Chapter 66 Boat (1)
"Teacher will make extra-challenging puzzles for you next time. Is that okay?" she added. Lucian gave her a single nod.
After checking on Lucian’s neat worksheet, Alina slowly stepped back. She turned her eyes around the classroom, letting her gaze drift from desk to desk.
She saw Boo, upside down as usual, floating above his worksheet like a lazy cloud. Drake, his little tongue poking out, was scribbling all over his page turning his dragon doodle into something even more chaotic but clearly loved. Rocky sat so still, his pencil gripped tight in his big hands as he carefully connected dots on his stone maze, his cheeks pink with shy focus.
And there — Alina’s eyes softened when she found Luna. Her grumpy little wolf was hunched over her desk, pigtails bobbing as she traced lines and colored in tiny trees on her forest page. Her nose twitched now and then,
Thank goodness, Alina thought, pressing her hand to her chest. She’s focused. She’s okay for now... She knew Luna’s little heart was probably still aching for her pack, her father.
Alina smiled to herself, blinking back the sting of tears that always came too easily.
She took a deep breath, feeling the warmth in her chest spread to her fingertips.
What Alina didn’t know and could never feel with her normal human senses was that every step she took, every warm smile she gave was quietly watched from the dark corner of the room.
There, where the morning sun could not fully reach, a darker shape moved, the faint outline of Dante hidden in the twist of shadows by the bookshelf. His eyes, red like hot coals, followed every tiny move of the human teacher he had allowed into his world.
His eyes moved over the classroom — the once loud classroom now quiet except for the small scratch of pencil and eraser on paper, the tiny sound of Boo’s ghostly giggle, or Drake’s tail hitting his chair when he got something right. And then back to her, the human standing at the heart of it all.
She was not the most beautiful woman by the rules of his court but there was something in the soft curve of her lips as she bent down to praise Lucian’s neat letters, something in the way her deep hazel eyes looked at each child like they were the only one that mattered. That soft glow around her — not magic, but that kind warmth that these little one were already starting to hold on to.
Dante’s eyes narrowed a bit. She had handled Luna well, he thought, remembering the small wolf pup curled in her lap just an hour ago, how Luna’s growls turned into tiny hiccups under the human’s calm hands. That had been... good. He had seen many so-called experts fail to calm a wolf pup’s wild sadness — yet this human had done it with just a soft voice and warm arms.