19. A Vicious Reclaiming

The Alphas went backto the Stone Dahlia every night for the next week, entering as many performance rooms as they could in search of the necklaces, but every night, they came home empty-handed.

Being left behind every night was making her skin itch, but they had decided as a group that it would be for the best after Elijah overheard a group of guests talking about requesting a private meeting with her and whether or not her sponsor could be bribed to leave her alone with them. At least Cian stayed with her, so she wasn’t the only person who wasn’t assisting with the search.

On Thursday night, they were sprawled out on the floor of the common room, taking selfies to send to Gabriel, who had recruited Kilian to help him edit photos and footage before he posted it all. Isobel and Cian had taken to creating as much content as they could as they floated around the dorm every night.

“Dance challenge time,” Isobel declared, rolling over and springing to her feet.

Cian groaned, lumbering to stand beside her. “You’re relentless with the dance challenges.”

“Relentless at winning them, you mean.”

He hauled her over his shoulder, her phone tumbling to the ground. “You clearly have too much energy, so let’s go work out.”

“You’re just going to drag me to the spa again!” She laughed, slapping his back.

“Guilty. You can run on the spot while I relax like a normal person.”

He swept up her phone, jostling her on his shoulder and swatting her on the butt when she tried to wiggle off. It was meant as a playful gesture, but it had only been six days since Mikel had thoroughly spanked her, and she now seemed to react to anything resembling what he had done to her with a gush of excitement and a full-body shudder.

If Cian noticed, he pretended not to, tightening his hold of her and striding for the front door.

“Isobel!” a voice called out before they were halfway across the foyer.

Cian spun around, blocking her view of Cooper, who she could hear stepping from his little hidey-hole beside the stairs. He had been trying to catch her alone all week.

“I really must insist that we discuss your father.” His tone brooked no argument.

“Mine?” Cian played dumb. “Uh, hate to break it to you, Coops, but Hanale is a little old for Ironside. I can hook you guys up, though, if you’re looking for a konane partner.”

“Konane?” Cooper sounded annoyed. “Never mind, I wasn’t talking?—”

“It’s like Hawaiian checkers,” Cian cut across him. “Sometimes I forget that Hollywood still has a bit of catching up to do when it comes to diversity … at least we’re excelling in something here, right?” Cian laughed, the husky sound drowning out Cooper’s attempt to speak again. “Tell you what, Coops. When I can no longer count the number of native Polynesian academy award winners on these hands—” He lifted his hand off her thigh and she imagined he was wiggling his fingers at Cooper. “—then I’ll teach you how to play konane myself. Sound good?”

“Inside my office, Isobel,” Cooper snapped, ignoring Cian’s attempts to distract and derail him. “Now.”

Cian clucked his tongue. “Rude,” he said, adjusting her on his shoulder before striding forward.

She just sighed.

“I need to speak to Isobel in private,” Cooper specified, his patience running thin.

“No can do.” Cian swung her to her feet, looming behind her when she turned to face Cooper, his arms folding possessively over her chest and jostling her back against him. “Carter’s bond is playing up and I’m on official surrogate duty. I swear if I remove my hands from her body, she’s going straight back to Arizona.”

He stepped forward, forcing her to step with him. She gave Cooper her best blank stare.

“I feel a teleport coming on,” she said, deadpan. “Oh no. Hold me, Cian.”

Cooper rolled his eyes, punching in the code for his keypad before shoving open the door and stepping inside. As soon as they entered, the door whooshed to a close behind them, blending back in with the wall. Cooper’s office was small, with several monitors on the wall showing different rooms inside Dorm A. One of them was Isobel’s bedroom. There were no more doors leading to other rooms, so she suspected he lived in the human accommodations in the official area.

He strode to his desk, spun his laptop around to face them, and smashed his finger down on a button.

“Go ahead,” he said, stepping out of the way and revealing his screen.

Where her father sat, waiting, on a video call.

