My Alphas' Dark Desires-Chapter 236: The Lab Accident

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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.

The task was straightforward—titrate the solution accurately, calculate the concentration, and document the results. PSA made sure even lab work came with less pressure.

Across from us, I could feel eyes burning into the side of my head.

Lucy.

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.

Avery was stirring something lazily, Maddie was fidgeting with her pipette, and Lucy... Lucy was glaring.

I didn’t respond at first, but then Avery leaned closer to Lucy, whispering something with a snicker, and Lucy nodded before glancing my way again.

"Careful, Valerie," Avery called sweetly. "Wouldn’t want you to mess up again. Acid doesn’t like being mishandled by amateurs."

I didn’t look up. "Thanks for the concern, Avery. Try focusing on your own setup—your base looks off."

Avery rolled her eyes. "It’s called technique, sweetheart. You should try it sometime."

Isla shot me a side glance, clearly picking up on the tension. I gave her a subtle shake of my head, not wanting to escalate things, and focused on our experiment, but Avery wasn’t done.

As Erik turned to fetch distilled water, I bent forward slightly to adjust our second beaker, not noticing the moment when Lucy leaned over their side of the counter and did only God knows what. freёwebnoѵel.com

All I knew was that I saw her body move back the second I looked up and straightened my spine, my gaze darting directly opposite her, where our solution was.

Avery covered her mouth with a fake cough to hide her grin.

"Let’s finish this before lunch," Isla murmured beside me, pulling my attention away from them. "We can cut through the south wing after for training."

I paused at her words. Training?

I almost forgot I have to be at training for the Alpha Forge games for Guild One.

I nodded, swirling the mixture carefully, then reached for the final component. As I poured the neutralizing solution into the titration flask, I immediately sensed something was wrong.

The reaction was too fast, bubbling and then frothing.

And before I could remedy the situation... Everything went... fwoosh.

A violent overflow surged up and out of the beaker, the contents bubbling like an overboiled potion.

I stepped back instinctively, but the glass clattered and tipped, spilling a trail of liquid off the counter on the other side and onto the floor... right at Lucy’s side.

She squealed and jerked backwards, but not fast enough. A splash caught the edge of her thigh, sizzling on contact with her skin before she knocked over her own tray in panic.

Beakers shattered. Test tubes rolled to the floor. Avery stepped back swiftly, hands up, completely untouched.

I stared, horrified. "Lucy—are you—"

"What the hell, Valerie?!" Lucy screeched, her voice rising above the chaos as Maddie rushed to grab tissues and water.

Isla looked equally stunned, her gaze darting between the smoking stain on the floor and the ruined setup. "What just happened?" she whispered.

"I—" My mouth was dry. I couldn’t explain it. I hadn’t seen anything wrong. Hadn’t done anything wrong. Had I?

I was so careful that I was sure something like this couldn’t have happened, but it did.

"Nightshade!"

The professor’s sharp bark silenced everything as he strode toward us, taking in the mess, the chemical burns on Lucy’s coat and leg, and the destroyed experiment station.

"Explain this," he snapped.

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