The way he looks at RJ — not challenging, not yielding, something that takes more effort than either — and walks past us down the corridor.
RJ turns to watch him go. His grip on my hand tightens.
"I know," I say.
He looks at me. The yellow has almost faded from the edges of his eyes.
"Alex," he says.
"Still here," I say.
He pulls me close and presses his face into my hair and breathes.
I hold on and feel the bond running warm and new between us and underneath it the condition sitting quiet and real.
First light decides what happens next.
And the system is still watching.
Chapter nineteen
Alex
The knock comes before first light has fully gone.
RJ feels it before I do — his arm tightening around me, his body coming alert in the particular way it does when something external enters his awareness. I'm already awake. I've been mostly awake for a while, lying in the narrow bed in his room with his arm locked around me and the bond running warm between us.
First light. The assessment.
I sit up. RJ sits up with me.
"It's okay," I say.
His eyes are on the door. Still slightly wrong at the edges — the yellow not fully gone even after sleep. He slept in pieces — present and then suddenly not, his body jerking back to alertat sounds I couldn't hear, his hand finding me in the dark each time like checking I was still there.
The knock again.
I go to the door.
Tomlinson is in the corridor. Jacket over a sweater, the acting headmaster face not fully assembled yet — something underneath it that is just a man who got up early because something needed doing.
"When you're ready," he says. Quiet. Not rushed.
I look back at RJ.
He's on the edge of the bed, watching Tomlinson with that held stillness — dominant alpha reading something he hasn't categorized yet. His jaw is set. His hands are loose on his knees but only just.
"You have your assessment this morning," I say. "Your regular schedule after. I'll come find you later."
Something moves through his face.
"RJ." I cross back and take his jaw and make him look at me instead of the door. "I'm not leaving Feral Academy. I'm here. You do your schedule. I come find you after."
He looks at me for a long moment. The yellow pushes forward and then he drags it back.
"Alex," he says.
"I know," I say. "Schedule first."
