Page 37 of Shattered Omega

But I couldn’t deny I was curious. I’d been thinking long and hard about Umbra’s tricks—and how Dusk had warned me away from playing his games when I’d first met them. I’d picked tails and lost, Ransom had picked tails and lost—and Umbra was always so sure about it. I think I knew what was going on.

“Heads or tails?” Umbra asked.

“Choose heads,” I hissed at Ransom. “You’ll win.”

Umbra raised an eyebrow, a smirk on his face that gutted my confidence.

“Heads,” Ransom said, glancing from me to Umbra.

Umbra rummaged in his pocket and took out what I knew had to be a trick coin. I couldn’t contain the smile on my face as he flipped it. He caught it, hand over palm, and peered at me.

“You sure?” Ransom asked me.

“Yes.” I folded my arms, eyes narrowed, suddenly unsure as I caught the twinkle of delight in Umbra’s sandstorm eyes.

My grin vanished as he lifted his hand and I saw the coin was tails up.

“What?” I asked.

“Fuck.” Ransom wound his arms around my waist. “But I want her.”

Umbra grinned, crossing his arms and looking to me.

“But I thought…” I pouted.

Well, fuck.

I kissed Ransom on the cheek and unwound his arms. “Later,” I promised him. “All the cuddles.”

“It might be prudent,” Dusk murmured, not looking up from the textbook chapter he was examining. “To make him take the coin out of his pocket before you pick a side.”

I paused, staring between them before it clicked.

“You have two?” I demanded, as Umbra happily tugged me onto his lap.

Of course he had two.

“Okay. It’s a mega important class today,” I said. Kind of. Not like… solve-my-pack’s-problems important (I’d scoured the textbooks repeatedly, so I was just hoping for new angles from the professors at this point). But there was a guest speaker I really wanted to listen to. “You’re not allowed to distract me.”

“But that’s the point,” Umbra chuckled. “You’re too smart. If I don’t distract you, no one else stands a chance.”

“It’s school, not a competition.”

“Everything’s a competition,” he said.

At first, it wasn’t too bad. Umbra’s muted wolfsbane and blood scent was always a little distracting, but once Professor Audrey began talking about her study on the recent discoveries on the difference between male and female alpha auras, I was really settled in. Actually, it was quite nice having the warmth of Umbra’s arms around me.

I got a lot of stares nowadays and I was getting better at ignoring them. The Lincoln pack were in this class too, but the gentle brush of Umbra’s thumb at my waist was grounding. It helped me forget the others in the room and focus on the lecture.

That was until he leaned forward and whispered a command in my ear.

My cheeks blazed with heat.

“I can’t do that,” I whined. But my body was already betraying me as I shifted on his lap, readjusting my legs on either side of him. I jumped as I felt his hand against the small of my back. “Lean forward, Nightshade.”

Oh… bother.

“You can’t make it obvious,” I hissed.

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