16. Her Choice

16

Her Choice

When Isobel woke up, she had a pounding headache, and her limbs felt like they weighed a hundred pounds. She peeled her eyes open with a pained sound, blinking several times in confusion.

The Alphas were all in her room. All of them . They were fully dressed, standing around her bed like they were gathering for a funeral. She squinted and then did a double take as her vision cleared properly. Gabriel’s face was covered in bruises. He had two black eyes. Mikel, Elijah, Cian, and Kilian had red marks crisscrossing up their arms and lacerating their fingers. They appeared half-healed.

She swallowed, her sluggish mind working overtime.

“How are you feeling?” Kilian asked, sitting on the bed beside her.

He tilted her head up, brushing strands of hair from her face.

“I feel like shit,” she answered honestly, trying to remember what had happened the night before. “Did we get drunk or something?”

“No.” Gabriel rocked back on his heels. “Something else happened. I’m the only one you told.”

“What?” She screwed up her face.

None of the Alphas looked surprised.

“I made them wait and said you would tell them yourself when you woke up,” Gabriel continued. “We aren’t allowing anyone to leave this room until we have a plan in place to deal with what happened.”

“Wait.” She sat up straighter, trying to concentrate despite the migraine forming. Theodore and Moses were there when they should have still been at the Hudson Settlement. “You’re back already?” she asked, eyes darting between them. “You barely stayed …” She glanced around helplessly. “What time is it?”

“Afternoon,” Mikel answered stiffly. “You slept the whole day. Braun sent an assistant out to buy half a pharmacy. What do you need?”

“Painkillers.” She winced. “A shower. A toothbrush. What the hell is going on?”

“We were hoping you would tell us,” Kilian said, still in his soft voice, his hands moving to smooth over her throbbing temples. But then he stood, moving beside Elijah.

Elijah, Gabriel, Kilian, and Kalen were deliberately blocking the door.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Isobel said honestly.

“What’s the last thing you remember?” Gabriel asked, brow furrowing.

“Uh … I … from last night? We went to the afterparty. Teak was passed out. My father carried her into his room. Is she?—”

“After that?” Mikel demanded, waylaying her concern over Teak.

“After that, we decided the two training groups for the night. I had some dinner in the lobby with Cian and Kilian, and then I went to change for the gym …” She pressed the heels of her palms over her eyes, fighting through the fog of her memory. “I was … with Cooper in the conference room picking out dresses for?—”

“I fucking knew it,” Theodore suddenly exploded. “I told you that fuck did something to her.”

“Let her finish,” Elijah ordered.

“I … I don’t know what else,” she said lamely, panic digging claws into her chest. “I don’t remember anything. I was just sitting there on my own, picking dresses. Cooper left the room. I don’t know if he came back or not. I don’t remember a thing after that.”

“Because he drugged you,” Gabriel said. “You ran to Oscar and Moses’ room but spoke to me through the bond. I went feral and messaged Elijah. He figured it out and managed to stop anyone else from losing their shit, but now we have a situation.”

“Because we aren’t stupid,” Moses snarled.

“O-Okay.” Her vision swam into a blur of colours, the panic digging in deeper and deeper.

“Isobel.” Kalen commanded her attention. “Come here.”

On autopilot, she stumbled from the bed and moved to stand before him. He spun her around to face the others, pulling her back against his body, his hand flattening to her chest, right where she could feel the panic threatened to rip her apart.

“Breathe,” he commanded.

She sucked in a shaky breath, obeying without thought because she always seemed to do what he told her to.

To the others, he said, “No going rogue. We decide what to do about Cooper right here, right now.”

“I want blood,” Oscar said calmly. A little too calmly.

None of them seemed shocked by Elijah’s revelation, so they must have figured out some or most of the story on their own. There had been plenty of time for them to make it look like they were in control, but she knew it was fake, because they were blocking her Sigma ability, and they only did that when they had something to hide.

