9. The Little Sigma Is Playing

As soon asthey arrived back at the dorm, the others were gathered in the marbled foyer, dressed in dark workout clothes like they were about to go for a run and then break into one of the Market Street shops. Kalen and Mikel were still in their suits, obviously not about to participate in whatever they had set up. They hadn’t discussed over text when the bonding would occur, but she supposed if they were all willing to take this step to keep their secret, then it made sense to do it as soon as possible instead of risking a teleportation incident.

Especially with the strain on the bond still visibly bothering everyone.

“What’s happening here?” Niko asked as they took in the serious expressions of the gathered Alphas.

Elijah and Gabriel were stretching. Oscar was bouncing lightly on his feet. Kilian was sitting on the last few steps of the staircase, his chin resting in his palm. Cian was leaning back against one of the pillars at the end of the staircase, playing distractedly with a deck of cards.

“We’re going to play a game,” Mikel announced. “Call it a group bonding activity, since it’s our first night all here together and the last night before classes start tomorrow. You guys may want to change. There will be running involved.”

He glanced at Isobel, arching a brow, a subtle warning in his splotchy eyes.

There will be hunting involved.

His anxiety over the situation was stabbing at her chest, and she gave him a subtle nod, letting him know she was consenting to … whatever the hell this was. He nodded, releasing a breath, and caught her arm as she moved past him.

“Wear black. Cover yourself as much as you can.”

She trailed up the stairs, not having the same restless energy as the others as they bounded off to their rooms to change.

For the first time since her father had snatched her from the academy, she felt settled, and that felt like nothing. Like there was no towering pile of emotion hanging over her, raining down on her, flattening her to the floor. Like there was no bubbling pit of rage choking up her oesophagus and spitting from her lips.

She was completely exhausted, and she eyed the bed as she passed it to get to her closet, but as soon as she began flicking through her clothes, a strange sort of change overcame her. Maybe it was competitiveness, or stubbornness, or that insane urge to be claimed that she felt around the Alphas, but her calm was invaded by a slow trickle of frantic energy that worked its way through her system. She forgot about the ordeal of the past months. She forgot about her need to sink back into the soft-as-sin bed in the other room, burrowed beneath layers of blankets with the air conditioner turned up high and several of Kilian’s shirts stuffed beneath her nose.

The idea of a hunt, which had been so ridiculous only half an hour ago, was now decidedly more appealing. Who had suggested it? Oscar? Had he known that this would be what she needed, or was it just what he needed?

Was it what they all needed? No, that didn’t check out. It wasn’t healthy for eight close friends to compete over a single girl, in any form, ever.

Except … from what she knew of Alphas, it would be extremely appealing to prove their worth to their mate against other Alphas, even if they didn’t exactly want to be bonded.

She pulled on a tight black shirt with long sleeves that hooked over her thumbs and dark jeans—designer, of course. The weather had cooled on their walk back to the dorm, growing balmy with an evening breeze and allowing her to cover up. That rioting feeling inside her was refusing to make this easy for the Alphas. She added socks and soft-soled leather boots that zipped up to her knees and a tight black coverup that she often tossed over her leotards. It was thin and stretchy, fluttering loosely just below her breasts, with a high neckline and a loose hood, the sleeves hanging over her hands.

She tied her hair into a high braid, securing all the wisps and loose strands, and then hunted through her bathroom cabinets for perfume. She found an unfamiliar bottle that she had never tried before and spritzed herself with it. Not enough for them to follow the trace of it all the way to her hiding place, but enough that it might muddle her natural scent for a little while.

Declaring herself ready, she skipped back to the foyer, realising she had taken longer than the others, as all ten Alphas were gathered at the base of the stairs. She paused halfway down the stairs at the looks they gave her. Emotion spiked against her chest, whipping out in a lashing of dark energy before it was yanked back, too rapidly for her to get a proper reading on it.

Most of them had worn the same severe expression, but as she kicked herself back into motion, they suddenly appeared more amused than anything, making her wonder if she had imagined those flashes of grim intensity.

