Relever (Ironside Academy, #4)

by Jane Washington

she was moving before she could even think it through, passing the room to the couch where Gabriel and Elijah sat, plopping herself between them and setting her drink on the coffee table. They both shifted closer—the movement more of a reflex than anything—while glaring at each other over her head. Unsure how to proceed, she placed her hands on her thighs, her pinkies stretching out nervously to brush against their hard legs, which were already pressing up against hers.

Elijah grabbed her hand, drawing it over his lap and lacing his fingers with hers. “Smart girl,” he muttered, relaxing into the back of the couch, drawing her eye as his posture changed in an instant, morphing from tense, to exhausted. His cool gaze simmered to a calm, icy ocean, lids lowering to half-mast.

“Can I carry on living exactly as I have for all of my life so far?” she returned dryly. “I think so.” He held up his hands, displaying his palms in supplication. “You asked for it, Sigma.” She wanted to roll her eyes, but she was suddenly struck. Bowled over by worry, frustration, and need. As far as she knew, “need” wasn’t a negative emotion, but it was pinching into her skin from every angle, sharp and acerbic.

found Elijah still slumped against the couch, except this time, his eyes were closed and his chest rose and fell in a gentle rhythm.

“Could you all handle that? Not that you’re into me, I know that. I just mean, with the bond, with the surging and everything.”

Theodore lifted his head from her neck, blinking his eyes in a confused way as she slipped out of his arms—had he almost fallen asleep too? He seemed to shake himself, shoving his hands into his pockets, his darkening eyes tracking her

“Well?” The combative Alpha shifted his hips forward, apparently getting more comfortable. “You can’t skip me, not after you did Kalen. Now everybody is on the table.” “You’re the worst,” she said, staring at him. “Stop teasing her,” Mikel ordered. Moses beckoned to her—definitely still teasing her. “Just pretend I’m my brother.” “Stop it,” Theodore snapped.

“Goddamn,” he groaned, inhaling deeply. “Have you always smelled this good?” “Have you always spoken your intrusive thoughts out loud?” Theodore demanded. “Pretty much, yeah,” Moses drawled, squeezing Isobel.

“Dead how?” she asked, cutting Oscar a suspicious look. “Dead like a corpse.” He didn’t even hesitate. She winced. “Oscar.” “Isobel.” She sighed, glancing around the room, hoping for someone to step in. They just stared impassively back at her. “You can’t go around threatening to kill people,” she hissed.

She almost broke away from Niko to go back to him, but Mikel shook his head, catching something on her face. He mouthed, “Keep it even,” at her while everyone was still focussed on Elijah.

“This monitors the health of the bond,” Elijah explained, still staring at the jewel. “Red is bad. Gold is good.”

“Theo isn’t actually going to sleep with Wallis. Sorry for that.” “Wait,” Theodore groused. “Illy, you believed that?” “I don’t know!” She tossed up her arms. “I’ve never been half bonded before.”

“I felt that,” Elijah said, all of the exhaustion wiped from his features. He held his hand over his chest. “Felt wh⁠—” “Guilt,” he answered before she could ask the question. “I think we all felt it,” Mikel said, dark brows drawing together as he surveyed the room, before settling on Isobel again.

ten aggressive and energetic Alphas could never have sex again, for as long as she lived. Unless they had sex with her.

Would they expect that of her? Theodore? Kilian? Oscar? Cian … oh god, Cian will never survive. Elijah? Gabriel? Niko? Mik— Oh god. Kalen was too big. He would destroy her.

What had she thought? Something about Kalen’s size, certainly … and now that she was thinking about it, she was thinking about it. Because she had seen it. When she slipped into his head while he had a woman hanging suspended before him.

“Nobody is asking you to have sex with them and nobody is expecting it,” he rumbled. When she just stared at him, still trying to batter away the panic they all knew she was feeling, a gravelled sound rumbled out of his chest. “Acknowledge, Sigma.” “A-acknowledged,” she squeaked.

Surely, they would begin to resent her when they couldn’t have sex with their girlfriends. How would they maintain relationships?

