The Lunar Crest Academy: Marked by The Lycans

Lorraine’s POV

I stood frozen, every instinct in me screaming that something was wrong. Very wrong.

"Lorraine!" Elise’s hand clutched my wrist tightly. "Move!"

"She’s just standing there, Astrid Voss," I whispered. "Why is she...."

"Forget her!" Felix barked. "We need to hide, now!"

The hunting ground stretched before us like an open graveyard. Tall trees loomed over narrow paths. Thick underbrush tangled at our feet. The sun filtered in weakly through the branches, making everything feel like a slow-burning fever dream.

Around us, chaos erupted, wolves began to shift with sickening cracks of bone and muscle, launching into the forest. Growls, howls, and the sound of pounding paws filled the air. It had begun.

Professor Alaric Cain’s words still rang in my head:

"Bring your targets back dead or alive. Casualties are common and perfectly acceptable. This hunt doesn’t reward winners, it reveals losers. The dorm with the most captured or killed students loses fifty points. This is not a game. It’s survival."

Dead or alive.

I didn’t have time to dwell on the horror of that. Felix yanked me forward as we darted through the trees. My ribs ached with every breath, my legs flared with fire, still weak and healing far too slowly. My dormant wolf wasn’t healing me the way it should..... not even close.

But pain wasn’t the enemy today. Time was.