“Don’t leave,” Braun snapped. “We need to talk. It’s important.”

She folded her arms, and Cian set his hands on her shoulders, squeezing her lightly.

“What is it?” she asked, frowning at his familiar face, features pinched in aggravation.

“The officials are trying to edge you out,” he said. “You and the Alphas. They have been ever since you got there—that’s why they added the humans in. They’re challenging the Alpha’s popularity and influence.”

She frowned. Even though the premiere wasn’t for another day yet, there had of course been pictures circulating for the past two weeks showing the new human students, and people were going live from the privacy of their rooms to talk about their days. Her father didn’t necessarily have inside information. He could have simply pieced together the situation from social media and was now trying to use it to bring her back under his control.

“So?” she finally said. “What do you want?”

“You’re hitching your wagon entirely to the Alphas. You need to separate from them and start building up your own fanbase that doesn’t rely on them. Ironside is going to sink them.”

“Ironside can’t sink them,” she bit out. “Everyone loves them.”

“For now.” Her father was shaking his head. “This isn’t a suggestion, Isobel. Ditch the fucking Alphas. Stop planning all your projects with them—I’ve seen the videos you’re posting. I’ve seen the pictures. There’s an Alpha in every single fucking one. At this rate, you’re going to go down with them and all my hard work will be for nothing.”

“I don’t have to do what you say, anymore,” she stated calmly. “You’re not allowed to live on campus this time.”

“Don’t push this, Isobel. I’ll get my way. You know I will.”

And he could, too.

He could pull her from Ironside for the fall break. She was still under his control, even if Teak had managed to intervene during the summer break.

“I’ve got this handled,” she said. “My social media is doing well—better than when you were managing it. And we’re going to make sure the officials have to use our footage.”

“The officials are pissed,” he growled. “The Alphas aren’t playing the game the way it’s supposed to be played, and everyone can see it. And what the fuck is with the eleven hashtag? What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Nice talking with you,” she said, spinning for the door.

She wanted to panic, wanted to think that her father could see too much, was watching far too closely, but she no longer had even a thread of trust in his motivations. He would say anything to bring her back under his control.

“I didn’t realisehow desperate Cooper was for nose reconstruction surgery,” Cian fumed as he pushed into her room later that night, two shadows slipping in after him.

“Do you think Braun is still paying him a salary?” Theodore asked as the three of them pulled back the canopy around her bed and fell onto the mattress.

Cian had been looping the cameras and sleeping with her every night, watching over her while the dorm was empty and sneaking out around the same time as the others came home, just a few hours before sunrise.

This was new.

She pulled herself up, leaning over a body that smelled like Kilian and … champagne? She dragged the dorm tablet into her lap and turned on the fireplace light, since it wasn’t as bright as the overhead lights, and her head was still groggy with sleep.

Theodore, Cian, and Kilian were lounging around her bed, looking pissed.

“What happened?” she rasped.

“Just some fucking lady plying us with enough alcohol to get a damn elephant drunk,” Kilian groaned, falling back with his arm thrown over his eyes. “Practically asked Theo if she could drag him into the bathroom and suck his dick.”

“What?” she croaked, suddenly finding it hard to breathe.

She hadn’t once felt even the slightest insecurity that they were staying out all night, possibly drinking and entertaining clients of the Stone Dahlia. She knew they would never do anything to hurt the bond …

But it wasn’t the bond she was worried about.

At the end of the day, she was still just a girl with the world’s biggest crush on Theodore Kane, and imagining some women getting him drunk and putting her hands on him made her sick to her stomach. She rubbed her eyes, blinking at the dark-haired Alpha as he leaned back against the carved post at the base of her bed, his eyes closed, long lashes fanning his sharp cheekbones. She thought he was drunk—maybe even already halfway asleep, but his voice was smooth and even when he spoke.

“You’re the only person who gets to drag me into the bathroom and suck my dick, Illy.”

