Chapter 6. Alpha Blood, Dirty Hands

The faint, heady scent of Alpha blood had clung to Aria since the sparring match. Kade's cold observation—”You fight better than you look”—had been a raw injection of power, a grudging validation that settled deep into her bones. She walked with a marginally straighter spine, but that strength came at a cost: it drew eyes, and it drew fire.

The most potent fire came from Cassandra.

Cassandra had watched the sparring scene from the Gamma balcony, her usually bored expression warped into genuine fury when Liam, the Beta she had been aggressively courting, was slammed onto the mat by the girl she called “shame wolf.” The subsequent, intimate attention Kade had paid Aria—even if it was just a warning—had burned Cassandra more than Aria’s own scorched handprint.

The confrontation happened late that afternoon, in the quiet, echoing stone corridor near the library archives.

Aria was walking back from her General Studies lecture, carefully holding her books. She