“I’m sorry, Isobel.” Mikel shifted until he could see her face. “The buddy system is back in place, but only for you.”

She nodded, barely listening.

Cooper had drugged her, and she didn’t even remember how she escaped him.

“You’re to have one of us with you at all times ,” Mikel specified. “And I don’t want you sleeping in your room anymore. Pick one of us to bunk with every night.”

“And Cooper?” Niko asked, his voice just as deadly calm as Oscar’s, his hazel eyes dim, devoid of emotion. It was terrifying.

“Getting him fired isn’t enough,” Moses said before anyone could suggest otherwise. “He needs to die. He’s a predator. Who knows what he would have done?”

Kalen made a severe, disapproving sound in his throat. “This is the real world, not a fucking fantasy. A group of immigrant-adjacents in their twenties can’t just get away with murder.”

“You mean we can’t get away with it again ,” Niko scoffed.

“Eli, Gabe, and Niko got away with it,” Theodore added. “And Isobel got away with it.”

“And what?” Kalen challenged. “Niko is going to burn down a third building with a body mysteriously found inside? You don’t think anybody is going to connect those dots?”

Isobel looked down at the big hand spanning her chest, pressing her back against a body that vibrated with barely controlled rage. If it weren’t for the proximity of his body, she never would have known that he was feeling anything so violently.

She wasn’t surprised to hear Oscar calling for blood. He was a psychopath. And Niko … was damaged. And Moses? He was still learning to rein in and control his aggression the way Oscar controlled his chaos.

But the others?

She was surprised that Kalen was the only person speaking out against planning a murder . She was the one who had been drugged and even she couldn’t think in those terms. She wanted Cooper punished. She would throw a party if he was fired and his life was ruined, but murder wasn’t a normal option to just throw about.

It told her everything she needed to know about their state of mind—everything they were blocking from her. Their possessive, Alpha aggression had been pushed too far.

“Nobody is killing him.” She breathed deeply, trying to centre and settle herself. Her chest pushed up against Kalen’s warm grip, and he shifted his hand so that his arm wound across her front, his hand now gripping her opposite shoulder.

“I need you all to look past the bond for a moment,” she begged them. “I know it’s telling you all that you own me, that I’m yours, and that someone tried to hurt me or take me away—I’m familiar with how the bond twists things sometimes. But I’m not yours. I belong to me. This was something that happened to me , and it’s my decision what we do about it.”

“Usually, yes,” Mikel agreed, gripping the back of his neck, his bicep flexing as he winced. “But this isn’t something that happened in your free time. This is work and group related, too. Cooper is our manager. This is something we need to discuss as a group.”

“Discuss, but not decide.” She crossed her arms beneath her breasts, staring at Mikel’s chest because she couldn’t bring herself to disagree with him while looking him in the eyes.

It wasn’t that she was afraid of him. He was just so dominating . If she was afraid of anything, it was that she would look up and see that she had disappointed him in some way.

“Fuck,” he snapped.

“This should be Isobel’s decision,” Kalen declared, apparently agreeing with her despite the vibration of fury that still shivered along her back.

“I want to ruin his life,” she said. “Like how you punished Wallis for sneaking into Oscar’s room, but worse, because Cooper isn’t a Gifted student. If we don’t crush him properly, he’ll just come back.”

“Give me a few days to come up with a plan,” Oscar said before anyone else could argue with what she had decided. “I want to make sure it’s something he won’t recover from.”

“Thank you,” she whispered, eyeing him. He was the last person she had expected support from.

He nodded, brushing his hands through his dark curls. “We should act like nothing happened—including you. Try to casually mention that the alcohol must have hit you hard last night because you blacked out and overslept. This will be easier if he doesn’t suspect we’re onto him.”

She nodded, watching as he approached. He paused before the wall of Alphas, eyeing them. “You can move. I’m not going to dictate how she gets her revenge. That’s not me.”

