Elijah and Gabriel both came to her practice session that afternoon, using the other half of the room to quietly do their own thing as she picked her song and did a few stretches, sneaking glances at them from beneath her eyelashes.
They had said they wouldn’t intrude on her session, but she was still uncomfortable enough to surreptitiously spy on them for a few minutes.
They had paired both of their headphones with Gabriel’s phone and seemed to be working out the choreography for a song she couldn’t hear. It seemed complicated—too complicated for her to follow, until she realised it wasn’t just a dance for one or two people. It was group choreography.
She forced herself to tune them out, grabbing her phone and watching through the last recording she had made of her end-of-year piece for Dance Acrobatics. After identifying her problem areas, she restarted her music and cycled through the routine. Once, and then twice, and then three times.
With each repetition, she only grew more frustrated. The moves were good, but they weren’t great, and Professor Lye had announced that he would be grading their final performances over the last two days of class. He was restricting his third-year class to the top ten performers, which made it incredibly competitive, especially when most of the other students were pairing up to better their chances. She wasn’t sure if it was her slow recovery from the Vermont attack or not, but something was off with her dancing.
“Need a hand?” Gabriel’s quiet tone made her head whip up.
She focussed on the bench where he and Elijah had relocated to at some point without her noticing.
She spun on her heel, approaching them, and hitting Pause on her music. “Is it that bad?”
“It’s a little forced.” Elijah leaned up against the wall, his posture relaxed. “But you’re still healing.”
Gabriel shrugged, apparently agreeing with the other Alpha.
“Forced how?” she demanded, a little too quickly, before focussing on Elijah. “And what are you doing for your final performance?”
“For Lye?” he asked, cocking his head. “I choreographed a dance, but I’ve run into casting issues.”
“Casting issues?” she asked, as Gabriel snorted.
“He doesn’t want to dance with anyone,” Gabriel supplied. “But since Lye’s third-year class is a partner class, he still prepared partner choreography.”
“Oh.” She glanced between them, waiting for Elijah to get upset that Gabriel was teasing him, but Elijah remained relaxed, a small smile hooking at the edges of his mouth. “I didn’t realise. You barely come to class. I don’t know how you get away with it.”
“I send Lye weekly recordings of my progress.” Elijah leaned forward an inch, a spark lighting up his gaze. “He seems … content. Are you scoping me out, Sigma?”
“You are my competition.” She sniffed, crossing her arms. “I want to get into Lye’s class next year too.”
“Why?” Gabriel cocked a brow. “It’s an Acro Duo class. Duo being the key word.”
She widened her eyes at him in mock horror. “Are you saying I don’t have any friends?”
He smirked, but it wasn’t cruel. It was … weirdly intimate. And it was Gabriel, so that added a whole other layer of weird to the intimacy.
“He’s saying you’re very selective about who gets close to you.” Elijah sounded almost bored.
“Yep,” Gabriel’s lips popped on the word. “And Acro Duo work is a whole lot of getting close.”
“Are you on the wait list?” she asked, because it really sounded like he was, which was surprising. She couldn’t picture Gabriel dripping in sweat, with chalk-dusted hands, tangled up with a dance partner.
Gabriel crooked his finger at her instead of answering. She glanced at Elijah, but he only dropped his head to the side, his eyes sweeping over her, a challenging glint entering his expression. She stepped toward Gabriel, stopping between his knees.
“Come here,” he muttered, tilting his chin up.
She ducked down, assuming he didn’t want his words overheard, her eyes flickering nervously between his.
He was showing her that spark of personality again, that little hint of interest that he usually buried behind a wall of cool, calm, and collected.
“Closer, Puppy.”
She made a face at him. It probably looked scared.
Elijah chuckled, and the sound urged her to quickly duck her face beside Gabriel’s, his dark blond hair brushing her nose. His scent was soothing and gentle, so subtle it made her want to press her nose to his skin and inhale. He was clean and crisp like fresh linen hung out to dry in the sun. It was so comforting it almost made her toes curl as she imagined slipping into a bed with fresh cotton sheets drifting against her skin.
“We’re going to need to know all the classes you want to waitlist for next year.”
“Why?” She drew back just enough to look at him in the eye again, but he nudged his head to the side, silently demanding she move closer again.
When she tucked her head back beside his, this time, she felt his fingers on the back of her knee. The touch seemed experimental, just a light brush of his fingertips testing out the surface of her skin. She immediately got goosebumps, the hollow ache inside her growing just that little bit sharper.
“Because we need to make sure there’s at least one of us in each of your classes,” he whispered.
She started to draw back again, to demand why again, but this time both his hands wrapped around the backs of her thighs, jerking her forward until her chest slapped against his, her thighs pressing between his. She could even feel the hard brush of muscle against her stomach through their clothes. His scent was something she could have easily gulped up just for the rush of comfort it gave her, but his touch had the opposite effect, making her so nervous she almost felt sick.
“Because,” he muttered, answering the “why” she hadn’t had a chance to ask, “bad things happen when we leave you alone.”
“Welcome to the world,” she whispered back, feeling Elijah’s silent attention on the side of her face. “Bad things happen. You can’t stop them.”
“Dance with Elijah.”
“No,” she said reflexively.
“Why not?” he sounded amused.
“B-Because.” She drew back again, and this time he let her. She flicked a look to Elijah, but his expression was blank and relaxed—still. It was actually mildly infuriating at this point. She wanted to see him ruffled.
“Because?” Gabriel prompted.
“I don’t know.” She disentangled herself and quickly restarted her playlist, running through her routine a few more times before finally giving up. It was getting worse. She wasn’t as fluid as she had been before the settlement tour, and her stamina wasn’t the same.