Chapter 114: Just Alphas Being Alphas

"...his words hold great power."

I knew it! They did become buddies. When did it start? Was it at the shed?

Wait... An image suddenly flashed through my mind—the one being pinned down, trapped and helpless being Damian and not me in that locked shed and—my face steamed. I definitely just thought of something weird.

They definitely don’t swing that way if they both can mess with me the way they did.

"If I decide my presence is required back on campus to oversee a participant’s tournament preparation," Zero continued, his voice breaking me from my bizarre thoughts, "...then the board will simply process the paperwork."

He sounds awfully confident.

Then, he gave my parents one last, deeply respectful nod. "Mr. and Mrs. Wells. I bade you goodnight."

With a final, lingering look at me, Zero turned on his heel and strode out the front doors, his broad shoulders squared and his long coat sweeping behind him as he melted into the quiet night.

The moment the front doors clicked shut, an absolute, suffocating silence descended on the living room.

My entire family sat completely frozen, staring at the empty doorway as if a hurricane had just passed through the house and left them all bewildered in its wake.

"So..." Jordan started, breaking the silence with a squeaky voice as he slowly looked over at me. "Are we going to talk about the fact that a battle instructor just asked to court you in our living room right in front of Alpha Edgar who already claimed he was pursuing you and did all this for us?"

"No," I said flatly, turning straight toward the stairs. "We are not."

"Brianna, sweetheart..." Valerie began, her voice filled with a mixture of motherly anxiety and absolute bewilderment. "What in the world is happening? Who truly was that man? And Alpha Edgar..."

"They’re just Alphas being Alphas, Mother," I said, pausing on the first step and looking back at them with my coolest, most reassuring expression. "Don’t stress over it. They like to make big, dramatic speeches because they have too much power and not enough hobbies. Just ignore them."

Bradford let out a long, heavy sigh, rubbing his temples. "I just want you to be safe, Brianna. Those aren’t ordinary men. An Alpha from the Morningstar line, then the heir to the Almond Pack and now a battle instructor who seemed to have a high standing as well... getting caught between them is dangerous."

"I’m not caught between anything, father," I murmured, my eyes narrowing into a cold, sharp glint. "I’m just focused on surviving the tournament. Everything else is background noise."

I didn’t wait for them to respond, heading straight up to my room and shutting the heavy mahogany door behind me.

Switching off the lights, I walked over to the floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the vast, dark gardens of the Morningstar estate. The cool moonlight washed over the polished floorboards, casting long shadows across the luxurious room.

Seriously, bringing up the Day of Prosperity out of nowhere. It truly caught me off guard.

I’m not 17 yet so I don’t need to worry about his ridiculous proposal. For now, let’s just focus on the tournament.

I reached for my my ancient, cracked smartphone. The screen flashed to life, still lagging under the sheer weight of incoming notifications.

The student forums were practically melting down over the Tournament of Power roster.

[ACADEMY MAIN FORUM - TRENDING TOPICS]

Grey Moon’s Sacrificial Lamb: Why is an Omega on the roster?

Target Practice: Which pack will claim the first point off Brianna Wells?

<anno data-annotation-id="9d316856-006e-04c8-8993-91e9621f49ba" data-title="Instructor Zero Nightingale returns from leave tomorrow!">Instructor Zero Nightingale returns from leave tomorrow!1</anno>

I scrolled through the endless flood of insults, predictions, and arrogant taunts from high-born students who viewed me as nothing more than an easy point boost in Round 1.

A low, dry snort escaped my lips.

An easy target, huh?

They were all amatures. They were all focused on me, but the ones with some common sense know that the roster being released was so each competitor could size up their potential opponent.

I would need information on each of them and the person in charge of that was Edgar. I paused. He was my investor, so this was one of the things he should naturally be involved with.

Not some mind games about suitors and the rest.

And in all honesty, it was bugging me a bit. The fact that I can’t read his mind or the expressions on his face to understand clearly what he’s actually thinking annoys me.

I should talk to him.

I opened his contact, Investor E, and dialed his number. It rang a few times and then he answered. I could tell he had contemplated a lot before he actually answered,

"Hello," his deep voice rang out, and I opened my mouth to speak, but no word came out.

I said I was going to explain, but what exactly was I trying to explain? And why was I even trying to in the first place? This guilt... where was it coming from?

"I can hear you breathing," he spoke over the phone. "So, I cannot pretend you aren’t aware of this call."

"What if I called you just to make you listen to my breathing?" I asked, and a deep rumbling laugh came from the other end.

"You’re more than capable, little cat."

I looked down, suddenly fiddling with the hem of my top, not knowing exactly what to say. My words would jumble for sure, and I still didn’t know what I was supposed to be explaining, so I asked, "Are you mad at me?"

The silence on the line stretched out, long and heavy, punctuated only by the faint clinking of ice against crystal on his end.

"Mad at you?" Edgar echoed, his voice dropping into a slow, velvet drawl that sent a strange, low vibration straight through the phone’s speaker. "Now why would I be mad at my prime investment?"

"I don’t know. You tell me," I muttered, resting my forehead against the cool window glass. "You walked out without even having dinner, and your spectral wolf looked ready to tear someone’s head off in the training hall. Then Zero said he wanted to court me, and you shouted so loudly that it made my whole body shake. By the time I was done talking to him, you’d disappeared. If that isn’t you being mad, then what is?"