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?”
Isobel nodded. “My father said the Mate Finder campaign took care of that.” Her father had actually said the Vermont attack had taken care of it, but if she repeated those exact words, she might actually vomit before she reached the end of the sentence.
“Good.” Kilian lifted a shoulder in a shrug, his muscles shifting beneath his shirt. A shirt that looked pretty good, actually. She might have to hunt it out of his closet later. “Then we’re agreed, right? You’ll stay with me until they give you your own room? You’ve more than earned it.”
Her phone vibrated before she could answer, and she checked her messages.
Unknown: Hey.
Unknown: It’s Sophia.
She blinked at her screen in surprise. Cian and Theodore both drifted closer, peering down into her lap, giving her no privacy.
“The girl from the hospital?” Theodore muttered lowly, sounding confused.
Unknown: I got your number from Mama’s records.
She saved the number and was about to reply when Cian caught her hand, stopping her.
“Let’s see what she has to say,” he murmured against the top of her head.
“Who?” Gabriel asked from across the table.
“Tell you later,” Theodore said, watching as the typing dots popped up on her screen again.
Sophia: I need your help.
Sophia: It’s urgent.
Sophia: I feel like such a dick but … nobody else will listen to me. I need you.
Sophia: Full disclosure, when I say you, I mean your Alphas.
Isobel’s grip tightened, a chill creeping up her spine.
Beside her, Cian let out a low whistle. “That was fucking ballsy.”
Sophia: Please.
“Finish your food.” Theodore closed his hand around her phone, forcing it face down on her lap.
She had completely lost her appetite, her stomach clenching sickeningly as she stared at her tray. She forced her jaw to unclench, her fingers to snap around her chopsticks, but she was shaking too much, her breath sounding too loud in her ears. She wasn’t even sure why she was overreacting so much.
“I’m going.” She dropped her chopsticks, waiting for Theodore to make room for her.
He didn’t, but he sighed, staring at his tray. “Of course you are. And I’ll go with you, but you need to eat something first. If you lose any more weight, I’m going to drag you onto my lap during mealtimes and hand-feed you myself. Is that really something you want?”
Objectively, it wasn’t … her mind knew that she wouldn’t want the entire academy to see that, let alone everyone else in the world. But her body thought it sounded like a wonderful idea. Theodore’s firm thighs beneath hers, his muscular arm wrapped around her, grip tight, while he teased the seam of her lips with salty snacks and sugary treats.
Her stomach swooped low, that hollow ache turning sharp with enough pain to make her wince. Theodore turned to her slowly, his nostrils flaring.
“Oh.” His eyes dipped over her face. “You would.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” she growled out.
“It’s natural.” Elijah surveyed her from across the table, caressing the edge of his bowl of rice with his chopsticks. “Soul infractions remind the body and mind that it should have perished in the Death Phase. You’re reaching out for your mate to remind you that there are reasons to remain in this world. Pleasures, comforts. Like food. Unfortunately, your mate isn’t here, so you’re looking to us instead. I implore you to make use of your surrogates. Kilian, Cian, and Oscar are all well aware of what they volunteered for.”