Chapter 146: Too Many Alphas

Adeline’s POV~

I heard the sudden, sharp crunch of footfalls behind me. I stood up slowly from the freezing wooden bench, my heart hammering against my ribs, and turned around to face the shadows.

"Sierra...?" I breathed out, my voice trembling in the dark.

She stood at the edge of the tree line, her eyes wide with shock as the moonlight hit her face. "Yes, it’s me! Adeline, what on earth happened to you? Why do you look so terrified?!"

The heavy breath I had been holding trapped in my lungs came rushing out all at once.

"Oh, Goddess..." I rasped, pressing a hand flat against my racing chest. "You scared the absolute hell out of me, Sierra. I thought..."

She stepped out of the grass, wrapped her warm arms tightly around my shoulders, and let out a soft, familiar laugh.

"Fine, fine, I’m sorry! I’m here now, aren’t I?" She pulled back, searching my pale face with concern. "So tell me, what’s the big plan?"

Before I could even open my mouth to answer her, a high-pitched phone chime shattered the quiet air. Sierra reached into her jacket pocket, pulled out her screen, and the second she read the caller ID, her entire face lit up with a radiant smile.

"It’s Kai!" she squealed happily.

She spun away from me, tapping the screen and lifting the phone to her ear, her tone instantly shifting into something sweet, playful, and dripping with affection.

"Kai...!"

"Really? Well, I’m at the old stone bridge past the rose gardens! Okay. Then come over here right now!"

I froze. A scent crept into my nostrils, sharp, metallic, and overwhelming. An alpha’s scent. And then another heavy scent laced right beneath it, and then a third.

It wasn’t just one alpha hidden out there in the dark forest. It was a whole pack of them, moving in close.

They are so close.

Why can I smell them so clearly? Why is their scent hitting me like a physical punch to the gut? Something is wrong. Terribly wrong.

Sierra ended the call, tucked her phone away, and turned back to me with a bright, clueless grin.

"Sorry about that, girl! Kai happens to be somewhere really close by right now. He said he wanted to see me, so I told him to just drive over here. We can all hang out and spend some time together! Okay, now tell me everything. How was your day inside that terrifying royal house?"

I forced my eyes away from the pitch-black road stretching behind her, fighting to keep my posture relaxed.

"Nothing much," I lied, my voice strained. "It just felt... suffocating in there."

Sierra didn’t seem to notice the razor-thin tension in my tone.

"Oh! Did you see the academy’s official broadcast message this afternoon?" she asked, stepping closer.

"There’s a mandatory special orientation scheduled for the day after tomorrow. Full-contact combat training. I haven’t even started enjoying my life, but I honestly don’t want to go. Let’s just skip it together! You haven’t checked your portal yet, so no one can even blame you for missing it."

"No," I said quietly, cutting her off. "Let’s not skip it."

Sierra blinked, her cheerful expression faltering. "What do you mean? Adeline, you can’t fight. You don’t even have a—"

"I have my wolf now, Sierra." I spoke each word slowly, deliberately, letting the raw reality of it sink. "I’m an omega. I’m not a wolfless nobody anymore."

For a second, a wide, genuine smile broke across her face. But then, as her eyes locked onto mine, her smile froze, morphing into a completely blank, stunned expression.

"But... I can’t smell a single thing on you," Sierra whispered, leaning closer and sniffing the air around my neck. "Your scent is completely dead. How—"

"It’s the ancient silver pendant," I said softly, reaching up to touch the cold metal sitting flat under my shirt collar.

"The Dowager Luna gave it to me. It completely suppresses my aura so no one can track me. But my wolf is real, Sierra. I got her back."

In an instant, Sierra wrapped her arms around me again, pulling me into a fiercely tight hug.

"Oh, girl... that is unbelievable! I am so, so happy for you!" She squeezed me tight, but then she pulled back, her brow furrowed with sudden, deep worry.

"But don’t you think you’re pushing yourself way too hard right now? She literally just woke up, Adeline! You’re seriously going to throw a fragile, newly awakened wolf straight into brute-force combat training with elite alphas?!"

"I’m going to be fine, Sierra," I said, my voice unnaturally steady. "All my life, I held myself back because I was terrified. I doubted every single breath I took. I was so afraid of failing that I never even tried to stand up. This time, I just want to walk forward and never look back. If I fall flat on my face, I fall. But I refuse to live with regrets anymore."

Sierra stared at me in complete silence for a long moment, reading the dark resolve in my eyes. Finally, she gave a slow, firm nod.

"Okay," she breathed softly. "If you’re doing this, then I’ll be standing right beside you in that arena. Always. Then, I’m not skipping either."

We stood by the stone bridge and talked for a while after that, exchanging quiet words about simple, irrelevant things. But my mind never truly left the thick, heavy scent of wild alphas lingering just beyond the tree line.

Then, the heavy crunch of boots hit the gravel path once again.

Two tall figures emerged silently from the shadowy side of the bridge, stepping into the pale moonlight.

"Kai!" Sierra gasped, her face lighting up as she ran forward and threw her arms around the taller man’s neck.

In that moment, I didn’t care about Kai. My eyes locked entirely on the second man standing right beside him in the dark.

"Adrian..." The name escaped my lips in a faint, breathless whisper.

He stepped forward, his dark eyes meeting mine, a polished, charming smile resting on his lips. He extended a hand toward me with effortless grace.

"Hello, Adeline," he said softly. "It’s nice to meet you again."