Chapter 182: Your Part of the Deal

"I can’t tell you how appreciative I am that you took your time to train them. They’ve been wanting this for months, even years now," Garron told Orion.

"All they had to do was ask," Orion replied.

"I know that, but I also know you’d have rejected half of them because you only train those you see potential in," Garron said.

"Yes. But potential doesn’t have to appear immediately. It depends on what I see in a person before I train them. And like I said before, just because I refuse a few dozen people doesn’t mean I’ll reject everyone," Orion replied.

Garron chuckled at that.

"Anyway," Orion continued, "I’m not sure I can handle teaching all of them alone, so I may bring in help when I need it. Is that okay?"

Garron nodded. "Of course. They’ll appreciate it too."

Orion nodded and watched as the trainees began filing out of the training grounds, most of them thanking him for what he had done. Although to him, he hardly did anything. Conversations filled the air as they moved — some complaining about their backs, others about how they hadn’t accomplished much but were determined to keep trying until they got better.

Orion’s eyes followed them with a faint smile, but then he saw Garrett loitering near the grounds. The man looked nervous, as if deciding whether to enter or not.

Normally, Orion would have found a way to escape, it was basically his default mode after all. But, Garrett was his assistant for now, and if he was here, it meant there was work waiting. Work that he should have attended to since earlier and since he had wasted so much time at the training grounds and Ronan wasn’t around to dump his work on, he decided to face it.

Before approaching Garrett, though, he turned, his eyes scanning for the shortest person among the trainees. He spotted her walking with Dren, her group members, and Cat, and called her over.

She hesitated for half a beat, wondering why he was calling her. But she decided to approach instead of overthinking, especially when she could just ask him directly. She detached herself from her group, with Dren making a remark about her being in trouble. Sophia only rolled her eyes at him.

Snow clung to her hair, and the muscles in her jaw were still learning to stop clenching from the afternoon’s strain. When she reached him, he lowered his voice.

"Take a walk with me," he told her.

She frowned in confusion but obliged after sparing a discreet look at Garron.

They walked together toward where Garrett still loitered, and once they were close, she spoke up.

"What’s going on?" she asked.

"So I can’t take a walk with you?" Orion asked.

"Of course you can, but it’s weird that you’re requesting I do. Normally, you’d just invade my space."

"I can be gentlemanly when I want to," he told her.

Sophia gagged as if he’d said something offensive.

"You know... I wonder if you’ll gag if there’s something else..." 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

She gave him a glare. "Don’t you dare finish that statement."

Orion laughed. "You have a dirty mind, shorty."

"I know what you were going to say."

"Yes, you did." He said with a light chuckle "Anyway, I called you here because you owe me," he informed her.

"I don’t understand," she replied, brows scrunched. "Owe you what?"

"You owe me a visit to Lysander’s," he said quietly. "You remember the deal we made, right?"

"Oh."

"Yes, oh. Did you not notice that I got a new dressing yesterday?" he asked.

"I was too busy wondering why you were in my home."

Orion smirked. "I can be distracting like that."

Sophia rolled her eyes, though a small smile tugged at her lips. "Well, I wasn’t going to make you just do your part. I planned on meeting Lysander after eating," she informed him.

Orion sighed. "If only we could eat together. But alas, we can’t."

"Awwn, the big oaf is sad I won’t be with him."

"Sad? No. Annoyed? Yes."

"Grow up."

"I’m grown, shorty. Have you seen my..."

"Orion," she called in warning. "If you finish that statement, I’m going to punch you. I don’t care if I disrespect you as an Alpha."

"You disrespect me every day. That’ll hardly be news," he replied.

Sophia sighed but then remembered something. "Wait, if you were in my home last night, then who was in yours?"

"What do you mean? There was no one in my home."

"You’re forgetting I spied to see if anyone was there before entering mine. I saw a silhouette," she told him.

"Oh," he said.

"What?"

"That was fake."

"So there was nobody in your home?" she asked.

"There was. I gave the guard on duty my food for the evening and went on a stroll before sneaking into your home," he informed her.

"So you lied to the guard?"

"No. I told him he didn’t have to worry — that I was only going to take a stroll and do something else — and when he was done, he should see himself off."

She blinked in surprise. "So you planned it?"

"Maybe."

"Orion!"

He laughed. "What?"

She glared at him, shook her head, and began walking away, but he called out to her.

"What?" she asked.

"Will I see you later?"

"I’ll think about it," she said as she began walking back toward her group.

Orion smiled. She was annoyed he had outsmarted her, but that did nothing to lessen the happy feeling in his chest.

This may come back to bite us in the butt, Noctis spoke up.

"Don’t I know that?" Orion replied, just as Garrett approached him.

"Alpha Orion," Garrett said nervously.

Orion turned to him. "You don’t need to sound so nervous, Garrett. You came for work, didn’t you?"

"Well... yes."

"I’m not going to run away," Orion said with a laugh as they began walking toward the office.