Kalen and Mikel were the only two who hadn’t managed to replace severity with amusement, and they both stared her down like they could somehow make her go back upstairs and reverse what she had done—whatever that was. Mikel muttered something to Kilian, who nodded and disappeared upstairs.

“Right.” Mikel stared at her for a few seconds longer, a muscle in his neck pulsing. “We’ve planned a hunt, which should play to all of your individual strengths. Carter, as a Sigma, you should have a heightened awareness of the people around you, so I expect you to hide successfully and evade Alpha capture, and I expect you to do it well. Can you do that?”

She nodded, and he immediately moved on to the others as Kilian came back downstairs, dropping a handful of what looked like Isobel’s colourful silk scrunchies into Mikel’s palm.

“As Alphas, your senses are heightened, and this should put you all to the test. Carter will get a thirty-minute head start and will hide within either the Beta Maze or the Delta Maze. Once hidden, she will be free to move around and change her position within her chosen maze to evade capture.” Mikel handed a scrunchie to each of the guys, giving Isobel the last one. “Everyone put these on your wrist. If it’s snatched off you, you’re out of the game. You’ve lost. You can capture Carter by stealing her scrunchie and you can wipe out your competition using the same method. Use of academy vehicles is prohibited. Let’s try to keep this game clean. No bloodshed.”

Isobel quirked a brow, arranging her scrunchie on her wrist, but none of the others seemed surprised about the warning.

“Everyone understood?” Mikel barked.

“Understood,” they chorused back.

“U-understood,” Isobel tacked on, a second too late.

“Good.” Kalen stepped up to the door, pushing it wide, his eyes landing on her. “Best of luck, Carter.”

Don’t smile. Don’t smile. Don’t smile.

A small giggle burst out of her lips, and she clapped a hand over her mouth. Why was she enjoying this so much? There was something wrong with her.

“We are definitely rubbing off on you,” Moses muttered low.

Isobel skipped past them, almost bouncing on the tips of her toes. There was so much energy swirling around inside her body, she worried it would explode out of her.

“I’m not the one who needs luck,” she goaded, passing Kalen, and pausing in the doorway, issuing a challenging stare to each of the tensed, twitching bodies gathered in the foyer. “Just out of curiosity, what will I win, when I … you know, win?”

Mikel’s hard mouth twitched, his eyes crinkling in the corners. The stony-faced professor was definitely thinking about smiling. “You get to pick the theme of the first Dorm A party for the year. Better run, Carter, your timer has already started.”

She spun on her heel without a word, jogging away from the dorm. She raced down the paved road that wound up Alpha Hill, the tickle of energy that had been steadily building inside her now thrumming deep within her core. Her arms and legs itched as she raced to the dining hall, ignoring the way students scattered out of her way, surprised at her all-black ensemble and the frantic way she grabbed a takeaway container and began to stalk around the circular food bar.

In true Ironside fashion, there seemed to be some sort of food theme, overflowing with decorations and sparkling under the light of crystal chandeliers. She found the dessert section and began picking cherries from a fruit display. When she realised she was taking too long, she started grabbing handfuls of berries and shoving them into the container, staining her hands as some of them burst in her grip.

Theodore had halfan hour to formulate a plan and he was going to use every minute of it, because nobody in that room was about to win the game based on speed alone.

Kalen stalked out of the room, leaving Mikel to eye them all and guard the exit as the heavy doors fell closed. Not that they would have left early. It was clear that the hunt appealed to Isobel in some way, and they couldn’t deny her a little fun after the summer she had endured.

Even if her fun ended in complete, bloody chaos—which was highly likely.

The eight of them split up, scattering around the room and looking at their phones, refusing to talk to each other, despite Kilian’s feeble attempts to make light conversation for the cameras. Theodore first examined the official interactive map of Ironside on his phone before abandoning it in favour of the map in the Eleven app that Elijah, Gabriel, and Oscar had created. He zoomed in on Beta Maze, and then Delta Maze, tracing the hedged corridors. There were no camera icons inside the maze, though they surrounded the above-ground sections of the dorms and the maze entrances and exits. That didn’t mean they had privacy—not this early in the night. The mazes would be littered with people making their way back from dinner.