She coloured, glad he didn’t have his eyes open. “I …” She had been about to say that she wasn’t jealous, but the lie wouldn’t do her any good. “Do they touch you?”

“We try to limit it,” he answered, peeling one of his eyes open. “Do you want us to shower?”

She was nauseous, an insane urge welling up inside her, demanding she go from room to room and reclaim every one of them.

“No, it’s okay.” She kicked back the duvet and knee-walked over to him, slipping into his lap. His other eye opened, his hands automatically gripping her hips, but there was a subtle tremor in his fingers, and his scent was muddled by alcohol.

She knew that if she had been an Alpha, she would have been able to smell other people on him, and that thought alone had hot, possessive anger bubbling in her blood. She slipped off his lap and stood next to the bed, glaring at them.

“You both smell.”

“Shower it is,” Kilian quipped, rolling off the bed.

“No,” Isobel said, before he could leave. “Just … take off your clothes.”

They all stared at her.

“What?” she huffed, colour high in her cheeks. “You’ve all seen me … in various stages of being naked.”

“You’ve got a point there,” Theodore said, standing and unbuttoning his shirt. He shrugged it off, revealing the perfect, familiar ridges of his chest and stomach before he unzipped his pants and shoved them down his legs. “Good enough?” he asked her, standing there in nothing but cotton boxers that clung to his muscled thighs, his hands spread out in question.

She stared at him a little too long, her brain turning over until Cian began to laugh. It was a low, husky sound, full of expectation and genuine amusement.

“Why do I have a feeling we’re all about to be very, very naked, doll?”

“No idea.” She sniffed, wondering if he had slipped past her barrier to read her mind.

Kilian was evaluating her with a cool composure that had her nervously switching her weight between her feet. “The boxers are fine,” she mumbled, flicking her eyes to Kilian again quickly. “You don’t have to.”

He removed his clothes silently, revealing boxers much the same as Theodore’s, but blue. She nodded at them both without making eye contact and slipped back into her bed, climbing over Cian to settle into her previous spot. Cian shuffled down, lowering onto his side to tilt up her chin, forcing her to look at him.

“If you need to claim them, claim them. I remember how it felt watching you and Kalen perform. I needed to … be close to you after.”

“Okay,” she murmured.

“Say no more.” Theodore pounced on her, crawling up her body and nuzzling her stomach in a way that had her giggling at the ticklish feeling. He lifted his head, his perfect smile stretching wide. “Where do you need me? Here?” He dragged up her sleep shirt and nuzzled her hip, his fingers lightly tickling over her stomach.

“Stop it!” she squealed, trying to wiggle away from him.

“Never,” he fake-growled, “you must be reclaimed!” He began gnawing her skin with fake bites, tickling up and down her sides.

Cian was chuckling beside her, and she felt Kilian settle into the bed on her other side. She tried to twist away from Theodore, but he only dragged her back, pretending to gnaw on her side.

“The Sigma is minneeee,” he declared, pressing her to her back again and climbing further up her body.

As soon as his face appeared over hers, he became serious, ducking down to softly brush his cheek against hers.

“Do I smell like you, yet?”

She sniffed him, scenting only summer cherries and sweet amber. “Not yet.”

“Lie,” he accused, wrapping his arms around her, and switching their positions, sitting her up on his hips. He was hard beneath her, but his playfulness made it easy to ignore.

He tickled the tops of her thighs, and a laugh slipped out of her, but it was cut off as a hand wrapped around the back of her head, drawing her to face Kilian. His mouth descended on hers before she could even get a proper look at him. Her reaction was instant, and it seemed to cause a chain reaction in the Alphas in the bed with her. She moaned into the sudden kiss, sinking into Kilian’s soft lips, swaying toward him as her legs tightened around Theodore’s hips, her pelvis grinding down onto his erection.

