Page 105 of What We Don't Say: Part Two

Garrett looks past Sloane toward me. “This is what she has brought into your university. Violent Alphas attacking an attorney because a Beta can't accept the end of a pack relationship.”

Sloane’s grip tightens. The bond burns with everything he wants to do, and I see the instant his control begins to fray.

“Sloane.” My voice cracks around his name.

He turns his head as I look at him and let him see that I need this to end with Garrett removed, documented, and alive enough to lose everything he used against us.

“Security is coming,” I say. “Please.”

Sloane’s chest rises against the effort of breathing. Idris shifts his hold, taking more of Garrett’s weight while Sloane steps back far enough to let the hallway exist around them again.

Campus security arrives with Dash directly behind them. He has lost the soft expression he wears with students, though his voice remains controlled when he identifies himself and points to my open office.

“He entered Professor Monroe’s office after being told he was not invited,” Dash says. “He presented expired legal paperwork as active and attempted to use Alpha authority against two members of the university community. There are witnesses in the hallway.”

Garrett straightens as soon as Idris releases him into the officers’ custody. His suit is rumpled at the shoulder, but he reaches for composure with both hands.

“This is a private pack dispute.”

“It stopped being private when you entered her workplace.” Dash’s gaze stays fixed on him. “You are being removed from campus. The university will issue a formal no-trespass notice before the end of the day.”

Garrett looks toward Theo again. “You will regret letting them use you.”

Theo presses back into me, and I wrap both arms around his middle. He is shaking hard enough that I feel it through my chest, but he lifts his head.

“You don't get to tell me what I feel,” he says.

The officers turn Garrett toward the stairwell. He resists only long enough to notice the phones pointed in his direction, then allows himself to be escorted away.

The moment he disappears, my knees stop holding me.

Theo turns at the same time I do, and we fold into each other beside the couch. His arms lock around my waist while mine close over his shoulders, and the room fills with the sound of both of us trying to breathe.

Zana closes the office door on the watching hallway. The latch clicks, and some of the pressure leaves the room, though my body continues to shake against Theo’s.

“You spoke,” I whisper into his hair.

Theo presses his face into my neck. “I thought the words were going to stop.”

“They did not.”

His breath breaks against my skin. I hold him tighter, rubbing one hand between his shoulder blades while the other cups the back of his head.

“They came because you should not have had to stand there alone,” I tell him. “What you said was yours.”

Theo makes a small sound and nods against me. The cardigan has slipped from one shoulder, and I pull it back into place before kissing his temple.

Sloane comes into the office without closing the distance immediately. His hands are shaking at his sides, and his gaze moves over me and Theo as though he is counting every place Garrett might have touched.

I reach for him.

He crosses the room in two strides and gathers both of us against his chest. One arm wraps around my back, the other closes around Theo, and the bond surges with enough force to make my eyes burn all over again.

Sloane buries his face in my hair. His breath is rough against my scalp, and his whole body remains tight around the violence he stopped himself from using.

“I wanted to break his fucking face,” he mutters.

The words are muffled against me, furious and honest. I curl one hand into the front of his shirt and feel his heartbeat hammer beneath my knuckles.