Deviant Kings: Claimed by The Four Lycan Kings

Adeline’s pov~

As I walked toward the residential towers, the whispers followed me like a physical draft. The news of what had happened in the courtyard had clearly travelled faster than I could walk. I pulled my hood down lower, keeping my eyes glued to the stone floor, trying to tune out the burning stares of the elite students passing by. To them, I was an anomaly. A stain on their pristine, highborn canvas.

When I finally reached the door marked 404, my chest loosened just a fraction. I pushed the heavy key into the lock, turned it, and felt the mechanism give way. The door swung open to reveal a surprisingly spacious room—two four-poster beds, a large arched window overlooking the jagged line of the dark forests, and a crackling hearth that threw warm light across the stone.

But the relief vanished the second I realised I wasn’t alone.

Sitting on the bed near the window, painting her nails a wicked shade of crimson, was a girl with striking platinum hair and a sharp, feline smile. She looked up, her eyes slowly tracking me from my worn sneakers all the way up to the oversized hood shadowing my face.

"Well, well," she purred, blowing gently on her wet nails as she stood up.

As she closed the distance, she let her highborn Alpha aura flare, just a subtle, heavy pressure in the air meant to make me bend, to test exactly what I was made of. I swallowed hard, forcing my expression to stay entirely flat, fighting the instinct to flinch.

"So you’re the charity case the entire campus is talking about," she said, her voice dripping with an effortless, cruel confidence. "The one who got between Blake and Raven on day one."

My stomach dropped. The sanctuary I had been desperate to find was already occupied.

She stepped closer, a beautiful, mocking smile stretching across her lips. "I’m Miya. And I think you and I are going to have a lot of problems this semester, roommate."

I stood my ground, refusing to let the heavy weight of her aura press me back across the threshold. I slowly reached back, pulled the heavy oak door shut behind me, and let the lock click into place. If she wanted a reaction, I wasn’t going to give it to her.

"I’m just here to sleep and go to class, Miya," I said, keeping my voice as even and unbothered as possible as I walked past her to drop my small duffel bag onto the empty bed. "You leave me alone, and we won’t have any problems at all."

Miya let out a sharp, amused laugh, turning on her heel to watch me. "Oh, sweetie. You don’t get it, do you? You walked in here under Dravenmoor’s protection, which means you already put a target on your back. The girls in the elite packs are going to tear you apart just to see why Raven cares. And me?" She leaned against the bedpost, her crimson nails gleaming in the firelight. "I don’t like sharing my space with wild cards. Especially ones who don’t even have a scent."

I froze for a split second, my back still turned to her. She noticed. Of course she did. To a pack of wolves, a person with no scent was a freak. A ghost.

Turning around slowly, I pulled my hood back just enough to look her dead in the eye. "Then I guess you’ll just have to get used to the quiet."

Miya’s smile didn’t drop, but her eyes narrowed, the platinum fringe of her bangs casting a sharp shadow over her face. She wasn’t used to people speaking to her without a tremor in their voice. For a second, the heavy Alpha pressure in the room spiked, making the air feel thick and hard to breathe, but I just stared right through her. After what I’d survived, a spoiled academy girl trying to flex her birthright felt incredibly small.

"Bold," Miya murmured, stepping back toward her side of the room. She picked up the small bottle of nail polish, capping it with a definitive click. "I’ll give you that. But execution is everything here, Adeline. Let’s see how long that spine stays straight when the rest of the Kings find out Raven brought a stray into their playground."

"I guess we’ll see," I replied quietly.

I didn’t give her another ounce of my energy. Turning my back, I unzipped my duffel bag and began pulling out the few belongings I had left in the world.

Miya watched me for a few more minutes, clearly trying to fish for a reaction, but when I remained a brick wall, she huffed, grabbed a silk robe, and disappeared into the adjoining bathroom, slamming the door behind her.

Finally alone, I let out a breath I felt like I’d been holding since I entered the academy gates.

I walked over to the large arched window and looked out. The sun was dipping below the jagged horizon, painting the sky in bruised shades of purple and deep crimson. Below, the sprawling dark forests of the campus looked endless, a dense wall of pine and shadow.

My phone vibrated in my pocket.

Pulling it out, I saw a text from an unknown number. There was no greeting, no name, just a single line of text that made my pulse quicken.

6:00 AM. Main courtyard. Don’t be late.

It was Raven.

I stared at the glowing screen, the weight of my reality settling heavily on my shoulders. Tomorrow, the mask had to stay perfectly intact. I was surrounded by predators who could smell weakness from a mile away, and a roommate who already wanted me gone.

Tucking the phone away, I climbed onto the stiff mattress of my bed, pulling the heavy blankets up to my chin. As the fire in the hearth crackled and died down into glowing embers, I stared at the ceiling, bracing myself for the dawn. The orientation was over. Tomorrow, the real hunt began.

The bathroom door clicked open, and Miya stepped out, wrapped in black silk, the scent of expensive jasmine and sharp ozone trailing behind her. She didn’t look at me as she climbed into her bed, flicking the bedside lamp off and plunging our side of the room into darkness.

For hours, the only sound was the wind howling against the heavy glass of the arched window and the rhythmic, slow breathing of a sleeping Alpha across the room. I didn’t sleep. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw the smoke. I heard the snapping of bones and the terrible, victorious howls of the wolves who took everything from me.

When my phone buzzed at 5:45 AM, I was already dressed.

I had pulled on another oversized grey hoodie and dark jeans, my hair tucked away, the hood pulled up like a shield. Silently, I slipped out of the room, leaving Miya, and navigated the cold, echoing stone stairwells of the East Tower.

The morning air outside hit me like a slap to the face. It was freezing, the sky a miserable, pale grey as the sun struggled to break through the thick mist rolling off the mountains. The main courtyard was entirely empty, a massive expanse of cobblestone surrounded by gothic arches.

Except for him.

Raven was standing near the central fountain, his hands shoved into the pockets of his dark tailored trousers. He didn’t wear the academy blazer today, just a heavy black sweater that made his broad shoulders look even more imposing. As I approached, his head snapped in my direction. Even from twenty feet away, I could see the intense, calculating look in his dark eyes.

"You’re on time," he said, his gravelly voice cutting through the morning silence.

"I don’t like keeping people waiting," I replied, stopping a few feet away from him. I kept my hands shoved deep in my hoodie pockets, hiding the slight tremor from the morning chill. "Especially people who hold my forged transcript."

A ghost of a smirk touched his lips, vanishing as quickly as it came. "You’re defensive. Good. You’ll need that today. Did you meet your roommate?"

"Miya," I said, the name feeling bitter. "She hates me already. She told me I have a target on my back because of you."

Raven’s jaw tightened slightly, his eyes flicking over my shoulder toward the empty towers. "Miya is the daughter of a high-ranking eastern general. She’s observant, and she’s vicious. But she’s the least of your worries. The other three heirs know you’re here. They know you have no scent, and they know I’m protecting you."

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