All of the playfulness sank right out of Theodore’s touch, and he palmed her ass, squeezing in a silent demand as he dragged her over his length. Her hand had flown out, gripping Cian’s knee with the shock of Kilian’s sudden kiss. Cian tugged on her hand, threading his fingers through hers, making a beautiful warmth blossom through her body to accompany the heat singeing her skin.

“I think you should move,” Kilian whispered, pulling back from her mouth. “Rub the pretty little pussy we’ve all been thinking about all over the dick you’ve been thinking about.”

“I don’t just think about Theo, you know.” She pouted.

He kissed her lips again like he couldn’t help himself. “Mm?” he teased quietly. “Do you think about me too?”

Even though he was teasing her, she nervously eyed him and nodded. Theodore dragged her over his erection again, making her breath stutter.

Kilian gently lifted her shirt off her, revealing that she was wearing nothing but thin, black cotton shorts beneath, her breasts flushed, nipples hard and begging for attention. Cian groaned, and she felt Theodore’s hard length flex beneath her.

“Do you want to know how often I lie in bed at night wondering what you’d feel like wrapped around me?” Kilian whispered against her lips. “How wet you’d be if I dipped inside you? How many times I could make you come before I made you take mine?” His words had begun soft but had ended on a groan.

She was soaking her shorts, leaving a damp patch on Theodore’s boxers, and he was shifting her hips faster. She wanted to feel good, wanted it desperately, and wanted them to feel good. But she wasn’t sure if she was ready to have sex with three people, or how that would even work being with them all at the same time.

“It’s every night,” Kilian whispered, his grip slipping from the back of her head to her chest, where he palmed one of her breasts, his palm rubbing over her nipple. “I think about it every fucking night. That’s what I’m thinking about when these desperate billionaires are plying me with champagne and asking how much I cost to get into bed.”

Now rage was mixing with her desire, and it was a strange combination. It somehow made her hotter, her throat burning as she resisted the urge to scream, or swear, or beg for something more substantial than the friction she was getting.

She shoved at Kilian’s chest, but he didn’t even shift an inch. He hovered close, his mouth crooking up, daring her to try harder.

“You only get to fuck me,” she said, temper rising in her voice.

“Glad we settled that,” he murmured, nibbling on her swollen lower lip, his fingers pinching her nipple. “Want to come now, baby?”

“Y-yes,” she breathed.

“How?” Kilian asked softly. “You want to be filled? You want one of us to lick you? Or you want to keep grinding?”

She groaned, the options making her head spin. “In …” She cut herself off, re-evaluating if she was ready for what she was about to ask for. Her core clenched in anticipation. “Inside … but one at a time.”

Kilian and Cian both groaned, Cian squeezing her hand.

“You want us all, doll?” he asked.

She nodded, and Theodore lifted her up, Cian releasing her hands to tug her shorts down her legs. Theodore flipped her over, pressing between her legs, blocking the others out as his stunning face filled her vision. His tangle of dark hair fell to brush her forehead, his amber scent a warm balm of earthy sweetness, the ache between her thighs welcome as he stretched her legs wide to accommodate his hips.

He shoved down his boxers and locked his eyes on hers as he entered her, the movement a swift claiming. She was so wet that he was able to drive himself all the way in, forcing her channel to stretch around his girth. He paused once he was seated, his growl dispersed over her collarbone as her insides recovered from the shock of his sudden entry. Theodore licked up her neck, pulsing inside her, finding the tattooed marks on her skin. He seemed to know exactly which one was his, because he kissed it softly, pausing there to breathe her in until the tension in her body began to ease, and then he was fucking her in deep, possessive strokes, which gradually grew more frenzied.

“I need you so much,” he groaned into her lips, causing her heart to pinch in longing even as her body edged closer to ecstasy.

Being with Theodore, Kilian, and Cian inspired an irresistible mix of adoration, happiness, and lust within her. It was a beautiful combination, so full of light and bliss. It was the exact opposite of what she had always associated with having a mate, let alone an Alpha mate.

