Saints, how much blood was shed today in the name of this senseless demonstration? How many were hexed and hurt, or even worse?
I wince when my own hexed arm brushes against Cassian’s.
“You’re hurt?” he demands, his scent spiking into something dangerous.
“She was hexed,” Marcus growls. “She needs to see Doc.”
“I’ll be fine, but we need to get to the infirmary. Doc’s about to be inundated. I can help.”
“She can,” Marcus admits, though he’d clearly prefer taking me straight back to the pack house. “She set up a triage in the omega lodge on Night of the Fallen when the Soldiers attacked.”
“I know,” Cassian sighs. “But can’t it be someone else this time? Junes, please, let me take you back to the pack house where I know you’ll be safe.”
“No,” I say. “Not when I can help. Not when this whole attack was my fault to begin with. Rad did all of this to punishme.”
Marcus lets out a low rumbling growl, his scent spiking. Winter wind and towering pine surround me, sharp, almost bitter.
“Don’t, Juniper,” he warns. “Don’t you dare think that way, let alone say shit like that. Rad may have done this to hurt you, but he wasn’t alone. The Soldiers of Saint Aldous have their own motivation. They wanted the whole world to see this attack—and it will. This was an act of terror. A show of power. This isnotyour fault.”
I swallow hard and nod. “I can still help.”
“So be it,” Cassian finally relents. “But you’re not leaving my sight.”
I loop my arms around his neck just like I did when we were slow dancing together and hug him tightly, burying my nose in his neck, nuzzling his skin. “I promise.”
Professor Cadigan stops us at the door. “If you leave with her before the police finish their sweep, you face expulsion or even criminal charges,” he warns. “Campus is under lockdown.”
I’ll see to it myself that the girl is dealt with.
Cassian catches my wince and shoves past the professor, alpha dominance radiating off of him. “I’m taking her to the infirmary. She was hexed onyourwatch.”
There’s a dangerous note in Cassian’s voice that makes me shiver, like it’s taking everything in him not to draw his scribe on the older alpha.
He believes me, I realize. Cassian believes that Cadigan is our mole.
“I’m coming with you!” Alyssa says, launching herself to her feet. “I can help Doc too.” When Cadigan glares at her, she cowers, but she’s quick to find her courage and hold her head high. “My scholarship placement was in the infirmary. Doctor Huong is going to need all the help she can get. I’ll be in the infirmary with Juniper.”
“If you step foot outside this classroom, you take your lives in your own hands,” Cadigan warns us.
Alyssa rolls her warm brown eyes and actually cracks a sardonic smile. “We’re omegas at Fairhaven Academy. We’re used to it by now.”
I grab her hand and give it a squeeze, and she shoots me a grateful smile and a saucy wink.
Cassian takes in my best friend with a faint smile. “Stay close. Haley, watch out for her, please.”
Despite the lockdown, there’s chaos in the hallways as students flee the horrors in their classrooms, streaming toward the infirmary. Police swarm the corridors, trying to quell the mayhem, but it’s no use.
Darika nearly barrels into us, sweeping Alyssa up into her arms with a growl of possession. The alpha woman checks her mate over for injuries and starts to drag her away when Alyssa gives her arm a tug.
“Doc’s going to need my help, babe.”
Darika looks like she’s about to protest, and her expression is so like Cassian’s was. Pure, single-minded alpha possession. The alpha woman finally sighs and nods, but she takes Alyssa’s hand, drawing her scribe with her other. “Fine, but I’m hexing anyone who looks at you funny.”
“Kit-kat!” Simon calls out from down the hall, fighting his way through the crowd toward me, scribe raised. He exchanges one look with Cassian and then examines me from head to toe with gentle touches, letting out a curse when he sees the burn the omega girl’s hex left behind.
“You were hexed!”
It’s nothing compared to the burns my sweet beta is covered in or the swelling in his face that’s surely going to turn into a black eye.
