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“I know you will.” His eyes didn’t stray from hers. It was like he knew that the tamed dark grey swell was the only thing keeping her steady.

Isobel woke again cloaked in darkness. The curtains billowed softly from the cold air of the air conditioner as rain pelted the balcony doors. Her door cracked open, light spilling in from the hallway.

“Carter?”

Sloan?

Isobel shot upright, glancing to the side where someone—probably Moses—had tucked Theodore beneath the blankets beside her. She quickly flung her pillow over his face and felt his body stiffen.

“Sloan?” she croaked, forcing herself out of the bed.

She swayed for a moment but stubbornly lectured her feet into motion, hurrying to the door so that Sloan wouldn’t pay her bed any attention. The woman blinked at her, trying to adjust her eyes to the darkness.

“I heard you were sick,” the dorm supervisor said, frowning at Isobel’s hunched posture. “I brought medicine. I can’t have you out of commission for long.” She reached out, and Isobel realised she was waiting for her hand, so she cupped her palm and watched as several pills tumbled into it.

“For nausea and fever,” she said. “Moses said these were your symptoms.”

“Right. Thanks.”

“Get some sleep,” Sloan ordered, hard brown eyes, like marbled rock, crawling over Isobel’s pale face. “I’ve rescheduled your appointment with Dr Desmarais for tomorrow morning. It will replace your second lesson of the day with Professor Dubois.”

“Okay,” Isobel croaked. “Thanks.”

Sloan nodded but didn’t step back. She lowered her voice. “I didn’t recommend the sessions with Dr Desmarais,” she said. “Did you request them? Did you speak to someone at the hospital?”

Isobel eyed the other woman, noticing the stray, almost frizzy strands of black hair around her heart-shaped face and the almost drawn pallor to her oak skin. She looked less put-together than usual.

“No,” Isobel ventured. “Is there an issue?”

For a moment, Sloan’s lips pinched, and she considered her words.

“Be careful,” she said, even more quietly, the warning almost a whisper, before she straightened.

“I just didn’t realise you were struggling.

You should have informed me. I don’t like that you’re lying to me about trying to apply to see a professional behind my back.

Until we can have trust between us, I’ve decided to sit in on your sessions.

I cannot emphasise this enough, Miss Carter.

I am to be kept informed .” She backed away from the door.

“Now rest up. I’ll meet you tomorrow for your appointment. Goodnight.”

She turned on her heel and strode away, leaving Isobel standing dumbstruck as Sloan stopped by Elijah at the top of the stairs. “I have some medication for Mr Kane. Will you please check on him for me? It wouldn’t be appropriate for me to go into his bedroom at this hour.”

Elijah nodded, holding out his hand silently, his eyes flicking to Isobel’s door, finding her still standing in the shadow of her doorway.

“Goodnight, Mr Reed,” Sloan said stiffly after handing over the pills. She marched down the stairs, and Isobel eased her door shut again, padding back to her bed.

She pulled the pillow away from Theodore’s face, meeting the dark grey of his eyes, a shade or two lighter than Moses’ but still swirling with shade, making her think of heavy storm clouds.

“Sloan just told me to be careful,” she said. “Practically whispered it before she said all that stuff about joining me for my session.”

Theodore’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t like this. ”

“Neither does Sloan, apparently. I didn’t think she gave a fuck about us.”

“Hm.” Theodore hauled her against his body. “All these changes suddenly … it’s because of the music video.”

Isobel pulled the covers over them, snuggling closer. “They can’t punish us for fan theories.”

“They can if the fan theories are true.”

She huffed out a breath. “They can’t prove it.”

“No,” he mused quietly. “But now we know what happens when we humiliate them.”

“Worth it,” Isobel mumbled.

Theodore’s hands flexed before one of them delivered a sharp slap against her ass. “Say that again tomorrow when I have my strength back.”

“Do I look dumb to you?” she asked.

“You look like a girl desperate to be punished.” He pulled her body fully on top of his, his eyes closing briefly in the dark, relief relaxing his expression.

“You should have told me it hurt you to be away from me,” she whispered.

His eyes snapped open again. “You shouldn’t have made that fucking dea?—”

She quickly slapped her hand over his mouth. “Shh, I’m trying to sleep here.”

He gripped her ass, squeezing tightly, and the door opened, the light illuminating a wedge against the floor again as someone crowded the doorway.

“How are my patients?” a voice asked quietly.

“Is it the mean nurse again?” Isobel whispered, false fear shivering through her voice.

There was a chuckle—Kilian’s—as he stepped fully into the room and closed the door behind him. “I hear he babied you both excessively.”

It was Theodore and Kilian’s night again, so she wasn’t surprised at the appearance of the other Alpha.

“Do you feel babied?” she asked Theodore.

“I feel neglected, actually.” His hands flexed on her ass, dragging her over his rapidly swelling length. “Severely neglected.”

Kilian sighed, the bed dipping as he climbed in on Isobel’s side. “You’re both supposed to be resting.”

Theodore tipped her onto her side, turning her to face Kilian so that he could curl around her body from behind and tunnel his hand into her panties. His lips brushed her ear. “The only reason you aren’t being punished tonight is because you’re sick, so try to be quiet.”

Kilian smirked down at her, watching as she tried to swallow a needy whimper. “You’re definitely sick, aren’t you?”

She nodded energetically.

He chuckled, slowly drawing up the hem of her shirt to expose Theodore’s large hand tunnelling beneath dark purple lace. Kilian groaned softly, his eyes lifting back to hers as he tugged the shirt up higher. “You’re weak, hm? Tired?”

“So weak,” she panted as his mouth hovered over hers. “So tired. Gonna fall asleep.”

“And what happens then?” Kilian nuzzled into her neck, his hand cupping her breast, tongue laving her skin.

“We mount you like shadows while you sleep peacefully? Cover you in bites and bruises and leave your thighs sticky, and you get to tell everyone you don’t remember a thing, and you’re still innocent? ”

She pushed her mouth up to his, whispering against his soft lips, “It doesn’t count if you’re invisible.”

He grinned into her kiss, and, in a surge of movement reminiscent of Gabriel and Elijah, they sprang into action as though they could read each other’s minds.

Theodore lifted her up and out of the bed, wrapping her limbs around him as he distracted her with a deep, hungry kiss, and then he lowered her onto … nothing .

Except that nothing was hot, hard, and vibrating with need.

She reached down, feeling the invisible muscles of Kilian’s thighs as she was lowered to kneel either side of them, still facing Theodore.

Kilian seemed to be sitting on the side of the bed, his chest against her back, his dick already thick and pulsing against the curve of her ass.

She looked down in shock as invisible hands whipped off Oscar’s shirt and then tore her panties off.

“Sorry, baby,” he panted, “we need to be quick before they figure out what’s happening.”

Theodore shoved down his sweats, palming his erection as he cupped her jaw and tapped the soft, velvety head against her lips. “Open up, mate. You should know better than to tease us. Now you have to make it up to us with that sweet little body, hm?”

She turned to liquid, her moan quickly smothered as Theodore slid against her tongue, filling her throat, and Kilian thrust into her from below.

The nightmares didn’t come that night.