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She narrowed her eyes on him, repeating, in a tone that she hoped was infused with danger, “What?”

He tsked at her. “See? You can’t even handle hearing about it. We had to watch it.”

With a frustrated huff of sound, she reached for her body wash and quickly rinsed off for a second time that night. “I swear to god, if this turns into a public spanking, I’m going to riot. ”

“I’d hardly call it public,” Kilian murmured, quickly taking over her task, his touch far more gentle than hers. “It’ll be an intimate affair. Just you and ten of your closest friends.”

She glared at him, but the expression wobbled as his sudsy hands cupped her breasts, his mouth lowering to hers again.

“Give me a taste,” he demanded quietly. “Just a little. I won’t tell if you don’t.”

She didn’t need to be asked twice. She parted her lips, and his tongue stole immediately into her mouth as heat dripped through her body, her hands reaching up to grip the wet skin of his wide shoulders.

A firm fist pounded against the door, shocking a yelp out of her as she jumped back, a hand to her pounding heart.

“That’s enough, asshole,” Oscar snipped through the door.

“He really shouldn’t talk to you like that,” Kilian murmured, turning toward the spray to wash the soap from his body without a care in the world.

Isobel chuckled at him, quickly finishing up and retreating into her dressing room wrapped in a towel.

She paused as her fingers tangled in a silk pyjama set, surveying the racks of designer dresses and coats.

The trendy jeans and skirts. The rows of shoes.

This had always been her life, except for when all her belongings were destroyed.

It hadn’t bothered her to give it all up then. It wouldn’t bother her to do it again.

She changed and slipped into bed, curling herself around Theodore, her fingers rubbing comfortingly against the ache she could still feel in his chest. The others were already spread out in various positions around her room, the lights turned off as Kilian finished up in the bathroom.

Elijah’s face was dimly lit by his laptop as he sat by the fireplace, a hoodie pulled up around his face, headphones plugged in.

He wasn’t going to sleep. Worry gnawed at her gut, but Cian’s warm body soon pressed up behind her, and Niko’s whiskey scent reached her nose as the mattress dipped slightly.

“Make room,” Niko demanded. “Still my night.”

Cian picked up Isobel, resettling her over Theodore.

Amber, sea salt, and whiskey. It was a rich combination. Hot and heady, it had her head swimming as she tried to puzzle through how on earth they were going to run away from Ironside and survive for days or weeks without anyone hunting them down.

“Cold war bunkers,” Mikel announced as they gathered in the gym on Monday morning.

Still struggling to wake up despite the double espresso in her hand, Isobel blinked at him.

“They’re spread all over this region,” he continued, surveying their shocked faces—except for Elijah and Kalen, who he must have already spoken to.

“There’s one in the village near here, but it’s been turned into a historical site.

There’s another nearby, less well-known, but they used it to study high-pressure shock waves in uranium, and now it’s contaminated by radiation and the place has been ransacked by looters and squatters. ”

“Oh,” Theodore winced, “I didn’t realise until you used uranium and squatters in the same sentence—but this is our escape option, isn’t it? Never mind, I already know.”

Isobel chuckled. She was sitting in his lap again, refusing to leave his side. Moses had already claimed that Theodore had taken the pain of her soul infraction as a desperate cry for attention and Isobel was falling right into the trap.

“I think I found one that might be suitable for a few weeks,” Elijah said, absently scratching his sharp jaw.

He was looking almost gaunt, with dark shadows beneath his eyes.

He had asked for an extra two days to formulate his plan, forcing them all into nervous limbo all weekend.

“It isn’t publicly listed, and it’s in the middle of a pretty dense woodland in the Morvan Regional Natural Park. ”

“If it isn’t listed, how do you know it’s there?” Niko asked.

“The region has a strategic military history during the Second World War. I searched for any mentions of strange structures in that area and found two references to the same woodland. The first was on some random conspiracy theorist’s blog.

He was convinced there was a surveillance operation being carried out by the government seven years ago.

He mentioned military vehicles on the logging road, and there were signs that the area was restricted.

I saw another mention of it on a random geo-catching site more recently.

They even included a photo.” He pulled out his phone, showing a forest of pine, beech, and oak trees, the forest floor a carpet of fallen leaves broken up by moss-covered stones and vibrant ferns.

Tucked into a moss-dusted stone outcrop was a tarnished steel door, the base obscured by ferns.