She wanted to feel this way forever.

Theodore sat up, his body trembling on the edge, sweat dusting his beautiful muscles, both of their eyes falling to where he was holding himself inside her. He thumbed her clit, staring at her like she was a wellspring in a desert. Her orgasm seemed to set him off as he snatched up her hips and locked her to him, grinding into her as a low whine fell from her lips, her eyes fluttering closed as she fell.

Theodore was coming. She could feel it. The swelling and pulsing inside her made the spasms of her release last even longer.

She still had her eyes closed when Theodore pulled out of her, so it was a shock when she was suddenly pulled into the air, her back hitting the carved headboard of her bed. Cian thrust into her before her legs had even finished wrapping around his waist, and all she could do was fling out her arms and hold onto the top of the headboard as he worked her over his cock, forcing her to take his entire length just as Theodore had.

Small, desperate sounds caught in the back of her throat with each thrust, her body pushed past the point of being overly stimulated. It was a strange mix of pleasure and discomfort, which began to build to an even bigger peak. When Cian suddenly changed the direction of his hips, hitting somewhere new inside her, her groan was husky and broken and full of pleasure. He drilled into her incessantly, hitting that spot over and over again until she felt a scream building up.

Luckily, he surged forward, crushing her to the headboard at the last second, his hand covering her mouth as they catapulted off that peak together. Her scream was dashed against his palm, his groan deep, muffled by the other side of his hand. He filled her until she felt like she would burst, and then gently lowered her back to the bed.

She rolled onto her side with a heavy sigh, coming face to face with Kilian.

“How are you doing, baby?” He brushed his nose against hers.

“Almost full,” she said.

His eyes flashed, his chest rumbling. “Almost?”

She held out her arms, pleading him with heavy-lidded eyes. “I’m tired, though.”

He chuckled, rolling onto her, kissing her jaw, the side of her mouth, her tender lips. “You want me to do the work, lazy girl?”

“Yes.” She grinned at him, loving his playfulness.

He freed himself from his boxers, and she stared at the beautiful, pale, silky-looking cock. She had seen a few penises now—definitely more than she thought she would see at Ironside—and this one was by far the most beautiful. He fed it into her inch by inch, grunting at the sensation. He wasn’t as thick as Theodore or Cian, but he was longer and smoother.

Her sigh was contented. “You can live inside me if you like.”

Someone slapped her right on the breast. “We’re still here, doll.”

She cracked one of her eyes open, surveying the stunning Alphas kneeling on the bed either side of her, looking like they already wanted to have another round as their eyes drank in the way she arched for Kilian.

She reached out to them without thinking and found her hands captured, fingers laced with theirs.

“If only Kalen could see you now,” Kilian teased her, pale eyes almost swallowed by his pupils. “What a little princess.”

She stuck out her tongue at him and he fell forward, capturing it between his lips and sucking it into his mouth, and then he was fucking her in earnest, driving her into the bed until she felt like she would scream again. He swallowed her sounds as she came, and then pulled up so that he could watch himself release inside her.

It was exhausting and perfect, and as Kilian held himself slightly off her body, trying not to crush her, she wasn’t sure if she had ever felt happier. Her mates felt so close, so warm, so safe.

Kilian blinked, pulling back, his eyes tracing over her hair. She flung up a hand, panic already in her throat, the sound of Eve sawing through her strands crashing back into her mind, but Cian caught her wrist, shaking his head.

“Nothing bad,” he whispered.

Kilian was touching something in her hair, wonder and delight flashing over his angelic features.

Suddenly, he laughed, pulling back further, drinking her in. “Just when I thought you couldn’t get any more fucking beautiful.”

“What is it?” she asked, terrified.

Eve wasn’t there, but she couldn’t help her reaction.

“I’ll show you.” Kilian pointed at her phone on the bedside table and Cian released her wrist to hand Kilian the device.

He raised it to take a photo of her, and Isobel quickly wrapped an arm around her breasts.

