“And now I’m in?” she asked. “Kalen said I need to talk to everyone together?”
“We’ll wake you up tonight when Elijah schedules the cameras to start looping. We’re going to have a family meeting. You’ll be brought up to speed then. Until then … you should know that we’re all in agreement on this.”
That persisting spark of joy inside her flared a little brighter, but so did the panic.
It was too good to be true.
“Thanks, Niko.”
He nodded and slipped off the seat, stepping back into his shoes.
He stopped when he was right beside them, looking down at her.
“Do you …” He scrubbed a hand over the back of his neck, looking unsure. “Mind if we touch a bit more? It’s just making me feel like bugs are crawling under my skin to have you smelling like everyone else except me.”
She quickly lifted onto her knees, opening her arms, the blanket falling around her legs. He stepped into her, pressing her all along the front of his body, both big arms banding around her back, squeezing some of the breath out of her as her heart stuttered in her chest.
“Thank you for checking in on me,” she whispered.
“You make it easy to care about you,” he rumbled back, his voice husky. He pulled away, flicking a look to Kilian. “Should I tell Theo to get ready? Isobel looks sleepy.”
She had collapsed back into Kilian’s lap the second Niko let her go, so she could hardly argue with that.
“Yeah, I’ll come and get him now.” Kilian picked her up and deposited her onto his bed, passing her phone back into her hands before leaving with Niko.
He switched the lights off before he closed the door, and Isobel squinted at her phone screen, realising she had gotten more than twelve angry emails from her father over the course of the day. She slapped her phone onto the bedside table without opening any of them, kicking her way beneath the blankets to get comfortable, sticking her face into the pillow and inhaling, because the freshly laundered material smelled like Gabriel.
She let out a small groan as the scent filled her lungs. What she would give to sleep directly on top of Gabriel … but she doubted he would ever allow that.
She curled around a few pillows instead, deciding to rest her eyes until Kilian and Theodore got back. She didn’t hear either of them re-enter the room, but she felt when Theodore slipped in behind her, and she immediately abandoned the pillows, turning to her warm, amber-scented Alpha and curling around him instead.
He hummed a sound deep in his throat, drawing one of her legs over his hip and dragging her as close as he could before he started stroking her hair back from her face, running his fingers gently over her scalp. He rumbled something to Kilian, who quietly answered, and then a few seconds later, the bed dipped on her other side.
Kilian shoved all the pillows out of his way, pressing in behind her, his lips skimming her shoulder and one of his feet hooking with hers before his body grew relaxed behind her.
She garbled out a sleepy “Goodnight” against Theodore’s hot skin, but was asleep so quickly, she didn’t even remember if they responded or not.
20
String Of Fate
Isobel didn’t want to wake up. In fact, she refused to wake up. She felt Theodore’s amused chuckle more than she heard it, and then she was being hoisted into his arms. She wrapped herself around him, dropped her head into his neck and wiggled to try and get comfortable again as he started moving around.
“You’re going to want to be awake for this, Illy.” He held her up easily with one arm, his other hand tickling along her side.
She grumbled an unhappy sound, lifting her head as he entered the living room. The other Alphas were all filtering in, claiming seats as Theodore continued to brush his fingers up her side.
She was slowly coming awake, and as soon as she stiffened with the realisation that the other Alphas were all just sitting there, staring at her and Theodore and waiting for her to wake up, Theodore lifted her away, claiming an armchair and setting her back onto his lap, facing the others.
“Anyone need a coffee?” Elijah asked.
They all shook their heads and so did she, her nerves working to make her alert.
“Then let’s skip the small talk and get right into it,” Mikel grunted. “Isobel … what do you know about Silla Carpenter?”
She glanced at Kalen. “You mean—”
“My grandmother,” Kalen supplied. “Yes.”
She swallowed, confused. “She won the Ironside game and decided to stay in her settlement instead of living with the humans. For a while, she was allowed to earn money from all her endorsement deals, but then they cut her off and said that if she wanted to remain in the settlements, then she had to forfeit all her rights and prizes. She chose to stay, and the officials had to change the Icon contracts to stop anything like that from happening again. That’s what my mom said about it, anyway.”
Kalen nodded. “That’s right. Silla’s plan was to inject her earnings directly into the settlement, but that upset their entire controlled ecosystem. It had to be stopped. What people don’t know is that it almost didn’t work. She had a significant fanbase, with supporters all over the world, and she always used to say that if she had leaned on them, if she had decided to fight the officials … she might have won. So that was her plan with me. To create an Ironside winner so adored and skilled that the officials wouldn’t be able to stop me from keeping my endorsement deals and bringing money back into the settlements.”
“I guess that makes sense.” Isobel surveyed the gathered Alphas, wondering where this was going. Kalen wasn’t even in the running to be an Icon. “Without the fans, they don’t have a show, right?”
“Right.” Elijah folded his arms loosely over his chest, leaning back into the couch and crossing his long legs. “So this whole thing starts with Silla and Kalen, but it evolved into something else when Moses and Theo happened.”
“Their mother contacted my grandmother,” Kalen said. “Silla knew people, and she was famous for having ways to deal with the officials and for being a strong Gifted advocate. So Silla arranged for Juliette Kane to visit our settlement and she came with two babies, claiming that their eyes and veins had turned black when they were born. Silla promised to find a way to protect them. Initially, we decided that the safest option was to hide them in plain sight, to train them up the same way Silla had trained me up, and to make sure they each won the Ironside Show, one after the other.”
“And then we happened,” Elijah said, his smile tight, his expression guarded. “Gabriel and I are orphans. We grew up in Niko’s settlement. The woman who ran the house for orphans liked to rent out rare Gifted to the officials—like Alphas or Sigmas.”
Isobel swallowed, switching her attention to Gabriel. He sat there, still as a statue, his expression as blank as ever. It was like he wasn’t even listening to Elijah.
“I wasn’t in control of my ability back then.” Elijah’s attention drifted off to the side. “I just wanted it to stop. I willed it to stop. I accidentally killed an official and Niko’s parents helped get us out of there.”
Isobel blinked as her blood ran cold, tears spilling down her cheeks.