But maybe it would be enough for a little foul play.

Isobel escapedthe dining hall as soon as she had what she needed. She ran to Delta Maze, crushing berries in her palms and letting the juice drip as she passed between the towering hedges. Students were filtering into the passages, and she skirted around them, refusing to stop even when someone called out her name. She did Beta Maze next, dripping cherry juice along the path at random, and then she stripped off her ballet wrap and wiped her hands clean. She tied the wrap around one of the columns gracing the entrance to Dorm B, and then raced back out of the maze, her heart in her throat.

Theodore checked his phone,growing restless.

Their thirty minutes were almost up. He had formulated a plan based on the few blind spots that Ironside had to offer, and he had ranked the other Alphas in order of who he most wanted to eliminate, to who he least wanted to eliminate. Mikel shifted, checking the time.

Theodore stood and stalked to the door, staring straight ahead, focussed.

The others did the same, the room growing heavy with silence.

Isobel was desperate to win, and she no longer even understood why. It just … wouldn’t be right if she let them win. She couldn’t just hand it to them.

Maybe it was the fact that none of them wanted her as a mate, even though she didn’t want to be bonded to anyone either. Maybe the part of her soul that was tied to theirs was demanding them to not just accept this, but to fight for it.

It was a dangerous thought, because if she wanted themto want the bond, then … didn’t that mean she wanted it too?

She shook her head to dislodge the dangerous epiphany, shoving it far, far away where it couldn’t taint the buzz of energy and excitement leading her back to Alpha Hill. She checked her phone as she reached the base of the hill, realising she only had a few minutes to spare. Not long enough to make it up to the dorm—where she had planned to hide—without running into any of them.

She circled around to the right, following the paved road until she found a garden she could disappear into, and then she checked her phone again, bringing up an aerial view of her location. She couldn’t leave the academy, of course. She had received an extensive email about all the laws governing the presence of the Gifted in Europe while she was in hospital—she had fallen asleep trying to read the first paragraph, but the warning was clear enough. There would be no excursions outside of the academy unless they wanted to be detained, expelled, and either arrested or sent home. Still, there were options.

Like the section of woodland beside a large lake bordering the northern point of the academy. She paused, listening out for male voices in the distance, and when she heard nothing, she took off running in the opposite direction.

Eve Indie liftedher head as someone dressed in black rushed past—too caught up in their phone to realise Eve had been tucked into the shadowed gazebo in the back corner of the garden. The familiar figure was small and slight, with a long, thick blonde braid bouncing against her back.

Eve waited for one of the Alphas to come after Carter, but when it didn’t happen, she raised a brow. Interesting. She glanced back down at her phone to re-read the email that had prompted her to come and loiter around the base of Alpha Hill.

From: [email protected]

Subject: Try again, Omega.

Message: This time, don’t forget the evidence. You have until midnight.

She looked up from the phone, and then back down, and then back up.

No way did this just fall right into her lap.

Theodore wanted out.

Now.

“It’s time,” he growled impatiently.

“Keep it clean,” Mikel reminded them, voice low, a subtle Alpha command riding his tone.

He pushed open the door and only Kilian and Niko stepped forward, both of them turning back to eye the rest of the group as they stood there, frozen.

Fighting off Mikel’s command.

Because hell no they would not be fighting clean.

Kilian rolled his eyes and took off running. Niko snorted, jogging after Kilian. Oscar broke away next, and then Cian. Theodore fought off Mikel’s command before Moses did, but he pretended to continue struggling so that he was behind his brother when Moses bound down the road to Alpha Hill.

The first camera blind spot.

He didn’t bother looking behind him to figure out why Elijah or Gabriel hadn’t left yet. He was focussed, and he had a very narrow window before the next camera. He pounced on Moses, sending them both tumbling across the pavers, snarls tearing out of their throats.

