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“I want to suggest something,” Mikel said, squeezing her knee to draw her attention. “And I have to be honest, it’s something I’ve already discussed with the others.”

She raised a brow at him. “Are you guys walking on eggshells around me or something?”

Mikel smirked at her, allowing his amusement to peek through a little more than Kalen was.

His hand flexed on her knee again, and she could see in his face that he was trying to decide what to do with her.

She had a suspicion it was because Kalen was with them.

Mikel was still struggling to establish his place in her life as a bond mate, as a friend, as something more, and as a figure of authority in an eleven-way bond that had no place for authority.

When they were alone, it seemed easy for him.

They had grown closer, but their relationship was separate from Kalen, who hadn’t been trying to carve out space for himself.

She watched as Mikel tried to figure out how to handle her in that moment while Kalen sat back on his hands, also waiting to see what Mikel would do.

He already seemed to be preparing to disengage himself.

She could read it in the terse arrangement of his features and the slight bunching of his large muscles.

She realised, swallowing nervously, that what they were doing was unsustainable.

Kalen and Mikel were on a slightly different level than the others.

They were older and had far more in common with each other.

It was understandable that they struggled with how to interact with her around the others, but if they weren’t even comfortable around each other, then maybe they were right to keep their distance.

Maybe it would never work out between her and either of them.

“You’re not thinking about my idea at all, are you?” Mikel murmured.

“No,” she answered honestly.

“You were thinking about me and him, weren’t you?” he jerked his head in Kalen’s direction.

Kalen’s strong brows inched up just slightly, though his face was still chillingly impassive.

By now, she was running late for her second lesson, but it was obvious they weren’t going to let her go anywhere.

She dropped her eyes and cleared her throat, managing to force her attention all the way up to Mikel’s chest, but faltering before she could look into his eyes.

“I was just thinking … we—I mean the group—could do more things that you two are interested in. I mean … you know the other guys are pretty much happy as long as they have sugar and salt, so …” She had no idea what she was saying.

“I know we don’t really have free time, but …

” Her face was hot. She had all the confidence in the world until everyone left her alone with one or both of the professors and then she turned into a bumbling idiot.

Thankfully, Mikel took pity on her. “We don’t need to pretend to have a life,” he said, arching a brow at Kalen, who nodded his silent agreement.

“It’s okay if our focus is the group,” Kalen added.

“That’s what our passion is. That’s where our interest is.

We’re happy as long as you guys are happy, so just let us be occupied with that.

There isn’t anything we’d rather be doing, and honestly, the only way we can feel peaceful is when we make everyone else happy, so it really is best if we do the things everyone else likes. ”

Her heart bubbled with warmth, and she glanced down at Mikel’s strong fingers splayed across her pale skin. “What was your idea?”

“A sleeping schedule,” he said.

It took a moment for the idea to land. “Hell no,” she said.

Kalen snorted at her immediate refusal. “Isobel …”

“I’m not letting them anywhere near that man.

” She didn’t have to extrapolate. They knew she was talking about Gabriel, Elijah, and Niko.

And they knew who that man was. They had seen him with their own eyes and had walked through the memory of what that man had done to Gabriel.

“And if they’re banned from my bed, then so is everyone.

I don’t care if I’m not in any sort of relationship with certain Alphas; they’re still my mates, and I still have to keep some things even for the sake of everyone’s sanity and the bond. ”

“Isobel,” Kalen repeated, a little firmer this time, forcing her gaze to climb hesitantly up the shirt stretched over his wide chest to his eyes. “We don’t get to decide what you can handle. You don’t get to decide what we can handle.”

Her lips dipped into a scowl, and a little rumble started in her chest. “They’re not getting anywhere near that man.”

Mikel’s grip on her leg shifted, hooking both of her thighs and dragging her forward until she was right up against their crossed legs.

They were so huge, their side-by-side knees pressed together right at her centre so that it almost felt like her own crossed legs were just curving around their knees.

It was crazy to her that something so small and insignificant could make her so painfully aware of them, of their smell, the heat coming off their bodies.

She could scent the mix of sodden, rain-lashed earth and heady vanilla that was so uniquely them, creating a sweet and dangerous mix that had her head spinning.