“Creepy,” Isobel muttered, leaning forward to examine the picture.

“That was a year ago,” Elijah said. “I don’t think it’s in use anymore, and it’s accessible by a logging road.

There’s a wind farm nearby, so it might even have access to power—that might be why they chose it for whatever operation they organised seven years ago.

It doesn’t look like it’s been maintained, but if it was operational only seven years ago, it may only need minor repairs. It’s about two and a half hours away.”

“Are we really talking about hiding out in a possibly derelict, abandoned Cold War bunker?” she asked, chewing the inside of her cheek. “Aren’t we going to need supplies? ”

“More than just supplies,” Mikel said. “We’ll need to figure out transport. We’ll need tools to make repairs?—”

“I need to read up on air filtration systems,” Elijah muttered to himself.

“We’ll need to warn our families,” Cian said. “They might also be in danger. They’ll need to put some protections in place. Maybe stay with friends when the story breaks, at least until the higher-up officials have been arrested.”

“If they are arrested,” Gabriel corrected.

“I know there’s hard proof, but Callum Rowe has so many people in his pocket that he might just be able to pull off the impossible and cut this whole thing off at the knees.

We’ll have to be extremely careful how we proceed.

Look what happened the last time someone tried to help us. ”

As soon as the thought flicked into her mind, Charlie herself appeared before Isobel, making her squeak. She hadn’t even realised she had been sitting there, choked in fear as she considered the impossible path they had laid out before them. Her terror had gotten the better of her.

“Just me this time?” Charlie looked around, waiting for other apparitions to appear.

“Just you,” Isobel whispered.

The Alphas around her shifted, but after a week of her waking up crying and sweating, they knew when she was talking to the apparitions.

“Oh.” Charlie smiled at her, folding her legs to sit cross-legged right in front of her. “You have to thank him for me.”

“Who?”

“Your dad, silly.”

“My … my dad?” Isobel stared at the other woman, utterly confused.

“I saw her smile again.” Charlie’s face transformed from blissful to pained, her features pinching in.

“I … missed … her smile.” It almost seemed like she was suddenly just as confused as Isobel.

“It’s hard to remember … He doesn’t like us to think about the pain …

” For just a moment, Charlie wavered as though she might disappear, but then she seemed to fight off her troubling thoughts, and she resolidified with a smile.

Isobel’s head was spinning. Her mother had also mentioned a him .

“Moros?” she whispered, her skin prickling.

Charlie’s eyes sparkled. “Yes, that’s him, isn’t it?” She laughed, like it was nice to hear the name of the god of death —or not, as Cian had lectured her. The god of … many different variations of things to do with death? Death and souls? She needed a damn textbook.

“Why did you mention my dad?” Isobel asked, wishing she could reach out and touch Charlie’s hand. “Did you see him looking after Teak over summer break?”

“Summer break?” Charlie’s nose wrinkled, that pained look twitching across her brow again. “I … we’re no t really supposed to keep tabs on stuff in this world, but I’m pretty sure it was yesterday.”

“ Yesterday ?” Isobel spluttered.

And then it clicked.

How Teak had disappeared on the last day of the break. The day her father flew home. How Teak stuck to him like glue through the break. How her father had been visiting Isobel less in person since they returned to Ironside.

“Holy shit.” She looked up at the others. “I think Teak is hiding out with my dad ?”

“Your dad kidnapped Teak?” Kilian asked with alarm.

“No.” She shook her head, nonplussed. “Charlie …” Almost as soon as she pulled her attention away from Charlie, the apparition disappeared. She refocussed on Kilian. “Charlie wanted me to thank him.”

“Well.” Gabriel let out a short, surprised chuckle. “Damn, okay, he could have told you.”

“He must have promised her he wouldn’t say anything.” Cian looked amused. “This wasn’t on my bingo card. Do you think they’re?—”

“Ew.” Isobel held up a hand. “Don’t.”

“Just asking.” Cian chuckled.

“Do you really think Charlie would be wanting to thank Braun if he was boning her wife?” Theodore asked mildly.

“Depends how good he was boning her,” Cian pretended to muse .

Isobel considered kicking him.

His aquamarine eyes fell to hers, a golden brow arching, daring her to.

“Bunkers,” Mikel said tonelessly. “What do we think?”

Isobel was out of her depth. She wasn’t going to come up with a better plan than Elijah, so she quickly acquiesced, and so did the others.