Page 116 of Shattered Omega

It was another reminder of her beauty.

She made me human.

Decebal set a beer on the table to my right before cracking his own and sitting on the couch beside me.

“Roxy’s on the way.”

“She is?” I asked.

“Blew up every pack number she has. Told her the location. She sounded on the edge of a breakdown.”

I nodded. That was good. Shatter needed all the support she could get when she woke up.

“What about the police?”

“We wiped everything from that room but the Lincoln pack. Removed all evidence of you or her. Kai made sure it looked like a bad trip. Contaminated drugs have been an issue recently. He laced some with the poison and left it on the scene.”

“And Mord?” He knew we’d been there. “How much did he see?”

“Pretty much everything. We found you just in time for the Lincoln pack to fire the last bullet.”

“Did he give you trouble?”

“The opposite,” Decebal snorted. “When we realised what had happened, he seemed to find it funny. Said he’d got his pay and vanished. Gone before we got your door unlocked.” He shrugged. “Sato’s not in the habit of running his mouth to the cops. Not worth picking a fight over if you ask me.”

I nodded, rubbing my face, still trying to catch up on everything.

“I’m sorry, mate,” Decebal said quietly. “All of this—years, just to bail on you at the end.”

“Nah,” I grunted. The building was massive, it was pure luck who’d run into who. “Anyway, you were there.”

That was worth the world, getting that door open so one of us could be there for her.

I’d never been frozen a day in my life, but holding her eyes through the glass, I hadn’t been able to move. Even when she was shaking. It had been Umbra, weak as he was, who’d staggered past Decebal and Kai to get to her.

She’d sunk into his arms, clutching him like her life depended on it, and I’d felt the drive in him through the bond.

He’d been on the brink of collapse, pushed to the edge and ripped back.

But he’d had to be there for her.

“Nothing stronger than a princess bond, Dusk. They’re both going to be fine.”

“I know.”

There was a pause.

“The injection didn’t work.”

And despite that, it had all worked out—somehow. Shatter, I realised now, had been holding onto her plan the whole time. One that cost her everything. And yet, if I’d managed what I’d tried for—partially cleaving from the pack so I could save them all from Flynn... If Ransom had lost himself, and Umbra had untethered... Well, I don’t know. It was possible the pack would have fallen apart before she could have saved us.

“That was Kai.” Decebal said, something a little sour in his voice. “Umbra contacted him. Told him he knew I’d be trying something stupid. That weasel swapped out the vials on me.”

“All so he could try something stupider?” I scowled. “He could have died.”

“Same goes for you,” Decebal said quietly.

I turned on him, furious. “Umbra would have died without her—no two ways about it.”

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