“Just wait,” Moses shoved him off, holding his arm behind his back. “What the fuck, Theo? You know you’ll lose your band attacking me head-on like this. You’re seriously willing to put yourself out of the race just to keep me out?”

“Obviously,” Theodore mocked, feeling cold rage wash up inside his stomach. He waited a moment, tempering it before he spoke again.

Don’t lose control.

“I’m everyone’s first target,” he said. “If you don’t take my band, someone else will.”

“You know that’s not what I’m asking,” Moses growled, eyes darkening as he stared down Theodore.

“You’re my brother.” That temper inside Theodore was surging, bubbling, threatening to spill over and explode. He needed more of Isobel to calm down the bond … but that wasn’t going to solve everything. That was just a Band-Aid, and the bond wasn’t his only problem. He was a whole problem in itself.

“And?” Moses challenged, raising a brow. “I swear to god, Theo, if you start with the ‘I saw her first’ bullshit again I am going to lose it.”

“But I did,” he said, just to be an asshole. He knew he was being unreasonable, but nothing was more unreasonable than sharing the girl he was falling in love with.

“No.” Moses sighed, some of the fight draining out of him. “Elijah did. He noticed her before any of us. He’s just smart enough not to mention it. And Oscar saved her first. And I kissed her first. And Kilian was her gay best friend first. You made her come first but Cian’s cock was in her mouth first. And Niko has taught her to stand up for herself, to fight back, and to carve out a safe space for herself between all of us before any of us could even think about the need for it. You really want me to go on? Because I can. You never had her, you never owned her. You never will.”

“I know.” Theodore pounced on Moses as soon as his hand dropped back to his side, losing his own scrunchie in the tussle that followed, both of them breaking apart and breathing heavily.

“The real question is where does your loyalty lie.” Theodore lowered his voice to something that crumbled and trembled with equal parts rage and insecurity. “Your brother or your best friend? Because I’m taking out Oscar next.”

Moses eyed him carefully. “I’m with you.”

“Good.” Theodore dropped the rage and anger from his face, something calmer taking its place.

Moses watched the manipulation of Theodore’s features, shaking his head in exasperation.

Mikel had intendedto go for a run, to work off some of his frenetic energy. That was why he had taken the narrow staff path—just big enough for one of the small service carts to climb—back to the base of the hill, on the opposite side to the main entrance. He pulled up short when Eve Indie cut across his sight like a bullet, only thirty feet away.

Chasing something.

He stared ahead, making out the small figure in black that was just turning a corner, quickly disappearing out of sight.

Of course Carter hadn’t played by the rules.

He swore roughly, catching up to the Omega and intersecting her, his hands burning to grab and tear and destroy, while the rest of his body wanted to turn and chase … because he knew where his mate was … and she was far away from the others.

Tempting him.

But no, he had to be the responsible one.

“Miss Indie,” he said, as the girl pulled up short, her breath catching in fright. She stumbled back several steps, her gaze darting past him.

Don’t remind me, he wanted to snap, but he kept his tone even and polite, with only the slightest burr of command. “Myself and Professor West would like a word.”

“W-with me?” She stumbled back another step and cast another despairing glance behind him, before she seemed to release the idea of chasing after Carter and switched her focus to Mikel instead. Her blue eyes widened in false innocence, her shaking fingers tucking loose strands of hazel hair behind her ears.

“I was j-just?—”

“Now is good.” Mikel cut her off, turning on his heel and stalking back toward the main road, allowing the faint tenor of Alpha voice he had trickled into the words to have their effect.

Eve scurried behind him, unable to help herself.

Theodore fell behind Moses,trusting his brother’s sharp nose as they headed toward Beta Maze.

“You can’t manipulate your way through this entire situation,” Moses warned. He spoke low, the words expelled between rough exhales as they sprinted to catch up.

“We all have to play to our strengths,” Theodore shot back. Students were gathered at the entrance, whispering lowly to each other and peering into the start of the maze, too afraid to enter.

