eyes locked onto my side.

It was bad.

I thought it would slowly heal by itself but it just have got worse than before.

The entire left side of my torso was a violent, angry canvas of deep purple, mottled black, and sickening yellow rings where the rogue omegas had kicked me into the dirt.

The skin was heavily swollen, the shape of the boot prints practically stamped into my flesh. It looked like a total war zone—horrific, dark, and raw—but thankfully, the bone structure beneath didn’t look misaligned or shattered.

"It’s... it’s not cracked," I murmured, trying to break the heavy, suffocating silence that filled the room. "Just a really bad bruise. I know how a broken rib feels, and this is just... a lot of trauma."

Sierra didn’t speak for a long moment.

Her Alpha aura flared for a microsecond in pure, unadulterated fury at whoever had done this to me, before she quickly suppressed it, realizing it might scare me.

When she finally looked up at my face, her eyes were bright with unshed, angry tears.

Sierra stared at the bruised flesh, her breath shaking as she swallowed down her shock.

"It looks horrific, Adeline," she whispered, her fingers trembling slightly as she dipped them back into the amber jar.

"It’s a miracle nothing is broken, but the muscle trauma... I’ll apply this mild salve for now to take the edge off the heat, but I’m going to have to sneak into the advanced alchemy labs tonight and bring you something way more powerful. You need to heal quickly before—"

"No, Sierra," I interrupted, my voice sharp as I gently but firmly placed my hand over her wrist, stopping her mid-motion. My skin felt hyper-sensitive, and the thought of anyone touching the raw agony of my ribs made my stomach roll. "I’ll do it. I can apply it myself. Just leave the jar."

Sierra immediately stopped, her hands freezing in the air. She looked at me, her eyes clouded with an anxious, protective warmth, but she didn’t push.

She knew my boundaries. She knew how fiercely I guarded the broken pieces of myself. I don’t know how, but I can tell it from her expression.

"Fine," she sighed softly, lowering her hand but keeping her gaze anchored to mine. "But you’re going to need help with the spots further back. You can’t reach your own shoulder blade without twisting your torso, and if you do that, you’re going to pass—"

"Get out. Now."

A deep, rough voice from the dorm door cut Sierra off.

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