Deviant Kings: Claimed by The Four Lycan Kings

Adeline’s pov~

"No," I snapped immediately, not even chancing a single glance in his direction. "I wasn’t talking about anyone in particular."

"Don’t lie to my face, Adeline," Blake warned softly, his dark eyes narrowing as he effortlessly kept pace with my fast, agitated steps down the corridor.

"You don’t throw around words like ’Lycan King’ in these halls unless you mean one of the four of us. I know you aren’t stupid, so don’t play stupid with me."

He was right, though.

"I’m not talking about anyone, Lord Blake," I lied smoothly, my voice remaining flat, icy, and completely unreadable.

"And I certainly don’t remember asking for a royal escort or a shadow today. So why don’t you go back to whatever highborn business you actually have?"

Blake let out a quiet, heavy sigh, stepping slightly into my path to force me to slow down just a fraction. His dark gaze searched my guarded face.

"Listen to me for one damn second," Blake said, his tone surprisingly gentle despite the sheer, overwhelming power vibrating beneath his breath. "I know him. I know Zyran better than almost anyone in this entire academy. He would never cross a line like that with any female, no matter who she is. I know he hated you the second you showed up here under Raven’s mark, and I know he made that hatred painfully, arrogantly obvious to everyone, but—"

"He still does," I cut him off smoothly, stepping right around his broad frame without breaking my stride. "And frankly? I don’t give a single fuck about his personal feelings or anyone’s."

I just wanted to get out of all this once and for all.

A small, amused smirk tugged at the corner of Blake’s lips as he rolled his eyes, though the underlying tension in his posture never fully faded as he fell back into step beside me.

"Fine. Fair enough. You’re allowed to hate him. But I know for an absolute fact that he wouldn’t cross a line like that with any female. I would stake my own life and my throne on it."

Is he for real? He is standing here and defending his so-called best friend for such a worst of the worst thing he did to me.

I stopped dead in my tracks, turning my head slowly to look him straight in the eye, my dark gaze hollow and lethal. "Lord Blake... if you’re quite finished defending your noble friend’s honour, I’m going to get going. I have actual things to do."

"Adeline—"

I didn’t wait to hear the rest of his sentence. I turned my back on him completely and pushed through the heavy, arched doors of the central study archives.

The grand hall opened up before me, vast and deathly quiet, lined with towering mahogany bookshelves that stretched all the way up to the vaulted stone ceiling. Sunlight streamed through the tall stained-glass windows, painting the marble floor in shades of amber and black.

It wasn’t crowded, just a few countable students scattered across distant tables, deeply buried in their leather-bound books. It was the exact kind of suffocating silence I usually craved.

I walked over to a quiet table tucked far away in the back corner, pulled out a heavy wooden chair, and sat down, immediately burying my hands back into my hoodie pockets to keep them out of sight.

Before I could even settle into the silence, the heavy wooden chair directly across from mine was pulled out.

Blake sat down. The playful smirk was completely gone, replaced by a calm, dead-serious expression as he rested his forearms flat on the dark wood, leaning forward slightly. His dark eyes locked directly onto mine, unwavering, sharp, and intense.

"Lord Blake—" I started, my brow pulling down in immediate irritation.

"You really think Zyran wants you dead, don’t you?" he cut me off softly, his voice barely above a whisper.

"He was the one who ordered the hit..." I began, my voice trailing off into a bitter, dark lull as the memory of that night clawed its way to the surface.

"Do you honestly, truly believe that he would do something that dishonourable, that cheap?" Blake pressed, his eyes searching mine with a terrifying amount of focus.

"Look at me, Adeline. Do you genuinely think a Lycan King of the High Concord would send assassins into the woods just to tear apart a scentless female?"

Why wouldn’t he? He did it to me, right? He ordered those omegas to rip out my everything. My dignity, and my heart as well. He wanted to get rid of me for no reason. Just because he thought... I am a threat.

I sat in absolute silence, staring straight back at him. My mind raced, frantically clawing through the dark memories, the guttural snarls of the omegas.

"It is not about what I want to believe, Lord Blake," I said quietly, keeping my gaze steady and unblinking. "It’s about what he did. It’s about the fact that his men were standing over me and he ordered—"

"I know him, Adeline," Blake continued, his voice low, steady, and filled with a strange, heavy conviction that made the fine hairs on my arms stand up.

"I know he comes off as an arrogant, cold bastard with severe anger issues and a lethal ego. He acts like the entire world owes him something, and I won’t sit here and pretend he’s some kind of saint. But apart from all of that arrogance? I know him well enough to know he would never, ever order an execution on a defenceless female. Never. Not in a million years."

I didn’t interrupt him. I just sat there, frozen in my seat, staring at the highborn Lord sitting across from me, listening to the impossible words spilling from his mouth.

Way more than impossible to believe.

"When you entered this academy under Raven’s personal protection, Zyran saw you as an immediate threat," Blake explained, his tone measured, dark, and analytical.

"And honestly? It made the rest of us doubtful too. Raven doesn’t just shield strangers for no reason. He doesn’t bring scentless girls into the inner circle unless there’s something huge at play. Zyran didn’t want to take any risks with the security of the court, so he wanted to send a message. He wanted to warn you, to scare you enough to make sure you stayed far away from the Thrones and whatever political games were playing out behind the scenes."

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