Chapter 37: This Body Is Too Soft

The crowd of students instantly exploded.

"She pushed Valentina!"

"That disgusting leech! Valentina was just trying to help her!"

"She really has no shame!"

"Be good to a stray dog and all it does is bite you. Disgusting!"

Kano rushed forward, his face dark with fury as he helped Valentina up, glaring at me like I was a parasite. "Brianna! You pushed her, and now you’re not even going to apologize?! You’re being too much."

Are these people sharing a single brain cell? I thought, genuinely baffled by the sheer stupidity performing in front of me.

"So, you’re saying I pushed you?" I scoffed, letting out a sharp, cold laugh. I looked Valentina up and down with utter disdain. "You’re saying a worthless, weak Omega like me was able to push a high-ranking Alpha’s relative? How laughable. If I were you, Valentina, I would be ashamed."

Valentina blinked, her delicate expression faltering for a fraction of a second. She looked around, caught off guard. Why is Brianna acting like this? Where is the meek, terrified girl who used to cry in the corner? Why isn’t she trying to defend herself?

Her thoughts were as loud as the ugly look in her eyes.

It’s a shame the classmates aren’t smart enough to hear it.

But before the crowd could digest the logic, and make sense of it, Kano stepped in front of Valentina, his face dark with Alpha authority, like it would change a damn thing.

"That’s enough, Brianna!" Kano commanded, his voice echoing through the lobby. "She was trying to help you, so of course she didn’t have her guard up against you. You took advantage of it and pushed her, and now you’re refusing to apologize? You’ve gone too far!"

Yes, yes, give whatever reason you have for being diabolical. It doesn’t faze me one bit. And it doesn’t change the fact that you all ganged up to bully an Omega weaker than you. Idiots.

Instead of answering, I closed the distance between us, stepping straight toward Kano.

The crowd’s furious shouting instantly dipped into a wave of eager, sharp whispers.

"What’s she doing?"

"Is she going to go down on her knees and apologize?"

"Serves her right. She should have done that from the very start."

Kano stood his ground, locking his gaze onto mine, but as I drew nearer, a single bead of cold sweat broke across his forehead.

The eyes staring back at him weren’t the trembling, desperate eyes of the Brianna he knew. They were the exact same dead, terrifying eyes he had seen in the cafeteria the other day.

A sharp shiver ran straight down his spine.

"What... what are you trying to do?" Kano asked, his posture wavering for a fraction of a second.

I didn’t answer. I stopped directly in front of him, my eyes tracking Valentina, who was hiding just past the shelter of his shoulders—leaving her right side completely exposed to me.

I raised my arm. My hand shot past Kano’s body, my palm slamming flat into Valentina’s exposed shoulder with brutal, explosive force, and the impact tore Valentina right out from behind Kano’s protection, sending her flying backward and onto her side with a sharp, sickening crack against the tile floor.

The lobby went dead silent.

"There," I said, my voice cutting through the stillness like a cold blade as I dusted off my hands. "That’s what a push looks like. In case your eyes were just for decoration the first time."

The lobby went dead quiet. Gasps rippled through the crowd.

"Did she just... push Valentina right in front of Kano?!"

"I mean, she pushed her before, but this time, it was very different,"

"Does Brianna have a death wish, though?"

"She probably forgot who Valentina is. She’s related to the Almond Pack! Her cousin is—"

The background noise went in one ear and straight out the other. I turned my back on them again, completely unbothered, and heading for the training room doors.

"Stop right there!" Kano said, but I ignored him and kept walking. "I said, stop!" he roared, and then lunged forward, his hand reaching out to grab my arm and drag me back.

The moment his fingers brushed my skin, my assassin instincts flared before my brain could even process it.

I grabbed his wrist, twisted my hips, and leveraged his own momentum, slamming him over my shoulder straight onto the hard floor.

BANG!

Kano hit the tile with a sickening thud, the breath knocked completely out of his lungs.

I didn’t feel a shred of regret. I flexed my fingers, my jaw clenching as a sharp ache shot up my weak wrist. Tsk. This body is still too soft. I needed more conditioning, fast.

"Don’t touch me," I spat down at Kano, my voice thick with disgust. "You stink."

The students backed away in sheer horror, scrambling over themselves.

"How... how did she do that to an Alpha?!"

"Is she really Brianna?!"

A couple of Kano’s lackeys tried to rush forward to corner me, but I didn’t even bother fighting them head-on. As they lunged, I simply stepped half an inch to the side, letting them trip over their own feet and crash into each other in a pathetic heap.

"You guys are pathetic," I muttered, shaking my head. "Get away from me. I have actual work to do."

I stepped backward to finally exit the circus—only for my back to bump straight into a solid chest.

Before I could stumble, two thick, warm hands rested on my shoulders, instantly steadying my frame.

My eyes narrowed. Instinctively, I drove my elbow backward, aiming a lethal strike directly for his ribs. But he let go of my shoulder and caught my elbow mid-air with casual, maddening ease.

"Ms. Noisemaker," a low, familiar voice purred right above my ear, sending a strange chill down my neck. "I came all the way out here, and this is the greeting I get?"

I froze, yanking my elbow back as I spun around to face him.

Standing out in the bright light of the lobby, free from the dark vault basement, he was ridiculously, infuriatingly handsome. Messy brown hair, sharp jawline, and striking, unhinged purple eyes that locked onto mine with lazy intensity.

Benjamin.