The Lunar Crest Academy: Marked by The Lycans-Chapter 216: A Cursed Love

Lorraine’s POV

Maeryn ran.

The moment her eyes locked on Avelar’s father’s lifeless body, something inside her shattered completely. She didn’t scream. She didn’t cry. She simply turned and ran, her bare feet slipping on blood soaked earth, white hair whipping behind her like a ghost fleeing the grave it had just dug.

Avelar didn’t follow.

He stood there, frozen, chains dangling uselessly from his wrists, his face emptied of all expression as he stared at his father’s corpse. Not rage. Not grief. Just.... nothing. Like something vital had been carved out of him and left behind in the dirt with the dead.

"That," my wolf said quietly beside me, "was the beginning of the end."

My throat tightened. "Because she killed them."

"Yes. She killed the Pack Leader. And dozens of warriors." Her voice was steady, but beneath it lay an old, aching sorrow. "And the pack needed someone to blame."

The scene shifted again.

I saw the Blood Moon Pack gathered, their faces twisted with fear and fury. Whispers turned into shouts. Shouts turned into accusations.

He brought her here.

The Hexborn wouldn’t be among us if not for him.

This is his fault.

"Avelar became the scapegoat," my wolf said. "But they could not kill him, not yet. Not the son of their fallen leader. But they stripped him of everything else."

The image rippled.

A new figure stepped forward, older, sharp eyed, calculating.

"Avelar’s uncle," my wolf continued. "He took the mantle of leadership, declaring Avelar unfit to rule."

I watched as the uncle addressed the pack, voice smooth and venomous, promising stability, promising vengeance.

"He forged alliances with other packs," my wolf said. "And with those alliances came something new."

The air darkened.

"A kingdom wide hunt."

I saw it then, a drawing Maeryn’s face plastered onto walls, crude drawings depicting her as a monster, an abomination. Orders shouted across territories. Rewards promised for her capture, or her head.

"And Avelar?" I asked softly.

The scene changed again.

Avelar confined within the Blood Moon stronghold, guards stationed at every exit.

"He was placed under house arrest," my wolf said. "Forced to train. Forced to ’reflect.’"

Night fell.

I watched Avelar pace his room like a caged animal, jaw clenched, eyes burning. And then, carefully, deliberately, he slipped past the guards. Again. And again. Every night.

"He searched for her," my wolf said. "Relentlessly."

Forests. Mountains. Ruins. Days blurred into nights. Weeks into months.

Then....

He found her.

The memory softened.

Maeryn stood at the edge of a ravine, thinner, bruised, eyes hollow with fear and exhaustion. When she saw Avelar, she froze, disbelief flickering across her face.

They collided in the next breath.

Held each other like drowning souls clutching at air.

"They reunited," my wolf said. "And for a while.... love was enough."

The world reshaped itself once more.

I saw a bridge forming, plank by plank, carved stone dragged and laid by Avelar’s own hands under moonlight.

"The Old Moon Bridge," I whispered, recognition slamming into me.

My wolf nodded. "Yes. Avelar built it himself. Far from the pack. Far from watching eyes."

I saw them there, meeting in secret, sitting side by side on the bridge’s edge, feet dangling over darkness.

They talked.

They dreamed.

"A faraway land," my wolf narrated. "Where no one would hunt them. Where children like Maeryn once was would never be called monsters."

I swallowed hard.

"They wanted to build a school," she continued. "A place where power and birth meant nothing. Where everyone would be accepted."

Lunar Crest.

"But dreams," my wolf said, voice lowering, "rarely survive the notice of cruel men."

The memory sharpened violently.

Torches in the distance. Shadows moving wrong.

"Maeryn was sighted," my wolf said. "At the bridge."

I watched soldiers report to Avelar’s uncle, their faces grim.

"He sent men to follow Avelar."

The night they returned to the bridge, it felt different.

I saw it clearly now.

Arrows tore through the air.

One grazed Maeryn’s shoulder. Another struck stone inches from Avelar’s head.

Chaos erupted.

Silver chains snapped around Avelar’s limbs, burning into his skin as he roared and struggled. He fell to his knees, powerless.

Maeryn screamed.

