Page 10 of What We Don't Say: Part Two

Zana watches that with a grimness I trust more than sympathy. “Theo, I’m going to ask you a few questions. You can answer as much or as little as you want. No one in this room is going to let Garrett come in while I’m asking.”

Theo nods against Sloane’s chest. “Okay.”

“Did you ask Calliope to leave?”

“No.” He turns his face enough to look at Zana. His voice is soft, but it doesn’t break apart. “I asked for her. I called her. She didn’t answer.”

“Did you tell anyone you didn’t want her in the house during your heat?”

Theo’s fingers tighten on my shirt. “No. I wanted her there. I wanted her before the heat opened, and then when it got bad, I still wanted her. Garrett said maybe I was confused because she made me feel safe outside the proper bond structure.”

Sloane’s scent spikes so sharply the lamp beside the sofa rattles. Theo flinches, and Sloane’s face collapses again. “Shit. Sorry. Fuck, Theo, I’m sorry.”

Zana’s pen stops. She looks at Sloane until he drags himself back under control, then at me. “Write down every phrase like that as close to exact as possible. Garrett’s language matters.”

I reach for the legal pad. My hand is steady. I'm proud of that in a distant, hateful way. “He also said Theo’s reactivity toward the head Alpha of record wasn’t sustainable.”

Zana writes longer this time. “There it is.”

“What?” Sloane asks.

“The threat wearing a suit.” Zana sets her bag on the floor and finally sits in the chair opposite us. “He’s telling you he can make Theo’s placement part of the battlefield. That means you don’t give him unstable behavior to document. You don’t break into accounts. You don’t storm campuses. You don’t go looking for Callie’s friends in person like two Alphas who’ve been told their mate asked for distance.”

Sloane surges forward. Theo’s hand catches his shirt. That is the only thing that stops him. “Her friends might know where she is. Mara, maybe, or someone from Briarwick. I don’t have their numbers because Callie handled her life like she was allowed to keep pieces of it, and now I can’t reach a single person who might know if she’s breathing. So what do you want me to do? Sit here and print fucking timelines?”

“I want you to stay useful to Callie,” Zana says, and the word useful cuts through the room so sharply that even she hears it. Her mouth tightens. “I chose that poorly. I want you to stay able to help her. If you go to Briarwick demanding friends’ names after what happened at the sister campus, Garrett can point to a pattern. You went to one campus and frightened staff badly enough that they locked down. Then you went to another hunting for her contacts. He turns your search into harassment. He turns your panic into evidence that Callie needed protection from you.”

Sloane’s face goes white under the fury. “She doesn’t need protection from me.”

“I believe you.” Zana leans forward, voice cutting lower. “But belief isn't the operating currency right now. Paper is. Procedure is. Whoever got to the system first is speaking through it, and right now the system is speaking in a voice that harms you and isolates Callie. I’ll reach out to the campus in a legal capacity. Carefully. In writing where possible. Through proper channels. If they refuse or flag the inquiry, that tells us something too. But neither of you is going to give them a second feral Alpha visit to put in a memo.”

The room goes quiet except for Theo’s uneven breathing. Sloane looks at his phone again, and I know what he sees because I see it in my own mind: Callie’s contact, her name, her face if he has the photo attached, the impossible closeness of the call button. His thumb twitches. Theo watches it, then looks away like hope hurts to witness.

“We also need Kade,” Sloane says, quieter now, more dangerous because the rage has focused. “He can get into Garrett’s phone, email, whatever routing system he’s using. Don’t tell me there isn’t one. Calls don’t fail like this by accident. Messages don’t sound like legal memos by accident. Kade can get us proof before Garrett buries it.”

“No,” Zana says.

Sloane’s head snaps up, and I feel my own control strain because this is where I agree with him. Kade could be in Garrett’s digital life before nightfall.

Zana looks at me because she sees agreement on my face. “Last resort. Not first move. If Kade breaks in now and Garrett can trace it, Garrett gets to say Sloane is unstable, Idris is conspiring, and their outside security contacts are illegally accessing protected communications during a Bellwether placement crisis. Then your proof becomes poisonous. A judgemight never look at what you found because of how you found it.”

“Then what the fuck do we do?” Sloane asks, and the words rip out loud enough that Theo’s purr snaps into a frightened, broken vibration. Sloane recoils like he has struck him. “Fuck. Sorry. Sweetheart, I’m sorry.” He gathers Theo close, both hands careful on his back, his voice dropping until it is almost a whisper. “You don’t have to calm me. That’s not your job. I’m sorry.”

Theo’s arms go around him anyway. “I don’t like when the room gets sharp.”

“I know.” Sloane’s eyes lift to mine over Theo’s head, wet and vicious. “I know.”

I look at Zana because if Sloane has to keep swallowing knives, someone needs to name where we are putting them. “What can we do today?”

Zana pulls the first folder toward her. “You give me copies of everything you legally have. Dr. Mercer’s note. Bellwether placement documents. Pack structure filings. Screenshots of messages as they appear on your devices. The welfare concern case number. Names of campus staff you spoke to, but no follow-up by you. Times Garrett left, returned, spoke, threatened, touched Theo’s placement. Every statement he made about Callie choosing distance. Every statement he made about Theo being confused by her.”

I nod and reach for the scanner app on my phone. “You’ll take them back?”

“I’ll take copies. I’ll review properly from my office, and I’ll make controlled inquiries. I’ll find out whether anyone entered a restriction or no-contact request, who filed it, what language was used, and whether Callie was served or warned. I’ll check Bellwether procedure for interrupted heats and head Alpha challenges. I’ll reach campus through counsel-facing channelsand see what they’re willing to confirm. If they scrutinize the inquiry, we’ll learn from the shape of the scrutiny.”

Sloane’s hand stills on Theo’s back. “You think they’ll scrutinize you.”

“I think someone may have told them this is a protected situation involving a bonded Alpha who shouldn’t have access.” Zana’s voice stays even, but there is anger under it now, old and disciplined. “If so, I need to find that out without handing them your face and your scent as confirmation.”