Alpha's Hidden Precious Luna-Chapter 202

Lily POV

“Sir?”

I enunciated staring at him.

“I mean,” he cleared his throat quickly. “I’d like to see you excel, because I heard you’re a good student and I know if you apply yourself properly to your studies, you’d do much more than you are doing now.”

“Oh!” I nodded, “Thank you Professor. I won’t fail you; I promise.”

Without another word, he gathered the rest of his materials and walked out of the classroom, leaving me standing there wondering if I’d imagined the entire awkward moment.

By 2 PM, I was standing outside his office door, my notebook and textbooks clutched against my chest. I knocked tentatively, uncertain whether our strange interaction after class had changed anything about our tutoring arrangement.

"Come in," came his voice from within.

I opened the door to find Professor Morrison on the phone. He was practically whispering into the phone to whomever was on the other side. He looked up briefly and held up one finger, indicating I should wait, while pointing toward the seating area in his office.

I settled onto the leather couch, noting that a whiteboard had been wheeled into the space since my last visit. It was positioned where both the couch and the chair across from it would have a clear view, suggesting he’d put some thought into making our tutoring session seamless.

His phone conversation was too quiet for me to make out what he was saying, but his body language suggested it was serious. I tried not to eavesdrop, focusing instead on organizing my notes and reviewing the questions I’d prepared.

When he finally ended the call, he came over immediately, an apologetic expression on his face.

"I’m sorry for keeping you waiting," he said, settling into the chair across from me. "I hope that didn’t eat too much into our time."

"Is everything alright?" I asked, unable to keep the concern from my voice. He’d seemed stressed during the call, and while we weren’t exactly close, I found myself worried about whatever was troubling him.

"Everything’s fine," he replied, though something in his tone suggested otherwise. "Just certain matters that needed my attention."

He clasped his hands together and leaned forward slightly. "Now, do you have any specific topics from the materials that you’d like to start with? Since we don’t have unlimited time before your exams, I expect you to have gone through the material and identified the topics you’re having trouble understanding."

"That’s a good idea," I agreed, opening my notebook and pulling out the list I’d prepared. "I’ve been working through your reading assignments, and there are several areas where I’m struggling."

I flipped through my notes, which were color-coded and organized by difficulty level. "I think I have a good grasp of the basic territorial formation after the Nightbane collapse, but I’m having trouble understanding the economic factors that influenced which packs survived and which ones dissolved."

Professor Morrison nodded approvingly. "Economic analysis is often overlooked in favor of the more dramatic political maneuvering, but you’re right to focus on it. Resource management was often the determining factor in a pack’s long-term viability."

He stood and moved to the whiteboard, picking up a marker. "Let’s start with the basic economic model that governed early pack society."

As he began sketching a diagram on the board, I found myself studying his profile. There was something different about him today. His shoulders were tensed, he kept repeating sentences something that he’d never done before. The phone call had clearly affected him more than he was letting on.

"The key thing to understand," he continued, drawing interconnected circles and arrows, "is that pack survival wasn’t just about military strength or political alliances. It was about sustainable resource management in a rapidly changing landscape."

Despite my curiosity about his obvious stress, I forced myself to focus on the lesson. This was exactly the kind of detailed analysis I needed to understand the historical patterns he’d been discussing in his lectures.

"Each pack needed to balance three primary resource categories," he explained, labeling sections of his diagram. "Territory and its natural resources, population and labor capacity, and trade relationships with both werewolf and human communities."

"How did they manage trade with humans without revealing their nature?" I asked.

"Carefully, and with significant risk," Professor Morrison replied, adding more details to his diagram. "Many packs established front businesses like lumber companies, mining operations, agricultural cooperatives. They could explain their unusual strength and endurance as simply being hardworking rural folk."

As he continued the lesson, I found myself getting caught up in the complexity of early werewolf society. Professor Morrison was clearly passionate about his subject, and his enthusiasm was infectious even when he was obviously dealing with personal stress.

But every so often, I caught him glancing at his phone or toward the window with a worried expression that suggested his mind was partly elsewhere. Whatever that phone call had been about, it was still occupying his thoughts.

"Professor Morrison," I said during a brief pause as he added more details to the whiteboard. "Are you sure everything’s okay? You seem... distracted."

He paused, marker halfway to the board, and for a moment I thought he might actually tell me what was troubling him. Instead, he turned back to face me with his usual professional expression.

"I appreciate your concern, Miss Stone, but personal matters shouldn’t interfere with our academic work. Now, let’s continue with the discussion of trade route establishment..."

“I know it’s not in my place to pry but something is obviously off and I’m getting distracted watching you get distracted, if that makes sense. Is it woman problems? Problems from the house? Did you fight with your girlfriend?”

He turned to stare at me after a few minutes he sighed. “Listen, Lily... I am smart enough to know that at some point we would become familiar with each other and all that but can you stop prying? It is important to me that we maintain our student-teacher relationship.”

“And I think you’re overreacting, sir. I am not prying but something is obviously wrong with you. If only you could just...”

“That’s enough, Miss Stone,” he stopped me mid-sentence. “Let’s go back to our lessons.