“He’s definitely in there,” Theodore muttered. “We need to be fast.”

Moses nodded, and they barrelled into the maze. Theodore had been so focussed on trying to pick up on Oscar’s scent that he had completely missed the hint of cherry juice until it was filling his nostrils. They both paused, looking down at the deep burgundy drops littering the path.

“Is she bleeding?” Theodore demanded, bending down to get a better look.

“No.” Moses barked out a sharp laugh. “That’s actual cherry juice. She’s playing.”

The little Sigma is playing.

Theodore’s dick twitched and something roared to life inside his blood. Even though he wasn’t going to win this race, he felt a deep sense of satisfaction that they had given her this chance to play, to give in to her nature and to let out her mischievous, teasing side.

It meant that she felt safe with them, that she trusted them.

Knowing that they were making her feel this way settled something inside him. Some of his rage quietened, becoming less tempestuous.

“He’s coming toward us,” Moses grunted, pulling Theodore up by his shirt and dragging him into a run. “Get ready.”

Oscar rounded the corner ahead, his stance switching into one of readiness without a second of hesitation. He had likely been intending to take them out as soon as he saw them, but he quickly realised he was about to be teamed up on and decided he could outrun them.

He spun and took off, and they took chase, the rage boiling back to life inside Theodore as he realised that Oscar would rather run away from a fight than lose the hunt.

Mikel’s breathswere coming in short, hard pants, his mind clouded with anger, the edges of his vision wavering with the effort it was taking to keep his stride normal and the tension out of his face.

He was torn in two directions, between two very different needs. One was angry and violent, the other … violent still, but in a different way. Carter ran, and it made him want to chase.

She disobeyed their rules, and that made his hand itch and his stomach burn with the need to see pretty tears in her eyes and even prettier words on her lips like I’m sorry and Sir.

He let some of his tension leak into the air, thickening the humidity just as he stepped into the dorm, the Omega still trailing him. Thunder rumbled outside, the first pattering of rain sounding against marble as the door fell closed behind them. Mikel led the girl to Kalen’s office. He knocked, and then pushed the door open, standing aside.

“After you, Miss Indie.”

Kalen’s head snapped up, his eyes connecting with Mikel’s before he turned away from the window he had been standing at, grinding his jaw as the curtain fell back into place.

“Miss Indie,” he drawled, as the door closed. There was a thinly veiled threat in his tone, but he said nothing else, waiting for Mikel to explain why the Omega was there.

Mikel just … didn’t feel like it.

“Phone,” he demanded, holding out his hand, all pretences dropped.

His face was now, he was sure, displaying nothing but feral rage.

Indie backed up a step, colliding with the door, and Mikel could see her pulse jumping in her neck as she felt for the handle.

“Stay put,” he lashed out in Alpha voice, forcing her muscles to lock up. “You can move your hand to retrieve your phone. Do it now.”

Her hand was moving, her eyes widening in panic, and she whipped out her ability, a flash of darkness and dizziness shooting into Mikel’s head, making him clench his fist. Kalen stepped around him, whipping out a hand.

The crack echoed through the room and through Mikel’s frazzled mind, which cleared as quickly as it had become muddled.

Indie was flattened against the door, her hand covering one side of her face, staring at Kalen with a mixture of horror and realisation.

“Don’t mistake me,” Kalen snarled, his tone dripping with ice. “You aren’t looking at a gentleman. If you attack one of my Alphas or my Sigma, I will strike back. I’ll crush you like a fucking bug, wipe the blood off on my resignation letter, and walk away without a single fucking regret, are we clear?”

Indie deflated, her hand falling, her back straightening as she pulled away from the door. “Yes, Professor.”

There was no fear, no snark in her voice. It was the response of a well-trained soldier. Someone used to being bullied. Which made sense. She had to learn it from somewhere.

“Sit,” Mikel demanded, yanking out a chair opposite Kalen’s desk. “And hand the phone over.”

She perched in the armchair, crossed her legs, and dug into the pocket of her skirt, producing a phone that she dropped into Mikel’s waiting palm.

