Page 16 of Shattered Omega

Her voice shook when she spoke. “We could set it up. Trick them?—”

“I won’t risk it.” The only way to ensure they didn’t take her from us, if they ever learned the truth, would be hiding her away so they couldn’t find her.

She couldn’t be near this.

“We stay to buy time,” Ransom said. “Stall them with the expectation of negotiations while we work on other solutions. Even by staying for a discussion, they’ll think a trade for Shatter is on the table and they just haven’t come up with a good enough offer yet.”

“What if they… they bit me, and then you…” She swallowed. “Then you…” Her lip trembled for a moment as she wrung the sheet between her fists.

And then we killed them?

I would—in a heartbeat. If any alpha in that pack ever put a tooth on her again, he wouldn’t walk away.

I shook my head.

“Why?” she asked. “It’s not–”

“Negotiations aren’t that cut and dry,” Ransom replied. “They’ll know that’s a risk—we made it clear at the ball that we care about you. There’s no way they’ll agree to any of it until they have better control over the situation. If they take you, you’re not going to be more than a cure to them. People with their kind of money… there’s a million places in this country they could hide an omega where she’d never be found. Not unless they wanted it.”

There was a long, uncomfortable silence before I broke it. “That’s the plan for now, then.” I hated it, but Shatter was right. If we left, the clock might run out on me and Umbra. “When they come back, we make them believe negotiations are on the table. In the meantime, we figure out another way.”

“I don’t fucking like it,” Umbra growled.

“We’re gonna fix it,” Shatter said, looking at me. “You want another way. This whole bond between Flynn and the pack—I think it’s a new type of aura contract.”

“Aura contract?” Umbra asked. “That’s an Arkology thing, right?”

“Yes. An aura contract is the predictable response of auras in forming a connection when presented with consistent equations developed?—”

“It’s pack bonds, right?” Ransom asked, cutting her off, looking confused at her answer.

She nodded. “Alpha to alpha, alpha to omega, that kind of thing.”

“If there’s another way around this, you think it’ll be to do with that?” I asked.

“I think so,” Shatter said. “I’m going to need new textbooks. And anything Decebal has on studies about aura contracts.”

I nodded. “Okay.”

Ransom rose first from the pillow fort, giving Shatter a quick kiss before he left.

“Guess I’ll get textbooks,” he said when he let her go.

Would he even know what books to get? The man had been feral for years.

Shatter caught his wrist before he could leave. “Do you want me to make a list?” she asked. “I need specific ones.” Ransom looked confused. “There’s like a list for the classes? It can’t be that complicated.”

Shatter frantically shook her head, her beautiful curls bouncing back and forth. “I need the right editions.”

“Why don’t you tell him, he can write a list?”

Ransom grinned, pulling out his phone as Shatter began rattling off her books, occasionally shooting dark looks at the ripped pieces of textbooks across her nest floor.

When we were done, Umbra had left to begin the kitchen clean up, and I was left alone with her.

She was still upset, I could see that, but I didn’t know if there was a way that we would see eye to eye on this.

I sank to my knees before her and tugged her to the edge of the bed. She chewed on her lip but didn’t meet my eyes.

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