“She’s mine,” Oscar snarled, pressing the blade harder against Theodore’s skin.
He didn’t mean to say that out loud.
Theodore didn’t even flinch. “You want her? Want to date her? Want to take her to the movies on Ironside Row? Want to shake her asshole daddy’s hand and fetch her coffee in the morning just the way she likes it?”
“I kissed her first,” Oscar growled, his voice sounding foreign to his own ears. Something wasn’t right. He felt unhinged—more than usual.
Theodore’s words were registering, but barely.
Fuck no, he didn’t want to do those things.
Shake her daddy’s hand? More like rip her daddy’s arm off and use it to backhand him until his face turned purple and blue.
“You resuscitated her,” Theodore corrected. “Moses kissed her first. But I saw her first.”
The door flew open, the light switching on. Moses stood in the opening, his sharp nose probably picking up the hint of blood in the air.
“Fucking hell,” he muttered, getting an eyeful of whatever deranged look was on Oscar’s face and the blood dribbling down Theodore’s hand to soak into his pillow before he backed out of the room.
Oscar dismissed the open doorway, turning back to Theodore. “Touch her again and I will cut off your fingers.”
“Then I’ll touch her with fucking stumps,” Theodore growled back. “I didn’t …” He gritted his teeth, flicking his eyes to the doorway and lowering his voice. “I didn’t bond her, asshole. I just helped ease the side effects.”
“Oscar,” Elijah snapped, striding into the room, Moses and Gabriel close behind him. “Look at me.” The door clicked shut behind them.
“Piss off,” Oscar snarled. “I’m busy.”
“You need to level out,” Elijah said. “You’re surging. Focus, Oscar. Get your head in the game.”
Surging.
Dammit.
Surging was bad. Surging meant he had to stop whatever he was doing.
But he really wanted to cut Theodore’s fingers off.
“Theo isn’t a threat,” Elijah continued, his voice calm, deep and resonant. The know-it-all fuck. “He’s one of us. Part of the group, part of the pack. Family. Look at him, Oscar. He’s family.”
“He can be family without his fingers,” Oscar grunted, the feral, ragged edges of his mind smoothing over slightly. He pulled back, retracting the blade and recapping it.
Theodore finally winced in pain, clenching his fingers into a fist. “You’ve got a screw loose, Oscar.”
“What triggered you?” Elijah asked, pulling out his phone, ready to take notes.
Oscar breathed in deeply, resisting the urge to snatch Elijah’s phone out of his hand and punch it through Theodore’s teeth.
“I think that part is obvious,” Theodore grumbled, waving his bloodied fist before turning his glare back to Oscar. “Dude, get off me.”
Oscar shoved against Theodore’s chest, finding his feet, and running his fingers agitatedly through his hair.
“It might be obvious, but I need to hear it from him,” Elijah countered. “And I need to hear it in detail.”
“He touched her.” Oscar jerked his thumb back at Theodore, who was now reaching under his bed for a first aid kit.
“In detail,” Elijah repeated irritably, tapping away at his phone screen.
“I could give you details,” Theodore offered, slapping the kit between his legs, and rummaging through it. Despite his mocking tone, he didn’t expand on the offer.
Smart move.
“Not those details.” Elijah glared at them both through the lenses of his reading glasses. “What exactly triggered you, Oscar? And what did the surge feel like?”
“You know what?” Oscar gripped the top of Elijah’s phone, pulling it down from his face. “It felt just like how I always feel like.”
“So … significantly unbalanced.” Gabriel pulled his own phone out, making notes while Elijah stared back at Oscar with an infuriatingly patient expression.
“Yeah.” Oscar smirked at him. “Like that, but with less of the usual nonsense holding me back.”
“How different was it from your surge in Isobel’s hotel room during the break?” Elijah asked.
“Well, I didn’t want to fuck Theodore,” Oscar admitted, completely deadpan.
“Wait, what?” Moses frowned, looking between them all. Theodore was making a low, grumbling sound. “You surged around Isobel?”
“Yes,” Gabriel answered for Oscar. “When the chain appeared.”
“Why don’t I know about this?” Theodore demanded, springing from his bed, the first aid kit forgotten.
“Because you’re not her nanny,” Moses shot back, annoyed, before he shifted his attention to Elijah and Gabriel, who both seemed to be perfectly aware of everything. They had probably written half a research paper on it and were waiting on further data to finalise their hypothesis.
“The surge in the hotel room was because you found out Isobel was hurt,” Elijah said, reading from—yep, his notes. “And this time, because someone else touched her.”
“Proprietary aggression.” Gabriel sighed.
“Should have known it would be a problem with him,” Elijah agreed. “He doesn’t have a lot to his name.”
“Don’t fucking need this.” Oscar began striding for the door, but Elijah quickly stepped in his way, holding up his palms.
“None of us need this.” Elijah gentled his tone as he took off his glasses and shoved them into his pocket. “But I warned you all what would happen with so many Alphas living together in such close quarters. It was manageable before …”
“Isobel,” Gabriel supplied.
Elijah shot him a narrow look. “I know her name.”
“Then use it.”
“Trouble in paradise?” Oscar interjected, making his tone sound bored when it was actually highly entertaining to watch the wonder twins split their shared brain cell in half to trade barbs.
“It was manageable before Isobel,” Elijah ground out. “We need to get this under control before we all spiral. You.” He jammed a finger into Oscar’s chest. “Up your training time. Up your sparring time. Don’t back down until someone’s bleeding. We need to get your aggression under control.”
“Was planning on it anyway,” Oscar responded in the least aggressive tone he could be bothered to muster. So … his normal tone, really.
“I’ll write up a new schedule for everyone.” Elijah sighed, nudging his reading glasses back on and moving around Oscar to reach for the door. “I think we’re going to need to add an extra small group session with Mikki.”
“Fine by me.” Oscar shrugged, shoving his hands into his pockets and rocking back on his heels.
Elijah gave him a narrow-eyed look before opening the door and waving at the hallway. “After you.”
“No, after you.” Oscar gave his best imitation of a smile.
Gabriel snorted. “We aren’t leaving you alone in here, Oscar.”
“Fine,” Oscar snapped. “I was hoping to spare all your delicate sensibilities, but …” He strode back to the bed, snatched up Theodore’s hand, and snapped two fingers back as the younger Alpha tried to get away.