Page 36

Sloan led her back into the family centre, pausing as they reached the door leading back outside. “Please see me in my office before you return to classes, Miss Carter. ”

Isobel texted the others as she hurried back to the dorm on foot, Sloan speeding ahead of her in one of the carts.

Isobel: The new bond specialist is just a human official. He wanted to know how to control you guys after what happened last weekend. I think they’re pissed that Mikel and Kalen wouldn’t perform on their dates.

Isobel: He also made it clear they know we’re bonded, and he thinks I’ve been keeping you all contained with my Sigma powers and influencing you all to ignore the romantic side of the bond to keep us all friendly with each other.

Oscar: He thinks you’re our puppet master?

Isobel: Apparently.

Moses: What did you say?

Isobel: I let him believe it, and I think I convinced him to put me in a box so that nobody can touch me?

Cian: What?

Isobel: On Friday night.

Theodore: You puppet master genius.

Kalen (admin): Brilliant fucking girl.

Happiness blasted through her, but she kept her expression neutral, her chin tucked down.

Moses: I hope you asked for breathing holes in that box.

Isobel: He said he wants you guys to fight and needs to contain your aggression. So that you’re nice and Alpha but not so Alpha that you’re killing humans.

Moses: Did you warn him about Oscar?

Isobel: Of course. Oscar gets a box too .

Niko: I want a box.

Mikel (admin): I wouldn’t say no to a box.

Gabriel: I want a box more than anything on this earth.

Isobel: More than me?

Gabriel: 1. You. 2. A box. 3. Yulia Novikov’s teeth on a necklace.

Gabriel: All my wants in order.

Kilian: You would really wear her teeth? That’s so unhygienic.

Gabriel: The necklace is for Oscar. I just want to look at it.

Oscar: Aw.

Cian: I can’t believe Gabe just romanced two people in the space of five minutes. I’m witnessing history here.

Oscar: Don’t be jealous. You can make me a tooth necklace too.

Cian: Who’s teeth?

Oscar: Fucking Bellamy.

Isobel: What? Why are we hating BELLAMY again? Are you kidding?

Oscar: Niko told me about all the hugging.

Niko: That was supposed to be between us, asshole.

Oscar: The only asshole I’m willing to have between us is Isobel’s. Preferably while I’m filling it, with my fingers buried deep in her hot little pussy. You can watch, but only if you give me a tooth necklace.

Kilian: Could you not?

Cian: You need help .

Niko: You’re sick. Isn’t there a separate boyfriend chat for shit like this?

Theodore: No, but there should be.

Gabriel: There would only be two of us in it.

Theodore: I’m making one.

Gabriel: You can’t, you’re not one of them.

Theodore: Did you hit your head? I was the FIRST.

Moses: This again?

Cian: When did this happen?

Cian: A second boyfriend?

Gabriel: The other night.

Several of them seemed to type out messages and then delete them before the chat fell silent. Isobel sighed, pushing into the dorm and knocking on the concealed door of Sloan’s office.

“Come in, Miss Carter,” the dorm manager greeted as the panel slid open.

Isobel perched nervously onto a seat, biting her tongue and surveying Sloan … only to realise that Sloan was doing the exact same thing.

“Let me be clear.” Sloan crossed her arms tightly, her granite stare growing heavier and harder.

“I’m a tough bitch, Carter. When they pulled me out of the control room and gave me this promotion, I told myself I’d beat you all into submission at all costs.

” Her attention drifted to the floor, her body growing stiffer.

“I know you think I’m just a blunt instrument trying to hammer you into line, but I notice a lot more than I let on.

Noticing shit was my whole career before this.

You need to be very, very careful how you proceed here, do you understand? ”

“What do you mean, exactly?” Isobel asked.

Sloan let out a sharp bark of a laugh, shaking her head.

“You’re fucking good, I’ll give you that.

You’ve managed to train the fuck out of your face.

I bet Braun Carter is proud. If you win this game—with or without those Alphas—you’ll make a spectacular actress.

I won’t ask you to cut the crap. Why would you? Just heed my warning.”

Isobel watched her for a moment more, trying to figure out if this was a trap of some kind, before she simply nodded. “Understood, ma’am.”

She stood to leave, and Sloan moved to the door, her hand hovering over the button to slide the panel open. “Don’t go to see Desmarais on your own. All sessions need to be booked through me, and I must be present whenever you’re in that room or any other room they call you to. Understood?”

She knew.

