5. Dear Pervert

5

Dear Pervert

They lounged around Mikel’s office, silence permeating the room. They were all exhausted, talked out, and still a little shellshocked. Nobody had been expecting to hear that Charlie had died, and they were already on edge after the vision of Cian’s childhood from that afternoon.

There was an immense relief hanging about the room that they finally had a modicum of privacy back and that their safety seemed secure for the time being, but that relief felt dirty—like something they had stolen, or like they had traded the horrible events of the afternoon for it. It was hard to shake the feeling that they were expected to live in the shadow of trauma and hardship and that anything else was wrong or forbidden.

“I really fucking hope the bond doesn’t do me next,” Gabriel muttered from behind the rim of his glass. The statement came out of nowhere.

They were all drinking. It had been that kind of day.

The others didn’t laugh, and Isobel was pretty sure it wasn’t a joke.

She also hoped she wasn’t next.

“We were so careful,” Mikel murmured, apparently still thinking about Charlie as he stared into his glass, swirling the dark-red liquid around. They were drinking wine out of fancy whiskey glasses because that was all he had in his office.

They fell into silence again, and Isobel took a deep swallow of the rich, fragrant wine, trying her best to numb her frayed nerves. She was halfway through her third glass—because to hell with that two-drink clause—when her phone vibrated, and she had to blink a few times to focus on the screen.

Cooper: Your first dance in the Dahlia Room is in two nights. Have you finished the choreography? I need to approve it.

She groaned, her head falling back against the seat of the couch behind her, right between Kilian’s legs. She was stretched out along the floor, Theodore beside her, his arm thrown over his eyes. He could have been asleep for all she knew, but he moved his arm as they all glanced at her.

“I have to show Cooper my choreography,” she whined. “For the performance on Friday.”

“What have you got so far?” Mikel asked, still staring into his glass.

“I’ll show you.” She jumped up and stumbled over to the oak coffee table, stepping onto it and taking another sip of wine.

Moses, who was leaning against the wall beside the door, motioned to her glass. “You wanna put that down first?”

“Um.” She thought about it. “No. So anyway, I’ll start like this. No, like this. No …” She laughed, clicking her fingers. “That’s right. I don’t have a dance yet. I don’t do ‘provocative and entertaining, sensual but tasteful,’” she mocked, imitating Yulia’s accented voice. She flipped an imaginary, sleek ponytail over her shoulder for extra effect. Kalen smirked, and that was everything she needed because he was the one Yulia had been devouring with her thieving eyes.

Moses burst into laughter.

“Thieving eyes?” Theodore taunted from the floor, his teeth flashing in a brief show of humour.

“What?” She glanced around the room. “Did I say that out loud?”

“Didn’t you?” Cian looked confused.

“I don’t think so?” She froze, her hand gripping the whiskey glass even harder.

First Cian’s memory, and now … they were hearing her thoughts again?

“Oh boy,” Oscar groaned. “Please don’t think about Kalen’s dick again.”

“ Why would you bring that up right now ?” she seethed, spinning rapidly to face the dark-eyed agent of chaos. He was sitting against Mikel’s now-empty liquor cabinet with Niko, who was wincing as he stared at her feet, his entire body tensed like he thought she was about to topple off the table. “Why am I having side effects again?” she demanded. “We completed the bond.”

They were suddenly all very interested in their glasses.

It was Kalen who finally spoke up.

“We think Eve permanently damaged the bond. With Niko separated from us, taking on all the pain and trauma, the bond was almost perfect, like cutting off a dying limb to preserve the body. When he was brought back into the fold, he brought the poison back with him. So to speak.”

“H-how can you tell?” She frowned, glancing between Niko and Kalen.

“We can all feel it,” Kalen told her, approaching the coffee table. He held his hand out.

She guessed she was making them all nervous.

She didn’t take his hand, choosing to frown at him instead. “I can’t feel anything.”

“We didn’t want you to, so we somehow cut you off from it, just like how Niko did when the bond was damaged.”

“That’s not fair.” She folded her arms, glaring at him. Even standing on the coffee table, she still couldn’t look down on him. The low table just made them almost the same height.

“Ten against one says it is.” Moses sounded far too nonchalant.

“Can you all still hear my thoughts?” she asked.

Kalen nodded.

She imagined flicking Moses on the nose. In her imagination, she was standing on a bigger coffee table, so she was taller than him.

It was very emasculating.

Kilian spluttered out a laugh. Kalen’s warm, amber eyes shone in amusement, but he was too mature to laugh. So she imagined flicking him on the nose as well, just to knock him down a peg or two.

He dropped his hand, arching a calm, challenging brow at her, some of his influence briefly brushing up against her like a tiny swell of power that he quickly worked to rein back in. “If you won’t come down, then show us what you have so far. We can help.”

She gave him the finger. “This is what I have so far.”

“You’re pushing it, princess.”

She grinned, taking another swig of wine. It was so much better to be drunk than sad and afraid. They should do this every night. Or at least once a week. Wine party Wednesdays.

“We literally just signed a legal contract promising not to have more than two drinks at a time,” Gabriel drawled, though he was watching her with a tinge of amusement—though a tinge of anything was an absolute outpouring of emotion for him.

“Hey,” he protested. “I’m very expressive.” This was said with a completely blank face.

