All Chapters of The Orphaned Alpha: Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

Odett’s POV The next night passed without a dream. Grandma’s wards stayed quiet, and Lorilie slept close enough for me to feel her. I still woke before sunrise and checked beneath the bed for cracks before I could stop myself. ‘You checked twice already,’ Lorilie said with sleepy patience inside my mind. ‘I know,’ I answered. ‘I am making sure it did not change,’ I added defensively. ‘Floors usually announce when they split open,’ Lorilie said. I checked once more and got dressed. The glass had been cleared and the books returned to their shelves. Only the new marks by the window and door showed that something more than fear had torn through my room. Mom waited for me in the smaller breakfast room instead of joining the rest of the family. Dad had already left for his office, and the twins’ voices traveled faintly from the main dining room. Mom placed a plate in front of me before setting Grandma’s journal beside it. “Your grandmother wants you to record the earlier ni

Rain’s POV On the morning of Odett’s flood exercise at the Academy, I stood at her bedroom door and watched the protection marks fade beneath the wood. They would warn me if her power surged or Lorilie disappeared from her reach again. Their silence should have comforted me; instead, I kept picturing her waking to a floor she no longer trusted. ‘She woke safely,’ Dosha said with steady reassurance inside my mind. ‘She ate, argued with her journal, and left with Joshy. Those are good things,’ she added patiently. ‘They are normal things,’ I answered. ‘Normal does not explain why something kept Lorilie from reaching her,’ I reminded her uneasily. ‘No, but fear does not explain it either,’ Dosha said. Dosha sounded like Mom when she wanted me to slow down, and I hated that they were both right. One corner of Odett’s made bed had been lifted where she checked beneath it before dawn. She had survived a war at seven years old. Now she had to convince herself her own room was s

Odett’s POV I woke before sunrise, when the protection marks were still visible on the walls. Footsteps passed outside my room, and the castle settled around me. I listened until Lorilie stretched in my mind, entirely untroubled. ‘You are counting sounds again. The third set of footsteps belongs to someone carrying breakfast trays, in case you were wondering,’ Lorilie observed. I checked the floor without leaving the bed. ‘Grandma told me to name what is here when I wake up,’ I replied. ‘That is what I was doing.’ Lorilie gave a doubtful huff but allowed me to keep my pride. I rolled my eyes, but her teasing loosened the knot in my chest. The chair stood where I had left it. The room smelled of clean linen, not ash, and no crimson eyes watched from the shadows. Mom was already in the breakfast room, having persuaded Dad to put aside his report long enough to eat. Aunt Jess stole fruit from Uncle Orian’s bowl while ignoring her own. He moved it away and she leaned after

Odett’s POV The announcement covered every fifth-year classroom door before the first bell. SECOND TERM ASSESSMENT stretched across the top in letters large enough to alarm students on the far side of the courtyard. Six pages of requirements hung beneath it. Joshy stood beside me while I read the list for the third time. The assessment included a written examination, a leadership hearing, a combat evaluation, and a two-day emergency exercise involving every fifth-year division. Our semester-long pack proposal would also be reviewed by a panel of instructors instead of the single teacher who normally graded it. “They could have announced this without making it look like a public execution,” I complained. “Six pages is excessive when the important part is that none of us will sleep for the next three weeks.” I turned the last page over, half expecting more requirements on the back. Joshy bent over the sleep schedule. I doubted anything printed there would make the next three w

Odett’s POV The first practice hearing began two days after the assessment announcement. Our instructor had turned the classroom around: three desks faced a lone table by the windows, with two narrow chairs behind it. I stopped in the doorway. The chairs looked as if they were waiting for a confession. “Those chairs are meant to make us nervous,” I said. “It is working,” he replied. Nolan passed us with a stack of question cards pressed against his chest. Cassian followed with the timing bell and the expression of someone grateful that another team had been selected first. Our instructor closed the door after the last student entered. “The formal leadership hearing will test your ability to defend the laws, protections, and command structure in your proposed community,” she explained. “Today will show you where your answers weaken when someone questions them.” She pointed toward the three desks. Two instructors from the diplomacy division sat beside a fifth-year studen