ALESSIA
They moved me to Aiden's apartment through a service corridor I hadn't known existed, Ryker's hand at my back the entire way, his pace fast enough to qualify as urgency without ever quite becoming a run.
Aiden was already there when we arrived, phone in hand, mid-conversation with someone at Fred's office, and Carter came through the door ninety seconds behind us looking like a man who had crossed campus faster than his usual composed pace allowed. Jasper arrived last, breathing hard, and the moment he saw me his whole body seemed to make a decision about what mattered more than protocol, because he crossed the room and pulled me into him without asking, and I let him, and something that had been rigid in my spine since the stairwell finally broke.
"The meeting's over," Aiden sa