Well , when he put it that way, she believed him.

Elijah stepped out of the way, but Kalen spoke up before Oscar reached the door. “We’re going to have to work late tonight to make up for today. Everyone has half an hour to organise themselves, and then I want you all down in the lobby.”

“Come on,” Theodore murmured after Kalen released her and stalked from the room. His hand covered hers, strong fingers pushing between her slender ones as he tugged her back to her own room.

She rushed through getting ready and then met up with everyone downstairs. After a few minutes, she was mobbed by her father’s assistants, who all pushed bottles of water and bottles of pills at her, mumbling about her “stomach bug” and how far behind schedule they were.

She frowned, tipping out a few pills and uncapping the water bottle. She raised it to her lips, but a sudden dizziness assaulted her.

She reached for the bottle. The room was spinning.

The bottle was empty .

Shaking her head, she tried to shove away the blurry memory and the sticky feeling of horror that began to coat her skin. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted Cooper waltzing into the room like he didn’t have a care in the world. He barked something to one of the assistants as his eyes flitted about, searching for someone. He paused when he found her standing there, clutching the bottle and pills, and the feeling of horror increased, spreading through her body and sizzling like acid in her blood. She suddenly wanted to throw up, but instead, she locked the feelings away and gave him a polite nod. If she wanted revenge—and she fucking did —then she needed to be smart about this, and she needed to pray to all of the Gifted gods that her Alphas were able to control themselves long enough for her to take her pound of flesh.

She drew on the professional inside her, allowing the shift to fall over her, kicking her brain into gear.

There was work to be done.

Cooper narrowed his eyes on her, confused, searching, before seeming to fail to find anything in her face that might indicate she knew what he had done. A showy smile slid across his features, and he continued with the instructions he had been barking. Kalen was staring between them, waiting to see if Cooper would try to approach her. They weren’t going to kill him, but that didn’t mean they were going to allow him anywhere near her.

She swallowed the pills dry, unable to bring the bottle to her lips, and met with Kalen to receive his notes on the choreography she had been working on the day before. She could feel the murderous rage of each of the Alphas pressing down on her, too heavy and urgent for them to hold back, but they were doing a remarkable job of pretending everything was normal. Still, as soon as she reached Kalen, he stepped between her and Cooper, blocking her from his eyes. Not quite fast enough to see the way Cian casually shoulder-checked the manager before apologising with a fake smile as the man slammed into a camera, almost knocking it down.

“The problem is your height difference,” her father announced, appearing out of nowhere and delivering his entirely unwelcome opinion on the choreography her and Kalen were pretending to watch. Braun seemed completely oblivious to all the undercurrents of tension in the room.

Isobel bit back a sigh. “Yes. I know.”

He shrugged, colouring slightly. “Just trying to help. How are you feeling? You usually don’t even let the flu keep you down for long.”

“ You wouldn’t let the flu keep me down for long,” she corrected, unable to curb her biting tone this time. She was trying to finish up the brief with Kalen so they could get through their first practice and not be up all night.

“And look at you now,” her father preened, stepping away with his palms displayed in supplication and a shit-eating smirk on his face.

The damned asshole.

“The problem is the height difference,” she said to Kalen—because she had been about to say it anyway.

“What was that?” Braun called. “Did you need me to come back?”

She spun, her eyes flashing with temper.

Kalen sighed. “Focus, princess.”

She immediately switched her attention to his face, her skin heating for a different reason. He tilted his head, his gaze darkening briefly.

You look like you need to work out some emotion , he spoke to her softly through the bond.

She froze, desperately searching his expression for a clue. He was right, now more than ever. She had so much fury and disgust and helplessness tangled up inside her. He knew she was desperate to be tied up again—to feel that rush, that release, to hand her annoying emotions over for him to filter out of her by sending her into a space of airy euphoria, but he still seemed to be waiting for her to come to him.