“I need to—” Mikel sounded like he was in pain as he pushed off the wall. “All yours,” Kalen interrupted, voice tight. He stepped away, and Mikel took his place, tilting her chin up until his mottled blue-black eyes were an inch from hers.

“Stop,” he groused, his hands cupping the sides of her face, his forehead falling to hers. “You didn’t do this to us, Isobel. This happened to you. Just breathe, pet.” His rough thumbs stroked along her cheekbones, making her blood hum in fizzling realisation because Mikel Easton was touching her. He was touching her a lot. “Yes, I am.” He let out a gruff sound that might have almost been a laugh. “Focus on that and focus on breathing.”

His eyes darkened, his breath rushed out, his face inching closer before he suddenly released her head, his hands falling to the desk either side of her thighs. “Good girl.”

“It’s not news,” she immediately defended. “Everyone thinks you’re all attractive.” “Correction,” Oscar drawled, his scratchy voice making her throat tighten up. “They think everyone but myself and Mikel are attractive.” “That’s bullshit,” she spat, anger coursing through her. “Don’t believe everything you read online. I … like your scars.”

“You’re stuck with people you find attractive, at least. Moses, Theo, Gabriel, Cian, Kilian, and Oscar have all offered to ease your bond in any way you need—and they were well aware of what that could entail. If you end up having regular sex with all six of them, that’s between you and them, and any of you could back out of that arrangement at any point, for any reason. The existence of the bond doesn’t erase consent.”

“I won’t touch you,” Kalen announced, forcing her head to jerk up. She had calmed down enough to slam a wall down on whatever emotion threatened to bubble up at that statement. “I won’t be assisting you either,” Mikel said.

Kalen could see it in her face. The Sigma was insulted. He happened to like that spoiled little rich girl side of her, but only because it made his hand itch to punish it out of her until that little pout had a matching stream of tears.

He couldn’t touch her. He couldn’t touch anyone else. He couldn’t break up with his girlfriend. Not when her ire could turn the tide for him within the settlement.

Did he really think he could go the rest of his life without having sex? He didn’t know how to answer that question. Or he did, but he didn’t want to admit it to himself, because whenever he tried to think about it, the question changed to whether he really thought he could go without sex with her around. He didn’t want those thoughts in his head.

She lifted her stunning eyes, ignoring everyone else to stare at Kalen because he was the one she had identified as most likely to hurt her. “You can’t sleep with her.” Don’t tell me what to do, little girl. The Dom in him roared to the surface, and he shoved it down with a wince. Don’t make her beg for it. This is her right. “I won’t be,” he promised. “Or anyone else.” “I won’t be, Carter.”

“Nobody can defile the bond like that. If anyone plans to do that, I’m out of the group.”

They had already discussed this issue over the break, and everyone had agreed that anything resulting in a soul infraction was unacceptable, but Isobel wasn’t just addressing a room of men, or a room of Alphas, or even a room of her own friends. She was addressing her mates.

Elijah wasn’t about to admit it, but he stared at her like every flutter of her long, dark brown lashes was the most fascinating thing he had ever seen—which was a dangerous thing for her, but she didn’t seem to realise it. Gabriel looked at her like she was one of his precious notebooks and he was barely controlling the urge to stack her onto his desk where she belonged, erecting a ten-foot wall around her so that nobody else could contaminate her.

Cian was harder to read. He wanted to fuck her, that much was clear. Kalen suspected the younger Alpha had become obsessed with Isobel, but could never find any actual signs of it. Cian was too good at putting on a mask. A mask Theodore and Oscar didn’t even bother with and hadn’t bothered with since the Sigma waltzed into their lives. Both of them would tear apart anyone who so much as blinked wrong at Isobel, including the members of their own group.

Because the urge to ask her if she was also off limits was too strong.

“We need to address the obvious,” Elijah sighed out. “What if Isobel wants to develop sexual relationships with several of us at the same time?” Okay, maybe it wasn’t so insane. “To appease the bond?” she asked, just to be clear. Elijah cut her a flat look. “No.” “No?” She froze, the word almost getting stuck in her throat. “Because you want to be fucked, Isobel.” Those words delivered in Elijah’s calm, almost cutting tone, were doing strange and confusing things to her insides. “That’s why you would fuck someone.”