“How long is this going to last?” She groaned, knocking her fist against her head. “I’ll take requests,” she decided. “We can decide the dance that way.” She spun to face Cian, who was slumped back into the couch beside Kilian, his tattooed arms folded behind his head. “You first. Because trauma.”

“Hey,” Moses protested. “I have trauma.”

She imagined flicking him in the forehead.

“Do it one more time,” he threatened.

“Do what?” She played dumb, still facing Cian, who chuckled.

“Since you’re taking requests,” Cian drawled, his tone low.

Kilian shoved him before he could finish the sentence. “Don’t even.”

Cian hid his smile behind his hand as he rubbed along his mouth. “What, now you can hear my thoughts too?”

“We don’t need powers for that.” Kilian rolled his eyes.

“Fine.” Cian bit his lip, folding his arms behind his head again. “How about I pick the song, will that help?”

“Yeah!” Isobel gave him a thumbs-up, trying to drain the rest of her glass. It was empty. Disappointing.

Kalen cooly snatched it from her hand before returning to lean against the desk beside Mikel.

“Provocative and entertaining,” she muttered to herself as Cian scrolled through his playlist. “Sensual, but tasteful.” Like Kilian.

“Why, thank you.” Kilian smirked at her.

She waved him off, trying to focus. “Okay, I’ve got this.”

Cian started a song. She had no idea what it was, and she decided to try a spin, just to test how drunk she was before she started dancing. She wasn’t sure what went wrong, but she was suddenly tilting sideways, two strong arms catching her and smacking her against a broad, muscled chest hard enough to bruise.

“ Umph ,” she puffed out, clutching the shirt of the Alpha, who had apparently caught her mid-fall.

Niko.

“Damn, you’re fast,” she said, shocked.

“Damn, you’re drunk.” He set her on her feet, his hands anchored to her hips. His grip flexed before he released her, stumbling back to the cabinet and falling to the ground again.

He looked pretty drunk himself.

“Can confirm,” he drawled, picking up his glass to salute her.

She tried to salute him back, but realised her hand was empty. She tucked her hand behind her back. They probably didn’t see it.

“We saw,” Theodore countered.

She stalked over to him and flicked him in the head. He grabbed her wrist, and she stared at his long fingers wrapping her pale skin.

“Why would I imagine you catching me?” she complained.

“How are you this drunk from three glasses?” He peered into her face, tugging her a step closer.

“This has happened before.” Gabriel sounded like he was wincing, even though she couldn’t see his face since he and Elijah sat on the couches behind her. “Last time we all drank, she seemed to take on our inebriation.”

Theodore’s eyes had trailed from her face, his grip on her wrist slackening, his attention fixing to the hem of her dress, which he probably had a straight view up from his position on the floor.

“Oops, sorry.” She scooted back, smoothing down the material, which was a thick, ribbed cotton, so there was nothing to smooth. It was just a comfortable, lounge-around dress she had pulled on after her shower.

She returned to the coffee table and stepped back up, causing Niko to groan in frustration.

“It was so much easier to swing from some ropes.” She toed the table’s wooden surface with her socked feet, pouting and ignoring Niko. The slippery socks probably weren’t helping their nerves.

“I would argue it was harder,” Kalen murmured.

“Please don’t bring up your dick while we’re still in her head,” Moses griped.

Isobel ignored them because her phone had vibrated again. Cooper had sent her a link to a video.

Cooper: How about something like this?

“Why is that fuck texting you at midnight?” Oscar demanded roughly.

“Because we’re still in a ‘meeting,’” Elijah returned, though he also sounded pissed off. “So he knows she’s still awake.”

The video was a pole dance. There was nothing “sensual but tasteful” about it, though it had the provocative part down. Oscar was making a scary sound in the back of his throat. Isobel ignored them and all their alpha-ness as she studied the video with a frown. Physically , she could do it, but it was a little too restrictive for her tastes. There were only so many moves you could do on a pole.

“Don’t even think about it,” Oscar snapped. “You’re not grinding on a pole for that disgusting pervert.”

“It would be easier to think with wine,” she said, eyeing the bottle on Mikel’s desk. He shifted his position, blocking it from view.

She imagined flicking his cheek.

His hand flexed around his drink, and she quickly looked away. Except now she was staring at Oscar, and he had murder screaming from the depths of his dark eyes.

She swallowed again. “Jeez, okay, I’ll text him and tell him no.”

She tapped out a quick message.

“You sent that to me,” Cian stated dryly. “And you misspelled ‘asshole.’”

“She called Cooper an asshole?” Kilian sat up straighter.

Cian lifted his phone and read the message out loud. “Dear Pervent, the ashholes said I’m not allowed, but even if I was, I’d rather you shove that pole somewhere not sensual or tasteful.”

“Let’s just …” Kilian jumped up and plucked the phone out of her hand. “You can have this back later.” He slipped it into his pocket and returned to the couch.

Isobel folded her arms, scrunching up her face. “Anything else you all want to confiscate?”

“I can think of something,” Theodore rumbled, staring at the hem of her dress again, like he was still thinking about the peek he had gotten before.

She considered giving him another one.

He made a strangled sound in the back of his throat, his eyes dripping with heat.

“And you can stop that right the fuck now,” Moses snapped, his eyes darkening with fury, his voice taking on a sharp, unsteady edge.

Whoa .

She held up her hands to him because even in her inebriated state, she knew that look. She hadn’t seen it for a while, though, so it was confusing to have the hints of his ferality suddenly surging to the surface. She had thought he was gaining more control over it.

