She pulled her phone out as all the other booths emptied, everyone spilling out to watch the back wall. Navigating to Sophia’s contact, she sent off a quick message, asking if everything was okay on their end.
Sophia: Nothing out of the ordinary yet.
She began to reply, but the back wall suddenly filled with an image, distracting her.
Because it was her.
Her face was blurred, but the dress Kilian had gifted her wasn’t.
“The fuck is this?” Theodore growled out lowly, apparently also able to tell that it was her.
“This video was taken last term by a student who was hesitant to turn it in,” the woman announced, as the video remained paused, stuck on the image of Isobel … stepping out of Dorm A?
“We have very strict rules when it comes to bullying and sexual assault,” the woman barked into her microphone.
“Bullshit,” Moses mumbled beneath his breath.
“Let this video be a warning to you all,” the woman said ominously. “We’re always watching, and inappropriate behaviour will be met with severe and swift action.”
The video started, then.
Crowe lumbered onto the screen, and Isobel sank backward, closer to the booth, wishing she could hide from all the cameras in the room. Crowe’s face was blurred, but the fuzzy circle was much smaller than the one protecting Isobel’s identity, still revealing the limp, dark strands of hair that fell around his face—not to mention he was easily one of the largest boys on campus, and his only slightly muffled voice rang through the room the second he spoke.
“Let’s try this again, shall we?” He was dragging her away from the entrance, and the projection blurred as whoever had been secretly videoing him shifted quickly to follow, refocusing and zooming in as Crowe held her upright against the back of the dorm.
“I knew you’d give in eventually,” Crowe crooned, his voice more distant now as her body pitched and wobbled to the side, her limbs falling limp and unresponsive.
The video cut off abruptly, and the official paused with the microphone raised to her lips, a small, cruel smile concealed as a storm of whispering broke out through the hall.
The officials wanted to publicly shame Crowe … but why? He was a Beta, and it definitely wasn’t to protect anyone from bullies or predators. The officials had known about—and were gossiping about—all the attacks made against her, but not one of them had tried to speak to her about them.
There was a commotion toward the back of the room, students scrambling away from a person standing near the entrance to the hall.
Crowe.
He glanced over at her, his eyes empty, his mouth forming a word. “Welcome.”
Welcome … what?
Someone shoved him several steps backward, almost knocking him off balance despite his massive size. Bellamy was standing before the bigger boy, fuming, his eyes spitting furious fire. His mouth was moving in a furious gush of words, but Isobel couldn’t hear a thing he was saying from the other side of the hall.
He shoved Crowe again, but Crowe didn’t even bother to fight back. He spat out what looked like a curse before spinning on his heel and stalking out of the hall.
What the hell was going on?
“It saddens us that it took so long for this footage to find its way into our hands.” The official spoke again without warning, everyone jolting their attention back to her. “We want all of our students to know that they can come to us.” She emphasised it as though she had already spoken it a dozen times and was frustrated that nobody was listening. “If you have something to report …” The woman motioned to the wall behind her, reminding everyone of what they had watched. “Then you know where to find us. We would like to assure you that confidentiality is absolutely key.”
“That’s one way of delivering an invitation,” Moses grumbled from behind her. He was standing surprisingly close. She could feel the heat from his body, his words stirring against the back of her head. She wasn’t sure when he had last stood so close to her. On purpose.
The others were also shifting closer—not just to her, but to each other, forming a tight circle with her and Kilian in the centre, Theodore to the right, Cian slightly in front of everyone, and Niko to the left. Their bodies were tense. Theodore and Niko’s expressions tight and wary. Oscar was somewhere behind her—she could smell his strong oleander scent rolling over the fragrances of the other Alphas like a cloud of smoke, muddying them all up. The sensation was unsettling. It smelled like a forest set on fire, with tinges of Niko’s whiskey turning into gasoline and Cian’s sunshine smouldering far too hotly.
“Invitation?” Isobel whispered, barely daring to move her lips as she turned her head, too focussed on the woman to look all the way back at Moses.
The official was staring out over the sea of gathered students, her brows raised in expectation. When she found Isobel tucked behind Cian, she paused, repeating, “You know where to find us,” before clicking her fingers at the other officials to follow her as she stalked from the room.
“Wait … that’s it?” Isobel stared after the woman. “She … she didn’t even say where to find them.”
Theodore, who had been leaning up against the side of the booth to her right—his shoes touching hers, his arms crossed—curled closer, his lips by her ear. He even raised his hand to block the cameras from reading his lips. “The Track Team told you to find out where the club was. You found out. This is them summoning you. You know where to find them, and confidentiality is absolutely key.”
She snapped her mouth shut, unable to properly reply in the busy dining hall. The other students had broken out into a confused mass of whispers, one of them calling after the official.
“What about Crowe?” The shout was a little too loud, and Isobel craned her neck to peer around Oscar to see who had spoken.
A second-year Beta. One of Crowe’s friends … or was she? It seemed like Bellamy’s fan club of Betas were trying to distance themselves from Crowe.
The official paused in the doorway to the hall, turning to look back at the Beta. “Alaric Crowe—along with others—have been questioned in relation to this incident. All students must be cautious not to start baseless rumours, as this is a form of harassment in itself. The person in the video will be found and dealt with by the academy board.”
Theodore scoffed quietly, and it seemed like not even the Beta girl could find the words to respond, her fists clenched by her sides as the officials left the hall in a swift clicking of heels and tapping of business shoes.
Isobel didn’t move, and neither did the Alphas. They waited, watching and listening, for something else to happen. Finally, Theodore slid back into the booth, pulling Isobel in beside him. The rest of them filed back in and all the plates were rearranged as they settled into new positions.
“Should we do an end-of-year party?” Theodore asked casually, acting like nothing at all had happened as he violently shoved a buckwheat and muesli pancake off his plate to get to the fluffy Japanese pancake beneath it, which was beginning to cave in from the dolloped cream and sliced strawberries he had piled into the centre of it. Apparently, he was having a treat day.
“Obviously,” Niko said, at the same time as Moses said, “No.”