A manilla folder in one hand.
* * *
Leigh excusesme and Marcus all but drags me back to our cottage, fury radiating off of him. I don’t need an affinity to know what he’s found, to know his thoughts.
Saints, I’ve never seen him like this.
I’ve never been afraid of him before.
He locks the door to the cottage behind us and I dash up the stairs to find my nest in utter disarray.
Nesting materials have been thrown about, pillows are out of their cases, the duvet out of its cover. The mattress sags against one of the walls.
Marcus isn’t the only one who’s furious.
“Howdareyou invade my private space! An omega’s nest is sacred.”
“You don’t get to turn this around on me, Juniper. You hid something from me.”
I shove past him, and he lets me go. I right the mattress, struggling with the large, unwieldy bulk of it, but every time Marcus tries to help, I whirl on him with a glare. He’s the one that destroyed the perfect order of my nest. My safe space to retreat to when my enemies are at my door.
“Who did you tell?” I demand, my voice deadly quiet.
“The headmaster and the authorities.”
“You told the fucking police? Do you haveanyidea what he’ll do now, Marcus? Any fucking clue? This is why I didn’t tell you!”
“I can’t protect you if you don’t talk to me. If you keep things from me.”
I finally shove the mattress back into place and grab a clean sheet from my closet, shouldering past my honor guard once more. “You’ve damned me and maybe even yourself. He will find out and hewillretaliate. Against you, against Luca or Simon. Against me. Saints damn it, I would havebehaved. Obeyed him until he graduated, moved on, and forgot all about me. But you had to intervene, didn’t you?”
“That alpha will never forget about you, Juniper,” he growls and for the first time ever, he intimidates me enough that I bare my neck, letting out a pathetic whine. “You’ll only be safe from him if he’s behind bars or under the fucking ground!”
I turn on him, tossing one of my pillows aside. “You made sure of that. You didn’t even talk to me before you went to the headmaster. To the police.”
“Because I knew you wouldn’t want me to.”
“And yet you did anyway. I trusted you, yet you never trusted me. It didn’t even occur to you that I might know what I’m doing.” I shake my head. “That I’ve been playing this game of alpha/omega bullshit for years. But Rad will be coming after me now, harder than ever.”
I look up at him and all I feel is disgust.
Because Marcus Haley did exactly what I knew he would in the name of my protection.
He did the right thing in a world where that’s seldom rewarded.
My magic flares inside me, my affinity pulsing through my veins, making me feel electric. Dangerous.
“Get out of my fucking nest,” I order, my voice low.
And with trepidation in his river-rock eyes, he does.
* * *
“Professors Reinhardt,Hayes, and Spencer have all asked you to put forward assistantship applications,” Cassian says, but his dark whisky-quartz eyes search mine. Finally, he sighs. “Juniper, we need to talk. Not about your assistantship.”
“I don’t know how you know about Rad, Cassian, but I don’t want to talk about it. In fact—” I cast my eyes around our study room and press my lips together in a frown “—I can’t.”
“You think he’s listening?”