“I thought so too,” he gravelled out. “But it turns out it was just the settled bond—which is no longer fucking settled.”

“Shit.” She jumped down from the table, shifting from foot to foot, unsure what to do. “Sorry.”

“For what?” He dragged his hands down his face, forcing his chest to move with measured breaths. “You didn’t drag us into your head. We all know you’re fucking Theo. You guys aren’t quiet or discreet.”

“I thought we agreed it was my decision who I was intimate with,” she snapped, feeling the heat of shame briefly brush her cheeks.

“I figured you’d have meek, quiet Sigma sex.” He narrowed his eyes on her, seemingly regaining control of himself.

“Liar.” She glared back at him and then deliberately recalled the time he and Cian had pulled her into a classroom supply closet, where Moses himself had almost fucked her, before driving into the back of her throat to come.

“Oh my god, my eyes,” Theodore wailed, rolling onto his front and banging his head against the floor, punctuating each knock of his forehead with a muffled shout. “WHAT. THE. FUCK!”

Oscar strode over to the desk and snatched up the wine bottle, his hands shaking as he tipped it to his mouth, drowning what was left.

“I’m going for a run,” he announced, storming out of the room.

Mikel and Kalen were blank faced, but the rest of them looked like they wanted to tear out their own eyeballs.

Except for Moses and Cian. Cian’s eyes were heavy-lidded, his tongue poking out to play with his lip piercing. All the fight had drained out of Moses and a new heat was flaring to life, his throat working, his jaw clenched. He looked like he was about to toss her over his shoulder and drag her off to his room where they could finish their battle of wills.

“I’m considering it,” he rasped.

“Let’s call it,” Elijah suggested. “We’ve had too much to drink, and we have to be up in six hours.”

Isobel blinked, swivelling her head from side to side like she needed to shake out of a trance. She looked woefully at the empty wine bottle on Mikel’s desk before releasing a mournful, dramatic sigh. “I guess a wine party has to end when there’s no wine left.”

“Why don’t you leave first, Carter?” Mikel was suddenly beside her, steering her to the door, his hand hot against the curve of her spine. “I need a quick word with the others.”

“I thought I was the one stopping them from going feral,” she whispered to him beneath her breath. “I thought I was controlling it all with my ability. I thought I was getting stronger. Now I feel dumb.”

He paused at the door, and even though his fingers were light against her spine, the heat from his palm was spearing through her dress. “You help more than you know.”

She thumped her forehead against the door. It was nice and cool. Maybe she should just rest there for a little while. Mikel suddenly flattened his hand properly to her spine, the pressure of it amazing. Because of their morning sessions, her muscles twitched, automatically expecting him to work out their kinks, and she pressed back a little, waiting for his magic fingers to go to work.

“Go to bed, pet.” The words were whispered against her hairline. “Before you get yourself into trouble.”

“I’ll flick you,” she threatened feebly.

His hand flashed up, gathering her hair into a ponytail and tugging her head from the door, and back, and back, until she could see the silent, stony command in his mismatched eyes. She swallowed hard, and then squeaked, “Goodnight.”

He released her immediately and she raced off to her room.

Oscar ran until he was soaked through with sweat, ignoring the barrage of notifications that began to blow up his phone until he was almost home. He pulled the device from his pocket, breathing hard, and swiped into the string of messages. It was the group chat without Isobel. He frowned, scrolling back to the start of the drama.

Kilian: Fuck.

Kilian: She doesn’t know we’re still in her head.

Kilian: And I still have her phone.

Kilian: Someone has to tell her.

Oscar frowned harder. He hadn’t realised they were all still in her head—he had been freed from that torture after running some distance from the dorm, but now that he was climbing back up the hill, he could definitely feel something niggling at his brain, trying to get back inside.

Kilian: She’s going to be so embarrassed.

Kilian: Guys?

Kilian: STOP WATCHING.

Oscar froze, the phone clattering out of his hand as image after image assaulted his mind. Pale, wet skin. Short, sharp breaths. Water droplets on pretty pink nipples, painted nails dragging over skin. Pleasure. Guilt. Sadness. Dizziness.

At some point, hearing her thoughts had turned into simply seeing what she was seeing, and now the little Sigma was touching herself in the shower, trying to distract herself from the hellish day she had endured.

He groaned, snatching his phone back up and trying to read the rest of the messages, doing his best to block out the images.

Kalen (admin): Just stop fucking watching.

Moses: Can’t tell her. She’ll freak out.

Niko: Let’s just pretend it never happened.

Kilian: I’m going to pull the fire alarm.

Oscar felt dizzy. He groaned, pressing the heels of his palms into his eyes before texting the group.

Oscar: Don’t bother. I’ll go knock on the door and say some asshole thing and put her right out of the mood.

He tucked his phone away, not waiting for a reply, and stormed into her room, knocking on the bathroom door. Now that he was there, he realised he didn’t have a single thing to say, and it was too hard to think of anything while fighting back images of her touching herself, so he did the next best thing and barged inside.

Isobel screamed, whipping around and falling against the wall of the shower before creeping to the opening and peeking out, her heart pounding in her chest.

Oscar stood in the middle of her bathroom, releasing a loud groan of relief. “All you needed was the shit scared out of you,” he said, looking right at her.

