Greymoor Academy: I Accidentally Bonded With Four Lycan Royals!

Chapter 248: 248. A Dinner From Hell I

Maisie

Dinner went uneventful for the most part.

The silence was stifling the second I descended the stairs, and the only sounds that echoed in the living room was the sound of metal scraping ceramic.

I was seated beside Jericho, with Mercer and Quinn on the opposite side of me, while Soren took the head of the table. All acting like I wasn’t present.

Before my disappearance, we never used to eat at the dinner table. We ate everywhere else but the dinner table. This felt formal and awkward and fucking depressing, and I pushed the food around my place, having no appetite at all even if it had been months since I’d been offered a full course meal, months since I’d eaten well.

Jericho cut into his steak and raised a piece over my plate. ”Here, malysh–”

He stopped, eyes widening slightly like he hadn’t realized what he was doing until he’d done it.

Jericho took it back, straightening in his seat. ”Habits die hard,” he said harshly, not sparing me another glance.

”Cute,” Quinlan said, making a disgusted face, and Mercer continued to blissfully ignore us all.

I wondered why he was even here if he so clearly wanted to be elsewhere.

”How’s Tessa doing?” I blurted, resentment burning in my chest again. ”I’m sorry I hit your girlfriend a little too hard.”

Quinlan coughed. Or choked. I couldn’t be sure.

Mercer finally glanced up from his plate, green eyes flashing with irritation. ”If you’re asking if I’m fucking her... I don’t know, Adams, am I?”

We both knew he wasn’t.

But he cocked his head. ”The idea does seem a little less repulsive than sticking my cock down the throat of a liar. At least, she’d keep my pup.”

I snapped the knife in my grasp and the maid beside me jumped as she set down a slice of chocolate cake that might have been good enough to awaken my appetite if I wasn’t currently imagining Tessa and Mercer fucking.

It wasn’t even hard to imagine as I’d seen them fucking before.

My fangs began aching and I snatched my hands off the table to hide the beginning of the claws starting to punch out.

After my outburst earlier, I knew Soren suspected it. But I couldn’t have anyone find out about this. I trusted them to keep it to themselves, but the thing about secrets was that they always had a way of getting out.

If the Queen felt like having a field trip in Soren’s mind and she discovered it, I didn’t want to find out what new methods she would find to ensure I stayed subdued.

And I couldn’t have that happen, not before I killed the bitch.

I reeled in my temper and forced my gaze to my plate, and spent the next half an hour picking at the food, needing the day to be over like yesterday.

”What is it, Adams? Too good to eat what we give you?”

I glanced up at Soren, whose eyes are on his steak as he slices it into a perfectly juicy piece.

My stomach churned and I pushed the plate aside. It looked too much like blood. ”Being near you makes the idea of stomaching anything appalling.”

Mercer’s jaw clenched. Quinlan’s veins looked a second away from popping. Jericho stiffened beside me. Soren set down his fork, but his hand tightened around the knife.

I didn’t mean it. I was just bitter and angry about the entire evening. About my entire damned day. It had only been a couple of days since I had been back, but I had been stoned, spat on, hunted, fucked, bruised, beaten, nearly killed, strangled, poked at.

Of course, I was in a bad mood.

I stood, the chair scrapping loudly against the marble. ”I’m going back to Greymoor–”

”We are not finished,” Soren said tightly. ”Sit down.”

”You don’t even want me here,” I snapped, frustration bleeding into my voice. ”We can all spare each other the drama of being forced to sit through this miserable silence if I leave and you all carry on with your lives like I was never here.”

I turned towards the exit.

”Adams,” Soren said in warning, but I ignored him, marching for the door in quick, angry strides.

Something whizzed past my ear, so close, I felt the very air split and several strands of my dark hair got sliced off. I froze on the spot as something silver flashed past my peripheral and buried itself in the wall ahead of me with a heavy thunk, vibrating from the force.

Any closer and it would have been in my skull.

”What the fuck, Black?” I heard Quinlan snarl.

Terror spread through my chest as my wide gaze turned from the knife to the table.

Everyone was staring at Soren. Even Mercer looked disturbed.

”Are you mad?” I asked him, but my voice shook with fear. ”Were you trying to kill me?”

Soren reached for his napkin and wiped his fingers slowly, like he hadn’t just thrown a knife at my head. His eyes were empty of emotion, which was even more terrifying than his rage would’ve been.

”If I wanted you dead, I would have aimed a little lower,” he said. ”I don’t miss.”

The words slid down my spine like icy claws and my heart was ramming into my ribcage so hard, I knew they could all hear it.

For a moment, I couldn’t move. It was the predatory focus in his eyes pinning me to the spot, and even my Lycan whimpered in submission when he said so softly, I almost missed it over my pounding pulse.

”Sit down, Adams. And eat your food.”

My legs felt unsteady as I walked back to the table, pulled the chair out and sat, spine stiff. And I took the damned fork and ate my damned food. Every morsel of it.

****

The chocolate cake wasn’t so bad.

I was embarrassingly full, but I’d always been a glutton for chocolate. And it didn’t help that every time my plate got empty, there was a maid waiting around to fill it back up.

If I didn’t know better, I’d have thought Soren was trying to fatten me up. But I knew better. Plus, after nearly slicing my head in half several minutes ago, he hadn’t looked in my direction again.

They were too busy discussing the attacks at school to pay me any heed.

”You think the competition with Hellsgrave might draw even more of them here?” Jericho asked, absent-mindedly pushing a cup of orange juice in my direction, like he knew I was a second away from choking.

He’d given up on fighting his obsession with feeding me. It was so innate, he was doing it while having a conversation and not even noticing he was doing it.

Quinlan’s brows rose but he didn’t comment on it. ”Moving so many students with those things flying and plucking people off the streets seems quite stupid if you ask me.”

Mercer made a face. ”Brownstone has been the most recent victim of those attacks. Hellsgrave Academy took a hit. Transporting them to Greymoor may be dangerous, but leaving them in Brownstone would be even more dangerous.” He flicked his fork. ”This competition would keep the students distracted from the panic and fear–”

”While giving them a wider target range to feed on,” Soren said, shaking his head. ”Your mother always has a way of making decisions that result in death.”