My Alphas' Dark Desires novel Chapter 236

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Chapter 236: The Lab Accident

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Chapter 236

~Valerie’s POV~

I turned toward Isla, wanting to nudge her, but she lifted her head at the exact same moment. Our eyes met, and I quickly looked away, pretending to pack my notes.

But then Professor Neil walked right over to us.

He stopped at our workstation and tapped his knuckles lightly on the counter. Isla looked up at him, expression blank but polite.

"Miss Isla," he called her name softly. "Meet me later during your lunch break. I want to go over your questions on waveforms. There were some errors in your written response last week."

Isla blinked once, then nodded silently.

Professor Neil gave a short nod in return and walked off, heading toward the front of the class again.

As soon as he turned his back, I leaned in toward Isla and nudged her gently with my elbow. "Okay, now that was interesting."

Isla raised a brow. "What?"

I motioned subtly toward the retreating figure of Professor Neil. "You didn’t notice the way he was looking at you?"

She blinked. "What are you talking about?"

I narrowed my eyes but kept my voice low to avoid attracting the teacher’s attention. "Isla... the man was staring at you like he wanted to diagram your soul. That wasn’t an academic interest. That was full-on; I’d make you moan between the equations, type interest."

Her cheeks went pink, but she scoffed. "Val, don’t force something that isn’t there. I don’t think of him like that, and I doubt he does. He’s a professor. It’s not even appropriate."

"But you do think of someone else like that," I countered, eyeing her.

She paused, then looked away too quickly. "I don’t know what you’re talking about."

"Wait... y-you love someone else?" I asked softly, catching her off guard.

Isla stuttered, her voice faltering. "I—well... that’s not the topic. Besides, there’s nothing between me and Professor Neil."

I let the silence stretch as I watched her fidget, trying to compose herself. But the blush on her cheeks and the way her eyes darted away told me all I needed to know.

There was someone.

And it probably wasn’t the professor.

But before I could press further, the chemistry teacher—Professor Glenton—entered the lab, clapping his hands together and announcing the change of session.

"Tuck away your equipment, please."

Just like that, all conversation dropped. Isla turned back to her station, and I followed suit.

But I didn’t forget, and I wasn’t going to let it go that easily.

As soon as everyone got their equipment and apparatus out, the class began.

The lab smelled faintly of iodine and acid, that sharp tinge that always seemed to cling to your nostrils long after you left.

I stood at the far end of the bench, wearing gloves and goggles tightly over my eyes, measuring out a sodium carbonate solution for our quantitative analysis practical.

Isla was beside me, carefully labelling the beakers, while Erik, who had been assigned to our trio for the day, adjusted the burette stand with ease.

She sat with Avery and Maddie, the three of them hunched over their own setup, though only one of them actually looked like she was doing any real work.