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Chapter 176
~Lucy’s POV~
Riven and Dristan didn’t move at first. Their fists were still clenched, and their auras crackled like thunderstorm clouds refusing to dissipate.
Kieran lay crumpled at their feet, blood dripping from his nose, mouth, and the corner of one eye. He groaned, trying to push himself up, his breathing ragged and broken.
But after Dristan threw that punch... I knew once that he would not be given a second chance as Dristan’s aura alone pressed him to the ground.
Then both guys charged. That was when sothing in snapped.
I didn’t know when or how I ended up on the floor, my knees crashing against the cold tiles, my palms spread flat as I lowered my head.
Tears poured freely now—hot, humiliating, unstoppable.
I was trembling.
"Kieran..." I choked, but he didn’t even look at .
So I looked up instead at Dristan, at Riven, still towering, still dangerous, their hands inches from my face and body.
"Please," I whispered. "Please... forgive him."
Still no movent. The hallway was dead silent except for my sobs and the distant echo of a cara shutter. Soone was recording. Everyone was watching. My sha, my loyalty, all of it was laid bare but I didn’t care.
Kieran’s life was on the line.
"I’m begging you..." My voice cracked again as I bowed lower, my forehead nearly brushing the floor. "He didn’t an to hurt her. Please... spare him."
My throat burned. My cheeks were soaked.
Dristan let out a slow, low grunt. I knew that sound. It ant his wolf—his beast—was pulling back.
I didn’t dare look up again until I heard the electricity in the air flicker out, like soone had turned off the storm. The atmosphere thinned just enough to breathe again.
Still, the weight in the air didn’t leave. It only shifted.
Dristan finally moved.
But not toward .
I saw his boots move past where I knelt, opposite us. I dared sneak a peek to see him stop right in front of Valerie, who stood frozen.
Without asking, without a single word, he reached out and grabbed her wrist.
She flinched—but didn’t pull away. And then he turned, dragging her gently but firmly through the crowd.
Gone.
Everyone parted for them like shadows chased by lightning.
Riven lingered just a mont longer. His face was cold, his eyes still glowing with rage, but he didn’t say a word.
He turned too. Snickered once under his breath.
Then walked away, his black boots echoing down the corridor like a judge leaving after the verdict had been passed.
The mont he vanished, my body crumpled.
I turned quickly—so quickly my hands slipped—and crawled over to where Kieran lay, blood staining his shirt, jaw crooked.
"Kieran," I whispered. "I—I’m so sorry. I didn’t know they’d—"
He lifted his head slowly, eyes gleaming with fury. And then, without warning...
Crack.
The sound echoed like thunder against the lockers.
Pain blood hot across my cheek as my head snapped sideways, stars bursting behind my eyes as a hot, stinging slap connected with my cheek.
I blinked, stunned. My breathing caught.
His voice followed, sharper than the strike. "Piece of shit," Kieran spat. "Who asked you to interfere?"
I stared at him in horror, the words sinking deeper than any blow.
Blood stained his teeth as he sneered down at like I was filth beneath his boot. His hand still hovered in the air as if daring to speak.
I couldn’t because not a single sound ca out.
I had stayed there. I had waited to help him and...
Had I not intervened, his face would have been battered and they wouldn’t care. I saved him from further humiliation.
I helped him and stopped him from being killed because even I knew he was no match for an Alpha Heir, let alone an angry one, plus a bloodthirsty Vampire.
And all I got was a slap.
He cursed under his breath. "You’re useless. You couldn’t even get a simple job done. What gave you the right to touch or intercede?"
"Kie... Master Kieran..."
POW!
Another hot slap followed as I tried standing up, sending back down. I swallowed the cry that threatened to escape my lips and blinked.
"Do you think I am weak, huh? Do you think I need a girl fighting my battles for ?"
I glanced up, feeling even more hurt than before.
Master Kieran hadn’t always been like this in the past...
"You used to call your ’little shadow,’ rember? You said I was the only one you trusted."
But now...
Kieran stood, wobbling slightly, then shoved past , ignoring the people still gathered, watching, whispering.
And I... I stayed kneeling on the floor.
Not because I couldn’t get up.
But because I didn’t know how to stand after sothing like that, after choosing him and betraying my pride for him and being slapped like a dog.
The whispers turned louder. The phones ca back out. But I didn’t care anymore. The sting in my cheek couldn’t compare to the pain in my chest.
I had begged for him.
And he punished for it.
Tears welled in my eyes again, but this ti, I didn’t wipe them away. Everyone could see what a person he was and how he repaid loyalty.
Still, why did it hurt so much in my heart?
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~Valerie’s POV~
His grip wasn’t gentle, but it wasn’t cruel either. It was deliberate, tight, like he needed to understand sothing he couldn’t say aloud.
Kieran’s hands had been forceful, entitled. Dristan’s? They held anger, sure... but not malice. Never malice.
He didn’t speak.
Neither did I.
Not until we were far from the crowd, tucked beneath the archway between the back gardens and the old east wing.
Now that we were here, the silence pressed in heavier than before, filled with all the things we hadn’t said.
Dristan finally let go.
I turned to face him, arms crossing over my chest more out of reflex than defiance. My heart was still racing, though it was not from fear, but from how close that had co to turning into sothing worse.
Kieran. Riven. The crowd, the whispering... everything.
Dristan looked away first, his jaw clenched so tightly I heard his teeth grind.
He raised his hand slightly, as if he wanted to touch , and then paused. Then let it fall—his hand twitching.
"He was going to kiss you," he stated in a low and raw voice that made my heart skip a beat from the raw anger and... wait, was that from pain instead?
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