Which was infuriating.

At first, she wasn’t ready. Maybe she still wasn’t, but his obscene control and patience was starting to eat away at how much she cared about whether she was ready or not.

Still, she was too cowardly to respond to him, so she switched the topic back to work.

“I … I have to either be right in the centre,” she said, spinning to point at the screen that was currently playing back the choreography they had recorded on their first day. “Or I have to be out of view entirely. Otherwise, I pull the focus too much.”

He briefly stepped up behind her, his large body brushing hers, his hand gripping her hip for the briefest moment as he stepped around her. A bolt of lust fired through her, completely flooring her. She wasn’t sure how he did it—how any of them did it—but they seemed to be able to flick a switch in her body, drawing out a heated response from her whenever they intended it. She knew they could switch it on and off at will, because they did it for the cameras all the time.

Their control was terrifying.

“ You are the lead dancer,” Kalen rumbled, his voice deeper than usual as he stepped up beside her to survey the recording. “It makes sense for you to be in the centre. Play around with the formations so that small groups of members rotate on and off focus depending on whose turn it is to sing.”

She nodded. “All right. I’ll work something out.”

“I have a colleague who could help.” Braun appeared again, like a buzzing gnat. “Jason Caufield—you probably know him. He consulted on a movie I did a few years ago. I could ask him for a consultation if you want?”

Isobel tried to play it cool, to hang on to her annoyance, but a bloom of excitement was already unfurling within her chest, and she spun excitedly. “Seriously? Jason Caulfield? He’s the most talented choreographer alive right now.”

“I’ll take that as a yes,” Braun drawled, pulling out his phone and walking away, somehow moving with utter smugness.

Kalen watched him go, shaking his head, before he tapped Isobel on the thigh. “Get to it.”

She ignored the little jolt of heat from his hand, but gratitude unfurled within her chest like a flower slowly blooming, filling her with lightness. He was doing it deliberately, the heated look and the little touches, and the reminder of what he could do for her. He was distracting her, replacing her memory of the night before with other, more welcome thoughts.

She gathered up the others, working through the steps with them beat by beat as Kalen and Mikel watched. She began to divide them into groups to rotate the focus, and by the time they were finished, she had a pretty good idea of what she wanted to work on.

It was well after midnight when they packed up, and her body was beyond exhausted. She had pushed through, but it had been difficult. She had only a fraction of the strength and energy that she usually had.

Theodore shadowed her as she ducked into her room to shower. She had been too busy and too focussed to worry about Cooper while they worked, but now she felt … odd. Like eyes were on her, even though she was alone. Her hands began to shake as she moved to push her tights down, and nausea rolled through her. She quickly left the bathroom, her pyjamas and toiletries bundled into her arms.

“Can I shower in your room?” she asked when Theodore looked up. He had been sprawled on her bed, his phone hovering above his face.

He jumped up, moving to tower over her, his eyes narrowing in concern. “What’s wrong?”

She shrugged weakly. “No idea. I just feel uncomfortable.”

“I’ll shower you myself,” he decided, ducking behind her, his hands on her shoulders, steering her to the door. “Purely platonic, I promise. I can absolutely do this. I’ve been training for this day my entire life—or ever since I found out Kilian was doing it.”

“You don’t do anything platonically,” she argued, but she was smiling, some of the tension already leaking out of her. Theodore was so good at that.

He scoffed. “Just watch me.” He steered her right into his room, past Moses, who was on one of the beds with his phone hovering over his face in a position so comically similar to how she had found Theodore, that she couldn’t help the small giggle from falling out.

“Did you see the message Dad sent?” he asked, dropping his phone and propping himself on his elbows, eyeing them.

“Yeah,” Theodore laughed out, pausing in his march toward the bathroom and releasing Isobel. “Look.” His phone appeared in front of her face. He tapped into his messages, selected the contact labelled Dad , and then enlarged the photo his father had sent.