“You won’t like what you’re going to find,” she warned, sounding tired. “But you already know that. You must be deeply involved with the Stone Dahlia if you can walk around like you’re freaking untouchable.”

Kalen regarded her with a cold, bored stare, a scowl hovering along the corner of his mouth.

Mikel ignored her completely, pretending to search her phone. Instead, he downloaded one of Elijah’s apps, gave it full permissions, and then clicked the image of the mask in the app, triggering it to adapt its name and icon to something innocuous based on the other applications Indie had downloaded. He hadn’t the slightest clue how Elijah’s programs did what they did, but Elijah had made sure to instruct them all on how to install them after they arrived at the new Ironside location. Mikel handed the phone back and Indie frowned, giving him a disbelieving look.

“Why ask for it if you aren’t going to search it properly?” she asked, jutting her sharp chin out.

“I changed my mind.” Mikel rounded the desk, standing beside Kalen. “How did the Stone Dahlia recruit you?”

“The same way they recruit everyone, I’m assuming.” She crossed her arms and legs after returning her phone to her pocket. Her foot hung above the ground, juggling agitatedly. “They got dirt on me and asked me to do something small—something that wasn’t exactly ethical, but they filmed it, and they used that footage to blackmail me into doing more. And more. And more. The collateral piled up until they owned me completely.”

“Did they tell you to attack Carter?”

“Why so invested in Carter?” Indie shot back, eyeing Mikel with a wild look in her eye. “You mated to her or something?”

“Cut the shit,” Kalen ordered coldly. “You know her secret, and we know that there’s no way you would have thought to tear apart her bond in that way without very specific information from people far more important than you. So, who told you to do it and what did they say, exactly?”

“You really don’t know?” Indie scoffed. “You aren’t as well connected as I thought. You’re no better off than I am.”

“Are you saying you don’t know who your sponsor is?” Mikel asked, his patience thinning into a tenuous, frayed thread.

“She communicates through an email I can’t even reply to,” Indie replied. “I’ve met her—in one of the holding rooms at the Stone Dahlia, well, the old Stone Dahlia—but she was wearing a mask like how some of the other humans and officials do down there.”

“So she isn’t Gifted.” Kalen tapped his fingers against his desk. “What does she look like?”

“Above average height, I guess. Long, straight blonde hair. She has thicker lips, I think, but she could just be overlining them. I’ve never seen her without lipstick. Her eyes are grey? Or blue? Maybe green? They keep the lights so low, and she hates when we stare at her so I don’t really know. She seems pretty fit. Always has her nails done. Wears designer clothes. Even without the mask, you can tell she’s hot.”

“You said ‘we’.” Mikel frowned. “You said ‘she hates it when we stare’.”

“Alaric?” Indie arched her neck forward, raising both of her brows at them, her face showing a mix of surprise and confusion, as though they really should have figured it all out by now. “Alaric Crowe? She sponsored us both. And Kikki Rayne.”

“Rayne?” Kalen asked, trading a quick look with Mikel, who nodded.

Kikki Rayne was on their list.

Outside, the windows flashed bright with lightning, absorbing the temper Mikel was slowly leaking into the atmosphere.

“And what exactly did this woman tell you to do to Carter?” Kalen asked, his voice silky. It sounded like he was contemplating bodily harm—more than he had already indulged in.

“To your mate, you mean?” Indie shot back, trying to display a backbone even though her lips were quivering and she had goosebumps. “She told me what to say to Carter. She said something would appear, and I was supposed to steal it. She said it might be inside or attached to Carter, and in that case, I would have to cut it out or cut it off. She also said it might be a chain or a thread or a crown or a cloak or golden light.”

“But you didn’t steal the light you cut out of her,” Mikel stated.

