Chapter 217 Cyra

I started to stand the moment Yorick was punched. I saw Alpha Nevaeh step forward then quickly step back as Yorick vomited his food all over him. My own hand slapped over my mouth. I’m not sure if I was trying to keep my food down or if I was holding back a laugh, but that shifted as soon as the guy lunged at my smart-mouthed mate.

This time I do stand, but Yorick must have expected the attack. He dodges, and the guy slips on the vomit, falling to the ground.

“ENOUGH!” Alpha Leo roars. “Get your ass up and go get cleaned off, Talek.” Then he turns to Yorick. “You did that on purpose!”

“If anyone did anything with purpose, it was him. He sucker-punched me. Anyone paying attention would have seen that I was finishing my breakfast as I walked up here. I didn’t get to eat during normal hours because I was helping Cyra get back to her room, from the hospital, and helping her get ready so she wouldn’t miss class again today.” The way he emphasizes that I was in the hospital feels accusatory, like Alpha Leo isn’t doing his job properly.

I hold my breath as Alpha Leo’s face gets red with anger. He points his finger in Yorick’s face.

“You better watch yourself.”

Yorick holds Alpha Leo’s gaze, not saying anything. It’s Alpha Nevaeh calling out for Zach to come up that breaks the tension between them.

“Ahhh, Goddess of Love, don’t hold it against me if I take down your sweet poet,” Zach says dramatically as he walks up to where Yorick is standing. That, more than anything, cuts the tension in the air and I watch Yorick’s shoulders relax, and his easy smile returns.

“Good luck with that, Nicky,” Yorick says to him. His eyes meet mine and he winks at me.

“Just don’t breathe on me or I might vomit all over you,” Zach says as the two get ready to spar.

The two are evenly matched and the rest of the morning goes by with no problems. When Talek returns, he glares at Yorick, but Yorick stands near me, ignoring him. At lunch, Yorick eats like he hasn’t eaten in days, shoveling everything he can get his hands on into his mouth.

“Feel better?” I ask him when he finally sits back.

“Yeah. I was hungry,” he says, smiling and grabbing my bookbag, slinging it over his shoulder along with his. “Ready?”

“We didn’t really talk about what I missed yesterday,” I tell him.

“I sent you my notes,” he says, smiling at me.

“Damn, are there any more back home like you, Yorick?” Piper asks.

“Wade is only thirteen and Connor found his mate, sorry,” he says.

“He’s just carrying her bag,” Zach grumbles, pulling Piper’s off her shoulder and putting it over his.

I look at Yorick. He looks at me and gives me the same interesting look. I wonder if these two have been spending time together outside of class.

“It was the gesture, the thoughtfulness,” she says.

“I’m thoughtful,” Zach mutters.

“So, are we doing study group tonight, now that Cyra’s back?” Landon asks.

“I have to go back to the infirmary and get more x-rays so I can get out of this cast and into sparring class tomorrow,” I tell him.

Yorick shrugs. “We can see if you’re still meeting when we get back and if so, we can join,” he says as we walk into the classroom. Battle Strategy is taught by Warrior Ronan. His body is covered in thin scars that you’d expect to see from a man who has been through a lot of battles.

“Today, we’re going to talk about breaking alliances. When you go to war, one of the hardest things to do is go against a pack who has other packs they are allied with. Even if your group is stronger than the one you’re planning to attack, if they have allies and those allies join the battle, the tide can, and usually does, swing quickly out of your favor,” Warrior Ronan begins.

Yorick, usually relaxed but attentive, leans forward.

“So, how do you break an alliance?” Warrior Ronan asks us.

“Find a weakness in one of the allies and exploit it,” Chase says.

“Correct. What kind of weaknesses would you look for?”

“Money,” I say without thinking.

Warrior Ronan looks at me. “What about money?”

“Can one of the allies be bought? There’s a lot of greed in the packs,” I say.

“In some packs, that is true. But not all packs. What else?”

“Family,” Yorick says.

“What about family?” Warrior Ronan asks.

“Threaten their family, kidnap someone in the family and use that as leverage to keep the pack from joining the fight. Or better yet, make them think that their allied pack kidnapped their family member and make them turn on each other,” he says.

“That could be risky, depending on how strong the alliance is between the packs, but yes, using family or mates as incentive to stay out of the battle is a very effective technique,” Warrior Ronan agrees.

“Corruption,” Megan says from the other side of the room.

“Go on,” Warrior Ronan says.

“Well, we talked about buying off a pack, but what if you were to uncover a pack’s or an Alpha’s illegal activities and threaten to expose them if they join the fight.”

“In your finance class, you’ll learn about hostile takeovers. One of the best ways to do that is to expose wrongdoing or to exploit it. Buy out their debt so you control them or find their illegal pursuits and make sure you have the capability of exposing them any time you choose to, then hold that over their heads until you get what you want. Good. We talk about breaking alliances first because if you’re going to battle, you need to be the one in control of the situation. You need to be ten steps ahead of your enemy. If you’re not, and you go into battle unprepared, you will lose. Every time. Every. Single. Time. So the first part of being able to break an alliance is getting to know your enemy and their allies. Open your books to chapter three.”

When we’re done with classes for the day and headed back to the infirmary, I look at Yorick.

“You seemed pretty interested in breaking alliances today. What’s up with that?” I ask him.

He gives me a sheepish grin, then shrugs. “I had a momentary glimmer of hope that I would learn something about how to get you out of your alliance bond. But I quickly realized that’s not what we were going to learn about today. But I’m not giving up hope,” he says.

“You said your family has strong alliances,” I say.

“Yes. Of course, our alliance with Quirin is unbreakable because he’s mated to my sister. Alpha Henry is sort of Quirin’s adopted brother, and his pack has been allied with ours since before Henry took over as Alpha. None of our packs have financial issues or do anything underhanded…”

“That you know of,” I say.

“No way. Alpha Henry is a great guy and even if Quirin had been involved in anything before, he’d have gotten out of it to protect my sister and their pups.”

“And that’s why you said family,” I say.

“Yep. Although, that wouldn’t have stopped anyone in our alliance. Our three packs are really close. Coming after one of us would only incite all three packs to more violence. And that’s basically what Warrior Ronan meant about the strength of the alliance impacting the difference you can make with family. Our alliance is very strong.”

I stop before we walk into the infirmary and turn him to look at me. “Thank you for looking for a way to get me out of the alliance bond.”

He pulls my hips against his. “I won’t stop until you’re mine, Cyra. There has to be a way and I’m going to find it.”

I nod, wanting desperately to believe him. “Maybe we can work on that together then,” I say.

“I would love to. Now, let’s get this stupid cast off so I can reward you for being a somewhat good girl earlier,” he says, grinning at me.

“I thought we were going to study with Landon?” I ask as we walk inside.

“I plan on studying, possibly all night. My new favorite subject: anatomy and physiology,” he says, making me shake my head.

I got my clearance and approval to return to sparring, and then Yorick showed me that being a good girl for him is definitely worth the reward.