She closed her eyes against the onslaught and forced the butterflies in her stomach to recede.

“They can’t even see him,” Mikel said gently, ducking his head to catch her attention. His nearness had her peeking her eyes open again. “They can’t hear what he’s saying.”

She narrowed her gaze on him. “You’re too smart not to realise that I can’t hide anything from Gabe and Eli. They would know .”

“And you’re too smart to think you can stretch this grace period out any longer than you have,” Mikel rumbled back.

“What about us makes you think we’d step back and hand you over?

Give you over to ghosts that aren’t even yours?

Let you waste away without a fight? I’m sorry, but which of us gave you that impression? ” he growled out harshly.

She didn’t want to let this go, but she knew he was right.

Kalen surprised her when his hand dropped into her lap, tangling her fingers with his. Both of her hands quickly gripped his larger one, drawn by his heat and strength, but out of pure stubbornness, she continued to stare at their chests.

“Nobody is wrong here.” Kalen’s voice was a deep purr, the vibration of sound somehow travelling to the pit of her stomach.

Her eyes unwillingly flicked up to his and then became caught in the honey-gold of his irises.

“You’re trying to protect your mates and your mates are trying to protect you,” he continued. “We tried it your way, but it made things worse for you, which we won’t stand for. Try it our way for a little bit?”

“Okay.” She was a little breathless.

“Okay.” He shocked her again by leaning down, his hard lips pressing to the corner of her mouth. “Good g?—”

“Hey!” She quickly jerked back, tearing her fingers from his. “Don’t manipulate me with your Alpha-ness, that’s unfair!”

Kalen smirked at her. “Are you saying you aren’t a good girl?”

“Don’t be ridiculous. Of course I’m a good girl. Look at me.”

They both laughed, and most of the tension unwound from her body, causing her shoulders to slump down.

“You can do it again if you want,” she grumbled, wishing she had the courage to recapture his hand to hold it in her lap again.

He caught her chin, lifting her face to his. She expected a smart remark or a refusal—Kalen wasn’t the type to let her switch the power dynamics so easily—but instead, his lips seemed to be lowering to the corner of her mouth again.

Her breath caught at the fact that he was doing her bidding, until he pinched her chin sharply and moved her face, his lips falling onto hers.

“A schedule,” he demanded, likely not the way he had wanted to have this conversation, but in his defence, she had already agreed.

Kalen kissed her again, lips rough. “In an actual fucking calendar. One of us per night.” More kisses, growing harder.

“Even the mates you aren’t fucking. We need our time. Okay?”

He didn’t give her space to mutter another agreement. His tongue pushed into her mouth to dominate her own. It was such a shock that she didn’t even realise he was moving until her back hit the mat, his heavy hips settling between her legs, her hands somehow captured and dragged above her head.

Kalen jerked back, his suit jacket half torn from his body, a rough growl slipping from his throat.

“Leave,” he snarled, but he didn’t seem to be speaking to her.

He shoved his jacket off, and two strong hands appeared on his arms, trying to tear him away from her.

“Get the fuck off me!” he demanded, and then she realised something wasn’t right.

His movements were far too jerky and violent, his eyes wide and unblinking, a rough, grumbling tenor to his voice.

Kalen was surging.

Which meant …

“You’ll kill me if I leave you here right now,” Mikel grunted as Kalen tossed an elbow into his midsection. They were about to turn on each other.

“Wait, wait,” she called, her hands tangling in Kalen’s shirt, her mind finally finding a hint of sanity. “I know what to do, just … give him some room. Can you wait just outside the door?”

She caught Kalen’s collar, tugging until he returned his attention to her, but his body remained stiff and tense, as immovable as a boulder until she heard the soft sound of a door closing.

Tell me the moment things go too far. Mikel’s voice snarled into her mind, the tenuous control in his tone wavering.

I will , she promised. Trust me .

I do . Those words were whispered into her with more softness, almost like he knew she needed to calm herself down in order to calm down Kalen.

He probably did know. Elijah had lectured them incessantly on how to deal with surges so they didn’t turn into full-blown ferality attacks, which he believed they would.