Indie shuddered, her eyes growing dark with an unpleasant memory. “I thought Oscar Sato was about to break down the fucking door, and I panicked. I just wanted to get out of there. The settlement guards caught me and then they tossed Aron in the same holding room as me, and then suddenly they were questioning Aron instead of me and I knew my sponsor was working her magic because that’s what she does. She plays with you until you’re useless to her, and this entire fucking world seems to be her playground. But I’m smart. I lean into it. I don’t resist it like Crowe did. I tell her ‘use me more, use me harder’, and I learn from her. Like how I managed to find out Dorm A’s big dirty secret and I’m keeping it locked up nice and safe.” She tapped the side of her head. “Unless something happens to me, of course. I was going to tell Carter this, but since I’m here …” She uncrossed her arms and stopped jiggling her foot, clutching the sides of her chair as she drilled them both with a stubborn, almost manic stare. “All of my secrets are on a timer to be released. If I don’t reset that timer at the same time every day …” She held out her hands, palms up, and shrugged. “Then they become your problem.”

“Well,” Kalen rumbled, eyes narrow and hard, “that answers the question of why we shouldn’t make sure you go to sleep all safe and sound tonight and never wake up again tomorrow.”

“It’s good to know how far you’ll go for your little mate,” Indie remarked. “Then you understand me when I say there is nothing I won’t do to get on the Icon track.”

“What’s the point?” Kalen asked, as Mikel’s thoughts twisted into spirals.

They had already assumed the Omega was holding onto the information as some sort of insurance policy, since the officials hadn’t come after them, and they were prepared to deal with her in whatever way was necessary … but the frantic, almost hysterical way her attention was flicking between them, and the stubborn set of her jaw made him uneasy.

This girl was not a victim of the Track Team.

She was practically vibrating with the need to get onto the Icon track, and it was clear there wasn’t much she wouldn’t do to make it happen.

“What’s the point?” Her eyes bugged. “Don’t act like you don’t know what the Stone Dahlia can offer. Just because I haven’t been offered a job down there yet doesn’t mean that I don’t know that you’re both heavily involved in the Dahlia. My sponsor told me you’re both big stars down there.”

“I ask because you’re in your third year,” Kalen said calmly, growing more in control of himself, just as steadily as Mikel was losing control. “Even if you get onto the Icon track, you’ll never win. Not even the Track Team can pull that off. You’re going back to your settlement no matter what.”

Indie threw her head back and laughed, the sound hollow. “Oh, you don’t know, do you? There are plenty of us who won’t go back to the settlements. We’ve been promised full-time positions in the Stone Dahlia with Ironside employment contracts. The more popularity points we amass, the more comfortable our lives will be.”

Mikel froze, glancing at Kalen, whose jaw tightened.

This was new.

“Let’s cut to the chase,” Kalen demanded, standing, and leaning his weight against the heavy, walnut desktop. “You want us to not make you disappear and we want you to keep your fucking mouth shut about Carter’s bonds … so it would seem we’re both safe for now.”

“Almost,” Indie crooned, her breath coming faster. “Actually … I think I may be a little safer than you.”

“I wouldn’t,” Mikel warned, his tone gravel and dust.

She flinched away from him, keeping her attention on Kalen, even though he was the one who had slapped her. It was probably Mikel’s face. It terrified people even when he was smiling at them.

“I’ve decided I would like a little extra insurance,” Indie said boldly. “I want Carter to publicly acknowledge me. A coffee date on Market Street would be nice?—”

“Not happening,” Kalen cut in. “Not a chance.”

Indie pouted, the expression theatrical. “Fine. I guess I’ll settle for Gray, then.”

Kilian? Mikel hid his wince, but before they could refuse again, Indie jumped to her feet. “Anyway, I’ll be going now.” She plucked a pen from Kalen’s desk and dragged one of his notebooks toward her, scribbling her number onto a blank page. “Give Gray my number, have him organise that date, and I’ll make sure Carter’s little secret remains a secret.”

Cian kickedopen the door to his room, stalking over to his bedside table and staring down at the card he had pulled before the hunt.

The Five of Wands.

