Marked by the Alpha Team (Luna Merrick) novel Chapter 171

Chapter 171

Chapter 171

Luna’s POV

By the time Ivy and I finally finished talking, I honestly couldn’t believe that almost the entire morning had disappeared without either of us noticing. We had started with a simple conversation about Knox, but somehow that one topic had slowly turned into another, and before long, we were discussing every complicated part of my life. Ivy had asked endless questions about my plans for all five of my mates, and after I admitted that Jace and I had decided to publicly present ourselves as a couple so the werewolves at Blackridge would recognize me as his mate, she naturally had another hundred/questions waiting for me.

She wanted to know whether I was nervous about everyone’s reaction, whether I thought Orion, Ryder, Theo, and Knox would be upset when they found out, and whether I believed pretending to be in a relationship with Jace would eventually become a real one. I answered every question as honestly as I could, even though there were still many things I didn’t know myself. My life had changed so much over the past few weeks that I had stopped pretending I had everything figured out All I knew was that I no longer wanted to keep running away from my reality. I wanted to stop fighting the bond I shared with my mates and instead understand it.

Whether that decision would eventually make me happy or completely complicate my life even further was something only time could answer, but at least it would be a choice I had made for myself.

Eventually, our conversation came to an unexpected end when both our stomachs loudly reminded us that we had completely forgotten about breakfast. We looked at each other before bursting into laughter because neither of us had even noticed how hungry we had become while talking. It was already lunchtime, and we had spent hours sitting inside our dorm discussing my increasingly chaotic love life instead of eating. Ivy jokingly accused me of making her starve with all my dramatic stories, while I reminded her that she had been the one asking all the questions in the first place.

After laughing for another minute, we both agreed that if we didn’t find food immediately, one of us was probably going to collapse from hunger before making it to the cafeteria. We grabbed our phones and room keys before stepping outside into the hallway, locking our dorm room behind us as we began making our way toward the stairs.

As we walked away from our room, my eyes landed on the repaired doorknob without me even thinking about it. Seeing it suddenly reminded me of how quickly it had been fixed after being broken only a few days earlier. At the time, I had been too distracted by everything else happening around me to question it properly, but now that things had finally become a little quieter, the thought returned. I slowed my pace slightly before turning toward Ivy with genuine curiosity written across my face.

“Ivy.” I asked curiously as we continued walking down the hallway together, “how exactly did you manage to get our doorknob fixed so quickly?” I frowned thoughtfully before continuing. “I clearly remember you telling me that maintenance almost never responds quickly whenever something happens on our dorm floor because we’re supposedly at the bottom of their priority list.”

The moment she heard my question, Ivy let out a small giggle that immediately made me suspicious. It wasn’t an ordinary laugh. It was the kind of laugh someone made after remembering something they had been secretly amused about all along She tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear before looking at me with an expression that practically screamed she was enjoying herself far too much.

“Well, she responded with another amused laugh, “I definitely didn’t suddenly gain some magical ability to make maintenance start listening to me.” She smiled innocently before continuing, “Thankfully, someone who actually has enough influence to make things happen crossed my path, so I asked him if he could help us She casually shrugged her shoulders as though what she had just said wasn’t surprising in the slightest. “He agreed, and not long afterward. maintenance showed up and fixed it.”

The moment she casually referred to this mysterious person as he, my curiosity immediately doubled. I looked at Ivy with narrowed eyes while trying to think of every guy I knew who possessed enough influence to convince the maintenance department to rush over and repair something inside the girls dormitory. There certainly weren’t many students capable of doing something like that Whoever this person was had to be unusually well connected, and judging from the way Ivy had ruled while talking about him, she clearly found the whole situation amusing

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09:33 Thu, Jul 23 ) ) ) •

Chapter 171

品味門

5B Vouchers

I was already opening my mouth to ask who exactly this mysterious boy was and how on earth he had managed to pull that off when my phone suddenly began ringing inside my pocket.

