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"Take your hand off her," he says, voice cold and lethal.
Kai obeys, hands raised, grin unbothered. “Relax, Vale. It was just a little touch.”
Lexi puts both hands on her hips. “How about you keep your hands to yourself,Motorbike Barbie.”
But the damage is done.
My skin burns where he touched me. My heart pounds like I swallowed a war drum, and the hallway crackles around us with alpha tension.
"Hey!”
A new voice cuts through the tension like a toddler with scissors.
Too loud. Too nasal.
Too beta.
A man rounds the corner in scuffed dress shoes and a staff shirt that looks like it’s been ironed by a lawnmower. There’s a blinking comm piece in his ear and a clipboard under one arm, like he’s cosplaying authority.
“What’s going on back here?"
Of course. Just my luck.
A hall monitor with delusions of grandeur.
He takes one look at the scene - three alphas, one sweating, glassy-eyed omega, and Lexi standing like she’s about to drop a skincare routineanda body - and freezes.
Then the scent hits him.
His nostrils flare, his mouth drops open, and he goes pale like the moment before a fainting goat collapses.
“Oh shit,” he breathes.
Yeah. No kidding.
His gaze bounces between the alphas - Kai too close, Lucian sharp as a blade, Ash coiled in restraint - and then lands on me.
The trembling. The sweat. The too-wide pupils.
“She’s in heat,” he mutters, utterly horrified. “She’s not tagged - not claimed. This is - this is a violation o-of several protocols -of safety measures. We need to report this. I have to-”
His hand twitches toward his comm like it’s a panic button.
I lurch back a step.
“Don’t,” I cry out, but he’s already turning - already lifting it -
Crack.
Kai moves like he’s been waiting for this moment since puberty.
One brutal punch, clean as sin, lands square in the guy’s jaw. The beta goes down like a sack of potatoesand hits the floor -hard-clipboard skittering across the tile like it’s trying to escape the drama.
I gasp.
Lexi shouts, “Holy shit!”
Kai exhales, rolling out his knuckles with a low, satisfied sound.