He had run to the Beta Maze, but he hadn’t been able to enter. He fell back and waited, watching as Kilian disappeared inside, and then he drew back further, witnessing Oscar storm inside like he would rip the hedges apart if he had to. And then Theodore and Moses ran after him, both of them with bare wrists.

He had wanted to go in, but the card wouldn’t stop appearing in his mind, flashing up like a persistent bad memory.

Competition and compromise.

A time to stand back and wait.

A time to withhold action.

He didn’t want to accept it, so now there he was, standing in his room and shuffling it back into the deck, assuming it was a mistake even though he didn’t make mistakes.

He pulled a card at random, and the Five of Wands stared back at him yet again. He drew it three more times before tossing the pack at the wall and releasing a snarl from his throat. His door opened a few seconds later and Gabriel appeared in the opening, looking entirely too calm.

“What are you doing here?” Cian demanded, glancing at the scrunchie still secured around Gabriel’s wrist. “Is the game over?”

“No.” Gabriel glanced at the pack of cards lying on the floor, and then at the single card Cian still held in his hand, a brief flash of pity racing across his features before he locked his expression down. “You haven’t figured it out yet?”

Cian rolled his eyes. “Figured what out?”

“Who the winner will be,” Gabriel stated calmly. “Theodore and Moses would take each other out first, of course. Theodore knows he’s everyone’s main target, being … the strongest runner.” Gabriel raised his brows. “So he knew he had lost before he even started. His aim was to rig the game, not win it. And who is Theodore most competitive with?”

“Moses,” Cian grunted, sitting on the edge of his bed, and staring at the card in his hand.

“And who would they agree to take out, once they had eliminated each other?”

“Oscar, and then me.” Cian flopped back, bringing the card up before his face and turning it over. “That’s all very obvious … but why are you still here? Who’s going to take you out?”

“Elijah will.” Gabriel leaned against Cian’s dresser, crossing his arms and kicking one ankle to rest over the other, his posture relaxed. “This game was made for him. He’s very good at tracking …” He trailed off, and Cian focussed on him, trying to read between the lines.

Elijah was tracking Isobel? Duh, that was the game.

Unless … Elijah was tracking Isobel. He raised a brow as Gabriel tapped the side of his pocket, where his phone was.

Well damn, Elijah had won the game.

“Let’s go work out,” Gabriel suggested, though there was a note of hardness in his voice. “I have energy to burn.”

“I’m in.” Cian rose from his bed but paused to glare at the card he had tossed onto his duvet.

“Seriously?” he growled at it after Gabriel left the room. “Every damn day it’s moon card this, moon card that, and now you want me to pump the fucking brakes?”

Niko had deliberately fallenbehind the others when they sprinted away from Alpha Hill, falling back, and climbing up the steep cliffside of the hill that was, most definitely not made to be hiked upon. He hoisted himself onto the terrace and hid around the side of Dorm A, waiting for Elijah to appear.

When the tall blond had stepped from the building, calmly walking down the road, Niko followed him at a distance.

He suspected Elijah or Gabriel had already put a tracker on Isobel’s phone, though he wasn’t entirely sure how or when they had managed to pull it off. Still, he knew those two better than anyone else did—though not quite as well as they knew each other. There was no way they were allowing Isobel out of their sight without knowing exactly where she would be at all times. Never again.

He was surprised Elijah had waited so long before he left the dorm, but it seemed the other Alpha was in no hurry. He strolled, and Niko stalked, their direction leading them away from the mazes, toward the northern point of the academy, where it was less populated. There were more arboretums, more gardens, more ponds and isolated gazebos, the road narrowing to a pathway, the cameras growing scarce.

Eventually, they grew closer to the sound of a river, and Elijah stopped walking, his eyes fixed ahead.

Niko took a deep breath, analysing the tense lines of Elijah’s shoulders. Up until that moment, Niko had been caught up in the chase, but now, just like Elijah, he was pausing.

Was this what he wanted?

There were so many questions to consider, so many moving pieces and players, but he put all of that aside. The idea of sharing, he managed—with great effort—to put aside, so that he could consider the only question that really mattered.

Did he want Isobel?