37. Calliope
Calliope
A shadow moves across the narrow pane beside my office door. Theo looks up first. His fingers tighten around mine, and the warmth leaves his face so quickly that I know who is there before I turn.
Garrett stands in the hallway with a folder beneath one arm. His suit is dark, his tie perfectly aligned, and his expression carries the same polished concern he used whenever he wanted cruelty to sound reasonable.
Every section of my bracelet lights within seconds.
Sloane’s comes first, followed by Idris'. Dash’s flares bright enough that I know someone nearby has already warned him.
Garrett knocks once and opens the door before anyone answers. Zana rises and steps between him and the coffee table, her body angled so she does not block my view of the hallway.
“You were not invited into this meeting,” she says.
Garrett barely looks at her. His attention settles on Theo beside me, then shifts to our joined hands.
“I am here because an active violation has been brought to my attention.” He lifts the folder slightly. “Calliope is in direct contact with an Omega covered by a protection order.”
The moonstone at my throat vibrates sharply. My shoulders draw inward, and my hand begins to loosen around Theo’s as obedience hooks into the part of me that still wants to be good when an Alpha sounds certain.
The vibration breaks the first pull.
I press my thumb against the stone and hold on to Theo.
Zana takes the folder from Garrett’s hand. He allows it because he still believes the papers will control the room once she sees them. She opens the first page, checks the date, and turns to the second.
“This expired months ago,” she says. Her tone is flat now, all warmth gone. She looks toward me instead of Garrett. “Theo did not sign the supporting statement. The court never converted the temporary restriction into a full order.”
I hear her. My body remains on the porch for another breath, waiting for someone to tell me I am no longer allowed inside my own life.
Garrett notices my shaking hands. His eyes soften for the people gathering in the hallway, and the performance settles over him with practiced ease.
“Calliope has a documented pattern of instability around pack transitions,” he says. “Her proximity has repeatedly worsened Theo’s distress. The Alphas around her are encouraging the attachment because it gives them access to an Omega who can't make informed choices.”
Theo presses closer to my side. His scent sharpens, sweetness turning fragile beneath the coffee and paper.
Zana closes the folder. “Leave the office.”
Garrett keeps his gaze on me. “She is clinging to a structure that has already moved beyond her. Allowing this to continue isn't kindness.”
The moonstone vibrates again. This time I feel the command hiding beneath the words.
Be respectful. Do not make a scene. Let the Alphas handle it.
My knees shake when I stand, and the edge of the coffee table catches against my leg. Theo rises with me, his hand still locked around mine, while Zana shifts enough to remain between Garrett and the couch.
“You forged Sloane’s voice,” I say. The words tremble, but they leave me. “You sent money to my account and made it look like he paid me to disappear. You arranged the courier and used this paper after it expired.”
Garrett’s expression changes by almost nothing. I know him well enough now to see the anger beneath the calm. “Calliope, you are distressed,” he says. His voice lowers as though he is trying to spare me embarrassment. “This isn't the place to repeat accusations other people have put in your mouth.”
Tears sting my eyes. I let them fall because stopping to hide them would give him the silence he wants.
“You told every person in that house something different,” I say. “You told Theo I did not want him. You told Sloane that pushing me would make me leave, and you told Idris I needed distance from him. Then you told me they had all chosen not to answer.”
The hallway has gone quiet. I can feel people watching, though Garrett remains the only face I let myself see.
“You are proving why intervention became necessary,” he says, taking one step farther into the office.
Zana lifts one hand. “Do not move closer.”
Garrett stops, but his attention never leaves me. “You were becoming disruptive. Theo needed stability, and the pack needed time to adjust without you turning every change into a crisis.”
“You used my care for them against me,” I say, hearing the break in my voice and continuing through it. “You knew I would step back if I thought Theo needed room. You knew I would ask less if I believed Sloane and Idris were overwhelmed.”
His mouth tightens. “You are making a private pack matter into a public spectacle.”
“You came into my office with expired paperwork.” My fingers tremble in Theo’s grip, though the sentence lands cleanly. “You made it public.”
Theo moves in front of me before I can stop him. His shoulders shake beneath my cardigan, but he plants himself between Garrett and me with his chin lifted.
Garrett’s face hardens for the first time. He lowers his voice, wrapping authority around Theo’s name.
“Theo, you are overwhelmed. Let the Alphas manage this.”
Theo’s fingers find the pendant beneath his shirt. The section of my bracelet that belongs to him burns brighter.
“I never chose you,” he says.
His voice is quiet, but everyone in the hallway hears it.