Her mouth was opening and closing, the edge of her orgasm ebbing away. This was exactly what she deserved for trying to distract herself from stress and misery for a single evening. A ruined orgasm, a heart attack, and a stubbed toe.

“W-what?” she stuttered.

“We were seeing everything you were seeing,” Oscar told her, pulling out his phone and sending a text before tossing it to the counter. And then he kicked off his shoes. “It’s over now.” He dragged his shirt over his head.

She just stared.

Heart still pounding.

Toe still aching.

Body still screaming for the release he had ripped out of her grip.

“What are you doing?” she asked dumbly because she couldn’t quite compute the truck-sized wall of embarrassment that had just slammed into her.

She was never leaving her room again.

“Saving time,” he said roughly, dropping his shirt to the floor and ripping off his socks. “I would demand you undress me, but it’ll take you too long with how badly you’re shaking.”

She was momentarily hypnotised by the ridges of sweat-slicked muscles he was revealing, so she still hadn’t absorbed his words, even as he shoved his workout pants down his legs, revealing his cock, heavy and swollen. He was beautiful , and his penis was no less fascinating—long and thick, a darkly blushing head and thick, prominent veins, a drop of moisture already forming at the tip.

“Y-you must really like running,” she squeaked, unable to tear her eyes away.

His erection twitched, and he gripped it, apparently enjoying the attention. He stalked toward her.

She backed away immediately, but he only followed, step by step, until her back was against the wet, tiled wall and he was stabbing into her stomach. He gripped her waist and dragged her up the wall like she weighed nothing.

From the moment he entered the bathroom, it felt like his stare hadn’t dropped from hers, but it did now, dragging down over her wet skin, following the droplets of water that clung to her nipples. He leaned back slightly, his gaze dropping between her legs before he hiked her up higher, his head falling to hers.

“I need you,” he groaned, the roughness of his voice gaining a desperate edge. “I’m going to claw out my skin if I don’t have you.”

There was something wrong .

She knew it, but just as it had been all day, the strange tension danced just out of the reach of her comprehension. It was like a ringing sound in the distance, the register so high she was constantly second-guessing it.

Oscar’s lips crashed over hers, his tongue thrusting into her mouth. The sudden, forceful movement ripped a surprised groan from her throat. He tasted like wine and sweet, smoky nectar.

“You’re so fucking cute , it makes me sick,” he growled, palming her ass and squeezing, rocking his hardness against her until she was squirming and panting, trying to get more friction.

“You don’t f—” She broke off on a moan as his lips latched onto her nipple, sucking roughly “—feel sick.”

To reach her breast, he had pulled her up high enough that the tip of him was straining for the heat of her sex, notched into her warm, welcoming entrance like he had been fucking her for years, and their bodies knew exactly how to come together.

He didn’t push forward, and he kneaded her ass, grinding her over his swollen head as she marvelled at their bodies moulding together like puzzle pieces despite their height and size difference. She felt like a magnet, her other half snapping into place, and when he paused for the barest second, pulling his head back to stare at her lips, she mouthed the word he needed to hear.

“ Green .”

She mouthed it because her voice was lost. Her mind was lost.

He fed himself into her. She was already soaked from her earlier ministrations, but he still had to inch into her, his mouth falling over hers with every one of her hitched breaths or whimpers, like he needed to taste them. Halfway into her, he paused to breathe, like he needed a break. Like he was struggling for control.

“You’re so tight.” He groaned, voice low and rough. “I just want to force my way in. I want you bent and b-broken …” He trailed off when she clenched around him, sucking in a sharp breath. She wasn’t used to hearing Oscar stutter.

“I want to be so deep inside you, you won’t be able to breathe for days without thinking about how I filled you, fucked you, forced my way inside you.”

He drove in another inch, pulling back, his dark eyes catching hers. She loved feeling him flexing inside her, trying to push all the way in. She loved the way he was holding her up against the wall like he didn’t even notice how much she weighed. It felt like he could keep her up there for hours while he took everything he needed from her body.

But more than anything, she loved the tiniest glimmer of unsteadiness in his eyes. She liked that she had been the one to tip this powerful Alpha past the point of his own control. Even though Oscar wasn’t typically a man she associated with good self-control, he had displayed it to her in spades when it came to the physical aspect of their relationship. She was a little scared of the ramifications, but if these were the only consequences of Oscar losing control, then she would welcome them again and again until she couldn’t stand anymore, and then she would ask him to hold her up again just like he was doing now and force his way inside her one more time.

“You’re mine,” Oscar snarled, suddenly shoving all the way into her and slapping her back against the wall. He paused as she hiccupped in shock, kissing her lips until they felt bruised, and she was desperately squirming for him to move.

“Mine,” he repeated, nudging her head back. He licked her neck, pulling out and stabbing into her in another brutal movement. “Mine,” he growled, gripping her thighs so tightly she felt a pinch of pain.

She liked it, but that ringing was getting louder.

She could hear it through a tunnel now. A tunnel that connected her and Oscar. She tried to say something, but he suddenly pulled out of her and carried her away from the wall, turning off the shower and snatching up a towel. He picked her up, wrapping her legs back around his waist as he stalked back into her room. He haphazardly flicked out the towel over her bed and fell back onto it, sitting her upright on his lap, his cock trapped between them.

“You feel worried.” His eyes were pitch black, words clipped. “Now you’re in control. This better?”

