The Lycan Trials (A Reverse Harem Academy Romance)

Executioner

DORIAN

And how exactly am I supposed to oversee a hall full of candidates who look like they would fold under pressure before the trials even begin?

I keep my expression neutral as my gaze remains fixed on one of the reflective orb hovering before me, its surface shifting smoothly as it captures every corner of the auditorium below.

Hell be damned. There are too many of them this year.

Too many bodies. Too many expectations. Too many people who seem to think that being here means that if they try hard enough, they get to stay.

Well, they won’t.

They never do.

My hand rests behind my back as Spencer addresses them from the podium, his voice steady and controlled as he delivers the same speech he has given a dozen times before.

I would have pitied him if not for the fact that I remember I would have been the one standing where he currently is, addressing them.

Phew.

My attention shifts from the first orb to the next, and this one is not showing the entire hall.

It is focused on just one person.

Celia Valmorra.

The only person I am here for, hidden beneath the convenient charade of overseeing this year’s applicants.

Celia Valmorra.

The rude weak heir of the Enforcer household.

I have never met her. Not properly or physically.

Everything I know about her comes from reports and observations from people who have had the misfortune of interacting with her.

They say the first and only time she was allowed to step into society, she was difficult. Uncooperative. Lacks discipline. Childish.

And most importantly—

Weak.

A liability wrapped in a name that carries more weight than it should.

Which is precisely why I am here.

My gaze lingers on the orb, my thoughts wandering to one thing.

The Enforcer household.

One of only two bloodlines in Mooncrest ever acknowledged by the Moon Goddess herself.

One. The throne.

Two. Them.

Where the royal family rules, the Valmorras judge.

That is what they were created for. That's what Selene granted them power— the moon goddess oath—for.

Power checked by power.

Authority restrained by authority.

In theory, it is a system designed to prevent corruption.

In practice, it is a constant irritation. A thorn in our path. My father, his majesty's path.

Because no ruler welcomes a blade that is allowed to hang over his neck under the name of “divine will.”

My father understands that. And that is why he sent me, his heir, secretly, with an instruction clear enough that it did not need to be repeated.

The girl with full Valmorra blood must not make it out of the academy alive.

The real Valmorra line ends with her.

Eliminate her before she fully awakens.

My gaze hardens as I look back at the orb.

Well, she doesn't look like check and balance.

She looks like a mistake.

And I, Crown Prince Dorian Fenraven, heir to the Mooncrest throne, am here to correct that.