61. Chapter 61
Chapter 61
T he drive to the Administration block was the most awkward thing Ava had ever lived through. And that included that one time in high school when a bunch of wolves had taken her clothes and all the towels in the locker room while she had been showering after gym class. Not a single person had come to her aid when she’d shouted for what felt like hours, including the teachers with their super-sensitive hearing.
She’d had to wait until after lessons, when she had assumed the students had gone home, to try to find something to wear in one of the classrooms. Only the school hadn’t been quite as empty as she’d thought. She’d barely snuck out of the locker room when the students had filed out of the classrooms. Dozens of them laughing at her as she stood naked in the hallway. Nudity meant nothing to them, but because she always hid her body, they used that to bully her.
She had all her bits hanging out and had been laughed at for weeks, but that embarrassment was nothing compared to sitting next to her dad when he knew what she had done.
“What aren’t you telling me, Ava?” Alpha Roland asked quietly.
“I... Dad, I don’t...”
How was she even supposed to explain this?
“I saw how he looked at you,” her father continued.
He was looking out of his window like he couldn’t look at her. She could feel his disappointment, and it stung. After how she was treated in the pack, getting involved with a wolf was the last thing her father wanted for her.
“And when he came looking for you at the house, somehow I knew...” Her father shook her head. “I still don’t understand how this is possible. How any of it is possible.”
He said the last part as if he was asking himself. If he had the answers, she really wanted to know as well. How was it that she could feel this connection to Zeke? Because she could feel it now, there was no question about that.
Like right now, she knew he was following them. He hadn’t stayed home like her dad told him to.
The driver parked outside the Administration block, and Alpha Roland turned to face her.
“Let’s get this over with so we can figure this out,” he said.
“Are you really going to leave me here,” she asked, grabbing his arm before he could open the door. “Are you going to let me face the Head of Council?”
“Of course not,” Alpha Roland said, putting his arms around her. “But let me deal with the dean, and then we’ll find Mr Patrick.”
Feeling a little lighter, Ava got out of the car and walked around to her father. There was still a lot of activity around the Administration block, and judging by the way they all looked at her, they had seen or heard what she did to Dexter’s dad. Was she walking into a trap? Was she still going to end up in Isolation?
Her father took her hand and led her up the steps. She had always admired his confidence and hoped it had rubbed off on her. Still, whatever little of it she had probably got her into these messes.
The dean opened the door to the offices the moment they entered the lobby as if he had been waiting for them. His stern gaze met hers first. As always, his eyes were cold, but there was something else in them today. This meeting was going to go a lot worse than she anticipated. She immediately lowered her gaze so she wouldn’t make the situation worse.
“What are you doing?”
She glanced at her dad before lowering her head again.
“I’m an Omega, Dad. This is what we do.”
“Bullshit,” Alpha Roland growled. “Hold your head up, Ava.”
She did as she was told and caught the undisguised anger in Dean Russell’s gaze before he composed himself.
“Do we have a problem, Dean Russell,” her father asked.
It was obvious who the stronger Alpha was, and she tried to stop the grin on her face when her dean briefly lowered his gaze.
“Of course not. Come through this way,” the dean said.
They followed him to his office. Penelope was at her desk, and the moment they walked in, she was drawn to the vampire’s aura. The vampire never even smiled, but Ava was still as fascinated with her as she had been the first time she’d met her. But as she had done all the other times she had come here, she shook off the vampire’s effect on her and followed her dad and dean into the office.
“Thank you for seeing me, Alpha Morgan,” the dean said as he sat behind his desk.
The dean was in his usual suit and tie, a whole world away from her father’s outfit. She would never forget the dean’s comments about her ‘uncivilised backwater pack’ in their first meeting. Still, it was her dad who commanded respect in this room.
“I hope you will see all of Miss. Morgan’s teachers and instructors this weekend, but I need to discuss her behaviour,” the dean started. “She has been consistently breaking the rules, so her evenings for half the semester already have detentions scheduled. Miss Morgan’s attitude is not befitting of an Omega in our acad—”
“That’s because she's not an Omega,” Alpha Roland said. “If you can’t see that, then I truly fear for the future of this place.”
The dean ground his teeth and shuffled some papers around.
“I’m aware of her... special circumstances,” the dean continued. “But her role is not my decision. I’m sure Miss Morgan has told you that she came to see me several times to argue this point.”
“Oh? And what was the resolution?”
The dean remained quiet, but Ava felt like being helpful.
“He told me to learn to be civilised and banned me from seeing him again,” she said.
The dean tensed, as did her father.
“I said it was not my decision,” the dean said. “And when the Council came, they told you you are where you’re supposed to be.”
That made her father frown as he looked over at her.
“But we are here today because some students and parents came to report what happened earlier today. We do not condone such behaviour, especially from an Omega—”
“But it was okay for the Alpha to speak to my child like that?” Alpha Morgan said.
“N... No, of course not,” the dean said. “We don’t condone any such behaviour at all.”
She could almost imagine she heard his elevated heartbeat. If the dean were human, he would have been sweating like a pig. If she hadn’t planned on leaving, she would have been terrified of the retaliation once her father left.
“So why have you called us here? Surely it isn’t to tell me that my daughter will be punished for a bully’s actions?”
The slight pause told her that, yes, that was why she was there. But maybe the dean hadn’t accounted for meeting an Alpha like her dad.
“He got what was coming to him. Unless, of course, you want me to find him wherever he’s hiding and explain to him why it was a bad idea to try to intimidate my child in the first place.”
“There’ll be no need,” the dean said quickly. “I will speak to the parent involved and let the matter end there.”
“Yes, do that,” Alpha Roland said as he stood up. “And I suggest that the next time my child says she needs to speak to you, you accept that appointment.”
By the look on the dean’s face as her father held the door for her, this was not the last time she would hear about this.
As they walked into the waiting room, they both stopped when they found Zeke seated in one of the chairs. And he had a smile on his face. He hadn’t stopped smiling.
“Just fucking great,” Alpha Roland muttered as he shook his head and continued walking.