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“Sitting in a dark room and not speaking,” Moses said calmly.

“Why dark?” Isobel asked.

“Why light?” Moses countered, eyes briefly tracking down to her crossed legs and back to her face, his pupils expanding as Isobel was hit with images of him dragging her into a dark room and?—

“Niko,” Elijah’s voice splintered through her thoughts.

“People have concocted quite the storyline for you. It looks like you fell for Isobel back in your second year. You offered to train her to get close to her, and then she started secretly dating one of the other guys, and you’ve been jealous and sulky ever since. Let’s play up that angle.”

“Wait.” Niko held out his hands, shaking his head. “You forced me to pretend I wasn’t having a mental breakdown every time I saw her or saw someone touch her?—”

“Which you did a terrible job of,” Theodore said.

“And now you want me to go backwards and just … let loose?”

Gabriel stared at him, mouth parted in shock. “Who the hell told you to let loose ?”

“You really didn’t hide it well,” Theodore insisted.

“You’re misunderstanding.” Elijah pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration.

“It’s a television show,” Mikel jumped in to save Elijah. “He’s telling you to show your jealousy and possessiveness in an entertaining way. Don’t just stare at her from across the room—although don’t stop doing that either. ”

“You guys are making me sound like a fucking psycho,” Niko snapped, voice rough with anger.

“It was cute,” Isobel said.

“You’re lying.” He narrowed his stunning hazel eyes on her.

Her lips pinched together, trying to bite back a smile. “Okay, it was—no, you know what, it was cute. That’s my answer, and I’m sticking with it.”

“It was cute?” he challenged, a glint in his eyes.

Those eyes had been so bright and warm and comforting before their bond had been damaged.

And then they became terrifying. Now, mostly, they were just dangerous.

The unpredictability of his newly temperamental nature made her wary of the sparks that lit up the green-brown meld of colour.

Was it cute when I took your virginity on the floor of your closet, Carter? His voice burst into her mind in a gravelled scrape of sound, and she suddenly sat up ramrod straight, her eyes wide, her stomach swooping so violently, she felt momentarily dizzy.

They had gone so long without talking about it, and this was how he wanted to open up the conversation?

Of course it was.

“A-Are you well?” she stumbled over the words, her face flaming red. She had meant to respond in her head but, in her confusion, had instead said the words out loud.

He smiled at her, a sharp flash of teeth, before turning his attention to Mikel. “What the fuck does ‘entertaining’ jealousy look like?”

“Just …” Mikel sighed almost as heavily as Elijah. “Act on your intrusive thoughts. We’ll let you know if you’re going overboard.”

Niko’s smile widened.

No sane or logical person would think it was a good sign, but that same logic convinced everyone to bite their tongues.

“Are you sure this isn’t going to be too chaotic?” Isobel whispered to Elijah.

He shook his head, still looking at the phone screen. “Judging by these videos, I don’t actually think we can get any worse. One of these top videos is forty-five minutes long and it’s just called ‘The Anarchy of Eleven.’”

Several of them shot glances at Oscar.

“What?” He blinked back at them.

Gabriel snorted, somehow managing to sound both amused and unimpressed. “Okay, anything else?”

Elijah hummed beneath his breath for a little longer.

“Isobel … I think … you can initiate on a flirty level with Oscar, Cian, me, and Gabe. Gabe, Cian, and I can respond favourably and initiate ourselves. Oscar, you don’t generally react, and that’s what people like about you, so keep just letting Isobel chip away at you—but Isobel, turn it up a bit—while Oscar hyper-focusses on you and acts like everyone else pisses him off as usual. ”

“This is getting a little personal,” Oscar snapped.

“Kili, you need to turn it up, as I said.” Elijah was starting to talk faster.

Clearly, having finished thinking in his own head, he was now in a rush to get all the words out so that he could move on.

“Moses, I’ve decided you’re right. I need to think on you some more.

Isobel, give Niko a reaction every now and then so that people can see the change in him when you let him get his way. ”

“So personal,” Niko grumbled.

“Theo,” Elijah barrelled on, “turn it up with Isobel, but Isobel, be careful with your responses; he has some very hardcore fans. They’ll find it adorable when he goes after you, but they might not find it so cute if you go after him.

And, of course, keep things professional with Kalen and Mikel.

