Chapter 4 ~ Stuttering

{Ava’s POV}

“What do you… what do you mean?”

My voice cracked. “Edna, say something. Please.”

I’d been stuttering for a full minute— asking questions, rejecting answers, trying desperately to outrun the truth she had just dropped at my feet. But her silence… her silence was the loudest confirmation of all.

She finally exhaled shakily.

“Ava… he is the Prince.”

“No.” I shook my head hard. “No, that’s— that can’t be. Lima? That arrogant-  that..  he—” My breath tangled. “Edna, no.”

Her eyes softened with guilt. “We didn’t know what the Prince looked like, Ava. Nobody at DarkClaw ever talked about it openly, and yesterday, after you fought him… we left before learning anything else.”

My pulse pounded in my ears.

This… this was why everyone had stared at me that way— Why their expressions had been strange. Why whispers had followed me like shadows.

“Oh shit.” I whispered. “But why didn’t anyone bow? Why didn’t anyone address him as Prince?”

“Because his father ordered it,” she explained. “The King didn’t want him treated any differently at Moonspire. He wanted him trained as a normal combatant.”

My throat closed.

“And the King and Queen visiting today…”

“Yes,” Edna said softly. “They’re here to see him.”

My stomach flipped upside down. Everything connected at once now

— the way he walked, the way people moved aside for him, the way he barked orders like he owned the place.

It was because he does own the place. 

I felt dizzy.

“What was I thinking?” I muttered. “I challenged a stranger who turned out to be the Prince. I mocked him. And then I insulted him. I—”

I tensed as the complete package of realization hit me. “Edna…” I whispered. “That means it was the Prince I humiliated in front of the entire Academy yesterday.”

She nodded, her face pale.

“And I just disrespectfully walked away from him again— minutes ago.”

With my words, a knot of panic tightened in my chest, squeezing the air out of me. But Before I could spiral further, a young male suddenly approached us.

“Excuse me… is your name Ava?”

I blinked. “Y-Yeah?”

He lifted his hand and shouted toward the crowd at a distance, “I’ve found her!”

My heart plummeted.

He turned back to me. “Prince Liam requests your presence. He’s with the Alpha King in the Private Quarters. I’m to take you there.”

I swallowed hard.

I wanted to sink into the ground… but I didn’t have that skill.

And the ground felt ever solid. 

**

Turns out his name was never Lima.

It was Liam.

Prince Liam.

And the male who’d been calling him Lima yesterday was his best friend Levi— the idiot responsible for all of this.

I would have figured things out eventually… if I’d taken two seconds to use my brain. But now it was too late.

Far too late.

I was already on my knees.

“First you challenge me in front of everyone,” Prince Liam snapped, pacing with a fury that made the floors tremble. “Then you win. Then you walk out on me— twice!”

“And as if that wasn’t enough, you approach me today just to insult me again?”

His voice cracked like thunder.

“How dare you?!”

My forehead nearly touched the marble floor. I couldn’t stop trembling. Edna stood behind me, frozen with fear.

“I— I’m sorry, my Prince,” I whispered. “I—”

“You what?” he roared.

I flinched. My mouth opened, then closed.

What was I supposed to say? That I didn’t know he was the Prince? That I’d grown up in a Pack that forced me indoors and never taught me anything beyond survival?

It sounded pathetic even inside my head.

“You will be punished,” Prince Liam said coldly. “I’ll make sure of it. And to start, I’m expelling you from Moonspire Academy. Effective immediately.”

A sharp breath escaped me. My vision blurred.

“Whoa, man,” Levi muttered beside him. “You’re angry so maybe you should handle this when you’re—”

“No, Levi,” Prince Liam snapped. “The girl clearly wasn’t taught respect at home. And fortunately, my father can help with that.” His gaze shifted. 

My blood froze.

Then the footsteps came.

Heavy. Regal. Certain.

The King entered the room.

I felt the weight of him before he even spoke— that overwhelming aura of authority; of power sharpened over decades. I kept my eyes trained to the floor. Edna did too.

“What is happening here?” the King asked. His tone was calm, but the undercurrent of command was unmistakable.

“This is the girl I told you about, Father,” Prince Liam said and the room felt too small. Too hot. Too suffocating. My hands shook so violently I tucked them at the side of my thighs to hide them.

“Is that so?” the King murmured now. And then the Queen entered as well.

Perfect.

More tension— Just perfect.

“Reveal your face,” the King ordered.

I inhaled slowly, lifted my gaze… and nearly lost the ability to breathe.

And now, the King’s silver-and-ember eyes bore into mine, and for a moment I saw my entire future hanging by a thread.

This was not how I imagined meeting the Royal family. It really wasn’t. 

The King studied me, and I prepared myself for the worst and what was about to become of me.

And then—

“You have done well.” 

Everything stopped.

“What?” I blurted.

“What?!” Prince Liam echoed, stepping forward.

The King clasped his hands behind his back and began pacing.

“You defeated my son,” he said. “And you did so with skill.”

I blinked at him.

He continued, ignoring Prince Liam’s growing rageful confusion.

“My son is talented. But talent without humility is a brittle thing. He was sent here to grow into a worthy leader— not to challenge generals.” His gaze turned back to me. “So when I heard someone bested him, I was pleased. When I learned it was a girl…” His lips twitched faintly. “I was elated.”

Liam made a frightening sound. “Father—!”

The King continued as if the Prince was speaking or trying to. .

“A fighter who masters the fundamentals is more valuable than one who skips steps. You seem like someone who has fought to earn every inch of strength.” He complimented and I nodded slightly out of confusion. 

I didn’t know if that was true. But I couldn’t deny the way something in my chest tightened at the acknowledgment.

But then the King said the words that nearly broke my spine:

“This is why I want you to train Liam.”

I snapped my head toward him.

I must have misheard.

Surely I misheard.

Train… the Prince?

Train him?

Me?

The girl who didn’t even want a crowd looking at her?

My mouth dropped.

Edna gasped behind me.

Prince Liam froze mid-breath.

And all I could think was;

I’ve finally found a way to get myself killed...