She nodded, chewing on her lip, her hands hesitantly resting against the twitching muscles of his abdomen as he pulled her hips up and angled himself to thrust back into her. Even after giving her control, he still managed to set the pace, guiding her into the speed and movement he wanted, while his thumb slipped to her clit, gliding over it in teasing, infuriating touches until she wanted to beg him for more .

He was driving her so crazy that she didn’t even notice the ringing sound increase again. She didn’t realise when it turned to a whine because she was already whining. Oscar was finally giving her what she needed and finally pushing her over the edge, his free hand flashing up to twist one of her nipples between strong fingers. It wasn’t soft and sweet, but it wasn’t fast and rough either. It was a steady, intentional wringing, a stern and deliberate manipulation of her body. It was gritty and sweat-slicked, quiet and heavy, like a silo of water filled with one drop too many, now breaking apart and flooding through the room.

He dragged her head back down to his, riding out the waves of her orgasm while he kissed her savagely, pressing so deep into her that she could feel every throb when he began to release, his lips parting from hers in a feral growl.

A feral, animalistic growl.

The ringing was now screaming, and the throbbing grew … more . The base of his cock was getting bigger. His eyes turned impossibly darker, small black lines beginning to spider along his skin, reaching for his temples. Isobel felt another pinch of pain at her hips, where he had been gripping her.

Almost like he had cut her with his nails.

She didn’t know what was happening.

All she could feel was fear.

Help, she called through the bond.

What happened next was a blur. Oscar had come inside her, but that part of his dick still seemed to swell until she felt locked onto him. She was sure that any attempts to climb off him would be impossible or impossibly painful, and she let out a whimper of pain and fear as the door crashed open.

They were surrounded.

Her Alphas had stormed the room— all of them .

There were growls and sharp words ripping all around the space. Oscar snarled, his hands yanked away from her hips and slammed down to the bed on either side of his head.

Someone grabbed her as though to lift her off, and she screamed at them to stop.

“I’m s-stuck,” she stuttered, staring into a face she didn’t recognise.

It was Oscar’s face … but it wasn’t. Because Oscar didn’t have ferality.

And yet there he was, with black eyes, black veins, sharp black talons, and a rattle emanating from his chest.

“What the fuck is going on?” Theodore yelled, sounding almost hysterical.

There was a scuffle behind her, and then Moses was talking low and fast. “No, look at me. Don’t look at them. Focus on me. Count backward from ten?—”

“Fuck that, fuck counting, fuck you, get the fuck off me?—”

“Help,” she whispered, still staring down at Oscar.

The scuffle stopped, and she finally managed to flick her eyes to Elijah and Niko, who had been the ones to secure Oscar’s black-tipped hands. “What’s happening?”

Mikel was beside her, his hand against her spine. He must have been the one to try and pull her off. “What do you mean you’re stuck?”

Nobody was trying to talk to Oscar. They were all completely focussed on her. His stillness was terrifying. He wasn’t fighting. The only movement of his body was the slow rise and fall of his chest and the slow throb of his swollen cock, and the only sound he made was that ominous rattle.

“I don’t know,” she whined, trying to shift her hips. She was barely able to move an inch. “H-he grew , he?—”

“A mating tie,” Elijah said. He looked horrified and confused.

“What?” Kalen demanded roughly.

“I don’t know!” Elijah groaned, his eyes a little wild. “I only … saw it mentioned once, but it’s … none of this makes sense . None of this.” He shifted his position and slapped Oscar suddenly, causing the other Alpha to snap and snarl viciously, black eyes darting and fixing to Elijah.

“He really is feral.” Moses sounded terrified. “What the hell is going on?”

“Can I have a shirt?” Isobel begged.

One was immediately tugged over her head. It smelled like Kilian.

“If he’s feral, why isn’t he moving?” she asked, her thighs aching with how tightly she was holding onto his hips, petrified that he would try to buck her off and tear up her insides. His dark eyes snapped back to her as soon as she spoke.

“It’s common ferality behaviour.” Kalen sounded like he was furiously pacing somewhere behind her. “He can see he’s outnumbered. He’s playing dead, in a way, waiting for them to loosen their grip on him.”

It didn’t make sense.

Nobody was holding his legs. He could have thrown her off, but he was keeping his body so still, almost like he was scared of hurting her.

“Can you hear me?” she asked him.

He nodded.

“W-what?” Theodore demanded, shaken.

She remembered when she had gone feral. She hadn’t been surrounded by “people ” in her mind. Only prey.

“Am I prey?” she asked, staring into those inky, dark depths.

He shook his head immediately, his cock throbbing again, heat coating her insides like he was still leaking semen.

“Ah—” She tried to fight the confusing reaction of her body, which seemed torn between the reminder of her arousal and the terror of her current situation. “Are the others prey?”

His eyes narrowed. Even as black as they were, she could sense how calculating he had turned. He was thinking about lying to her.

Finally, he nodded.

“That’s not how it works.” Theodore sounded faint. “None of this makes sense.”

“It might be because of the bond?” Gabriel spoke up. “You didn’t attack Isobel the first day you saw her in the library, remember?”

“ But how the fuck did Oscar turn feral?” Cian demanded, sounding like he was a second away from losing it.

“Elijah,” Kalen snapped, “Explain.” Alpha voice.

“I don’t know !” Elijah shouted, tugging on his dishevelled hair, pale eyes wide. “I read something once in a book of dumb Gifted legends. It said Alphas had a way of forcefully breeding people through mating ties. It was just some stupid story about Alphas being monsters.”