That would absolutely cause a scandal we wouldn’t be able to move on from. ”

“I have an idea,” she said meekly, shooting a quick look at Moses.

Elijah tossed the phone back to Kalen, who slid it into his pocket.

“What is it?” Kalen asked.

“We could do a song cover together. Me and Moses. Something with intense or romantic undertones. We could livestream us practising it and then release it as a free single and even film a video for it that isn’t too serious, maybe just a well-produced video of us performing it live in one of the studios or the training room? ”

Mikel spoke up instead of Kalen. “Do you really have time for that?” He was asking Isobel specifically and not Moses.

She had a habit of putting in more hours than most of the others, except Gabriel and Elijah, and sometimes Kilian.

“I’ll make time,” she promised.

They both stared at her for a moment longer, both of them frowning, though Kalen’s words when he finally replied were positive. “I think it’s a really good idea. Moses?”

“You want to do a song with me?” Moses asked as Isobel also turned to look at him.

He was so unreadable that nerves began to twist through her stomach. “If … if you want to, I mean, yes. I think our voices sound really nice together.” Why was she blushing? It was his blank stare. He always knew how to throw her off balance.

He examined her a moment longer before nodding. “Okay, then.”

And then a little smile broke out along his lips, and Isobel’s heart constricted painfully.

It was a shy smile, one he almost definitely hadn’t made deliberately, and one she felt like she wasn’t meant to see, but he couldn’t seem to help himself.

He pulled up his hood, slumped back against the mirror and crossed his arms across his chest, his expression wiped clean again.

“We done here?” he asked .

“We’re done,” Kalen confirmed. “I want everyone to put in half an hour in the gym tonight before bed to make up for this.” Everyone groaned except Niko, who seemed genuinely happy with the order. “Isobel—stay behind.”

She remained seated as the others filtered out of the room, leaving her alone with Kalen and Mikel, who waited for the door to close again before sitting on the mat before her.

She had thought she had gotten away with being late by some miracle, but apparently not.

They were both dressed in suits, so it likely wasn’t that comfortable sitting cross-legged with her, but it seemed to be a deliberate visual cue that they were shedding their roles as her professors and stepping into a more personal role.

Something they didn’t have time to do. She sat up a little straighter and shuffled forward to mirror them.

“How are the nightmares?” Kalen asked.

“Not great.” She flinched, jaw tightening. “I’m still seeing the remnants. It’s almost every night now.”

“We understand your reasoning for sleeping alone,” Mikel said carefully, “but don’t you think that might be the reason the nightmares have increased?”

She surveyed his features, heavily scarred and tight with worry, his mismatched eyes narrowed slightly. She had kept him and Kalen informed on the remnant situation and was aware they were likely discussing it with the other Alphas.

“They appear with your fear, right?” Mikel continued.

“Our bond might be complete, but it’s damaged, and we think that anything seen as resistance will cause side effects.

These nightmares are so bad we can’t help but wonder if they might be a side effect, especially if they’re bad enough to spawn an army of remnants with this much regularity. ”

“Surely the bond doesn’t see me sleeping alone as resistance ?” She glanced between them, feeling the prickle of their anxiety and trepidation sinking into her chest.

Mikel’s scarred, tanned hand landed on her knee, large and strong, his warmth spreading over her skin, making her glad that she had kicked off her sweats in favour of the booty shorts beneath.

Halfway through her livestream, the pants had become too cumbersome.

He squeezed lightly. “It might if half of your mates are close enough to know what you’re feeling, but you told them you wanted to sleep alone, so they’re stuck in their rooms battling with the intense need to protect and comfort you, but they’re not allowed to go to you. ”

“Oh.” She frowned, her forehead crinkling at the oversight. They had rigged the bond so that she could only sense their emotions through her Sigma power—and only the negative emotions—whereas they sensed everything she felt through the damaged bond. She couldn’t shut them out.

“Well, now I feel like an idiot,” she groaned, letting her head fall into her hands. “I should have realised that would happen.”

“In between working long days, dealing with the new dorm manager, watching your every word and action for the cameras, and entertaining nightmares and ghosts in all your free hours?” Kalen asked.

“Yes, you really should have spared a moment to examine the inner thoughts and feelings of everyone around you.”

She scowled at him, which seemed to amuse him. If he wasn’t Kalen, she would have kicked him.