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I raised an eyebrow. “Such as?”

We left the medical school building, above which were the King Bedrooms, which, unsurprisingly, were primarily occupied by medical students.

Alarik had offered me one this semester, but I would never leave Azara alone and spend unnecessary money on a room just so girls finally had an address when they wanted to cheat on their boyfriends.

No, thanks.

I headed for one of the smaller campus paths, but Shani stopped.

“Kieran.”

I turned to her.

She had her arms crossed in front of her chest, and her hair looked messy.

Only now did it cross my mind that her dorm neighbor had probably woken her up from her usual afternoon nap when I had taken her a little too roughly from behind and she had screamed her way through half the dorm.

“We need you,” she insisted, and I could tell she had worked all night. “Really.”

If only she knew I was the reason for her problems...

“Harlow didn’t say what she is planning,” she continued when I didn’t respond. “But Jordan suspects she wants to get a team of specialists together. And that would make us look really stupid.”

“You're right,” I laughed, wondering if any specialist Rebecca knew would stand a chance against me.

The DUIO, perhaps, but the Ruisangors and the Quatura distrusted one another. They would never cooperate, except when they had to work together at the DLSC. The pay had to be good.

With a thoughtful look, I met Shani's gaze. “I'll see what I can do.”

A smile appeared on her face, but by then I had already turned away and finally allowed myself to grin.

Of course, I would show up and get an overview of what they had planned against me. And of course I would help.

My grin intensified and I squared my shoulders before pulling my phone out of my pocket to check the Blairville Daily news.

Still no updates. Who could be behind the hacker attacks? Are the Copelands paying an IT specialist to keep the Canadian Department of Education off their backs?

Emely was right. The Copelands had a lot to deal with. But no one knew Rebecca as well as I did. I knew she wanted the university. And I knew she would mercilessly take away what meant the most to Alarik.

What I did was a necessary sacrifice for the pack. Even if that wasn't my intention.

But where did this sudden concern come from? Everything was going according to plan. The games had only just begun.

I turned the next corner and scrolled to the second newspaper article, which covered developments in the missing-person cases and how all the victims seemed to have something in common.

But I didn't get to read any further.

Without warning and completely distracted by my phone, I crashed into someone.

Normally, I was aware of my surroundings, so it completely threw me off balance and I dropped my phone, just as the other person dropped their file folder.

“Sorry,” I mumbled, annoyed at my carelessness, picked up my phone and the file folder, and handed it to the other person, who was adjusting their blouse and tucking a rust-red strand of hair behind their ear...

Confrontation

Christopher Tyng

My breath caught in my throat, and if she hadn't immediately snatched the file from me, I would have dropped it.