I recoil, reaching for my scribe. Saints, I’ve never seen him so full of fury, every alpha instinct so close to the surface.
I’ve never beenscaredof him before, but now my scent sours with my fear. Still, I force myself to glare up at him.
“I wasn’t thinking,” I grind out. “I acted on instinct todefendmyself.”
“He’s fuckingmarked, Juniper! Do you have any idea what that means?”
I stare at him, the thunder in my gaze enough to match his. “Doyou? Because I think it fucking means what I’ve known for weeks. They’re Soldiers. All three of them.”
“And dangerous!”
I surge to my feet, rising to my full height. I still have to crane my head to scowl up at him. “You don’t get to tell me how dangerous they are. You have no idea what they’ve done to me!”
“I have every idea!” he roars. His chest heaves and he bares his teeth to me, a warning. “And I have every fucking idea what theycoulddo to you. What theywilldo to you.”
“If you really knew what they’d done, you wouldn’t be scolding me like an errant child right now!” I snap, voice rising. My magic surges toward my fingertips, into my scribe, answering the high-tide call of my emotions.
Saints, Cassian isterrified. His dread hits me like a stormy sea, wave after wave crashing into me.
I flinch away, staring up at him, as the fight drains out of me. I turn away, pressing my lips together, trying to find my composure once more. Finally, I draw in a ragged breath. “I haveeveryright to defend myself. And if I hadn’t, Marcus would have been well within his rights to do whatever was necessary to protect me.”
I glance at my honor guard through the glass pane in the door and give him a small shake of my head, letting him know I’m in no danger.
“They willdestroyyou, Juniper! Are you really so naive that you don’t see how this works? You mouth off to one of them, you draw your scribe on another… just what do you think is going to happen to you?” he demands.
Saints, how does he even know that I chewed out Kelvin Montrose just like he’s chewing me out now? And how fuckingdarehe? I bristle. “I know exactly what happens to me if I don’t stand up to them: they get what they want. They get me, meek and biddable. A fucking pet, but I would ratherdiethan submit to them!”
“You think they wouldn’t kill you? An omega has gonemissing, for fuck’s sake! And you draw your scribe on one of the alphas who may have made it happen? Fuck, I thought you were smarter than that.” His nostrils flare, but he turns away sharply. “I always gave youfartoo much credit. Saints, what did you even intend to do? How did you plan to protect yourself as you seem so hellbent on doing? I sure fucking hope it was more than one of your pitiful shield spells.”
Marcus finally breaks through Cassian’s lock and the door crashes open. I raise my hand to my honor guard because if Cassian’s rage scared me, Marcus’ reallyshould. I’ve seen my honor guard worked up like this only once before—and he held Ian to the wall by his neck that time.
“You’re my peer advisor, Cassian. Not my father. Not my alpha. Saints, you’re not even myfriend. You don’t get to tell me what to do.”
“I’ll have you put on academic probation so fucking quickly your head will spin,” he growls.
I narrow my eyes. “I’d like to see you try. Now get the fuck out of my way.”
“This conversation isn’t over,” he threatens.
I look up with him, letting my arrogant heiress smirk grace my lips. “It is for now,alpha.”
His smoke-and-whiskey eyes crackle with anger as I shove past him. A pathetic, naive omega, dismissing him like he’s nothing to me.
If only my bravado wasn’t betrayed by the way my heart races in my ears, my pulse hammering in my throat as I slam the door behind me.
CHAPTER6
The moment we leave the building, the skin at the back of my neck pebbles with goose bumps. I cringe, ducking my head, but I can’t avoid the weight of the distant figure’s stare. Is it a mirage? A real person my mind has transposed a mask onto the face of?
“Are you okay?” Marcus asks gruffly, his alpha riding him hard. He scrubs at his stubbled jaw and shakes his head, trying to find his composure, just as I did in the classroom Cassian pulled me into.
I sigh. I’m so far from okay it isn’t funny. Do I ache because of Cassian’s sudden cruelty in the face of how kind he was during most of our time together in the practice rooms—not exactly the boy he was but the man I always thought he’d become? “I’m all right. Cassian will bluster and shout at me, but he won’t hurt me.”
“Not intentionally, maybe.”
“There are other alphas I’m far more afraid of,” I say quietly.
Because Cassian was right. Andrew Radcliffe will destroy me.