The unexpected sound immediately interrupted my thoughts. Letting out a quiet sigh, I reached into my pocket before pulling out my phone, expecting to see coach calling to check whether I had safely returned to campus after leaving the hospital. Instead, my eyes landed on a name that made me stop walking altogether.

Theo.

I stared at the screen in complete silence while the phone continued vibrating in my hand. My thumb hovered uncertainly over the answer button, but I made no attempt to press it. I honestly didn’t know what I wanted to do. I couldn’t deny that wasn’t nearly as angry with Theo as I had been a few days earlier. Time had softened the edge of my anger, and everything else that had happened recently had naturally pushed him toward the back of my mind, but none of that meant I had forgiven him.

As far as I was concerned, Theo had simply gone back to being exactly the person I thought he was when we first met. He was an arrogant rich boy who had spent most of his life getting whatever he wanted. Whenever things didn’t go his way, he became bitter, childish, and vindictive. The memory of what he had done with Katie immediately returned to me. He had asked her to lock me inside the girls’ locker room and leave me trapped there without any proper clothes or any easy way to get help.

Whether he had physically done it himself or not didn’t really matter. The entire thing had happened because he wanted to teach me a lesson. If he was capable of doing something so cruel for whatever reason he might have had or no reason at all, then who was to say he wouldn’t eventually do something even worse if I disappointed him again? That thought alone made me tighten my grip on my phone as it continued ringing.

Eventually, the ringing stopped.

Without saying a word. I slipped the phone back into my pocket.

Beside me, Ivy had quietly watched the entire thing unfold. She glanced briefly at my pocket before lifting her eyes to meet mine, and from the sympathetic expression on her face, I could already tell she had guessed exactly who had called me

“If you don’t want to answer his calls, then don’t answer them,” she said gently as she folded her arms across her chest. She looked at me with complete understanding before continuing, “You’re absolutely within your rights to ignore Theo after everything he did.” She slowly shook her head before letting out a quiet sigh. “Honestly, if I had my way, I’d tell you to keep talking to every single one of your other mates while pretending Theo doesn’t even exist.”

A small, satisfied smile appeared on her face as she imagined it. “Maybe then he’d finally understand that forgiveness isn’t something he automatically deserves just because he happens to feel sorry.”

I smiled faintly at Ivy’s words, but before I could say anything else, my phone started ringing again. I pulled it out once again, and unsurprisingly, it was Theo.

1 stared at his name while silently wondering just how stubborn he intended to be. Eventually, the ringing stopped again, bur Jess than a minute later…it started for the third time.

I slowly let out another sigh while staring at the screen. Three missed calls in such a short amount of time meant Theo clearly wasn’t planning to leave me alone anytime soon. I glanced toward Ivy, silently asking for her opinion without actually saying anything. She simply shrugged, leaving the decision entirely in my hands

After thinking about it for several long seconds, I finally accepted the call. I simply wanted to know what could possibly be important enough for him to call me three times in a row. The moment flifted the phone to my car, I immediately heard him release a long breath that sounded almost like relief.

Ti really glad you finally answered,” he said quietly, and the relief in his voice was impossible to miss. I was honestly starting to think you weren’s ever going to pick up.”

I wasn’t interested in comforting him or pretending everything was suddenly normal between us Instead. I decided to get

09:33 Thu, Jul 23 ) ) )

Chapter 171

straight to the point.

“Why are you calling me?” I asked coldly, making absolutely no effort to soften the distance in my voice.

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There was a brief pause on the other end of the call before Theo finally answered. “I wanted to talk to you,” he responded carefully, sounding as though he had rehearsed those words several times before calling. “I was hoping we could meet today.”

The request immediately made me scoff. “And why exactly would I agree to that?” I asked flatly without even wrying to hide my disbelief. “Theo, you’re going to have to give me one very good reason why I should see you.”

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