Chapter 113: This Is Insane

Zero stepped closer, looking down into my eyes as his expression softened into something profound and vulnerable.

"Brianna Wells," Zero continued softly. "I am seven years older than you. I am an instructor who cannot have a relationship with a student without severe consequences. And I am an Alpha who cannot even announce to the world that I am an Alpha. But even then... will you let me dare? Will you let me reach for you...? Even if, at the very end, I fail to catch even the sleeve of your dress?"

I stood there, completely speechless, utterly lost for words.

If I were forced to describe this man right now, I would do an awful job of it.

But looking at him standing under the silver moonlight, he looked like a sun kissed by the night—his golden skin bathed in soft lunar glow, his piercing emerald eyes gleaming like shattered glassy flakes against the dark.

He was a man, an Alpha, a wolf... and yet, in this moment, he showed no pride, no arrogance, no high-born games. He was bare.

I swallowed hard, finally finding my voice amidst the quiet rustle of the night terrace.

"What you wish to do is not my decision to make," I said quietly, looking directly into his glowing emerald eyes. "So you don’t need to take permission from me. You are already atoning for what happened by teaching me to the best of your abilities. So the rest... whatever you wish to do... do not let the past influence it."

Zero froze, a sudden, bright, hopeful light bursting in his eyes like a flare in the dark.

"Really?" he whispered, his voice trembling with a breathless, childlike hope.

"Really?" I repeated, my tone dropping into a flat, exhausted deadpan. "Yes, really. Now stop looking at me like a golden retriever that just got told it’s going for a walk. You’re a wolf, for crying out loud."

Internally, my brain was screaming in five different languages.

This is insane. This is utterly, completely, unhinged insanity.

Here was a battle instructor, a grown Alpha with an unknown background, standing on my terrace, looking at me with wide, hopeful eyes like a starry-eyed teenager in a low-budget romance novel. And no, I do not read such tacky things. Jessica used to—Nevermind.

I was a former elite assassin whose entire existence was built on cold logic, calculated survival, and lethal precision, yet I was currently being dragged into a multi-sided Alpha courtship war by men who seemed to share a single, hyper-dramatic brain cell.

I mean, seriously, if Edgar’s words don’t turn out to be a joke, then I have shamed my entire pride.

"Don’t get the wrong idea," I warned, pointing an index finger directly at his chest. "I didn’t say yes to anything. I just said I’m not going to monitor your personal feelings, be responsible for whatever your wolf is barking at you and certainly won’t promise to bond with you."

I folded my arms and threw my face aside.

"If you want to waste your time trying to ’reach for the sleeve of my dress’ or whatever poetic nonsense you just pulled out of thin air, that’s your own choice. Just don’t let it mess up my tournament preparation."

A soft, genuine laugh escaped Zero’s lips—a deep, clear sound that seemed to melt away the last traces of his rigid stoicism.

"Understood, Miss Wells," Zero said, his emerald eyes shining with a quiet, steady warmth that made my stomach do another one of those annoying, involuntary flips.

I turned around, slid open the glass patio doors, and led him back into the house.

I fully expected to walk back into Edgar’s suffocating glare—and believe me, I was already thinking of how to properly explain things to him—but the living room was surprisingly devoid of the Morningstar Alpha.

Edgar was nowhere to be seen.

My parents and brothers were sitting around the living room set, looking visibly uncomfortable and tense as their eyes darted between Zero and me. The lingering, dark pressure of Edgar’s aura was still thick in the air, making the room feel strangely heavy.

"Where... where did Edgar go?" I asked, looking around.

"Alpha Edgar left," Bradford said, clearing his throat awkwardly as he adjusted his posture. "He said he had something urgent to deal with... but he looked deeply displeased."

Jordan leaned over the back of the sofa, looking at me with a mixture of shock, awe, and sheer amusement. "Wow, Brianna... that makes three of them now. Do you have wolfnip hidden on you or something?"

"Shut up!" I snapped, shooting him a lethal glare that made him instantly zip his lips.

I turned back to face Zero, crossing my arms over my chest. "You should leave now, Instructor."

Zero nodded respectfully, turning toward my parents and giving them another deep, formal bow.

"I shall train Brianna tomorrow as well," Zero announced, his voice smooth and steady. "However, our sessions will take place within the Academy’s premises moving forward, so I do not cause further conflict under this roof."

Good idea but...

I tilted my head, looking at him sideways. "I thought you were on administrative leave."

A small, almost imperceptible curve touched the corners of Zero’s lips—a rare, faint smirk that made his emerald eyes gleam under the living room lights.

"Not anymore," he said softly.

I stared at him deadpan, my mind briefly short-circuiting at the sheer audacity of it. So, he can be on leave whenever he wants and then return when he decides he doesn’t want to be on leave anymore?

He’s so willful.

"You can just... end your own administrative leave whenever you feel like it?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. "Is the Academy’s disciplinary board a joke to you?"

I bet he’s buddies with Damian now.

"I am the head battle instructor, Miss Wells," Zero replied smoothly, his tone laced with that calm, unyielding authority that made it clear he wasn’t asking for permission from anyone. "My leave was self-imposed and formally approved by the Student Disciplinary President himself. His words hold great power."