Niko gave her a lopsided smile—the brilliant, beautiful flash of teeth that he shared with the camera, and never her.
“Thanks, Carter.” His attention flicked to her chest for a second, his eyes darkening briefly before clearing so fast she could have easily imagined the shadow of emotion. “You good?”
She nodded, her throat tight.
He surveyed her for a second more before passing her and finding his seat, leaving her to face Kilian. She froze, waiting as Kilian stepped up to her, his pale eyes brushing over the flowers in her arms. “Those for me, Illy?”
He had used her nickname. That seemed significant, somehow. Like he was secretly telling her that everything was fine. Theodore was the only one who used her nickname, the rest of them choosing to call her by her first name, her last name, her rank, or a random—sometimes disparaging—pet name. And sometimes the name of a literal pet.
She nodded, holding the bundle of flowers out silently.
His eyes lightened, crinkling at the corners, his lush lips quirking up. Her heart threatened to tear out of her chest. Holy crap she was nervous.
Theodore brushed past, arms overflowing with snacks, dark brows shifting up slightly at the way they were just standing there, trying to find words to speak to each other. “Little help?” he grumbled, palming half the paper cones off to Kilian.
“No flowers for the other two?” Elijah asked, striding across the platform and taking a seat, his attention shifting around distractedly. He seemed agitated to have a close-up lens focussed on him. His eyes came to a rest on Isobel, cataloguing her confused expression. “You didn’t know,” he concluded before she could say anything. “It’s Moses and Theo’s birthday tomorrow. That’s why it’s such a big party, we’re doing all the birthdays at once.”
Isobel whacked Theodore across the chest. “Why wouldn’t you tell me!”
He shrugged, smirking at her as he took his seat, reminding her that she never should have vacated it. Cian had moved to the seat with his name tag on it, Kilian settling beside Theodore, offering him a single daisy from the bunch he held. Theodore tucked it behind his ear, still smirking at Isobel. Moses stared at Niko’s bouquet, waiting for a pity flower, but Niko only moved it to his other side, out of Moses’ reach, pretending not to notice.
Gabriel stepped up onto the platform, finding his own seat quietly, and then Oscar stalked over to the last free seat as most of the spotlights around the lake suddenly dimmed, the projection screen flickering to life, sound booming from speakers all around them. Soft lights remained focussed on the eight chairs, highlighting them in a gentle golden glow.
Kilian crooked his finger at her, and she cast a quick look over the crowd. Her closeness to Kilian was exactly what had gotten her into so much trouble in the first place … but fuck Eve. And Aron.
And all the rest of them.
Kilian was the only Alpha she could safely be close to without it having to mean anything. He was the first person she was really comfortable with since her mother, and that wasn’t something she could ignore.
She began walking over to him, but Theodore caught her attention before she got there, holding out several paper cones full of chocolate. She bit down on her lip as she gathered them up, thanking him quietly and casting a quick look to the far seat on the right. Sato was lounged back, as lazily as he possibly could in the bucket chair, the hood of his jacket pulled up around his face, casting most of it into shadow now that the lights weren’t as bright. He still had all the paper cones he had apparently confiscated off Theodore, and he didn’t look like he was about to share them anytime soon.
He held one out to her, wiggling it a little before passing it to Cian and muttering something in the other Alpha’s ear. Cian passed it along to Kilian, his face completely blank. Kilian was sitting cross-legged, having already kicked his shoes off, the chairs almost wide enough to fit two people in them.
“I think this is for you,” he said, as she reached him.
The cone was full of baby carrots.
“For variety,” Sato explained, somehow forcing his gritty voice to sound almost friendly.
“Thanks,” she bit out, trying not to glare at him.
He only smiled back. Or at least she thought he was smiling. He might have been leering. It was hard to tell because she wasn’t sure how far his lips were capable of stretching.
Kilian pulled her into his lap, and she settled back against him, cuddling all her snacks to her chest as the movie started. It was a cult classic, one she had already seen a few times before.
Kilian looped an arm around her middle, his other hand dipping into one of her cones to steal a chocolate. “Are we supposed to watch the movie?” he asked lightly. “Why all the cameras? It’s like they expect us to do something else.”
“We could do something else.” Niko leaned around Theodore to speak to Kilian. “I’m not attached to the movie.”
“It is our birthday,” Kilian mused, his voice brushing against her ear, making her want to squirm.
“What do you want to do?” Cian asked, sounding bored.
“Let’s play a game.” Theodore whipped out his phone. “We’ll let the fans pick.” His fingers flew across the screen. “This whole thing is live, so …”
“They’re already asking us to play confessions, aren’t they?” Elijah asked.
“Literally fifty comments saying exactly that,” Theodore answered.
“This is live?” Isobel whispered.
“Didn’t you look at the camera?” Kilian spoke the words against her temple this time, lowly enough that the microphone might not have picked them up.
She shrugged. She absolutely hadn’t, but she did now, staring directly into the lens and noticing the small sign on top of the camera, stating that they were being recorded live.
“All right,” Cian drawled. “Let’s play confessions. Everyone gets three passes. We need a punishment for the first person out and a reward for the last person standing.”
Kilian pulled his phone out, resting it on Isobel’s thigh as he pulled her tighter back against him, notching his chin on her shoulder to look at his screen. He brought up the live broadcast and scrolled to the chat, where the comments were flooding in. Isobel pretended to be reading them as well, but her mind was already wandering.
Maybe Moses wouldn’t make her go through with trying to ruin Wallis’ life?
She cut her eyes past Theodore, taking in Moses’ lounging posture and dark, brooding expression. He sighed out an unhappy sound, diverting his attention from the movie and tipping his head forward to peer down the line of chairs. He seemed to be looking at Sato, but then his eyes slid to her. She quickly looked away.