Chapter 28: The Trouble Maker

Roxanne woke up without a single thought of Dorian, which felt strange enough that she noticed it right away. Between the classes she actually looked forward to, Dance Club rehearsals, Moonball practice, Isla’s constant chatter, and four royal Lycans who somehow kept finding their way into every corner of her day, she was starting to admit she didn’t hate any of it. Isla caught her smiling while she got ready and pointed it out immediately, and Roxanne shrugged and said maybe she was finally getting used to the place. Isla suggested it might have something to do with four particular brothers instead, and Roxanne threw a pillow at her before either of them could take the joke any further.

A knock interrupted them before Isla could keep going, and Roxanne opened the door to find Liam standing there looking entirely too pleased with himself. "Come with me."

"No."

"You haven’t even asked where we’re going."

"I don’t need to."

He clutched his chest like she’d wounded him and told her to grab her shoes anyway, and she found herself following him down the hallway a few minutes later, still trying to get a straight answer out of him. He refused to say anything useful, insisting she was walking voluntarily, and she pointed out that he’d basically dragged her out of her room, which he brushed off as teamwork.

They reached the courtyard, and Roxanne stopped short at the sight of banners, obstacle structures, and students wearing colored ribbons scattered across the grounds. "What is this?"

"Pack Challenge Day," Liam said, looking proud of himself for reasons she was about to understand.

She turned to walk right back the way she came, but he caught her sleeve before she got far. "Too late."

"What did you do?"

"I signed us up."

Her jaw actually dropped at that, and she told him she was going to kill him, to which he simply replied that she could do it after they won.

The first event turned out to be an obstacle course full of barriers, ropes, mud pits, and a climbing wall at the end. Liam took off the moment the whistle sounded, clearing the first barrier easily before turning around to yell at her to hurry up. She told him not to call her a slowpoke and pushed harder to catch up, and he laughed hard enough that he nearly missed the next turn while looking at her instead of the course. She grabbed his arm and told him to focus, and he called her boss, which only made her roll her eyes. At the final stretch, she spotted the safer route before he did and shouted for him to go left, and he trusted her without hesitation, changing direction fast enough that they crossed the finish line together. They didn’t win the round outright, but they placed high enough to move forward, and Liam told her she was scary when she got competitive, which she took as a compliment.

While they waited for the next event, Roxanne noticed a younger student pacing nervously off to the side, clearly dreading whatever came next. Liam noticed too, and instead of teasing him the way she expected, he crouched down beside the kid and told him that messing up was fine, that nobody there was perfect, and that anyone who laughed at him would have to run the whole course again as punishment. The boy actually smiled, and Roxanne found herself watching Liam with something closer to surprise than amusement. When he caught her staring, she admitted she hadn’t known he could be nice, and he looked genuinely scandalized, begging her not to ruin his reputation.

The scent-identification challenge came next, and Roxanne’s heightened senses turned the whole exercise into an overwhelming mess the second the blindfold went on. She pulled it off almost immediately, and Liam called it cheating, but she told him she couldn’t separate anything from anything else. He lowered his voice and told her to stop trying to process every scent at once and just pick one, forgetting the rest existed. She closed her eyes, focused on a single thread of scent, and finally identified the right object, earning a reaction from the crowd and an enthusiastic celebration from Liam that involved both arms shooting into the air. She pointed out he hadn’t actually done anything, and he insisted his shouting counted as emotional support.

Across the field, Dorian watched all of it unfold, unable to look away from how genuinely happy Roxanne seemed. It wasn’t the tight, polite smile she’d worn right after everything fell apart between them. It was real, easy laughter, and it unsettled him more than he expected. Arabella noticed exactly where his attention had drifted and made a comment about how much Roxanne seemed to be enjoying the Moonstones’ attention, and he said nothing back, his eyes staying locked on her standing beside Liam.

The final challenge was a balance course strung high above padded ground, requiring partners to stay connected the entire way across. Roxanne looked down and admitted it looked a lot higher than it had from the ground, and Liam held out his hand and told her to trust him, which she said was a dangerous thing to ask of anyone. She took his hand anyway. The early platforms went smoothly enough, but the course narrowed further ahead, and her foot slipped hard enough that Liam grabbed her waist before she could fall. She told him she was fine, and he waited until she was steady before asking if she was ready to keep going. This time she led, calling out the safest steps, and they made it to the last platform together before jumping down to a roar from the crowd.

They’d won.

Liam was thrilled beyond reason, and Roxanne pointed out he’d nearly gotten them disqualified twice along the way, which he brushed off since it hadn’t actually happened. Their prize turned out to be a small voucher, which he handed straight to her, and she used it on snacks from the academy stand instead of anything fancier. They sat outside together, and he stole one of her fries within seconds of sitting down, prompting the same argument they’d already had about his toast.

As the afternoon light started to fade, Roxanne went quiet for a moment, and Liam noticed right away, asking what was on her mind. She admitted she was just realizing she hadn’t had this much fun in longer than she could remember. He didn’t turn it into a joke this time. He just said they’d have to do it again sometime, and when she pointed out he’d basically kidnapped her into coming, he reminded her she’d still stayed the whole time.

Walking back toward the dorms, Liam kept recounting his own heroics from the final challenge while Roxanne argued she’d carried the entire team, their voices trailing off down the hallway behind them. Somewhere in the middle of the arguing, it hit her that she hadn’t thought about Dorian once that whole afternoon. Not Arabella, not the fall, not the rejection that had followed her all the way to this academy.

She’d simply been herself, laughing beside someone who annoyed her endlessly and somehow made that feel like enough.

Maybe that was what healing actually looked like. Not forgetting what had happened, just slowly collecting moments that didn’t hurt anymore.

And somehow, without meaning to, Liam Moonstone had just given her one.