Chapter 185

Almara’s Pov

Perhaps I’ve spoken too soon. It’s nearly noon, meaning we’ve been looking for a potential art school to set up shop at for the past six hours and so far the last three places we looked at have rejected us.

The first place we looked at used to be an apartment complex, but before that it was a steel-making business. It was a beautiful building with lots of historic character, exposed brick, and industrial accents with metallic spiral staircases and large windows.

I really thought this would be the one, but the woman showing it said she was looking for a tenant to use it as office space. However, I got the feeling she wasn’t being truthful and Lily confirmed it by seeing a murky brown color floating above her head, the woman was hiding something.

Still, I didn’t push. We had other places on our list. The second was a farm barn on acres of rural land. The lot was breathtaking with a wipe-open sky serving as its own canvas just above our heads, but that owner wouldn’t even see us. Just shook his head and refused eye contact.

When Arthur put on that look that he gets when someone isn’t treating the Alpha with due respect, the guy pretends to be on the phone.

Lily confirmed this guy was also being totally shady. For some reason, people want to avoid us.

Technically the third place we went to, a regular office building in the center city, wasn’t a ‘no’ for us. We apparently had just missed the open house tour and the seller was refusing to give a private tour, claiming “rules are rules.” Again, none of bought it.

Arthur and I are back in the car, sitting outside the tall glass building, unable to see its garden roof. The sun really warmed up the car and for a moment I soak it in, but quickly begin to pant.

The streets are busy and the day turned out to be fairly warm, you’d never known it snowed this morning. The sun is high and bright, and the city dogs are taking advantage of the nice day.

There’s a street performer break dancing on the corner, someone else is handing out flyers for some amateur fighting match happening later, and a slew of others are hustling to get to their next destination. At least they have somewhere to go. We don’t have any other options on our list.

I let out a sigh of defeat. “I just don’t get it,” I say and kick my feet up on the dashboard.

“Maybe we’ve been underground for too long. It’s possible this is a common struggle for many others and since we’ve been living just like everybody else for the past year or so we don’t get any of our once underappreciated special treatment.” Arthur attempts to explain, but even he’s not buying it.

“I don’t know,” I tell him and let my mind wander. The looks on people's faces as they turned us away weren’t a lack of recognition, in fact, it’s quite the opposite. The buyers definitely know exactly who we are, and that’s why they turned us away.

A tap on the driver side window startles me out of my thoughts. Arthur rolls his window down a crack and a man dressed in blue bends at the waist so that he’s eye level with us both. “You can’t park here,” he says and points to a meter that indicates we’ve run out of time.

Arthur mumbles something under his breath and quickly backs out of the parking spot. “He’s just doing his job,” I say in an attempt to calm Arthur down. Sometimes he can be such an emotional driver.

“Well, those sellers weren’t.” Arthur snaps and then immediately shakes his head in regret. “I’m sorry. I’m not snapping at you, I just don’t get why this has to be so hard.”

We come up to a red light and I can more clearly see the break dancer. He’s really good, he even gathered a bit of a crowd who are tapping to the beat of the music. Just then, something begins to spark in my brain. I turn to look over my shoulder once more at the one handing out flyers.

The idea blossoms. “What if,” I say slowly to Arthur, still formulating the idea in my mind before committing to say the words out loud. “We open run an underground school?” I say it and it sounds kind of ridiculous, but also very fun. Arthur gives me a sideways look.

“What do you mean?” He asks, finally easing up on the gas.

“Instead of going through the legal documents, we just opened our own school. You did say you wanted to build something of your own.” I flash him a smile. “Build me a school.” I can see my words making a lasting impact on his heart as the very idea unfolds before him.

He’s already got a vision forming, I can see it in his eyes. “Let me just make sure I understand,” Arthur taps his finger against the wheel as he checks off his understanding. “We find a lot and build the school from scratch and when it’s ready to be open, then we announce it?”

I nod, it sounds so much better coming out of his mouth. “Yes. It sounds a lot easier than it’ll probably be but-”

“I’m in.” Arthur interjects.

We spend the rest of the ride home going over design plans and where we want the building to be built. I’m a hundred times more excited for this than just buying or renting some place. This is actually going to be special.

We’re still talking a mile a minute over one another when we pull into our driveway. My mom is sitting on the porch with Grace. “There’s your mama and dada!” My mom says bouncing Grace on her lap. Grace smiles and reaches her arms out towards us.

“Hi pretty girl.” Arthur says and swoops in to scoop Grace into his arms. I don’t know if I’ll ever get over how tiny she looks in his massive biceps.

“You guys seem to be in a good mood. Does that mean you found a place for your school?” My mom says sounding just at hopeful as we were this morning.

“No,” I tell her through a genuine smile. My moms face morphs into confusion.

“I suppose I should be thrilled you’re taking the rejection so positively.” She says more as a question. I tell her about our plan to build our own and how doing so will be something special and really prove to Roman that we don’t need his funds.

Except when my mom doesn’t return my enthusiasm I grow irritated. “You’ll first have to buy a piece of land and then to open a school will require a lot of permits.”

I wave her off. “I know. We talked all about this.” Arthur chimes in.

“It’s going to be hard work, but it’s something we’re dedicated to doing.”

“Well, seeing that there’s no changing your mind. Let me and your father know how we can help then.”

With that, Arthur and I get to drawing the blue prints.