Marked by the Alpha Team (Luna Merrick) novel Chapter 32

Chapter 32

Luna’s POV

I was still trying to understand what had just happened when Orion walked back toward me with a bottle of water in his hand. My legs felt weak, and my whole body still had that strange shaky feeling that comes after a panic attack/

I had sat down on a low stone bench near the edge of the path while he stepped away for a moment, and now that I was finally catching my breath, the world around me seemed quieter again. Students were still walking past us, some of them glancing in our direction, but the loud chaos that had been inside my head earlier was gone.

Orion held the bottle out to me without saying anything, I took it quickly, almost too quickly, because my throat felt dry and tight like I had been running for hours.

“Thanks” I muttered before twisting the cap open.

The moment the bottle was open, I lifted it to my mouth and drank. I didn’t just sip it either, I gulped down half the bottle like someone who had been stranded in the desert. The cool water helped a little, especially with the burning feeling that had been sitting in my throat ever since the voices started earlier. When I finally lowered the bottle, I let out a slow breath and wiped my mouth with the back of my hand.

Orion watched me quietly for a moment before speaking. “Are you feeling better?” he asked.

I nodded slowly. “Yeah… I think so.”

For a second neither of us said anything I could still feel the faint echo of what had happened earlier, like my mind was trying to remember the noise that had nearly driven me insane, but compared to how it felt just minutes ago, the silence now almost felt peaceful.

Then I looked up at him. “How did you do that?” I asked.

Orion tilted his head slightly. “Do what?”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “You know exactly what I’m talking about,” I said.

He looked back at me with a calm expression that almost seemed innocent, but I wasn’t buying it. Just a few minutes ago, my head had felt like it was going to explode from all the voices I was hearing. Then all of a sudden, he took off his glasses, grabbed my shoulders, told me to look at him, and suddenly everything started to quiet down. On top of that, the strange scent that I had been noticing from him and the others had hit me so hard it almost made me dizzy, and now he was acting confused?

“Don’t pretend,” I said, leaning forward slightly. “You literally had me staring into your eyes, and somehow the scent you and your friends have suddenly got ten times stronger. Then the voices stopped, and now you’re standing there acting like you don’t know what I mean.”

Orion stayed quiet for a moment, studying my face carefully.

I continued before he could speak. “And another thing,” I added. “How come that scent is suddenly gone again? Just now it was so strong I could barely think, but right now I can’t smell anything from you at all. The same thing happened last night when you helped me out of the locker room. I didn’t smell anything from you then either.”

I crossed my arms, staring up at him. “So how is that even possible?”

Orion let out a soft sigh. The sound was quiet, but I could tell he had been expecting this conversation sooner or later.

Taking into account that there’s a limit to how much you want to know,” he said slowly, “the only thing I can tell you right now is that the scent you’re talking about is just my personal scent.”

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12:18 Sat, May 30 MM M

Chapter 382

I frowned immediately. “What? So you all happen to smell the same?”

“All I can tell you is that it’s my scent,” he repeated calmly “And I just know how to hide it most of the time.”

That explanation only made me more confused. “You can hide your scent?” I asked. “How does that even make sense?”

He didn’t answer that question directly. Instead, he glanced around the area for a moment, as if checking that no one was paying too much attention to us. Students were still walking past on the path, but none of them seemed interested enough to stop and stare.

Then his eyes returned to me. “You should probably stop asking questions like that in the middle of campus, and I’m saying this for your own good,” he said quietly.

I ignored that comment. “Are you hiding it because you’re trying to be considerate of me?” I asked. “Or do you just hident all the time?”

Orion sighed again, though this time the sound carried a little more weight. “Well,” he said, “I am hiding it because of you”

My eyebrows lifted slightly, but before I could say anything, he continued.

“Not for your sake though,” he added calmly. “More for mine.”

I blinked. “What does that mean?”

“It means I don’t want anything constantly drawing me toward you,” he said simply.

12:18 Sat, May 30 MMM.

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