Benjamin Kane had stuck all their Polaroids to his fridge.

“The positioning is …” She chuckled, her fingers hovering over the screen.

Benjamin had put her at the top, Moses and Theodore either side of her. The others were in a line below.

“Telling,” she finished, still trying not to outright laugh.

She really liked their family.

“He’s obsessed with you, obviously.” Theodore tossed his phone to the bed and marched her the rest of the way into the bathroom, slamming the door behind him. He unburdened her of her armful of possessions, tipping them onto the bathroom counter before leaning back against the door, his arms folded tightly across his chest.

“Now, strip.”

There was an audible thud in the other room, and then the door to the room opened and slammed closed again. Theodore smirked. “Don’t mind him.”

“This was supposed to be platonic,” Isobel said, pulling her sweaty shirt over her head.

His arms twitched, muscles bulging, like he was physically restraining himself from reaching out for her. His eyes weren’t so restrained, however. They devoured her, even though her hair hung in a limp ponytail, the sweaty ends sticking to her lower back, and her sports bra was damp with sweat. He licked his lips, darkening gaze crawling back up to her face.

“I’m all the way over here, aren’t I?” he rumbled.

She smirked at him, rolling her tights down her legs. He groaned. She leaned into the shower, starting the water before unhooking her bra and tossing it at him. He caught it deftly, crushing it in his fist.

“You’re teasing,” he warned in a gravelled voice. “You know I can’t resist you.”

“You promised.” She pouted, stepping out of her panties. She tossed them at him, too, but he didn’t catch them. He was too busy staring, a growl vibrating through him, his eyes flashing in warning.

She loved teasing them, especially Theodore and Kilian—they were her playful Alphas. She loved that she could trust they would always snap without hurting her.

Cian was a little rougher when he snapped, and Oscar, she barely dared to play with for long. He snapped the fastest and the most violent.

“I thought you were going to wash me,” she taunted from the shower and was rewarded with one of those delicious snaps a few moments later when Theodore, still fully clothed, stormed into the shower and backed her into the wall, his hand on her neck, applying just enough pressure to lift her to her tiptoes so that his mouth could claim hers.

He kissed her until she was squirming and breathless, and then he dropped to his knees, marking her skin with small kisses and bites until he reached her core, gently drawing one of her legs over his shoulder.

“How can I resist you?” he demanded between rough licks and kisses that had her mind spinning in the best way, whimpers catching in her throat as she gripped his head with shaking hands.

He fucked her with his tongue until she was gasping out his name, and then he dropped her shaking leg and yanked at his workout pants to free his cock.

He spun her around. “Hold on,” he growled, and it was the only warning she got before he picked her up by the hips, tilting her forward until she almost smacked into the shower screen. She quickly gripped the top of the screen as he kicked her dangling legs apart with his own, tugging them up to wind back around him. She hung on to the top of the shower—it was the frame she had gripped, thankfully, not the screen. Her hold was desperate, her ankles locked behind him as he lined up with her entrance and shoved in.

“No matter what happens,” he whispered against the wet skin of her neck, “I’ll always bring that adorable little smile back to your face.” He pulled out, and the scrape of him driving back in again had her back arching painfully.

“I’ll always protect you,” he continued, voice raspy, almost desperate. “You can always run to me, hide in me, use me to forget something bad or remember something fucking good .” He was pounding into her hard, now, her hands slipping along the shower frame.

One of his hands curved around to her front, finding her clit and teasing her sensitive nerves until she was straining and crying with another orgasm, her arms shaking.

“You said you weren’t mine,” he growled, pausing his thrusting to seat himself fully inside her, his breath ragged as she clenched and pulsed around him.

“I lied,” she whispered, riding out the final waves with him deep inside her.

“You’re mine.” It was a demand. He gripped her hips so tightly, it was painful, and he grunted as his cock swelled.

“I’m yours,” she promised as he came inside her.

