Chapter 198: Apologize for pinching my Butt

Chapter 197: Apologize for Pinching My Butt

"Hold in that urge to bow, Joren," Nia said with a chuckle.

He frowned. "I’m not going to bow; Alpha Orion doesn’t like it..."

"...oh, thank the goddess..." Nia said with a sigh.

Orion turned to them. "It seems you guys have mastered this; you don’t need me teaching you guys, right?" he asked them.

All three of them shook their heads, paused, then nodded.

"So you know about the steps?" Orion asked them.

"What? No, what we mean is that we don’t know anything about it and that we’d like for you to continue teaching us," Nia said to him.

Joren and Laia pointed toward her. "What she said."

Orion released a low chuckle. "Alright. I’m sure you guys saw what I did, right? Now it’s your turn. I’ll need you guys to try to replicate the movement. Don’t rush—start slow, as you try to understand the theory..."

"...understand the practical also," they completed for him, making him smile at their eagerness.

The trainees began mimicking him. The ground echoed with mismatched stomps, slips, and scattered breaths. Orion walked among them, adjusting postures, nudging feet, correcting angles.

"No, not your heel first... your toe," he corrected one of the boys. "Feel the ground beneath you before you move."

To Nia, he said, "You’re stopping again. Don’t. The moment you freeze, you’re done."

He reached Sophia last. She was focused—her movements graceful but uncertain, her steps light but a half-beat late, as if she was afraid of pressing too hard. Orion’s shadow fell over her as he moved behind her, his tone low enough for only her to hear.

"Your weight’s too far forward," he murmured.

She adjusted slightly, but he didn’t move away. His hand hovered at her shoulder, guiding her back by a hair’s breadth as it moved further down to her back, just above her waist where the mating mark ended. She knew he was doing it on purpose, and the contact messed with her brain a little.

"You’re annoyed at me," he whispered, his eyes still fixed on the group so no one would notice. "Why?"

Sophia’s lips tightened. "I don’t feel like telling you," she muttered under her breath.

He moved his hand lower and pinched her butt cheek before taking it back up like he didn’t do anything.

"Ouch?" she said to him.

Orion’s eyes filled with mirth. "Ouch?"

"What did you do that for?" she asked him.

"You didn’t want to tell me what I did wrong," he told her.

"You left without waking me up," she said finally, huffing the words out so quietly only he could catch them.

Orion’s brows furrowed. He wanted to speak, but he noticed how Joren was doing a camel dance instead of anchor steps, and he realized that if he lingered too much with Sophia, people might suspect.

"I’ll be back," he whispered in her ear before walking toward Joren.

"Joren, is that a new dance?" he asked with a laugh.

Joren huffed. "I’m trying to do what you did, but it’s just not... why can’t I do it?"

Orion paused when he heard the boy’s voice. He sounded sad and disappointed in himself.

"When did you start training?" Orion asked him as he corrected his steps.

"About a month now," he told Orion.

Orion nodded. "That just shows how new you are. What department do you want to make it into?"

"I want to be a guard. Maybe one day I’ll be protecting you."

Orion’s lips twitched. "I don’t need any protection, and besides, the Alpha is meant to protect his people."

"But who then protects the Alpha?" Joren asked him innocently. "I remember Philip taught us that everything is vice versa—we protect the Alpha, and he protects us."

Orion smiled at the boy. "Whatever you say, then. Are you less tense now?" Orion asked him.

Joren blinked in shock. "How did you know?"

"It was flowing out of you in waves," Orion told the boy.

He then told Joren to follow him as he re-demonstrated, step by step, and each way, he corrected Joren. Joren finally got it enough to stop doing the camel dance. Orion smiled and went through everyone again.

By the time he looped back to Sophia, she was better. Her steps were cleaner, more natural. But when he stopped behind her again, she didn’t look at him.

He leaned closer once more, his tone low and private. "You were saying?"

"That you left without waking me up," she whispered, not missing a beat in her movement.

"I thought you would need the rest after everything we did last night," he told her.

"I was already rested enough, Orion. I didn’t need to rest again," she told him.

"But I still fail to see the issue here," he told her.

"The issue is that you left without waking me, and I ended up being the last one here. I don’t want anyone thinking I’m not serious," she told him.

He exhaled softly, almost a sigh. "You’re right," he said at last, keeping his tone barely audible. "I should’ve woken you. I thought you needed the rest."

Sophia gave no reply at first—just the quiet shift of her step as she recovered balance again. Then, quietly, "Next time, don’t think for me. Orion better still just wake me up before you leave. I can’t be waking up to an empty bed all the time."

Orion’s mouth twitched faintly—half a smile, half defeat. "Are you mad at the fact that I didn’t wake you, which resulted in you being late to the training grounds, or at the fact that when you woke up, I was already gone?"

She glared at him. "Can’t it be both?"

Orion swallowed a laugh. "Yes ma’am, I’m very sorry for not waking you up."

"Apologize for pinching my butt too," she told him.

Orion just laughed instead as he walked away, but not before whispering to her that she had gotten what the anchor steps are—but that wasn’t enough to lessen the icy glare she gave him.