Page 5 of Shattered Omega

My nest was gone.

That alone had left me with aftershocks that hadn’t faded.

Somewhere in my panic, when Dusk and Umbra were trying to settle me, I’d lost the necklace, too. The golden necklace with their crest that meant they’d claimed me. It was in the rubble of my nest that the Lincoln pack had left behind. I don’t know why I noticed that, the bare skin on my neck making me feel hollow, but I couldn’t shake it somehow.

That wasn’t the worst of it.

The shock of hearing the truth of what Umbra had discovered… I didn’t know if that would ever fade. The Kingsman pack were my mates…?

Last night, when Ransom carried me to Roxy’s door, I was still a mess.

She’d made me peppermint tea and set up one of her rooms for me, which was enough to calm my nerves just enough. I needed to be away from the home that had been stolen—the reflection of what I now knew was my own failure.

The conversation with Umbra and Decebal on the phone still lingered in my head.

“The Lincoln pack are… connected to us?” I’d asked, still not processing what he was saying. “Like, they’re the same pack?”

“More like their pack is connected to yours,” Decebal said. “But they have all the control. It means if they bite you, the bond can pass without us needing to hand it to them. They can steal it.”

That part still sent flutters of fear straight to my heart.

“Do you mean they might try to dark bond Shatter if they open the safe and figure out who we are?” Dusk asked.

“No—they could. But Flynn wants a sure fix to his aura sickness. A princess bond is the only promised cure for that.”

“It still needs Shatter’s acceptance, though. They will never have a princess bond without her saying yes.”

Yet, the truth had lingered between us all. Because the only way for my alphas to be free of the Lincoln pack—for this sickness that was getting worse by the day—was for Flynn Lincoln to give up that connection by choice.

That was what they were afraid of. Not a dark bond at all. The Lincoln pack’s offer of a princess bond if they could give my mates salvation.

Would I take that trade?

Enter a bond with the pack of my nightmares, if it meant Dusk and Umbra would be free?

I knew the answer as well as they did.

If it came to it…

Still, everything we’d learned left me terrified. All this time, my mates had been hidden from me and I hadn’t known… How could I have not known?

Was that something other omegas would have noticed? Something my twisted instincts hadn’t been in tune with?

All night, Ransom and Dusk had held me close in a bed that smelled faintly of fir trees. Umbra hadn’t returned yet. And I’d withdrawn from the bond, closing my eyes and slowing my breathing until they believed I was asleep.

Ransom tumbled into dreams with his arms around me, but Dusk never settled. He stayed, sitting beside me in bed in absolute silence, fingers tangled in mine, thumb stroking my wrist. He was the only one left in the bond. Umbra was awake, but he had vanished a long time ago.

I was glad Dusk stayed in the bond even when the rest of us were gone. His presence helped me feel not so alone.

But he was alone.

If I came out, he would know I was awake. He would know the shame that was growing like a vicious beast within me.

After what felt like hours had passed, I finally felt the flicker of something down the bond. Umbra surfaced.

It was like nothing I’d ever felt from him before—a twisted darkness that went beyond fury or pain. Dusk tensed at my side, the slow movement of his thumb along my wrist halting.

Then, Umbra was gone.

---