Sauter (Ironside Academy, #3)(56)

“And how do you get in, Sigma?”

“You enter through the old boathouse by the lake.”

“Then why haven’t you?” He turned his head, spitting on the ground. “They’ll be making their offer to you tomorrow morning. It’s just a formality. You can’t actually refuse.”

He stalked off, and she glanced over at Eve, but the other girl was now pretending not to have noticed the interaction at all, laughing easily with her hand on the arm of an Omega girl. Isobel narrowed her eyes, noticing again that Eve seemed to have lost weight, her usual clothes hanging off her frame. The dark circles beneath her eyes unceasing.

Not Isobel’s problem.

She hurried over to the Alpha booth, slipping onto the edge of the bench seat without looking to see who else was there, except Gabriel, who sat opposite her and had been half-raised from his seat like he was about to come after her. He eased back down when she did, and she felt his attention on her. Not just him. She smelled saltwater and sunshine, and heady whiskey nearby. Cian and Niko.

Still, she didn’t tear her attention from Crowe, zeroing in on his table. He sat alone, staring down at an untouched tray, a vacant look on his face. Bellamy sat separately, surrounded by his usual group of loyal supporters. Crowe’s hair had grown longer and now hung shaggy and choppy, the unwashed length dangling over his eyes. He had put on weight, and his skin was sunken and sallow. Whenever someone passed by too close to where he sat, his eyes darted about in a panicked sort of way before resolutely fixing back to his tray.

He looked terrible. Defeated. Afraid. Traumatised.

“It was him?” Elijah’s soft whisper broke into her thoughts. “The behemoth?”

She nodded, barely, aware they couldn’t discuss anything openly.

“What did you guys …” She cleared her throat, glancing up to do a quick inventory of who was sitting in the booth: Elijah, Gabriel, Cian, and Niko. “I mean … did any of you do something to him?”

“That’s not us, doll.” Cian nodded toward Crowe. “That’s someone else’s doing.” He dipped close, his breath brushing her ear as he whispered, “Several someones.”

“Are you sure?” she pressed, biting on the inside of her cheek to keep from blurting out accusations. Mostly directed toward Theodore or Oscar.

Cian slapped a napkin onto her tray to soak up the spilled liquid. “Mostly sure. I think you got a message.”

She pulled out her phone with a frown.

Theodore: You’ve forgotten?

Kilian: What do you remember?

Oscar: Bad things.

Moses: Filthy things.

Theodore: Moses, what the actual fuck.

She shook her head, typing out a reply.

Isobel: I know you weren’t there, Moses. You smell like stomped-on flowers. It’s hard to miss.

Moses: YOU CAN SCENT US?

“Little wolf.” Niko laughed out loud, reading his phone like it was a novel he was particularly invested in while he shovelled food into his mouth with the other hand.

Kilian: What do you remember, baby?

Cian groaned next to her, muttering, “This fucking guy.”

Isobel: I remember taking a shower?

“Suitably vague,” Elijah mumbled.

They were all on their phones, preferring to have this conversation away from the prying ears of Ironside.

“Yeah, we might need specifics, Carter.” Niko seemed to be enjoying himself.

She scowled, quickly tapping out another message.

Isobel: I remember taking a shower with Kilian and Theo.

Kilian: You fell asleep.

Isobel: In the shower?

Theodore: On me.

Isobel: … In the shower?

Cian snorted.

Theodore: A few steps out of the shower.

“Don’t apologise.” Theodore’s shadow fell across her, his eyes glancing at the screen of her phone, where she had begun to do exactly that.

She quickly scooted over on the bench, accidentally bumping into Cian. He slid all the way to the back of the booth, pulling her with him, and then he dragged their trays over. The rest of the Alphas filtered in, some of them bringing extra food for Niko, who must have been texting them his orders.

Kilian slid a plate of sushi down the table to Niko and then sat, announcing, “We asked the officials to put a couch in my room big enough for me to sleep on.” He let his voice carry naturally, probably wanting the cameras to pick up on this particular conversation. “They should be done by the time we finish dinner.”

“You didn’t run into any issues?” Elijah asked.

Kilian shook his head, gulping down half a glass of water before he pulled his tray closer. “Some of us are acting as Isobel’s surrogates. That means keeping her safe. They must have expected us to do something when they brought Ev—”

“Don’t say her name,” Oscar snarled. He had been sitting quietly with Moses on the other side of the booth, acting disinterested in the lively conversation between Theodore, Cian, and Niko, but now his head was lifted from his food, his dark eyes furious.

“When they brought the Omega back,” Kilian smoothly corrected, instead of acting like Oscar was being ridiculous. “Anyway, you can sleep in my bed, and I’ll sleep on the couch.” Kilian glanced up at her, his expression crafted into a polite, friendly arrangement of his angelic features. “You already have enough popularity points for a spot in Dorm A, right?”