When he turned the screen around to show her, all the breath dropped out of her lungs. Soft, pale gold roses were woven into her curls. Almost a dozen of them. She lifted a hand again, and this time, Cian didn’t stop her. Her fingers brushed a velvety petal, the softness encouraging a wobbly smile to spread over her lips.

They began to carefully unravel the roses from her hair, delicately untangling the thorns from her strands. They handed each one to her, and she sat up with the bunch of roses nestled into her lap, touching the petals with reverence, careful of the sharp thorns.

“Should we … put them in water?” she asked nervously. “There are vases in the bathroom.”

Kilian bundled her into his arms, carrying her into the shower, the others piling in after them. Theodore added the roses to the crystal vases on either side of the vanity mirror, arranging them around the crystal flowers already in there.

There were multiple sets of hands on her as Cian started the shower, her feet never touching the ground as she was passed from one of them to another, her body lathered and cleaned—theirs somewhat cleaned, because their focus was unwilling to waver from her.

She was worried they would have to leave when they got out of the shower, but they all piled into her bed, Cian and Theodore claiming either side of her and leaving a disgruntled Kilian to elbow in next to Theodore.

Her body sank into the mattress, a small groan slipping from her lips as a pained throb between her legs reminded her that she had gone a little overboard for her second time having sex.

“Icepack,” she grumbled, flinging out an arm to catch Cian in the chest.

He rose immediately, sneaking out of the room, and she fumbled with her phone, realising she had to let the rest of the group know about the new soul artefact.

She attached the photo Kilian had taken because she was too tired and sore to walk back into the bathroom and take new photos. She tried to crop out the part where her arm was flung over her bare breasts, but that ended up cutting out half of the roses, so she just winced and hit Send.

Isobel: There’s a new soul artefact. The roses are in my bathroom right now. I wasn’t sure what to do with them.

She began to put her phone back, but Theodore grunted behind her, lifting up his smart watch. “Was that you?” he asked groggily.

She winced again. Shit. She forgot about everyone’s watches.

“Just telling everyone about the artefact,” she whispered.

He chuckled huskily, dragging her back into the warmth of his body. “Good luck with that.”

Her phone vibrated.

Elijah: I see you chose chaos, tonight.

Isobel: Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you up.

Elijah: My room is beside yours. I’ve been awake for a while.

Isobel buried her face in her pillow, humiliation crashing through her.

On the other side of the bed, she heard Kilian grumble something before feeling around on the floor for his pants, which he dropped again a moment later. She rolled away from her pillow and saw the light from his phone.

Kilian: Can this wait until tomorrow?

Elijah: Why? Is it time for round 4?

Moses: Wow.

Theodore: Thank you.

Isobel rolled her eyes, glancing at Theodore’s smirking face, now lit up by his phone screen.

“You’re awful,” she said before her phone vibrated again.

Moses: I meant the fucking photo, you gloaty fuck.

Cian returned with an icepack wrapped in a soft cloth, which he fit gently between her legs, nuzzling it up into the juncture of her thighs.

“What’s the drama?” he asked, eyeing them on their phones.

Kilian explained, “Illy sent the picture of the soul artefact.”

“Ah.” Cian smirked. “I ran into Oscar coming back from a run. He took one look at me and went straight back outside and started running again.”

Oscar’s was the other room that neighboured hers.

She buried her face in her pillow again.

“It’s okay,” Cian soothed, drawing her out and extracting her phone from her death grip. He slipped it onto her bedside table, catching her chin. “They’re just jealous they weren’t smart enough to stumble in here drunk and smelling like other people. Put your phones away,” he scolded the others. “We only have an hour until the camera alarm. Try and get some sleep.”

The room was thrown back into darkness, and Theodore curved around her body again.

Cian kissed her so delicately that she felt the inexplicable urge to cry, but then he kissed her again, and again until the urge dropped away, and sleep rolled over her.