Isobel searched those hard, granite lines in the other woman’s eyes, the realisation crashing into her. Sloan knew that Desmarais would look at Isobel a certain way.

“They should all be like you,” Isobel murmured, so low she wasn’t sure she even wanted Sloan to hear her. “More of you, less of Cesar Cooper.”

“On that, Miss Carter, we couldn’t agree more.” Sloan punched the button to slide the panel open. “Get to class. Don’t be late, or I’ll deduct so many popularity points, you’ll finally know what it feels like to be dirt poor.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Isobel’s phone lit up as she stepped out of the shower that night. It was a message from Kalen calling everyone to a meeting in his office and announcing that they had thirty seconds before the camera loop finished.

With a rough curse, she quickly hopped her wet legs into her panties and then, panicking, she simply wrapped herself in a towel, grabbed her phone, and rushed downstairs.

It took her until she was standing there, dripping wet, clutching her towel, as every single Alpha lazed around Kalen’s study, a drink already in their hand, to realise that she had been trapped.

“Oops, this isn’t the bathroom.” She forced an awkward laugh, backing into the door and reaching behind her for the handle.

“Don’t even think about it, puppy.” Gabriel was sitting in one of the armchairs, nursing a glass of dark amber liquor.

“Drink?” Mikel asked, striding to a cart that had half a dozen bottles, a collection of glasses, and some bowls of fruits and garnishes. They had really gone all out. “You might want it,” Mikel prompted.

She nodded nervously, and he quietly made her a drink before returning to his chair. He sat and held out the glass for her, his hard lips quirking.

“What’s my punishment?” she blurted.

Mikel was sitting in one of the high-backed chairs that usually faced Kalen’s desk, but it had been turned around. Kalen was in the other. Oscar had wheeled out Kalen’s office chair and was sitting on Mikel’s other side, a few paces away.

“We’re taking a night off.” Kalen spoke calmly. Too calmly. He motioned to a projector someone had set up on the coffee table, and Isobel noticed that they had dragged in some of the chairs from Mikel’s office so that everyone would have a seat … except there wasn’t a spare one for her.

She refocussed on the projector. “A movie night? That’s my punishment?”

Mikel immediately tsked . “That’s our reward.”

“For?” She frowned.

“Not killing anyone,” Oscar said.

She spluttered on an awkward chuckle, but none of them were laughing, so she quickly sobered. “Right.” A couple of years ago, she might have launched into a lecture about how they couldn’t just casually remark on killing or hurting people.

But that was a couple of years ago.

Not only had she experienced them fighting their more feral Alpha instincts—the battle getting harder the longer they stayed together as a group and the stronger their connection grew to her as their mate—but they had also been through some shit.

Even Isobel was beginning to harbour violent thoughts.

Every time Yulia Novikov placed her hands on Kalen’s biceps, she daydreamed about tearing those painted nails off one by one. After what they had done to Sophia, she wasn’t sure any amount of torture in the world would be enough.

“The rules for tonight are simple,” Kalen said, making Isobel’s skin prickle in trepidation.

Usually, Mikel doled out the punishments.

This seemed like a bad sign. “You’re going to do everything we say tonight, Isobel.

You can’t say no. You’re going to bend to any whim any one of us might have until we feel so sure of our hold over you that we can walk out of this room confidently, knowing you’ll never put what belongs to us in danger again.

” Before she could argue the likelihood of her ever picking her own safety over all of theirs—or even before she could agree—Kalen crooked his finger at her and then pointed it at Mikel. “Now, come and get your drink.”

“I’m in a towel,” she said stupidly.

“And you’re about to learn what will happen when you don’t do as you’re told during this punishment,” Kalen growled. “Now drop the towel , and come and get your drink.”

Kalen’s golden amber eyes were flickering with wildfire, the heat of it tunnelling through her body and curling her toes. Her hands shook as she hesitantly unwrapped the towel, but before she could drop it, Gabriel quickly spoke up.

“Hang it on the back of the door. Don’t drop it.”

She spun, looping it over the brass coat hook on the back of Kalen’s office door.

She could feel the heat of their attention as she walked over to the desk, and it put a wobble in her step.

The lighting was low, but there was no mistaking the blush furiously spreading across her pale skin and the almost panicked, rapid rise and fall of her chest. She was naked in front of ten men, except for a pair of lace panties that she could feel sticking to her skin because she hadn’t dried herself before shoving them on.

She stumbled when Theodore caught her eyes, and she quickly glanced between him and Kilian.