Garrett goes still.
Theo swallows, and I see how much effort it takes for him to keep speaking. His hand reaches behind him until it finds mine again.
“You kept telling people what I wanted because you were afraid I would say it myself,” he says. “I wanted Callie. I wanted Sloane and Idris. I did not want you deciding where I belonged.”
“You are in a compromised state,” Garrett says. “Your temporary marking and hormonal instability make your judgment unreliable.”
Theo flinches, though he does not move away from me. His hand tightens around mine until our knuckles press together.
“My bite is there because you made me afraid everyone would disappear,” he says. His voice shakes harder now, but the words keep coming. “Callie did not hurt me. You did.”
A sob catches in my throat, and pride rises through the fear so sharply that it almost hurts. Theo is trembling in front of me, speaking with the voice Garrett spent months trying to close.
Garrett reaches for him.
The movement is fast enough to tear the last of the polish from his face. His hand has barely crossed the space before Sloane surges in from the hallway.
I smell him first. Hot cedar and fury flood the hall, followed by the bond snapping tight beneath my ribs as he catches Garrett’s wrist and tears him away from Theo.
Garrett hits the wall beside my office door hard enough to rattle the framed department notice. Sloane pins his arm high against the plaster, his broad body blocking him from the room while rage strips every trace of warmth from his face.
Idris arrives a breath later and takes Garrett’s other arm. He does not slam him again. He locks the joint, steps into Garrett’s balance, and holds him with a cold precision that is somehow more frightening than Sloane’s fury.
The hallway erupts around them. Students retreat toward the opposite wall, someone calls security, and Zana moves to the doorway with Garrett’s expired order still in her hand.
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.
“I know,” I whisper.
His mouth presses against my temple, then Theo’s hair. He keeps holding us while the rage moves through him in hard breaths, refusing to put either of us down before his body believes we are still here.
Idris joins us more quietly. He touches Theo first, sliding one hand along his shoulder until Theo turns and reaches for him. Idris gathers him in without taking him away from Sloane or me, creating room inside the tangle rather than breaking it apart.
His other hand comes to my throat. His thumb brushes beneath the moonstone, checking the skin there before tracing the edge of the pendant.
“It worked,” I say, leaning into his palm. “I still felt him. I knew what he was doing before the words settled.”
Idris' jaw flexes. He bends and presses his mouth to my forehead, holding it there while Theo grips the front of his shirt.
Dash remains near the door until the hallway quiets. He speaks briefly with security, the department chair, and someone from university counsel, his voice low enough that the words blur into procedure.
When Dash opens the office door and comes back inside, the authority leaves his shoulders by degrees. He looks at Theo tucked between Idris and Sloane, then at me in the middle of them, and the worry on his face is so open that I extend my hand before he can ask.
Dash comes to us and takes it. His thumb moves over my knuckles, familiar and careful, before he leans down and kisses my hair.
“I am sorry he reached you here,” he says.
I look around my office, at the coffee spilled across the table and the half-eaten sandwiches beside Zana’s open folder. Garrett entered the room, but he didn’t empty it.
“He didn’t take it,” I say. My voice shakes, but I smile when Theo lifts his head to look at me. “He came into my office, and everyone heard him.”
Theo’s answering smile is small and wet. I brush his hair away from his face before leaning in to kiss his forehead.
Zana sits at the edge of my desk, Garrett’s folder open beside her. She has already photographed the documents and collected the names of the people who saw him enter.
“The university preserved the hallway footage,” she says. “Several students recorded the confrontation. I will need copies of everything, along with statements from each of you while the details are fresh.”
Her tone is businesslike, but she looks at Theo before continuing. “That can happen after you have had water and enough time to breathe.”
Theo nods and keeps one hand in mine.
Dash brings the tray closer, though the coffee has gone cold. He replaces it with the unopened bottle of water and kneels near the couch while Sloane shifts us carefully onto the cushions.
For several minutes, no one tries to move the story forward. Sloane sits with me half across his lap, his hand spread over my stomach. Theo curls against Idris with his feet tucked beneath my thigh, and Dash remains close enough that my knee rests against his shoulder.
The bracelet lights fade one at a time because no one needs the paired pieces while we are all touching.
My breathing steadies slowly. Every time it catches, Sloane’s hand moves over me. Theo keeps stroking the inside of my wrist, and Idris rubs his thumb along the back of Theo’s neck until the sharp sweetness in the room begins to soften.
Dash looks toward Zana only after Theo has finished half the water. “How quickly can we move?”
Zana closes Garrett’s folder. “Faster than we could yesterday.”