Page 44 of Shattered Omega: Part Three

“Flynn.” I nodded, then ordered a drink when the waitress appeared.

Flynn waited until she’d gone before fixing me with an all-business look. Seemed he wasn’t wasting time. “Things have become far too messy. I thought a proper talk was in order, but I hope this can stay between you and me,” he said. “We’re the same. Both in packs with alphas that didn’t grow up in our calibre.”

I met his eyes, nodding slowly and watching as he relaxed a bit when I didn’t argue.

“You had me worried at the ball. Dusk… Well, he seems to have a vendetta, but you… Well, you surprised me. I didn’t think you would agree with him.”

I raised my eyebrows. “I do not like assumptions made of me,” I said, hearing my father in my words.

Distasteful, but he knew how to spin a conversation to get what he wanted from it. And what I wanted from Flynn was to give him the impression there was a possibility of an alliance with me. It would cool down the urgency to open the safe, or villainise Shatter.

Flynn nodded, swallowing before taking a sip of his drink.

“We were taken aback. I hope you understand. You haven’t been here, though we don’t know why…” He trailed off.

“I was recovering from an illness.”

Flynn’s eyebrows shot up, and I could see a flash of relief in his eyes. “That’s why you weren’t here at the start of term?”

I nodded. There was one issue I had to tackle. When Shatter was with them, I’d turned up at their apartment and almost put one of them through a wall. “I wasn’t made aware that she was your mate.”

Flynn shifted, eyes calculating. “None of them told you?”

I shook my head as the waitress returned with my drink.

“What about the bond?” he asked when she was gone.

“Again. I had just got back the night I showed up at yours. I knew very little.”

“Dusk bit her,” Flynn said, eyeing me. “Did he speak to you before that?”

“No.”

Flynn’s eyebrows rose, and I saw a glimmer of hope in them. “Your pack has gone rogue, Kingsman. I’m sure your parents warned you about being selective with pack mates.”

“Incessantly,” I said, forcing the bitterness into my voice.

Flynn grinned, relaxing considerably as he took a sip of his drink. “I get it, you know? Why do you think I’m with Eric and Gareth? They were well off enough, but nothing like us. I needed a change—my own control.”

I let out a breath, making myself smile. “Yeh. It was… something like that.”

Flynn was nodding almost to himself. “You know, maybe our parents were onto something. I can’t imagine, if I was… indisposed… Eric and Gareth would… well. Not to say I don’t trust them, but this kind of money and power… how easily it could go to their heads…” He looked at me, and I realised he was waiting for me to confirm it.

“I think you’re exactly right.”

“People see our power, and it drives them mad. They want in, but they’ll never have it, not truly. Real power, you’re born with it. Eric and Gareth could take pack lead, could throw my money around, but they’d never truly hold the power I was raised for.”

I nodded despite the irony. Flynn wasn’t anywhere close to my family’s league. He was still of the wealth level that wanted to show it off. Even my father, horrible as he was, had done everything he could to remain as quiet to the public face as possible.

Flynn went on, clearly entranced by the sound of his own voice. “You were sick, and he was in control. Then he discovered she was our match—somehow, and I don’t know how. He must have got it from her. And he realised he could do it again, just like he did to you. Perhaps it’s a game, something to make him feel worth more than us.”

I nodded quietly. This was the direction I needed the conversation to go, and Flynn seemed happy to lead us there.

“It’s a complicated situation,” I added. “Dusk is pack lead, and he…” I trailed off like I was contemplating sharing. “He took more than pack lead when I was sick.”

“He has control over the estate, doesn’t he?” Flynn said, voice hushed eagerly. “Sato did some digging.”

“Like I said, this situation is complicated.”

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