Page 112 of Shattered Omega

They had wanted to keep me because they weren’t sure I wasn’t dangerous.

A trickle of blood rolled slowly down my neck from Flynn’s bite, hot against each goosebump it trailed.

Please…

“I’ve been dreaming of biting you since the last time.” Gareth’s breath was hot against my neck. His scent smothered me, vicious and possessive. Doubt turned my stomach, panic lurking at each second that passed.

What would I see if I opened my eyes?

Was it enough?—?

His teeth sank in, making me jump, the bite so much more painful than Dusk’s had been.

“The full, and final effects of the experimentation came when that alpha tried to form a bond with you—a bond you didn’t want.”

I frowned at my Uncle, thinking back to the alpha with a goatee, the bond he had tried to make. “But I tried to say yes.”

“Did you truly want it Shatter?” Uncle asked. “Or were you just afraid?”

I stared at him, unsure how to answer that.

“The want—the true want of an omega matters greatly,” he went on. “Some packs think they can get by with a dark bond simply because a seer will confirm it was accepted. But if it was blackmail, coercion—if it was never truly wanted, there will be sickness in that connection. Those packs wither. They turn on one another, cursed and decaying.

We who study this field for a long time know that truth, even if it is hard to quantify. We might have manufactured the dark and princess bonds, but there is no tricking nature.”

“What does that mean?”

“When he tried to bite you into a connection you didn’t want, he became sick.”

“Sick?”

“Atropa’s poison—the modified substance designed to drive alphas to kill—believing if they don’t they will die themselves. The same poison you were accidentally injected with. That unwanted bite he gave you sent him into a frenzy.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Your blood,” he said. “It poisoned him.”

A click echoed in the room. The sound of a gun cocking.

I heard a low rumbling growl behind Gareth.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” Eric sounded shocked.

Three auras flared, and Gareth’s hands released me as a gunshot split the air.

“But… but I’ve been bitten before,” I said, staring at Uncle, confused.

“I believe the full effects of the poison were only an issue when the bite was intended as a bonding mark—but, more importantly, when it was unwanted.”

“If the Institute knew?—”

“They don’t.”

“That’s what you lied about?”

He leaned back, expression suddenly cool. “If they had discovered your blood became poisonous in defence against unwanted bonds, they would have taken you without a doubt. Perhaps, for the safety of society, but more likely to discover how to reverse engineer such a thing. Alphas and omegas with poisonous blood? I think I’ve seen quite enough experimentation in my lifetime not to contribute more to that.”

“D-did he live?” I asked.

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