Page 108 of Shattered Omega

Everyone in the room felt it the moment Umbra’s aura untethered.

The Lincoln pack had tried to run.

Umbra, moving faster than should be possible, shoved me back so hard the world spun.

That wasn’t what broke my world into pieces. It was feeling him detach, as if with every flare of his aura, he was being ripped free of it entirely.

A gunshot fired, but when I pushed myself up, no one seemed to be hit. Umbra had Gareth by the neck and he was dragging him back into the room before slamming the door.

My head was ringing, panic choking my lungs and making it hard to breathe.

How long before he was gone?

Before he was dead?

With every burst in which he used his strength, he was ripping energy from himself. And when that fire burned out…

“No…!” My word came out half growl, half groan of agony.

He wasn’t just destroying himself, he was ripping a wound across our whole pack. One that would fall to pieces when he was gone.

If he felt that same pain, he didn’t show it as he held Gareth. I heard the bone crack in Gareth’s arm as he flung him against the wall and his scream rent the air.

Eric cowered in the corner, and their gun—or what remained of it—was an almost crumpled ball of metal.

Umbra had as much power as he wanted, but the more he used, the faster he would die.

He turned from Gareth, going instead for Flynn. Flynn held his hands up, eyes wide with terror. “W-wait! We can?—”

Umbra seized him.

Flynn’s aura was like a wisp in the air, nothing beside Umbra’s.

Eric used the opportunity to scramble for the door.

Trying to find purpose or direction, I threw myself toward him, a growl rising in my throat.

They would die tonight.

And my brother would die with them…

I shoved the thought away, flaring my aura before I was caught by another wave of agony, blistering and white hot.

I recognized it. The exact same thing I’d felt when I’d touched Flynn only weeks ago.

The floor came up to meet me and I struggled to stay conscious.

Umbra… was… I tried to make my mind focus.

He was pinning Flynn to the wall by his neck. I felt the pain of that touch as if it were mine, but his eyes burned with hatred, not seeming to feel the agony, only the power surging through his veins.

I tried again to stagger to my feet.

The only reason Flynn wasn’t dead was because Umbra didn’t want him dead yet.

“You took everything.” Umbra’s voice was guttural. There was nothing left of him—of that man who’d saved me over and over.

A memory flashed behind my eyes.

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