Chapter 109: I’m Her Suitor

I leaned back against the bench, resting my elbows behind me as I turned my eyes up toward the catwalk.

"Productive enough," I replied smoothly, a dry, mocking tilt touching my lips. "Though I have to ask, Edgar... of all the elite instructors, you just happened to hire the one man from the Academy who treats a basic sparring match like a sacred military operation?"

Edgar reached the bottom of the spiral stairs. His sharp golden eyes flicking from my relaxed posture to Zero, who had instantly snapped into a rigid, perfectly respectful stance beside the weapon rack.

"Instructor Nightingale comes with the highest recommendation from the Central Garrison," Edgar said, his deep voice smooth and unbothered. "His discipline is unmatched. I assumed someone with your... unpredictable decisions would benefit from a little structure."

"Structure?" I scoffed softly, tossing my towel onto the bench and standing up to cross my arms. "That sounds like an insult to his talent,"

I said and once again, Zero gulped. It didn’t seem like he was nervous. More like he was flustered. So gullible for an Alpha.

"Oh? You’re praising him?" Edgar rasied a brow, looking suspiciously at me and then rubbed his chin. "Did you forget how much you boasted about defeating the instructor I brought in under ten minutes? Were did that confidence go?"

I felt embarrased but I swatted my hand away.

"Please, it’s only because Instructor Zero is just too good at what he does. If it were some shabby instructor, believe me, I’d have had him flat on the floor in five minutes." I boasted.

Edgar let out a low, smooth chuckle. Stepping across the remaining distance, he reached out and patted my head with a surprisingly gentle touch, his golden eyes gleefully drinking in my annoyed expression.

"Of course, little cat," Edgar purred, his voice dripping with a smooth, soft amusement. "I believe you whole-heartedly."

I pursed my lips and turned my face away from his hand. This Alpha and his patronizing, arrogant behavior. Grow up!

Zero stood near the weapon rack, his rigid stance tightening further. His emerald eyes flicked between Edgar’s hand resting near my hair and my completely unbothered expression.

Despite being an Alpha himself, Zero knew his place within the strict hierarchy—and as an instructor currently on administrative leave, he carried his own circumstances.

I still remembered the words he told me as I was about to leave the shed, asking me not to let anyone know he was an Alpha. I still don’t know what that is all about but I don’t plan to pry. Everyone has their own circumstances.

I thought he was planning to lay low, but gathering a quiet thread of courage from somewhere deep within his chest, he took a small step forward.

"Pardon my rudeness, Alpha Morningstar," Zero spoke up, his voice steady, formal, and deeply respectful as he bowed his head slightly. "But if I may ask... what is your relationship with Miss Wells?"

I opened my mouth instantly to clarify before any wild rumors could start. "He’s my invest—"

Before the word could fully leave my lips, Edgar’s long arm shot out, wrapping firmly around my waist and pulling my back flush against his broad chest.

"I’m her suitor," Edgar declared smoothly, his golden eyes locking onto Zero with a cool, unmistakable flash of territorial dominance. "I’m pursuing Brianna."

What?! Has he lost his mind?

I rose my right elbow and drove it into Edgar’s ribs with precise, unyielding force.

Edgar let out a low, breathless oof, his grip on my waist loosening just enough for me to smoothly slip out of his reach. I stepped two paces away, nonchalantly sliding a stray strand of hair behind my ear as I smoothed down my top.

"Gosh, Edgar," I muttered under my breath, my voice flat enough to cut glass. "You’ve said that joke to my parents so many times that you’re honestly starting to believe it yourself."

On the outside, my composure was entirely intact—a picture of utter indifference and cold annoyance. But beneath my ribs, a sudden, erratic thump-thump-thump was beginning to echo in my chest, a stupid, traitorous heat creeping up the back of my neck.

I blame this body, I thought fiercely, pressing my tongue against the back of my teeth to suppress the sudden flutter. This weak Omega vessel has way too many involuntary physiological reactions. It’s not my fault.

Edgar merely rubbed his side where my elbow had landed, his smirk widening into a dark, thoroughly entertained grin. He didn’t offer a single word of correction, his golden eyes gleefully tracking the slight flush on my skin.

Beside the weapon rack, Zero stood completely frozen. His knuckles turned white where he was gripping his combat gloves, his piercing emerald eyes darting between Edgar’s dark, triumphant expression and my flushed, deadpan face.

It was right at this point, as Edgar stood there exuding that arrogant territorial air, that I noticed a subtle shift in the room’s pressure. Since I was wolfless, I couldn’t perceive wolf pheromones the way they did, but the air suddenly grew dense and thick as if someone was leaking their scent all over the place.

<anno data-annotation-id="4e9ace28-1fcb-e60f-910e-11f4f9a163fd" data-title="I could pick up the scent, but I could not read the intent behind it. ">I could pick up the scent, but I could not read the intent behind it. ¹</anno>

And right now, I could tell the scent belonged to Zero. What was hw doing leaking so much? It wasn’t safe. Wait, was he going into a rut again?

I shook my head. No, that’s imposisble. It’s only been a few days since his rut, and this scent isnt as heavy as it was in the shed.

Edgar’s golden eyes narrowed, his nose visibly twitching as he caught the scent.

"Instructor Zero," Edgar spoke up, his voice dropping an octave, "this is our first time meeting in person, am I right?"

Zero kept his posture rigid, bowing his head slightly. "Yes, Alpha Edgar. That is correct."

I flinched inwardly, looking between the two of them. Wait... they’ve never actually met face-to-face before? And Edgar was confident enough to hire him purely based on a dossier? Just how wide is this guy’s reputation?

My internal commentary cut short, however, because in the very next second, the air temperature in the hall plunged straight below freezing.

Edgar’s easy, dark amusement vanished entirely. Annoyance flared across his immaculate features—the raw, instinctive irritation of an Apex Alpha whose brain had just hit a hidden trigger.

Whether it was a buried memory or a suppressed instinct, I couldn’t read his mind to tell, but the way he was watching Zero had turned lethal.

"That’s strange..." Edgar added, his voice turning rough, gravelly, and laced with a suffocating, dark frequency. "This scent of yours... it makes me mad for some reason."