Mated to the Beast of the Wasteland novel Chapter 176

Chapter 176 A Scoop of Soil

Chapter 176 A Scoop of Soil

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Walter spat through gritted teeth, “If I keep my mouth shut, they’re going to drag me in and interrogate me as a spy. I’m no spy, so why the hell should I take the fall for somebody else?”

The crowd’s expressions cycled through a dozen different emotions before finally settling on something that looked a lot like envy aimed straight at Clara.

“Turns out somebody’s been pulling out all the stops to win her over. Honestly, I am totally/rooting for

them.”

“Right? The seed’s dead anyway, so she might as well marry Hudson. The guy’s head over heels for her. Clara swayed where she stood, the room spinning around her. “There’s no way. He couldn’t possibly…” “Hold on. Bring him back.” Gillian’s voice cut through the air, stopping the two guards mid-stride.

The guards tossed Walter back into the middle of the circle.

“I only did it to help my buddy land you. Otherwise you would’ve been kicked out of here ages ago!” Clara’s face froze over as her stare locked onto Hudson in pure disbelief. “When exactly did you get inside my lab?”

A flicker of regret crossed Hudson’s face, but he started laying out the story anyway.

“Clara, the same day I confessed my feelings, you told me your seed wasn’t responding and asked me to look over the data. The second I checked, I could tell the numbers were off. The seed was already dead, and my own scan backed that up. I couldn’t stand to see you hurt, so I dropped a clump of untreated soil into the dish. That living plant you keep detecting is probably just insect eggs or stray weed seeds from the tainted soil.”

Clara’s panic drained out of her the moment the full picture clicked into place.

Her heart was still hammering from the scare, because on the day he had confessed, the data she had shown him was nothing more than her polite way of turning him down.

The seed in that dish had been a dead lover’s apple, and she had never imagined he would read into it the way he had.

The look on his face that day suddenly made perfect sense. She had assumed she had bruised his pride, when in reality the guy had been flattering himself with delusions and patting himself on the back for sparing her dignity.

If Hudson had actually tampered with her shaggy mane sample, the damage would have been catastrophic. Clara shivered hard at the thought and vowed on the spot that nobody was ever setting foot in her lab again.

Gillian watched the color flood back into Clara’s cheeks and immediately picked up on the fact that some kind of mix-up sat at the bottom of all of this.

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Chapter 176 A Scoop of Soil

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“Clara, you’ve got some real nerve trying to pull one over on the Agriculture Academy. Don’t you know the 9th Legion is running on fumes financially right now?”

“Captain Sterling, I haven’t done any such thing. Hudson and Walter are smearing me. My experiment isn’t anything close to what they’re claiming.”

Clara’s voice grew noticeably steadier with every word, a clear sign that she had an ace tucked up her sleeve.

Yet everyone in the room had just watched her almost buckle when the accusation first landed, and most chalked her newfound composure up to nothing but bluffing.

Even Hudson and Walter had her pegged as someone clinging to a sinking ship.

Hudson had dropped the soil in himself that day with Walter watching every move, so neither of them could fathom how their version of events could possibly be wrong.

A faint smile tugged at the corner of Gillian’s mouth.

“In that case, let’s bring in one of the Academy’s own faculty to verify whether Clara has been lying or not.”

Walter and Hudson both hesitated the instant Gillian announced she was calling in a faculty member.

“If I find out you two have been lying through your teeth, I’ll strip you of the right to ever run another experiment here.”

Gillian spoke softly, but the level gaze she leveled on Hudson froze the rebuttal in his throat.

Walter glared at Clara, refusing to let her off the hook so easily. “And what about her?”

“Expelled on the spot, banned from the Agriculture Academy for the rest of her life.”

Gillian’s eyes turned to ice. At this point she had drawn a line in the sand, and whoever had something to hide would be the one left holding the bag once the truth came out.

“Fine. Then let Captain Sterling stand as our witness.”

Walter rubbed his sore arm, having already written off Hudson as a spineless pushover with nothing left to

lean on.

Clara gave a firm nod of her own. “Let Captain Sterling stand as the witness.”

Gillian fired off a message to Merrick. “Merrick, who’s the most upright professor at the Agriculture Academy? The one who values real talent above everything else? I’ve got a mess to clean up over here.”

Merrick’s reply landed within seconds, attaching a single contact card.

Well, of all people. Merrick had pointed her straight at the head of the academy himself.

Gillian went straight to the source and dialed up Dean Vance Holt, a Lieutenant Colonel by rank. Anyone Merrick personally recommended was bound to be the right call.

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Chapter 176 A Scoop of Soil

Walter, meanwhile, had pinged his uncle and begged for backup.

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By a stroke of coincidence, Vance and Walter’s uncle Wendell Crane arrived at the same moment and ran into each other right at the door.

Vance was already barreling toward the lab at full tilt, because if the boss’ wife was getting pushed around on his watch, his days as dean might as well be numbered.

Yet Wendell, oblivious to the situation, kept planting himself square in Vance’s path.

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