Chapter 123

“How do I look?” I asked Aimee as we got ready in my dorm room.

She looked at me and rolled her eyes. “Ridiculous.” She walked over to me and snatched the cheap blonde wig off my head.

“Hey!”

“You looked like you were trying out for a low-budget local theater. Trust me. It’d only draw more attention to wear that ugly thing.”

“Ug, fine.”

I was worried about Asher, so I decided that, even though I told Asher I wouldn’t go sit in the gallery during his punishment committee, I would sneak in anyway. When Aimee had heard about my plan, she agreed to go with me.

She didn’t seem to agree with my choice of disguise, however.

“I have to wear something or Asher will spot me right away,” I said.

“He’d see you right away, wearing that. We’ll sit in the back. It will be fine.”

I wasn’t convinced, but we were running out of time before the start of the committee hearing.

Aimee helped me style my hair a different way than normal, saying that was enough, and together we rushed across campus to claim seats in the gallery.

Asher was already there. He sat, back ramrod straight, at one of the tables at the front of the room, facing away from the gallery. A panel of faculty were behind a raised desk in front of him.

Aimee and I took our seats in the very back of the room just as the meeting came to order.

The main blessing, it seemed, was that Coach was nowhere around. Instead, the head of the committee read out the charges against Asher, mainly that he had punched a faculty member twice.

“Let the record show that said faculty member is also under investigation for ethical misconduct with the students.” When the stenographer indicated that the note had been taken, the committee head turned to the rest of her associates. “Does anyone have anything to say to Asher?”

“I do,” said a gruff-looking man at the end of the row. “I’m very disappointed in you, young man. Alphas are held to a higher standard, and you have not indicated that you are worthy or respectful of the privilege you’ve been given.”

“Just because you were gifted with the ability of advanced physical strength does not mean you should use it in such a manner,” said another committee member.

“The faculty member in question is not the one facing this committee today,” said a third. “Alphas must take the higher road, regardless of the difficulty they are faced with.”

The head of the committee let each speak in turn while anger pulsed through me at each person’s disparagement. Asher was defending me! Didn’t that count for anything?

Was this why Asher didn’t want me to come today? Because he knew I would get upset in defense of him?

The entire time he was talked down to, however, he kept his head high and his shoulders straight. He seemed incredibly self-assured, not cowering even at the harshest criticisms.

“Now it is time for the accused to defend himself. If you would rise, please, Asher,” said the head of the committee.

Asher rose to his feet.

“Do you have anything to say for yourself?” the head of the committee asked.

“I do.”

She motioned for him to proceed.

“I believe that I acted in the right,” Asher said. “And there is nothing this committee could do or say to make me believe otherwise.”

“Arrogant!” said one of the committee members but the committee head shushed him.

“Why do you believe that, Asher?”

“He threatened someone special to me,” Asher said. “Cynthia may not be my official mate yet, but my wolf already sees her as such. And I’m… beginning to recognize it as well.”

My whole world froze. Surely the world kept turning, the sun kept shining, the air moved in and out of my lungs. But all I could see and feel and know was Asher.

He had just said…

He thought we were…?

“Nothing’s been declared,” a committee member said, checking the paperwork before them.

“As I said,” Asher continued. “We are in the beginning stages. I’m not sure if she feels the same.”

I was imagining this. I had to be. This was some kind of fever dream, or I was in a coma or something. This couldn’t be real! Asher would never say that he was starting to see us as mates!

Except he just did. And if I requested the notes from this meeting, I could read it myself on paper again and again. The stenographer had written it down. Everyone in the room had heard it.

Even Aimee, who was grinning at me. She gave me a thumbs-up.

The committee members looked at each other. It was as if the mood of the whole room shifted. No longer were they angry or annoyed or even disappointed. Now there was a look of agreement and understanding.

“When an Alpha’s mate or potential mate is threatened, there are allowances that must be observed for the Alpha’s actions,” the head of the committee said.

“If someone threatened my mate, I’d rip their throat out,” said Asher’s harshest critic on the panel. “Punching them was a restraint, showing good character.”

The others nodded in agreement.

“We must still set a punishment for forcing us all here today, Asher,” the head of the committee said. “If you had been more forthcoming about your mate-status from the start, we might have avoided this.”

“I understand and apologize,” Asher said. “It is an ongoing… situation.”

The head of committee nodded. “Your punishment is twenty hours of service to the Academy to be decided on at a later date. Are we all in agreement?”

The committee agreed. It was lightest sentence he could receive, short of getting nothing at all.

“Very well. This committee is dismissed.”

I rushed out of the room before Asher could turn around. Fortunately, as soon as the committee meeting ended, Asher became swarmed with well-wishers. With that distraction, Aimee and I could easily sneak away.

Out on the sidewalk, Aimee waggled her eyebrows at me. “Invite me to the wedding, huh?”

But I just shook my head at her teasing. “He couldn’t have meant what he said. There had to be some mistake.”

“What mistake?” Aimee said, smile slipping. “If he didn’t mean what he said, the committee would have seen through him.”

No, I just couldn’t believe it. Asher must have only said those things to get out of trouble. That was why he hadn’t wanted me to come today. He didn’t want me to hear him lie and get ahead of myself.

We’d only agreed not to see other people. That was nowhere near declaring each other our mates!

Yet no matter what I said, I couldn’t convince Aimee.

In the end, she told me, “The only blind one here is you, Cynthia. That boy gets heart eyes whenever you come in the room. You are the only one who can’t see it.”

I still couldn’t believe it, even by the time we said goodbye.

For the next couple of days, I avoided Asher. At the very least, I was glad he got off with such a light punishment.

But now I had to worry about myself, and the physicals coming up.

Nervous, I decided to go see my cousin Nancy at the hospital. Yet as I was walking that way, I spotted Nurse Irene. I jumped behind a brush before she could see me.

Only then, did I notice who she was talking to.

Was that… Joseph?