"Why are you changing again?" Axel asked. "You already seemed ready."
Dallas tugged at his shirt, adjusting it with unusual care. "I think I spotted my mate in the dining hall last night, and I want her to like me immediately when she sees me. So… I want to look like the best version of myself." His face, to Axel's surprise, turned red.
Axel almost laughed. Alphas could blush? He had never thought so. They usually carried themselves like untouchable gods, puffed with arrogance, always making others feel small.
The sight of Dallas standing there with pink cheeks felt so out of place it stunned him. Dallas didn't seem like he was like the others.
"How did you even know it was her?" Axel pressed. "The dining hall was packed last night."
"I didn't," Dallas admitted with a low chuckle. "I didn't actually see her. But her scent… it hit me so hard. It spun my head. My parents always told me how it would feel, but I didn't expect it to be that intense. My senses sharpened, my legs nearly gave out, and there was this crazy, clawing need to find her, even if just for a second. It was like I'd die if I didn't."
He cut himself short, shaking his head as if ashamed of how much he had revealed.
Axel said nothing. His breath hitched. For some reason he remembered the first time he smelled Ivan. And also, whenever Ivan's scent was at it's peak, it always made him feel exactly as Dallas was explaining.. but Axel didn't want those thoughts anywhere near him. So he pushed them away.
They finished getting ready, their conversation trailing behind them as they headed out, they seemed like they had known each other for a long time.
The morning air outside felt fresher than yesterday. Yesterday, every step Axel took had felt suffocating, the walls closing in. Today, though, the compound carried a strange crispness, like a storm had passed and left the world rinsed clean.
On their way to the dining hall, Dallas asked, "Do you want to hit the gym later? Could help your body get back to what it should be."
Axel agreed immediately. That was exactly what he needed. He couldn't stand his body anymore.
As they got to the dining hall, it buzzed with muted voices when they arrived. Students leaned over trays, laughter slipping through in bursts.
Axel noticed some that already looked like couples.
Axel ate without appetite, pushing food around his plate more than he actually consumed it. Dallas filled the silence easily.
After breakfast, they walked to the lecture hall. Today's schedule simply read Introduction. Nothing more. No explanation. No context. Axel frowned at the page. How could they just write one word? Introduction to what?
All ranks had been told to gather in the same hall.
Axel couldn't help to wonder... Bringing everyone together ..alphas, betas, omegas ,seemed like an invitation for chaos. What if someone's mate walked in? Wouldn't the air ignite with tension? Would there be any concentration in that hall?!
But when they entered, the hall was already halfway full, and the atmosphere was strangely calm. Students talked quietly, moved to their seats without fuss. No chaos. No frenzy. The peace was unsettling.
Axel's eyes narrowed. Maybe they had slipped something into breakfast. Maybe there are pills used to calm their instincts. Maybe that was why everyone looked so composed. There was no way this level of stillness was natural.
Scanning the hall, he spotted Adrian sitting with his usual crowd. Adrian's gaze found him instantly, eyes asking a silent question, an invitation. Axel ignored it and followed Dallas instead, taking a seat beside him.
Almost without thinking, Axel's eyes began to search. He told himself not to, told himself it didn't matter, but his head turned anyway. He looked for Ivan.
Would he even show up? Or would he stay in his room, as if rules couldn't touch him?
Without a warning their eyes locked As if they pulled each other in.
Ivan was already there. Sitting coolly, calmly. His eyes locked onto Axel's across the room. For a heartbeat, everything in Axel dropped. His stomach plummeted, his pulse flared, and before he could stop himself, he turned away sharply.
Frustration clawed through him. He hated that reaction, hated that he had just shown Ivan how shaken he was. Ivan hadn't even flinched. He sat there as if untouched, a mountain unmoved by wind.
Axel scoffed to himself, clinging to the memory of last night. It didn't matter how cool Ivan pretended now. Axel had seen him unravel. He had seen him slip. That thought was the only thing soothing enough to keep him steady.
The lecturer walked in. Axel's head lifted, only for his breath to stale.
Alpha Norman?!
The man wasn't supposed to be here. His name wasn't on the list of instructors. Rumors had always said he came to the academy rarely, only on occasion. What was he doing here now?
Axel's skin prickled. The man unsettled him in ways he couldn't explain. Just standing in the same room as him made Axel uneasy, as though Norman could peel back his skin and see everything he wanted hidden.
He didn't like it.
"Hey." Dallas's whisper pulled Axel back.
He turned, brows raised.
"What's your deal with Alpha Ivan?" Dallas asked lowly, his voice tight. "He won't stop looking this way. And even though I know I've never done anything to him, his eyes are burning into me like a warning. I think it's because of you."
The words knocked Axel off balance. Why would Dallas think that?
And why wouldn't Ivan stop staring?
Was he still angry about last night? Or was he doubting him again, questioning whether Axel was truly an alpha? Panic jolted through him. What if Ivan demanded a test? What if he forced the truth out into the open?
Axel's thoughts spiraled. He forgot Dallas entirely, forgot to respond, forgot the hall around him.
Minutes slid past. He heard nothing, saw nothing but his own fear twisting tighter. His mind only snapped back when a question from the front cut through the fog.
"…so then, as someone who is in his right mind and smart, especially for alphas, what would you do if you came here a third time and still didn't find your mate?"
Axel froze.
Why was Alpha Norman speaking like that in front of all these people, fully aware of his own son's situation? Was he trying to humiliate him?
Without permission, Axel's wolf growled inside, protective and raw. Even against his own will, he couldn't stand how openly that man was degrading his son.
It was obvious that humiliation was intentional. Now the whole hall seemed to be staring at Ivan.
Axel's eyes found Ivan. Outwardly, he appeared unbothered, but Axel saw through it. Beneath the surface, Ivan was anything but composed.
Rage surged in Axel, nearly forcing him to shout for everyone to look away.
Alpha Norman looked satisfied. Axel realized then that he was really doing it intentionally... maybe to make Ivan feel humiliated enough to leave and claim the girl Norman had picked for him.
That thought ignited something in Axel. It wasn't just the fear of losing Ivan, even though he'd told himself he had to let go of him. It was the unfairness of it, the cruelty of a father treating his own son like this.
"No one is thinking? What would you, as a smart Alpha, do in a situation like that?" Alpha Norman's question cut through the hall again.
That was the final spark. Axel didn't even remember standing, only that suddenly he was on his feet, hand raised as if he had an answer.
Dallas grabbed at his sleeve, hissing for him to sit down, but Axel didn't move. His gaze locked forward, unblinking.
"Yes. Go ahead and answer," Alpha Norman commanded, his voice slicing through the murmurs of the crowd.