“Nobody is trying to force you into marriage so they can turn you into your moth—” Moses cut himself off, but it was too late. “I wouldn’t marry you anyway,” she snarled at him. “But you’d fuck me,” he snapped right back, rising from his chair. “Just as long as it doesn’t have to mean anything.” “What else would it mean!”

“It would mean that touching you lights me on fire,” Moses growled, advancing on her, his eyes flashing black. “It would mean I would crawl out of my own skin to get inside you. Hypothetically,”

Cian made a beeline for Isobel, tugging her from the desk and into a hug. It was fast, but it made her head spin and her breath catch as she was briefly doused in his sun-baked ocean scent. “We can talk later,” he promised, and immediately, her chest pinched. She more than wanted that. She needed that. “Okay,” she croaked as he left the room.

Isobel straightened her shoulders. “I can do that.” “You can be doted on, can you, rich girl?” Moses drawled.

“I can be,” she said, blinking up at him. “You don’t want to dote on me?” His dark eyes narrowed into slits, his hands lifting like he was about to grab hold of her before he blinked and stepped back, his eyes widening on her face. “You’re a little too good at that. Theo is rubbing off on you.”

Luis beamed. “I said the scary demons too⁠—” Maya slapped a hand over Luis’ mouth, plopping him into one of the dining chairs without so much as an eye twitch. “Did he just…,” Moses muttered, trailing off. “Sure did, demon boy.” Isobel winked at Moses,

He pushed his big thigh immediately against hers, jiggling it unconsciously, his arm stretching out across the back of her chair. Moses shoved his arm off, and he let his hand fall to her thigh instead. Isobel cast him a concerned glance. It wasn’t like Niko to insist on touching her,

Whoever decided Carter would be bonded to so many Alphas was fucking with us—excuse the language.” “Well now this is a theory I can get behind.” Theodore sounded amused.

“And because there’s one of Carter and ten of us,” Theodore added. “Not even the gods can make that math work.” “Gods?” Sophia clucked her tongue. “No. But Sigmas? If anyone can anticipate and counteract the needs of ten aggro dudes, it’s a Sigma.” Isobel snorted, and Sophia sent her a wink, flipping her shiny black bob in a flourish. “Far as I’m concerned, one Sigma is absolutely equal to ten Alphas.”

Theodore: I have no issue with it. Kilian: I’m okay with it. Cian: I would also rather be bonded than the alternative. Oscar: Same. Moses: Same. Niko: Same. Gabriel: I won’t refuse. Elijah: I won’t be refusing either.

Cian: Yeah, a friendly game should settle this. What’s a little competition between Alphas? Moses: Very funny. Moses: Actually … Cian: Now you want to compete for it, don’t you? Elijah: Alphas are nothing if not predictable.

Isobel: It’s okay, I understand. Can I compete too? Theodore: We’re rubbing off on you. Kilian: Well, someone is, anyway. Moses: Come again? Kilian: I’m sure she will. Isobel: Huh? Oscar: Don’t be jealous, Kiljoy. The hunt hasn’t even started yet.

Oscar: Who wants to hunt? Kilian: You only want to hunt because you think you’ll win. Oscar: … My question stands. Kilian: I might. Theodore: Ugh. Yes. What does that say about me? Niko: You don’t want to know. I’m in for a hunt. Sorry, Isobel. Isobel: What is going on? What kind of hunt? Elijah: A very literal one. You hide somewhere, and whoever finds you first wins.

Maybe it was competitiveness, or stubbornness, or that insane urge to be claimed that she felt around the Alphas, but her calm was invaded by a slow trickle of frantic energy that worked its way through her system.

Who had suggested it? Oscar? Had he known that this would be what she needed, or was it just what he needed? Was it what they all needed?

Kalen stepped up to the door, pushing it wide, his eyes landing on her. “Best of luck, Carter.” Don’t smile. Don’t smile. Don’t smile. A small giggle burst out of her lips, and she clapped a hand over her mouth. Why was she enjoying this so much? There was something wrong with her.