Chapter 106
Chapter 106
Kael Vale’s mouth was dry, his chest heavy with bitterness. There was no point waiting anymore.
“The porridge… forget it,” he muttered hoarsely. “Just get me my stomach medicine.”
The servant hesitated, clearly distressed. “Alpha Kael… we–we don’t know where your medicine is kept. And we don’t know the type you usually take. It was always Mia who handled it for you.”
Kael’s head fell back with a thud against the couch cushion, a deep groan escaping him. The pain in his gut surged like a tide crashing against the shore, relentless and merciless. His fingers dug into his abdomen as though he could physically hold the pain in place.
The servant, her expression full of helplessness, offered a quiet sigh and carried the untouched bowl of porridge away.
The room was swallowed once again in suffocating silence.
Kael remained curled on the sofa like a wounded beast, his hollow gaze fixed on the ceiling. No medicine. No porridge. Just agony–raw and endless.
Minutes passed. Hours, maybe.
It wasn’t until the pain finally dulled to a throbbing ache that Kael managed to force himself upright. Outside the windows, the last rays of dusk had long vanished, and the estate was wrapped in the hush of night. His parents were already asleep.
Dragging his feet, he made his way to the kitchen and poured himself a glass of warm water. The heat trickled down his throat and pooled in his stomach, offering a faint reprieve from the dull ache.
But even then, his feet didn’t carry him back upstairs.
Instead, they led him to the storage room.
The moment he pushed the door open, a rush of musty air, tinged with the scent of damp wood and old fabric, swept out to greet him. Kael wrinkled his nose, hesitating before stepping in. The dim overhead light buzzed faintly above, casting long shadows that danced across the concrete floor.
His eyes slowly adjusted to the gloom. In the far corner, wedged between old crates and unused furniture. sat a small wooden desk. Scuffed and out of place amidst the luxury of the Ebonclaw Pack’s estate, it looked as if it had been plucked from another world entirely.
And in a way, it had.
Kael approached and ran his fingers along its surface. The desk was covered in books–weathered textbooks and worn notebooks with frayed corners. Every one of them belonged to Riley.
Her high school years, captured in ink and paper.
He pulled a random book toward him and flipped it open
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Pages after pages of notes greeted him. Tiny handwriting, neat and consistent, filled the margins with highlighted key points and underlined explanations. Even under the flickering light, the intensity of her effort shone through.
Kael swallowed hard.
He could see her there, hunched over this very desk, lips pressed together in focus, eyes shining with determination. She had once told him, the day she came home from Mooncrest Prison, that she used to be the top student at Mooncrest Academy.
He had laughed it off.
But now… now the truth lay in his hands.
Riley had fought her way to the top not just in school–but in life. She had believed that knowledge could be her way out. That her future didn’t have to be defined by her bloodline or her place in the Pack.
Until they threw her behind bars and burned everything she built.
Kael exhaled shakily and opened the desk drawer.
What he found inside sent a jolt through him.
Dozens of award certificates.
Each one a vibrant red or gold, each proclaiming her excellence–Best Student, Outstanding Pack Cadet, First in Class, Regional Academic Champion. The list was endless. He stared, stunned, as he began laying them out one by one.
Twelve years. From primary school to high school.
It was a quiet legacy. A lifetime of silent struggle.
These weren’t just pieces of paper. They were her voice–crying out, I worked for this. I earned it. I mattered.
And they had all ignored it.
Kael’s throat tightened. His hands began to tremble as he touched each certificate like it was something sacred. Because to him, they were. He had never seen her this way–truly seen her.
To think… all this time, while they had labeled her difficult, jealous, and dangerous, she had been quietly carrying the weight of a world that had never once been kind to her.
Kael suddenly couldn’t bear it.
He shoved the stack of certificates back into the drawer, breathing hard, guilt crashing into him like a tidal wave. He gripped the edge of the desk to keep himself grounded, to keep from screaming.
But curiosity gnawed at him.
He reached for the second drawer.
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Chapter 106
And then, in the faint light, he saw it.
Finished
A crimson envelope. The seal of Ashmoor Academy–the most prestigious academic institution in all the werewolf territories.
With shaking hands, he pulled it out.
The gold letters gleamed at him mockingly.
“Admission Granted.”
His mind blanked.
No one–no one from the lower–ranking wolf families ever got into Ashmoor. Even many noble–blooded heirs failed. And Riley… she’d made it. Despite the abuse. Despite the poverty. Despite being born to a forgotten branch of the Ebonclaw Pack and locked away in a pack that never wanted her.
She had done it..
And they had let it rot here. In a drawer. In the dark.
Kael’s knees nearly buckled. He sank into the chair, the letter trembling in his hand. His heart thundered in his ears, rage and regret twisting through every nerve.
“This… this can’t be real…” he whispered.
But it was.
The evidence was right in front of him.
He was the fool. They all were.
And now… it might be too late to make it right.
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