“ What? ” Isobel wailed, beginning to struggle. “No, no, nooo. This can not happen.”

Mikel immediately caught her shoulders as a fissure of pain tore through her. He pressed her back down, and Oscar’s cock pulsed inside her happily.

“You’re on birth control,” Mikel reminded her quietly, his tone strained. “It’s okay. For the love of god, just try not to move.”

“We need to talk to the Guardian.” Kalen’s voice was a deep, ferocious scrape. “But first we need to … make it go down.”

“I never go down when I’m inside her,” Cian spat out furiously. “We could be waiting hours. All fucking night, maybe. That’s your fucking plan?”

“Calm down,” Kalen rumbled, his influence like a heavy wave that rolled through the room, momentarily distracting her. “Isobel, can you carefully siphon away some of the ferality?”

“Do not —” Theodore started, but Mikel silenced him, muttering something too low for Isobel to hear before quickly returning to Isobel’s side, his hands settling over her shoulders again, thumbs brushing along the seam of Kilian’s shirt where it met her neck.

“I’ll try,” she said.

“Go slow,” Kalen instructed. “I know you’ve been practising. Don’t panic. Just test the waters. Don’t try to do it all at once.”

She nodded and carefully sipped at the dark mass of emotion clouding around Oscar. She was able to control the flow to a trickle, preventing it from flooding into her in a tidal wave. She watched as the black veins began to retreat, painfully slowly, from his hairline, sinking back into his eyes. The talons grew shorter, his black nails receding.

The lock his penis seemed to have on her lessened as he regained control of his mind. Her thighs were shaking violently as she eased her death grip on his hips. She knew she could pull off him without hurting herself, but she was suddenly weak.

The darkness sat inside her with a heavy, sickening heaviness, sloshing up against her insides and threatening to make her sick.

Oscar blinked several times, his panic spiking violently, but Mikel quickly released Isobel and punched the other Alpha hard enough that his body immediately went limp, his eyes rolling back.

Isobel jolted in shock, covering her mouth.

“Better than him freaking out and going feral again,” Mikel explained, shaking out his hand.

Right.

Now she was just sitting on an unconscious Alpha’s dick, with nine of his best friends gathered around her.

Awesome.

“Could I have a minute?” she asked, her voice strained.

None of them shifted so much as an inch.

“I’ll stay,” Kilian whispered. “You can all wait outside.”

“We’ll be in the hallway.” Theodore’s voice was tight with tension.

As soon as they filtered out, Kilian’s hands were at her waist, lifting her away from Oscar. Her legs threatened to buckle beneath her, and he had to steady her as she tried to stand. As soon as she could, she stumbled into the bathroom for a towel, laying it over Oscar’s hips. He was still half hard, glistening in their combined releases.

“He avoided sex because he didn’t want to hurt you in any way,” Kilian said, wincing, his hand scraping down his handsome face. “And look what happened.”

“This isn’t his fault.” Isobel frowned, hugging herself and rocking back on her heels. “This is another fucked-up side effect.”

“I can see the weird orgasm lock being a side effect,” he allowed. “It’s classic, unhinged bond behaviour. But ferality?”

“Why not?” She shrugged, but her shoulders barely shifted. They were too heavy. “It gave me ferality, remember?”

Before he could respond, the room was flooded with darkness, and when she blinked again, she was standing somewhere at the back of the academy. The old academy, back in Arizona.

Niko was a few steps in front of her, but he was blond again.

“Great,” Niko sighed out … from beside her. She turned, noticing all the Alphas standing with her.

Oscar looked torn between confusion and panic. There was also a bright flash of self-hatred that had her biting her lip in worry.

“You’re all right,” she told him carefully. “In the real world, I mean. You’re just … uh … resting.”

“Who knocked me out?” he asked plainly.

“Me,” Mikel responded.

“Thanks.”

“You’re welcome.”

The blond Niko climbed up higher, scaling the mountain along the back of the academy, shifting a backpack on his shoulder.

“Where are you going?” Isobel asked, her steps slowing, her heart sinking.

“I was leaving.” Niko stopped following, and the rest of the Alphas paused too. They watched as the blond Niko climbed higher, disappearing from sight. “I came back … obviously.”

He had tried to leave.

That thought sat heavily in her stomach.

“It was after our eyes changed colour?” she guessed.

He made a low sound of agreement. “The day after. I didn’t want to share a mate. I didn’t want to watch my nine best friends developing feelings for my mate. I didn’t want to be here.”

This was cruel.

She understood why he would want to leave, but it was cruel of the bond to show it to her all this time later … after she had developed feelings.

“These gods are fucking assholes,” she grumbled.

Cian snorted. “You’re only just figuring that out?”

They stayed a little while longer, just watching the path, until Niko reappeared, swearing beneath his breath, and then Isobel was yanked from the vision and dropped heavily back into her body.

On the bed, Oscar groaned, opening his eyes and rolling to his side. “Motherfucking fuck ,” he swore, burying his head into the softness of her sheets, the towel around his hips threatening to slip and reveal everything. His eyes slitted, seeking her out.

“He always wakes up like that.” Kilian attempted to diffuse some of the tension.

“You okay?” Oscar asked, his eyes tracing over her.

She nodded nervously. “You didn’t hurt me. It’s okay.” She resisted the urge to defuse the tension with a joke about how he had gotten his wish, and she would definitely be feeling him inside her for a while.

