Piss Off, Alpha! You Chapter 118 A Good One

Chapter 118: Chapter 118 A Good One

SOPHIA’S POV

Lance and I stayed at our table after Archer disappeared into the private room. Neither of us ntioned what had just happened but I could see it on Lance’s face.

"Should we order?" I asked quietly.

"Yeah." He set the nu down. "Let’s order."

We chose our food and sat in comfortable silence for a while. I kept my back deliberately turned to the private room. I didn’t need to see what was happening in there.

About twenty minutes later, the door to the private room opened. Archer stepped out, straightening his jacket. His eyes looked round the dining room and landed on Lance and

almost imdiately.

He walked straight toward us.

"Well," he said, stopping beside our table with a smile "I didn’t expect to find my two favorite people sitting out here."

Lance looked up. "Professor Reese."

"Don’t give

that tone." Archer pulled out the empty chair between us and sat down without being invited “You invited

to this restaurant. Did you think I wouldn’t find you?"

I blinked. "You knew we were here?"

"I saw Lance’s car in the lot." Archer smiled. "I went to handle sothing unpleasant first. Now I’m here for the actual reason I ca." He signaled the waiter and ordered two vegetarian dishes without looking at the nu. When the waiter left, he caught Lance’s expression and shrugged. "I’m getting old. My body wants greens now. It’s an indignity I’ve learned to accept."

Lance smiled. "I’ll keep that in mind for the future."

"You should." Archer settled back in his chair. "Everything catches up with you eventually."

The tension from earlier faded. It was good to know that he wasn’t ignoring us. Lance’s mood looked better now. He was actually smiling.

Lance poured rice into my bowl without being asked, then poured soup carefully beside it. I watched him do it so naturally, so quietly, like it was sothing he’d been doing for years. Archer watched too with a smile.

"So," Archer said, looking at

directly. "Lance tells

your applications are almost ready."

"Almost," I said. "I’m still working on the research statent."

"That’s the part that matters most." He leaned forward a bit. "Tell

-what do you want your work to say? Not what sounds impressive. What do you actually care about?"

I thought about it honestly. "Pediatric diagnostics. The gap between rural access and proper care. I saw it firsthand during my assignnt in the small town. Children getting missed diagnoses simply because of geography."

Archer was quiet for a mont. Then he nodded "That’s a real problem. And it’s specific enough to build strong research around." He looked at Lance. "You found a good one."

Lance smiled. "I know."

"He’s been talking about you since before you even applied," Archer said to . "he says you’re diligent, driven, have strong foundations, genuine compassion" He paused, just long enough. "A woman like that is rare, Lance. Soone ought to make sure she doesn’t slip away."

The air shifted. I felt heat rise to my face and looked down at my bowl.

Lance cleared his throat. "Professor, about the collaborative project-" he said smoothly, redirecting the conversation. "Once Sophia completes her master’s and joins the doctoral program, I was thinking we could build sothing together around rural pediatric screening. A longitudinal study."

Archer’s attention shifted. He looked genuinely interested now. "Funding?"

"I have so ideas and the data from her fieldwork could serve as the foundation."

"Send

a proposal outline," Archer said. "If it’s solid, I’ll back it."

The conversation moved forward. It was lighter now. Lance kept quietly refilling my glass as we talked. Archer laughed at sothing Lance said.

I sat between them and felt, for the first ti in a long ti, like I was exactly where I was supposed to be.

THIRD PERSON’S POV

The private room door opened again. Damien, Tiffany, and Simon stepped out into the main dining area. Damien moved with his usual Alpha authority. His eyes scanned the room out of habit.

Tiffany spotted them first.

Archer was laughing at sothing Sophia had said, relaxed in a way he had never once been in the private room. Lance leaned toward Sophia, pointing at sothing in her notebook, his shoulder close to hers. Sophia was nodding. Her pen moved quickly as she wrote sothing.

Tiffany’s wolf went rigid.

She watched Lance gesture as he outlined sothing - a research plan, by the look of it - and saw Sophia respond happily.

The jealousy ca fast. Not just over Lance’s attention, but over the ease of it. The naturalness, the way Sophia seed to belong in that world - research, academia, dicine - in a way that Tiffany was afraid she herself never would.

She thought of an idea.

Lance knew research. Lance was Archer’s most respected student and Lance, despite everything Simon had done to him, had still chosen to stay.

Maybe, Tiffany thought, Lance was exactly the person she needed.