Sauter (Ironside Academy, #3)(102)
Isobel had only met him twice that she could remember, but he seemed … achingly familiar. Her first memory was of his broad, plum-coloured, rage-filled face as they spilled from his house and into the car, leaving in a rush. She had no idea how old she was. She only remembered her mother crying in the front seat, her father’s rigid tension, and the feeling of wrongness that pervaded everything. The second memory, he had been sickly sweet. Laughing jovially and tossing a present into her lap. Braun had given him some money. She remembered now.
He was happy when Braun gave him money, and the calls stopped when the money did.
The weight was tossed off the door, and it swung open, giving Isobel a clear view of her father crashing over the sofa and into the coffee table, which thankfully wasn’t glass. Still, the splintering of wood gave her pause, but Mikel snapped the door closed before she could hesitate.
“Let’s go,” he said, far too casually for someone who had just called her father boy and tossed him across the room. “I think it’s going to storm, and you need to get to your session with Kalen.”
“Storm because of yo—”
He quickly spoke over her. “Yes.”
“Why?” She nervously watched as her grandfather looked between them and the closed door, before deciding to follow her. “He can’t see me, can he?” Buddy eyed Mikel curiously. “So you can see ghosts, eh, girl?”
She didn’t even know he had died.
Mikel punched the button to open the elevator doors and waved her in before him. “Sometimes it slips out and I can’t help it,” he explained.
“Are you okay?” she asked, trying to ignore the apparition as Mikel leaned against one wall of the elevator and she propped herself against the other, her arms wrapped loosely around her torso. He didn’t feel okay, but she was too sick from her father’s influence to properly sort through how much of the anger she felt was leftover from him and how much was Mikel’s.
His eyes dipped from her face to where she was holding herself, his nostrils flaring slightly. “Forget about me. What did he do to you?”
“Gave her a bit of discipline, I reckon,” the apparition of her grandfather grunted. “Always told that boy taking the Sigma under his wing was a bad idea. Bitches like that are bad news. I only have so many sons for her to run through.”
She sucked in a deep breath, closing her eyes and willing the apparition to disappear. “Nothing, really.” She popped her eyes open and gave Mikel a weak shrug. “Some emotions are just heavier than others. Darker. And with him … I just can’t seem to shut him out like I can the rest of you. Mom said all Alphas are stronger than our barriers, but he’s something else.”
Buddy harrumphed with pride.
“He’s not stronger. He’s just conditioned you to be weaker around him.” Mikel narrowed his gaze. “Do you believe what he said about your mother? About their bond?”
She dropped her attention to her shoes and kept it there as they walked out of the family centre, Buddy following along like he simply had nowhere better to be. “You know …” She hesitated, her own uncomfortable emotions mixing with the toxic cloud of fury her father had left her with. “I’m embarrassed to say this, but I don’t think I’ve met his eyes enough to be able to tell the minute differences between them and my mother’s. I know she definitely had two slightly different shades of brown, but—”
“Are you fucking dumb, girl?” Buddy laughed at her, a few steps behind them. “You didn’t know?”
She broke off, swallowing back a sudden wave of grief. “I’ve always thought I have my father’s eyes. But if they were truly mated … why have I never thought that I have their eyes? How would I know which colour was his and which was hers?”
“You must have noticed on some level,” Mikel agreed quietly. “It’s hard to tell from afar, especially if she had eyes like mine. I know people always wonder if I’m bonded when they first see my eyes, even if they don’t ask outright. Maybe she had just enough of a variation.”
“Can’t believe I’m still picking up the tab for that useless bitch even after all these years. Can’t even be dead in peace,” Buddy grumbled, forcing Isobel to halt.
Mikel also stopped, his eyes finding hers.
“What the hell are you talking about?” she asked, flicking her attention to the apparition just long enough to let him know she was talking to him before she refocussed on Mikel, whose brows had pitched together.
Somehow, he was smart enough to keep his mouth shut, also flicking his eyes to the spot she had glanced to.
“Oh, now you want to talk to me,” Buddy groused sarcastically. “So honoured the Sigma girl has time for the likes of me.”
“You’re an Omega,” she shot back. “Don’t get so far ahead of yourself. What were you talking about just before?”
Mikel let out a low, short whistle. “How long have you been carrying on two conversations?”
“Not long,” she said quickly. “But thanks for confirming my theory that the men in Dorm A gossip more than every Omega girl in Dorm O combined.”
“Oh, great,” Buddy muttered sarcastically. “We’re at Ironside. Better call security, girlie. I can’t even afford a fucking glass of water here. Not even if I drink it from my hands.”