Men swarmed her, ropes soaked in wolfsbane biting into her flesh. She fought, claws flashing, magic sparking, but she was weak. Tired. Outnumbered.

I felt sick as I watched her dragged away, blood staining the bridge she once dreamed on.

Avelar strained against his shackles, veins bulging, voice tearing raw from his throat.

They were captured.

Both of them.

The scene darkened.

Avelar’s uncle stood before them, eyes gleaming with cold resolve.

"I am goinh to put an end to this and kill both of you tonight" he declared. "No more curses. No more abominations.

He reached for Maeryn first.

"For a moment," my wolf said, "it seemed history would repeat itself."

The uncle raised his hand, claws poised to rip Maeryn’s heart from her chest.

"No," I whispered, shaking.

Then....

Something snapped.

Avelar screamed, not in pain, but in defiance.

I felt the air break.

His wolf surged forward, not beside him, not behind him, but in him. His eyes became a dark void.

The Total Lycan Ascension.

"The first ever Lycan to do it," my wolf said, reverent. "He transcended."

I watched Avelar’s form erupt with power, eyes dark, chains melting off him like wax.

The first thing he did....

Was kill his uncle.

The strike was instant. Brutal. Final.

Shock rippled through the soldiers.

Avelar tore through them with savage precision, bodies falling in his wake until he reached Maeryn.

He freed her.

Held her.

Then he turned back to the survivors.

"I am your leader now," he declared, voice echoing with something ancient and absolute. "And she is my mate. My queen."

Anyone who objected...

Died.

"That," my wolf said quietly, "ignited the wars."

The memory blurred into bloodshed.

Packs attacked the Blood Moon Pack, claiming they needed to stop the Hexborn, to end the abomination.

"And Avelar," my wolf continued, "answered them all."

Years of battle and conquest.

Together, Avelar and Maeryn conquered the kingdom.

"That was how," my wolf said, "Avelar became the first Alpha King."

"And Maeryn," I whispered.

"The first Luna Queen."

The world shifted again.

Lunar Crest Academy rose from the ground, stone walls gleaming, banners fluttering.

"They built it together," my wolf said.

And then...

Maeryn stood in a sunlit room, hands resting on her swollen belly.

"She was pregnant," my wolf said softly. "With Avelar’s child."

For a moment, everything felt... peaceful.

"Is this..." My voice trembled. "Is this where it ends? Did they finally get their happy ending?"

My wolf looked at me.

And shook her head.

"Happily ever after," she said, "was only ever a dream."

The memory twisted violently.

Maeryn screamed.

I saw her clutching her head, blood streaming from her nose and ears, her body breaking under the weight of her own growing power.

"And evil," my wolf said, voice darkening, "never truly disappears."

Enemies moved in shadows.

Avelar was away on a trip to another pack.

So they took the opportunity and they struck.

Maeryn was dragged from her room, bound, powerless, taken far away.

I couldn’t breathe as the memory showed flames.

Her screams.

Fire devouring her, and the child inside her.

"No..." I sobbed.

The scene shifted one last time.

Avelar returned.

But he was too late.

He found her remains.

I watched him cradle Maeryn’s burned body, his screams ripping through the world.

I’d seen this before.

In my vision.

But seeing it now....

I broke.

Tears streamed down my face as grief crushed me from the inside out. It felt like my heart was being torn apart. Like I was the one that was burnt to death and now held in his arms.

The memory faded.

My wolf stood beside me once more.

"Maeryn died that day," she said. "And so did Avelar."

She looked at me.

"What rose in his place," she continued, "was something else."

A blood hungry king.

A man consumed by rage.

"He slaughtered anyone he suspected to have had a hand in killing Maeryn" my wolf said. "Truth no longer mattered to him"

And when even that wasn’t enough....

"He divided the kingdom."

Images flashed, Lycans claiming their territory, others cast out, forced to fight for the remaining land.

"That," my wolf said, "was how Elites, Nobles... and Ferals were born."

"Decades later," she added, "Avelar married again. Not for love because his heart died with Maeryn, but for a successor."

"His bloodline continued," she said softly.

I lifted my head, heart pounding.

"Down to..." I whispered.

I swallowed.

"...Down to Kieran."