I’m not going to lie … we have a slight problem. Braun Carter made a deal with Matthias Bellamy to get a movie role. In exchange, he said Adam Bellamy could stay with Isobel as her surrogate for the summer. He hasn’t submitted it as a proposal through any of the official channels yet. I’ve already submitted five separate proposals. One for Isobel to stay with the Kanes in the Hudson settlement—since two of her surrogates would be available there—and another for her to stay in the Piney Woods settlement with Elijah and Gabriel, for the same reason, even though Elijah isn’t one of her surrogates, he still lives with Gabriel. The other options are for her to stay with Kilian or Oscar, and finally … the last option is really fucking shit. I’m holding onto it until it seems like they’re going to reject all the other proposals. But I’ve suggested that Theodore, Moses, and Oscar should all accompany her to Vermont to stay with Kilian. They went to all the trouble of bringing Eve back to Ironside, so they’re clearly hoping for an altercation of some kind and so far, Isobel has been denying them that.
Mikel: I’m sorry, Oscar. I know home time is crucial for you right now.
Kalen shook his head, checking on Isobel. She had hung up her harness and was picking through her bag for what turned out to be painkillers. She popped two of them and then sat down against the wall, tilting her head back and closing her eyes. He flicked through the replies that had come after Mikel’s messages.
Moses: I haven’t actually submitted an application to be her surrogate.
Mikel （admin）： I did it for you.
Oscar: The last plan is worse than shit. Why Theo, Moses, and me?
Gabriel: For the drama. Theo’s secretly in love with her, you’re a complete asshole who nobody can figure out the motivations of, and Moses just volunteered to surrogate for the girl his brother is secretly in love with.
Theodore: I’m ignoring that.
Theodore: Why are you letting it storm, Mikki? What else happened?
Mikel （admin）： Isobel was overloaded. I had to make sure I was directing all my shit elsewhere.
Kalen （admin）： What shit?
Mikel （admin）： Her father is an abusive waste of oxygen. There are pills that can sustain a Tether without their mate, and they’ve been around for a long time. The officials have been hiding their existence, probably because they’re expensive to produce and the Gifted aren’t worth the investment. Braun and Caran Carter weren’t even mates. Her Anchor died back in the settlement she came from, and she’s been using Braun and the pills to survive ever since.
Elijah: That … is a lot.
Kilian: Is Isobel okay?
Kalen （admin）： She’s on autopilot right now, but she’s going to crash tonight. Theodore and Oscar, can you hold off killing each other for a night?
Oscar: No promises.
Kalen （admin）： Let me rephrase. The only person you touch tonight is Isobel. Comfort the bond only. She needs time to process, not another sexual encounter to freak out about and I haven’t even spoken to her about birth control yet.
Niko: Let me. She’s too intimidated by you. She might just agree to whatever you say.
Cian: Maybe Teak should do it.
Niko: No. I’ll do it. Nobody has a better chance of gauging where she truly stands with all of this than me, and I’m sick of entrusting her to everyone else and watching everything go to shit.
Kilian: Okay seriously, what the hell? When did you catch feelings for Carter? Like what the actual fuck is going on here?
Niko: I didn’t. She’s just an innocent girl caught up in all our Alpha bullshit and she needs someone looking out for her who ISN’T trying to fuck her.
Moses: If anything, she tried to fuck me.
Kalen （admin）： Moses.
Moses: Yeah, yeah. I know I fucked up.
Kilian: I want to be there too.
Kalen （admin）： Kilian and Niko—talk to her together and do it soon. Everyone else …
Kalen （admin）： We need to have a meeting.
Elijah: I’ll sort out a loop for the cameras tonight. The cleaning crew is usually there an hour before midnight and usually finishes just before midnight, so let’s say 12:30?
Gabriel: Works for me.
Theodore: With Isobel?
Kalen （admin）： Yes. It’s time we looped her into the bigger plan. Her mistrusting us and us mistrusting her has only caused problems. We do this as a team from now on, or we don’t do it at all.
Niko: Shouldn’t we vote, first? About whether we bring her on?
Theodore: Are you saying no?
Niko: My vote is yes, actually. It’s not me I’m worried about.
Kilian: My vote is obviously yes.
Elijah: It’s the only option.
Gabriel: I agree.
Cian: It was going to happen anyway. There’s no point fighting it.
Theodore: It’s a yes from me.
Kalen （admin）： Mikki and I have already spoken. He’s on board. Oscar? Moses?
Moses: I can hardly say no after today, can I?
Oscar: I can still say no.
Moses: But you won’t.
Oscar: Why’s that, dead-man-walking?
Moses: Because you recorded her singing in Mikki’s session the other day.
Theodore: You know she’s good. You know she could be incredible. And you want to win.
Gabriel: Initially, I couldn’t see how adding another person to the plan could be anything less than a burden, but I agree. She could be the piece we didn’t even know we were missing.
Oscar: Or she could be the final straw, and we could lose everything. I can’t afford to lose everything. I’m Lily’s guardian. If I get out of the settlements, so does she.
Kalen （admin）： You knew this was coming, Oscar. We’ve been biding our time, but we can’t actually win separate from Isobel. Now more than ever, we have to do this together. She might not survive without us, and she’s as much a victim of this situation as we are.
Oscar: I know.
Oscar: But if we’re finally acknowledging everything—what the hell does that even mean? Theodore said the bond specialist confirmed that sex outside the bond could cause another soul infraction. So none of us can be with her and none of us can be with anyone else? We’re all just going to fight over her and pretend we aren’t fighting over her for the rest of our lives while she tries to take all of our shitty aggressiveness into herself?
Elijah: No. We’ll figure something else out.
Moses: Not even you can make that math work, Elijah.
Cian: You don’t know that.
Kilian: What possibilities have you seen, Cian?
Cian: I’ve seen her in my future. I’ve seen you all in my future. Nothing more concrete than that.
Moses: You’ve seen us miserable and trying to kill each other?
Cian: No. They were happy dreams. But they were just dreams.
Kalen glanced over to Isobel with a sigh. Her head was starting to loll to the side like she had accidentally fallen asleep waiting for him. His phone kept vibrating, but he slipped it into his pocket, crouching before her and gently clasping her shoulder.
Oscar would come around.
They really didn’t have any other choice, and it was best to get it all out in the open before summer break, so everyone would have the space to think and process before coming back for their third year. He was going to need them all to come back strong and ready.
Isobel jolted awake, her fists raised in defence, her eyes wide and panicked as she sucked in a heaving breath.