“Mhm,” he rumbled, eyes guarded.

She already knew he wouldn’t want to touch her again anytime soon, but that was something she was going to have to tackle later. “We need to go and see Maya.”

He nodded, stumbling from the bed, still holding the towel over his midsection, though only barely. “Cameras are looped?” he asked.

“For now,” Kilian confirmed.

“I’ll get changed, and then I’m ready.” Oscar strode from the room.

Adam Bellamy was in the heavily forested area of the academy behind the chapel when he got the text.

Sophia: Can’t meet you. Something came up.

He tried to call her, but she didn’t answer.

He groaned in frustration. It had taken weeks for him to convince her to meet up with him. At first, she refused because of the cameras. So he suggested they meet in a blind spot. She refused because someone still might see them. So he suggested they meet in the middle of the night, in a fucking forest, like a total fucking creep.

To his surprise, she agreed.

And now she was backing out.

She didn’t seem like the kind to go back on her word. He frowned, trying to call her again. Was everything okay?

The chapel was on his way back to the dorm anyway. He would just stop by and make sure she was fine. He picked through the trees back to the thin, overgrown walking path and returned to the chapel, pausing in the dark shadow of the treeline. The lights were on inside. Maybe there was some kind of … religious emergency?

He didn’t even believe in the Gifted religion, so he had no idea what that would entail. Before he could take another step, he caught movement from the path leading in the other direction. He squinted, making out four bodies—three large, one small. He already knew who it was before they stepped into the soft glow of light emanating from the stained glass chapel windows.

Isobel bloody Carter. Always at the epicentre of the storm. Moses and Theodore Kane were with her, as well as Oscar Sato. He considered making himself known but decided to wait instead because it was the middle of the night, and Sato was a goddamn psycho.

Isobel pushed open the door to the chapel, breathing out a sigh of relief that Maya and Sophia were already waiting inside. She stumbled in with Theodore, Moses, and Oscar, pretending to be carefree and laugh at a joke Moses had made that wasn’t even funny. Since it was now past midnight, they decided that they had to keep the group as small as possible to draw less attention to the fact that they had felt the sudden urge to pray at such an absurd hour of the night.

On their way there, Isobel had texted Sophia, warning her.

They sobered as soon as they were through the door, dropping the act. Isobel quickly moved to sit in one of the chairs lining the wall. She was starting to get dizzy and nauseous.

Sophia rushed forward, kneeling before her and grabbing her hands. “You’re shaking. You look a little green. What the hell happened?”

“Just Sigma stuff,” Isobel managed, waving her off with a smile. “I’m fine. It’s … um, actually, we’re here about something else.”

“Another soul artefact?” Maya asked, scanning them for objects.

“Yeah, that would have been nice.” Moses scoffed. “It’s something a little less … of a gift.”

Maya frowned at them. The Alphas all frowned back at her.

She knew their secret, and she had kept it … but this was something different. The guys’ ferality was the darkest, most heavily guarded secret they had. If Isobel hadn’t been involved, they may have just found a way to deal with it amongst themselves, no matter how much Oscar’s sudden transformation alarmed them.

“You knew they were my mates just from their auras,” Isobel finally said.

Maya nodded, looking wary and confused.

“Can you tell anything else?” Isobel ventured. “Can you tell what their abilities are?”

“If I say yes, will I be in danger?” Maya demanded.

“Mama,” Sophia hissed.

“Of course not,” Isobel quickly rushed out, eyes widening. “W-we need your help. This isn’t a test.”

“Then yes.” Maya shrugged, pointing to Oscar. “Chaos.” She moved her finger to Moses. “Aggression.” Then to Theodore. “Charm.”

They stared at her, taking far too long to process what she had said.

“What?” Theodore finally asked.

Maya’s brows pinched in, her finger retreating. “You didn’t know?”

Moses and Theodore were eyeing each other like they had never even seen each other before.

“You do seem to make people more aggressive,” Theodore said quietly. “You even rile up Isobel, and that’s not easy to do.”

“I’ve always wondered why everyone was in love with you,” Moses returned.

“What the hell is going on?” Oscar demanded before whirling on Maya. “Have you heard of ferality?”

She jumped back a step, and Sophia rushed to her side, clutching her arm as they both eyed Oscar warily. Maya didn’t respond right away, instead taking her time to survey Oscar.

“You have it,” she finally whispered before turning her attention to Moses, a crestfallen look descending over her features. She examined Theodore just as carefully before taking another shaky step back. “You all have it, don’t you? I didn’t see it at first—I was wondering what that darkness was … I’ve … never seen it in person before.”

“We’re not going to hurt you.” Theodore was frowning at her slow retreat.

She paused, Sophia stopping with her.

“We aren’t going to hurt anyone ,” Theodore quickly added. “We’ve controlled it all this time. We’d never let it hurt anyone. We just want to know what you know about it.”

He was lying through his teeth, but Maya either seemed to believe him, or else she believed his good intentions because some of the tension seeped out of her rigid posture.

Holy shit , Theodore exploded into Isobel’s head. She’s right. I really can charm the pants off people, can’t I?

Shut up, you smug fuck, Oscar groaned back. This really isn’t the time.

You’re only saying that because Moses is here, Theodore responded sunnily. I bet you’re actually a really easy-going guy; you just seem unhinged because Moses is leaking aggression all over you all the time .

