“And I think he’s starting to feel the same toward me.”
“Starting to?” Marcus asks, arching a brow. “I’m with Simon on this one. We already know he’s an untouchable, abusive piece of shit. What do you gain from this?”
“I just… I need to know what I’m up against.”
Simon shakes his head and sighs. “I don’t like this, Junes. But for you…” He shoves his pizza aside and drags his laptop onto his lap. “So, when he was a freshman?”
I nod. “The omega’s name was Heather Lindstrom. I found her obituary, but not much else. The authorities declared it a suicide.”
“Wonder how much money traded hands forthatto happen,” Simon mutters, tapping a few keys. The screen lights his face, reflecting in his glasses. “Or what Pack Radcliffe threatened…” He scrubs his hands through his hair, tugging at the ends. “I hate this. All of it. And whatever we fucking find, we’re figuring out a way to protect you better.” He slants a quick glance at Marcus. “No offense intended, man.”
Marcus sits back, resting his weight on his hands. “None taken. I have no excuse or explanation for my first lapse in duties, as to him cornering Juniper yesterday… he hexed me. In public. I didn’t even see him coming.”
“He cornered you yesterday?” Simon growls, sounding more like an alpha than the beta he is. “And he fuckinghexedyou?”
“Before Cassian arrived for Peer Advising, yeah.” I pause and look from Simon to Marcus. “I’m… I’m really scared. He acted like we were going to be mates, that it was a done deal. He said, ‘My bite will look so beautiful on your neck.’”
“Fuck,” Simon mutters. “Fuck! How is a monster like him allowed to just walk free? To keep doing the same shit, but now to a different omega? I don’t fucking get it. Any other alpha would at least be on trial. A beta? Fuck, throw him in prison and throw away the key. I mean, as itshouldbe. But… but for him to get away with all this? I just. I just fucking hate it.”
“Me too,” I whisper. “I can’t be one more thing he gets away with.”
The reflection of his laptop screen flickers in his glasses and a picture appears. All the color floods from Simon’s face and his jaw goes slack. He slams his laptop shut and shoves it away. “No. Fuckingno. You’re not seeing that.”
“I think I should be able to decide that for myself.”
“Then I think you can go look it up your own damn self,” Simon snaps.
I can’t help the startled whine that escapes me.
Simon swears and then pulls me into a hug. “I’m sorry, Junes. Fuck, I shouldn’t have snapped at you, but… but I wishIhadn’t seen that.”
I go limp in his arms and saints, he’s so warm and I fit so perfectly against him. “You don’t need to treat me like a child.”
He holds me closer, tucking my head beneath his chin. “I’m not. I’m treating you like someone I l- like someone I care about.”
Marcus gestures for the laptop. “May I? I need to see what lengths he’ll go to.”
“I don’t think you do,” Simon grumbles, but lets me go only long enough to hand the laptop over.
“Simon is right, sweet-tart. You really shouldn’t see this. No one should,” Marcus says quietly, before carefully closing the laptop and setting it aside. “I’m not any kind of expert but that was a crime of passion. He was in a rage.”
I swallow hard. “Did he… did he violate her?”
“The report suggests it was a possibility.”
I look up at my honor guard and nod my understanding, but inside, I’m hollow. “I need to get stronger,” I say, my voice strained. “Cassian said my shield spells would never stand up against a real hex.”
“Then we work on them. And maybe also punch Cassian in the junk.”
I let out a raw huff of a laugh. “Do you happen to know Bitsy’s magic dick-shrinking spell?”
“I don’t, but for you, I’d learn it. Saints, what an asshole. He knows you’ve been working your ass off. But if you think you need to do this, then we hit the training rooms every tutoring session and any other time you want. Hell, we can go now if you really want to.”
I shake my head against his chest. “I kinda want to eat my feelings and watch a movie?”
He presses a kiss to my forehead and my heart skips a beat. “Then that’s what we do, kit-kat. Whatever you need. Always, Junes.”
* * *
