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Ruari disappeared into the kitchen, reappeared with a Chelsea bun on a plate, and set it in front of Cassian with enough force that the plate skidded the last inch on its own.

Cassian picked up the bun and took a perfect bite. He rose onto his toes to press a kiss to Ruari’s cheek. It was the reward he gave his alpha whenever Ruari provided for him, but Ruari didn’t bring his face down any closer, like he usually would have.

“Ruari. Are you angry at me?”

Ruari’s hands curled into fists.

“We talked about this,” Cassian said. “We talked about me needing to study, and you said it was a good idea.” His voice climbed. “And it’s paid off, Ruari. I’ve done well, and I came straight here to tell you first since you’re my alpha and you’re supposed to be happy…”

Ruari walked into the kitchen, and the door swung shut behind him. Cassian stood on the other side and tried the handle. It didn’t give.

He pressed his forehead against the kitchen door.

“Alpha,” he said softly.

There was no response.

Cassian slid down until he was sitting on the floor with his spine pressed to the doorframe and his knees drawn up to his chin. From behind the door came the sound of a tap running.

“Alpha,” he said again, louder, testing whether the word still worked.

The morning light moved across the café floor in a slow crawl, catching the edge of the display case and throwing a bright stripe onto the opposite wall.

“Alpha?”

Cassian took his mobile out and opened the MOAN group chat. Felix’s last message was a photo of Fallon wearing a tiny yellow raincoat. Cassian typed my alpha won’t talk to me. what do i do? Then he put his mobile away and pressed his cheek to the doorframe.

“Alpha,” he called out. “I’m still here.”

The door opened, and Cassian’s whole face rearranged itself into the most appealing grin he could manage. Always receive your alpha’s moods with radiance. No matter what.

“Ruari!”

But it was just Raf standing there. “Hey, Cass.” Raf crouched down to where Cassian was sitting. “We’ve got a busy morning coming up. Deliveries and that to deal with. Maybe come back tomorrow, yeah?”

Cassian looked past Raf’s shoulder to the kitchen door, which was open now but showed nothing beyond the edge of the steel counter and the fluorescent strip light buzzing above it.

“Is he okay?”

“He’s just having a day, mate. You know how it is.”

Cassian didn’t know how it was. That was the whole problem, but Raf was too busy pulling a paper bag from beneath the counter and filling it with treats to answer more questions.

Raf folded the top of the bag down twice and held it out to him.

“He’ll be all right, Cass. Just give him a bit of space.”

Cassian took the bag. He stood up, brushed the flour dust off his joggers, and turned towards the kitchen one last time.

“Bye, alpha,” he called out brightly. “I’ll come back tomorrow and tell you about it all then.”

Cassian spent every minute of the walk home replaying the one-sided conversation.

He let himself into the Ledbury Road house quietly. The moment his bedroom door was shut behind him, he pulled the shoebox of his most important things out from under his bed.

His notebooks lived in here. There were three of them now, since he’d been doing a lot of research, and had been rewriting old notes for practice now that he was getting so much better with his spelling.

He opened the newest one to the first page.