He caught her just as her grip failed, gently lowering her to her feet. He had what he wanted—his claim acknowledged—and his touches became adoring and soft, gentle as a whisper as he washed her thoroughly, even shampooing and conditioning her hair as she mostly turned into a sleepy, limp mess in his arms. He murmured things as he washed her like, “ good girl, so perfect, so beautiful ,” until she was a puddle of cosiness and small smiles.

It was in that little bathroom in a random hotel in Hudson that she finally acknowledged to herself that she was madly, deeply, frighteningly in love with Theodore Kane.

And not just him.

Those feelings were just as strong for Kilian, Cian, and Oscar.

Kilian was her comfort.

Cian made her feel alive.

And Oscar made her heart flutter.

She basked in her feelings as Theodore dried her and dressed her, treating her like a princess and refusing to allow her to so much as lift a finger. He carried her into the other room, where Kilian was now on the spare bed, waiting for the bathroom.

“Hey,” she mumbled sleepily as Theodore tucked her beneath the blankets.

“Hey, baby.” Kilian’s eyes stalked her, pupils expanding. “Good shower?”

“The best,” she mumbled as Theodore slid in beside her.

“Save room for me,” Kilian demanded, standing and disappearing into the bathroom.

She must have drifted off, because his shower seemed to finish in the blink of an eye and he was already slipping in behind her, his body warm and smelling like heaven. He kissed her neck, and she wiggled between their hard bodies, loving how warm and large they were surrounding her.

She slipped off to sleep, but woke up some time later, her skin prickling. She poked her head out of the warm cocoon of her Alphas, noticing a large shadow at the end of the bed.

Niko was standing there, staring at her, eyes dark.

“Hey,” she croaked, carefully disentangling herself from Theodore and Kilian. She pulled herself to sit up, frowning at him. He didn’t answer, and after a moment, the image of him wavered and disappeared .

“What’s the matter?” Kilian asked sleepily.

“Just another side effect, I think,” she said, blinking at the door, where the shadow of Niko appeared again, like he was urging her to leave the room again. She leaned over Theodore, switching on the reading light and pointing it to the door. Theodore woke with a groan.

“Can you guys see him?” she asked, pointing to the door.

“No,” Theodore said, sitting up and blinking just before Niko disappeared again.

Isobel didn’t like this side effect. The image of Niko wasn’t quite right , seeming more transparent than solid, but she didn’t like how similar it was to when she saw the remnants.

“I’m going to Niko’s room,” she said, scrambling to the end of the bed.

Kilian slipped out of bed with her, sticking his head out to watch her move to Niko’s room, apparently unwilling to let her out of their sight for even a few seconds. She pushed into the dark room, waiting for her eyes to adjust after the dimly lit hallway. Gabriel was in the bed closest to the door. It had been stripped of everything but a pillow and the pristine, white top sheet, which had been pushed down to his hips, revealing a bare, muscled torso, one hand resting against his stomach, the other bent behind his head. He wasn’t supposed to be in there—she was pretty sure that was Cian’s bed, but perhaps they had rearranged for some reason. Maybe Elijah and Gabriel had decided that Niko needed monitoring. He didn’t wake up as she snuck past, stopping by Niko’s bed.

Her breath rushed out in a soft sigh of relief as she saw Niko in his bed, his bare chest rising and falling slightly, his handsome features twisted like he was having a bad dream. She hesitated beside his bed, unsure what to do now that she was there.

Should she sneak back out?

She turned to do just that, but a hand whipped out and gripped her wrist before she could step away. She turned back to Niko, whose eyes were slitted open, regarding her in the dark. He pulled, and she fell to sit against the side of his bed. He released her wrist, snaking an arm around her hips, and slid her across the mattress as he lifted the blanket. He curled his front against her back, his breath falling over her neck as he nuzzled the little heart tattoos marking her skin.

“Stay,” he whispered roughly.

So she did.