“All Alphas are rumoured to have an animal side,” Maya explained, interrupting their internal fight. “It’s what makes them bigger and stronger, with enhanced senses. But the drawback is that some of us, with extreme stress or emotion, can find that animal side triggered. It’s dormant until it’s triggered, and then it can reappear in any moment of extreme stress. A little bit like a viral disease.”

“All Alphas?” Isobel repeated, feeling numb.

Maya nodded. “The OGGB thinks it’s an ability—and since it’s illegal, people don’t talk about it. Even just saying the name could get you into trouble in the settlements. Only a handful of Alphas know what ferality means. It’s heavily guarded information.”

“Is there a way to stop it?” Moses asked. “To make it … dormant again?”

Maya shook her head. “I don’t think so. Once you’ve switched, that’s it. You have to live with it … and hide it, and try to manage your stress so that you don’t have outbreaks, because they’ll be deadly to the people around you. And guard that secret with your life because your life absolutely depends on it. The OGGB are afraid of a lot of things when it comes to the Gifted … but they’re afraid of ferality most of all.”

They nodded, even Isobel, and they all dropped into a slightly unsettled silence. It was Sophia who broke it, reading something on Isobel’s face.

“There’s something else.”

Isobel braced herself, shoving down her embarrassment. “D-does anything else happen when an Alpha turns feral … like … when they’re having sex?”

She winced as soon as the words were out of her mouth, because now that she was looking at Maya—a female Alpha—it was obvious that whatever had happened to Oscar wouldn’t be able to happen to Maya, so it likely had nothing to do with ferality.

“Ah.” Maya coughed awkwardly. “Not from anything I’ve heard. If something happened while you were being intimate, it must have been a bond side effect. Um … would you like to discuss it?”

Isobel’s face was flaming red now. “Actually, uh, maybe another time. I think you’re right. It was a side effect. The bond has been … less kind, lately.”

“Have you done something to go against it?” Maya asked.

“We fixed the bond, returning the pieces that were stolen, but it seems like it didn’t heal properly.”

Maya made a sad humming sound, beginning to pace.

“That makes sense.” Sophia was staring at the floor. “Most people don’t survive a soul infraction like that at all , let alone without consequences.”

“It probably won’t ever heal completely,” Maya advised them. “But I think … time and consistency will help. You should imagine that the bond is a living, cognizant thing. Right now, it’s punishing you. Lashing out because it’s hurt. It might play games and experiment with you, trying to find ways to bridge whatever gaps it feels, but I think eventually, it will realise there’s no healing those wounds, and it will settle. You might have side effects for the rest of your life, but if you are sure to tend your bond, they should become minimal and manageable. If you neglect the bond, it will punish you.”

It was a lot to digest, and Isobel was getting weaker by the minute, so they decided to call it a night. She had only taken a single step toward the door, about to bid them goodnight, when Sophia suddenly put her finger to her lips, staring at the door with a confused expression. She tip-toed to the entrance, her brow furrowed, and pulled open the doors, revealing …

Bellamy ?

He looked like he had literally had his ear stuck to the door.

Sophia dragged him inside, slamming the door behind him.

“What the hell ,” she whisper-shouted, “do you think you’re doing?”

“How did you know he was there?” Isobel was confused.

The Alphas, on the other hand, looked ready to tear his head from his shoulders. Maya included.

But they were Alphas and even they didn’t know he had been there.

“I won’t tell anyone!” Bellamy held both hands up in immediate surrender. “I was just curious when I saw you guys sneak into the chapel. I was not expecting to hear any of that.”

“You are such a weasel ,” Sophia fumed, her mahogany stare flickering with bright fury.

“He won’t tell anyone.” Isobel felt the need to defend him, but she still cut him a sharp look. “ Right , Bellamy?”

“Didn’t I literally just say that?” he asked.

“He’s being honest.” Maya’s shoulders inched down. “He was just worried about you.” She frowned at Sophia. “How do you know him? Why is there so much concern for you in his aura? Who are you?” She shot that last question at Bellamy.

“Adam Bellamy.” He shifted on his feet. “Sorry, Father. Uh—I mean, G-Guardian? That’s what you people are called, right? I mean not you people , but like?—”

“Shut up,” Sophia said coldly.

He mimed zipping his lips and throwing away the key. Isobel wanted to laugh, even though everyone else looked like they were ready to kill him. He was just so … Bellamy.

“You should ask for a bribe in exchange for your silence,” she told him. “It’s how we do things here at Ironside, remember?”

“Right.” He clicked his fingers. “Of course. A date.” He didn’t even pause, his eyes on Sophia. “And you can’t stand me up this time.”

“Jesus.” Oscar rolled his eyes. “This is just pathetic.”

“We all saw your last attempt at romance.” Moses glanced at Oscar. “You can’t talk.”

“Too soon,” Isobel mumbled.

“I’m out of here,” Oscar snapped, striding up to Bellamy and looming over him. “You breathe a single word of any of this to anyone and I will tear you the fuck apart, are we clear?”

“Crystal.” Bellamy flashed the Alpha his teeth before turning back to Sophia. “As soon as she agrees to the date.”

“One hour,” Sophia bargained.

“Three,” Bellamy countered. “And you have to wear something nice, and I get to give you at least five compliments.”

“Two hours, three compliments, and I’ll shower before.”

“Sold. See you Saturday.”