Possessed Wolfless: From Rejected to Vengeful Lycans' Queen-Chapter 73: Rotten Tea

["Didn’t you already try and fail?"]

’It won’t hurt me to try again. Come on.’

Lethia was already in position, ready to aim again. In her heightened hearing, she caught the sound of her next target approaching—like the raspy grunt of a rabbit—coming from her right.

’A rabbit? What a pity. But let’s just pretend it’s Lana Ashcroft.’

Her heartbeat quickened as the target came closer. Her entire body tensed, breath held, shoulders locked, eyes locked in.

Her grip on the bow tightened—like she was gripping Lana’s collar—and with all her hate focused in one breath, she loosed the arrow. And—

The arrow hit. It struck the rabbit’s tail, paralyzing it, but not killing it.

Her score still flashed zero. She had to kill it.

Lethia frowned. Something about watching the rabbit die—even in a fake VR sim—rubbed her the wrong way. It wasn’t real, but still.

She inhaled deeply, steadied herself again, and drew another arrow.

’You are Lana Ashcroft. You are Lana Ashcroft... You deserve this arrow.’

Swiiinngg—

The arrow shot like vengeance itself—clean, fast, brutal. Right through the rabbit’s skull.

Lethia was panting, breath shallow but satisfied. She’d done it. One clean kill.

The hard stone that had been weighing her chest finally lifted. She couldn’t kill Lana outright, but doing this? She could kill her a thousand times in her head.

If there’s a kind of feeling where you hope your enemy lives again just so you can kill them again...

This—this was that damn feeling.

Lethia managed to rack up 13 hunted targets out of the 24 total. Not exactly an impressive number compared to the other candidates, but it was satisfying enough, considering this was her first attempt at archery.

She took off the VR goggles and stepped out of the simulation room, heart light and unburdened—not because of the number she hit, but because she’d imagined slaughtering Varrel, Lana, and a handful of Obsidian Pack higher-ups with every arrow she fired.

That wicked little smirk curled up on her lips again.

Just like before, she had a 15-minute break before her final individual test. For this last one, she wanted something that showed off her stamina, but without pushing it too far with running or jumping.

Her choice landed on a sport game called Reflex Box. Four punching pads—two in front, one on each side.

She had to strike the correct pad in sync with the arrows flashing on the hologram screen in front of her.

It was basically like a reaction light grid. Didn’t demand too much physical power, but needed focus and sharp reflexes. And just as she predicted, she nailed it. Score nearly perfect.

"You’ve worked so hard today. I’m quite impressed by your determination, really. Good luck, and be careful of the team assignment."

Nyna smiled, gave a slight bow, and walked out of the gym.

Lethia returned the gesture with an awkward half-smile, head tilting in a small bow of her own.

’Be careful? Was the team assignment that bad?’

God, let’s hope not.

She walked in the opposite direction from where Nyna had gone, and halfway through, a soft hand suddenly clutched her arm. She turned to find Chasey throwing an arm around her, resting her head dramatically on Lethia’s shoulder.

Her face looked like she’d just clawed her way out of hell.

"Oh, thank God there’s no elimination in this phase. I would’ve been doomed for sure if there was," Chasey groaned and whined all at once.

"Mm..." Lethia only hummed in response because she felt the same way.

She was grateful for the rule change... but that also made her gut twist a little. Was there a chance the rule was changed because of her?

The moment Lethia and Chasey stepped into the cafeteria, a wave of sweet, savoury deliciousness violently assaulted their noses.

Adam, already in the food line, spotted them and waved with that annoyingly wide grin of his.

With trays in hand, all three of them, who were starving and half-dead, made their way to an empty table in the centre of the cafeteria.

Lethia was practically drooling just staring at her tray: grilled barbeque sausage and fried snapper filet drenched in butter sauce. Heaven.

"No, no—can we not talk about the individual assignment here? Let me eat in peace," Chasey declared, shooting Adam a look the moment he opened his mouth with a ’how...’

"Is it that bad?" he asked, genuinely curious.

"’Bad’ is a nice word for it," Chasey huffed. "But hey, at least I got entertained by some crazy bitch."

Lethia and Adam didn’t comment. They were too busy wolfing down their food—but Chasey knew they were waiting for her to spill the tea.

"Someone just claimed she’s gonna marry Caelum."

But the tea that spilled was far from fresh, it made Lethia and Adam freeze mid-chew like they’d just caught a whiff of something rotten.

Chasey caught the horrified look plastered on both their faces and let out a soft laugh, then stabbed her sausage with such spiteful energy it looked like she was imagining someone’s face on it.

"I know, I know, it sounds fucking absurd, right? But the bitch is Thania Owen. What the hell can we even say?"

Adam winced and returned to his food. Lethia, though, still sat there, visibly confused.

"Who’s that?"

"You don’t know Thania Owen?" Chasey blinked at her like she’d just asked who oxygen was.

"She’s the worst bitch you could ever meet if you’ve ever been one of Caelum’s haters," Adam explained, unnervingly calm.

"Yeah... she’s the President of Caelove," Chasey muttered and sank her teeth into the poor sausage she’d been tormenting.

Suddenly, Lethia lost all appetite despite her stomach still gnawing at her insides. She knew the name Caelove—it was Caelum’s fandom.

Lethia let out a bitter chuckle. "Didn’t know you guys had a president for that."

"She’s not just some nobody, though. But God, I hated her guts the moment she said that. I was like, bitch, you’re not the only one who knows Caelum up close. My Queen even did a video call with his cousin."

Lethia’s eyes widened. "You said that to her?"

Chasey stared at her with a smug little grin, letting the silence hang before replying,

"Of course not, My Queen. I know you hate attention, and let’s be real, we’re not strong enough yet if we’re gonna go to war with that delusional bitch."

Lethia exhaled, a wave of relief washing over her. At least Chasey wasn’t running her mouth to just anyone.

Because every gut instinct in her was screaming to stay the hell away from this Thania girl.