Alarmed when personal assistant stole (8)
I believe the answer is:
panicked
'alarmed' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both to do with human feelings as well as being past participle verbs.
Perhaps there's a link between them I don't understand?
'personal assistant stole' is the wordplay.
'personal assistant' becomes 'PA' (abbreviation).
'stole' becomes 'nicked' (I've seen this before).
'pa'+'nicked'='PANICKED'
'when' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for panicked that I've seen before include "Unnnerved" , "lost nerve" , "Became frantic with fear" , "Scared" .)