Moonveil Academy: Trapped With The Five Kings

Elara:

For several seconds after my palm connected with Reign’s cheek, the entire classroom seemed to stop breathing.

There were no gasps, no whispers, no scrape of chairs against the floor. Nothing. Just absolute, suffocating silence as every pair of eyes turned toward me with varying degrees of disbelief and horror. Even Professor Stroll, who had spent the entire lesson calmly supervising everyone practice, looked completely stunned, her mouth slightly parted as though she couldn’t quite process what she had just witnessed.

My own hand still tingled from the impact, but I barely noticed it. All I could feel was the anger burning through me, hot enough to drown out every sensible thought in my head.

Reign slowly turned his face back toward me, and the sight of his expression finally reminded me exactly who I had just slapped. His jaw was clenched so tightly that a muscle jumped near his cheek, while those usually arrogant blue eyes had gone frighteningly cold. There was nothing playful left in his face. Nothing teasing. Nothing careless. He looked murderous.

I knew I should have been afraid. I knew exactly how dangerous this man could be, and I knew better than almost anyone in this academy that Reign Valemont wasn’t someone who accepted humiliation gracefully.

Rejecting his so-called offer of friendship had already been enough to make him decide I needed to be taught a lesson. Ignoring his provocations had only encouraged him. I could only imagine what a public slap would do. But at that moment, I simply couldn’t bring myself to care.

My anger was still too fresh, too raw. He had entered my mind without permission and created something so intimate, something that would never happen. Worse, he had done it while knowing I was completely inexperienced with mental defenses. He had taken the one thing I couldn’t protect and turned it into a weapon against me.

The rest of the class might never know exactly what he had shown me. They might think I’d simply slapped him because his weaving had frightened or embarrassed me. But Reign knew. I knew. And somehow, that made the humiliation feel even worse.

”I don’t care how powerful you think you are,” I finally said, my voice so cold that I barely recognized it myself. ”I don’t care that you are the heir of House Valemont, that you are supposedly one of the most important people in this world, or that you happen to be the only werewolf everyone worships like some kind of miracle.”

His expression didn’t change, but his eyes remained locked on mine.

”None of that gives you the right to crawl inside someone’s mind and play such a sick game just because you think you can.” My fingers curled around the strap of my backpack. ”You were born into a noble family and handed every advantage this world could possibly give you, yet somehow you are still the one who needs to learn how respectable people behave. So don’t ever confuse your status with character, Mr. Valemont. They aren’t the same thing.”

The words hung between us.

Somewhere behind me, someone drew in a sharp breath. I didn’t look around. I didn’t care. For once, I wasn’t interested in how the class perceived me. I only wanted to get away from him before my anger turned into something even more reckless.

Fortunately, the bell chose that exact moment to ring, its sharp sound slicing through the suffocating silence. I almost wanted to thank whoever had designed that bell. I didn’t wait for Professor Stroll to say anything. I grabbed my books, shoved them into my backpack, and moved. My hands were shaking slightly now that the adrenaline was beginning to fade, but I kept my expression composed and walked toward the door.

Reign didn’t move. He didn’t say a word. He didn’t even try to stop me. And somehow, that was worse than if he’d shouted.

I could feel his stare following me all the way across the classroom. When I reached the doorway, I glanced back once despite myself. He was still sitting in his chair, perfectly still, his posture relaxed enough to fool anyone who didn’t know him. But his face had become an unreadable mask, and his eyes were fixed on me with such cold fury that a shiver traveled down my spine. I immediately turned away and walked out.

The farther I got from the classroom, the more my anger began to settle. Unfortunately, what replaced it was anxiety. I had done something incredibly reckless. I had slapped Reign Valemont in front of an entire class, including Professor Stroll, several third-year students, and practically everyone who had already spent weeks watching the two of us clash. There was no way this would disappear quietly. If refusing his friendship had been enough to make him target me, what would a public slap earn me?

I slowed my steps as I reached the end of the corridor, suddenly remembering the expression on his face.

Maybe I should have slapped him somewhere private.

Maybe then he would have screamed, threatened me, or done whatever ridiculous thing he usually did, and at least I could have handled it without an entire classroom watching. But I’d done it publicly. I’d humiliated him in front of everyone.

And Reign wasn’t the kind of man who forgot humiliation.

I swallowed and tightened my grip around my backpack strap.

Still, despite the anxiety slowly crawling through me, there was one thing I couldn’t deny.

I didn’t regret it. Not even a little.

He had crossed a line. A line no amount of nobility, power, or status gave him permission to cross. If he wanted to play games with me, then he needed to understand that I wasn’t going to quietly accept everything he threw at me simply because he was stronger.

There was only one problem.

As my anger finally faded enough for me to think clearly, another memory surfaced. The one Reign had forced into my mind. The warmth. The closeness. The sensation. And the most humiliating part of all was that for those few moments, before I realized what was happening, I had actually enjoyed it.

My cheeks burned at the realization.

I immediately shook my head, trying to push the thought away.

No.

Absolutely not.

Reign Valemont was wrong for me in every possible way. He was arrogant, infuriating, manipulative, dangerously powerful, and apparently had absolutely no understanding of boundaries. There couldn’t possibly be anything good waiting for me anywhere near him.

And yet, somehow, my own reaction to that memory had become the most disturbing thing of all.

Because if I wasn’t careful, the person I needed to protect myself from wouldn’t only be Reign.

It might also be me.