Chapter 51 - A New Discovery

The Female Alpha of Zero went straight to her room for a change of more comfortable set of clothes after being 'kicked' out of the meeting. Not that she cared, her old man just wanted to be a huge parasite and leech off the Rodericks. It was so much better if she wasn't there to witness him running his mouth trying to please Roderick. 

It seemed Malakhi Zero had already forgotten their rivalry that had run in their blood for centuries. 

'Wealth,' Clement clenched her jaws. 'Wealth, indeed, can change a man.' 

For her father, money was everything. Money was the top priority. Money was power. With money, everything could be handled, settled and done easily, from good deeds to the worst. 'Flash your wealth and see who will gather like ants towards sweets.' 

Shrugging on her training clothes, she thought of going for a run. One of the most effective training to do when there was a lot of stuff bottled up inside. She sighed as she stepped outside towards the training ground. The Zero's family ground had a lot of space for physical training. But-- 

She paused her steps once she reached the training ground. Snow. How could she forget that? 

Thick layer of snow covered the ground, creating its own makeshift blanket. How was she supposed to run without worrying about herself breaking bones? The Female Alpha ġrȯȧnėd in frustration. 'Indoor training, then.' 

Hearing soft echoes of footsteps that repeated right after hers no longer irritated her. She was pretty much getting used to this. She knew how hard the Beta tried to minimize his presence, hovering over her so silently. 

Clement appreciated it a lot. His looming figure soon became a comforting presence, a nice company. It helped a lot when he didn't have any overwhelming pheromones either. They were flowing and rolling in gentle waves, offering calming comfort. They carried the scent of wood and morning dew, fresh and clear. 

And they were especially thick these few days, not that she minded. 

She wondered if it was just him or all betas were like that, having their scent flaring up in no specific time. Feeling the corner of her lips unconsciously curved up, she glanced at the Beta behind her and almost rolled her eyes in annoyance, yet with a tint of fondness, as the silver-haired boy almost tripped on his own foot. 

'Naive,' She thought. 

'Pure…' She continued describing. 

'And dumb.' She finished lamely. 

'He doesn't know.' Repeating that like a mantra sure was tiring. But she couldn't bring herself to tell him. It was much better to keep that innocence, even just a little bit longer. 

'Ignorance is positively blissful.' 

Clement huffed, now she could feel stress tumbling over the jar where she had it bottled up. She strode across the hall in larger strides to reach the training hall faster. Unfortunately, the stress increased further as she saw a bunch of 'nuisance' inside. 

XXX

She knew her day was going to suck even more when she made eye contact with the uninvited occupants in the training hall, especially Zion's, which sparkled so brightly where she could see stars inside. 

'Why do you look so excited, you bastard?' 

"My Lady!" 

'Yep, definitely excited.' Said Lady was sure she heard her vein pop. 

"Training as usual, My Lady?" 

Clement ignored him completely, not without eyeing the others too. The older man with gray hair was looking all too serious with a permanent frown on his face. Clement made a guess that he must be younger than her father or maybe this man was just well-preserved for his age. 

Zeke, on the other hand, that arrogant Alpha-- the one that always went out of his way trying to pretend to be humble-- supported a bored looking face, hands in pocket and shuffling his foot. Anyone would have missed how those jade eyes kept on wandering to a certain white head in the training hall; yes, it was subtle, but not enough for Clement to miss. 

'Oh? It can't be… right?' Her eyes almost widened at the new discovery but she quickly concealed her expression before anyone could notice. 

'Interesting.' Biting her lips to stop the emerging smirk, she went straight to where the training equipment was. Heading purposely for the one that had a solid horizontal bar that was connected and supported high up with another two identical ones. 

Pulling out a ribbon, she threw her head back and gathered her hair, bunching it up high before wounding the ribbon around it, securing her hair from falling all over and interfering with her training session. 

The only female Alpha promptly tuned out the conversation behind her, raising her hands above her head and stretched. She continued to stretch until her muscle relaxed before starting any workout and also to drag some time, hoping these people would leave soon. 

Wouldn't it be uncomfortable doing some exercise with random people watching? 

Damn it! She should have just gone to her own private training hall, why did she not think of that before? 

The Female Alpha made sure the others knew of her displeasure by sighing exaggeratingly when the guest finally made a move to leave. 

"Oi." Clement called out, believing no one else was in there except her and her bodyguard. "Spar with me, beta." 

"Uhh-- oh! Okay!" Startled at suddenly being called out, Jian Yu blinked and agreed hastily. 

There were rows of low wooden benches stretched across the changing room which Jian Yu walked past, directly to other rows of training clothes hung from the padded hangers. 

Slipping off his gloves, the silver-head Beta shrugged off his outer suit and hung them, followed by the dark gray vest he wore. He paused for a second when his fingers reached to unbutton the white shirt beneath. 

Obsidian eyes rolled towards the entrance of the changing room, making sure no one would be stepping inside the place. He couldn't make an effort of people barging inside, seeing the enormous and also hideous scar across his back, and started bombarding him with questions when he himself didn't even know where it came from. 

Nodding to himself, he proceeded to unbutton his clothes until a low but husky voice penetrated the room. 

"Hi."