Paigos walked in like he owned the place, the same cocky swagger he always carried written across his face. There was nothing new about the sneer he sent Cain's way, nor the dismissive glance he gave the women sitting at the table.

What was different was the confidence.

Cain caught it immediately. It was not the usual arrogance Paigos lived and breathed. No, this was sharper. Harder. Like a man walking toward someone already marked for the grave.

Jayden's frown deepened slightly. Her eyes lingered on Paigos longer than Cain's did. She could feel it, whatever it was pulsing beneath his skin, but she said nothing. Not yet.

Paigos stopped a few feet from the table, his lip curling as his eyes drifted over the plates of food. Then he looked straight at Cain, smirking like the words were already formed in his mouth before he even spoke.

"So this is what the great Cain does with his time," Paigos said lazily. "Sitting around with women hanging off him, wasting his short-lived reputation on people too foolish to know when they are being used." He let his gaze slide over Zara and Jayden with a slow shake of his head. "Pathetic."

Cain's jaw tightened.

The older man leaned slightly on the back of a chair, making no effort to lower his voice. "You think these girls follow you because of loyalty? No. They follow you because you look pretty when you play hero. But we both know how women are. Fickle. Soft. The moment your little streak burns out, they will run to whoever offers a warmer bed and a stronger arm." His eyes flicked deliberately toward Jayden, then Zara. "And a man who knows how to handle them."

Zara froze mid-bite. Jayden's frown deepened, though she remained quiet.

Cain rose slowly to his feet, fingers curling once at his side before forcing themselves to relax. He could take Paigos insulting him. He had taken worse from people far deadlier than his brother.

But he would not let someone slander the people who chose to stand beside him.

Before he could open his mouth, Zara swallowed her food and leaned forward like someone stepping off a cliff.

"Wow," she said loudly, "real classy speech there, Mister Muscles. Did they teach you that at the Top Ten People I Don't Want to Meet in a Dark Alley school, or did you earn that title on your own?"

The cafeteria stilled.

Zara pushed on, her voice rising as though she had already decided there was no surviving this anyway. "Because last I checked, Cain is in the top ten of the Girls Hottie List. Oh, and he also won the 'Guy I Would Pay to Sleep With' contest in the girls dorm. First place, actually. Big trophy. Lots of competition. Meanwhile, the only thing you managed to win was Creepiest Smile of the Year."

Someone in the back actually choked on their drink. Jayden pressed a hand over her mouth, her shoulders shaking faintly as she tried not to laugh.

Cain stood very still, lips twitching despite himself. While Zara's words had caught him in a few strays, none of them were negative. Not even close.

Paigos' smirk slid right off his face.

He straightened, his eyes locking on Zara with a predator's focus. "Do you even know who the fuck you are talking to?" he growled, his voice low and promising violence.

Zara stiffened. Her hands trembled around her tray, but she lifted her chin anyway. "I… I know exactly who I'm talking to," she said, though her voice cracked slightly.

Paigos took a single step closer, and Cain moved before it could go further.

"She knows exactly who she is talking to," Cain said flatly.

Paigos turned on him sharply, eyes flashing.

"And you," Cain continued, his voice calm but carrying, "should know who she is."

His hand settled on Zara's shoulder. She flinched at first but stayed still under his grip.

"She is the future head of the intelligence network I'm building," Cain said. "The one that will know where to strike before anyone else even sees the blade coming."

Zara jerked slightly at that, eyes snapping toward him in open shock. "Wait, what?"

Cain ignored her, his gaze never leaving Paigos.

Paigos' laugh was low and ugly, the kind meant to grind someone into the dirt. "You have really fallen, Cain," he said, his tone almost pitying. "Once you were pathetic. Now you are just pathetic with an audience. Sitting here playing hero with girls who do not know any better."

His eyes slid across the table, lingering on Zara and Jayden like they were scraps Cain had picked up off the floor. "They will learn soon enough. People always do."

For a heartbeat, anger surged through Cain's chest. Years of Paigos' fists and mockery rose unbidden, the sneers, the laughter, the way he always made sure Cain knew he was beneath him.

Then the feeling vanished. The contempt of a man like Paigos was not worth a single breath. He was nothing but brute force wrapped in arrogance, the kind of man who mistook fear for respect and believed loyalty could be beaten into people.

Cain met his brother's sneer with a calm stare that revealed nothing.

Zara, however, was shaking with fury. "You know what?" she said, her voice trembling but loud enough to carry across the cafeteria. "You talk a lot for someone who probably spends half his day kissing his own muscles in the mirror."

A few students snorted. One actually coughed into their drink.

Paigos turned his head toward her slowly. The grin slipped from his face. "Careful, girl."

Zara swallowed but stood her ground, even though her knees were knocking together.

"No. You do not get to talk about Cain like he is trash! You are just a bully with bigger arms who nobody likes. You don't command respect, you only bring fear!"

"Why would I want the respect of worms when fear is easier and faster way of doing things!"

Paigos stepped closer with a growl. The air seemed to tighten like the whole room was waiting for something to snap.

Cain's voice cut through the tension. "Enough."

Paigos turned sharply toward him.

"She is braver than you will ever be," Cain said evenly. "And I do not need your approval. Not now. Not ever."

Paigos stared at him for a long moment. Then he gave a short, humorless laugh and stepped back. "This is not over. We will settle this at the tournament in a few weeks time. Alright...little brother?"

Cain could hear the disdain in Paigos words as he left the cafeteria, leaving only silence in his wake.

After he was gone, Zara trembled a bit before she sat down hard. "I think I made him mad."

She looked physically drained but for some reason she felt a slight sense of exhilaration. Once upon a time she would have kept her head down and walked the other way. But this time, she had entered the spotlight of her own free will.

Cain floated a soft smile at her, both pleased and gratified by her behaviour.

"You did good Zara. Good job."

"Hehehe~"

A soft embarrassed giggle escaped Zara's lips as Cain noticed Jayden was being unusually quiet. She had noticed something .

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