Page 72 of Shattered Omega

I doubted it, though.

A long few seconds passed before I heard a few quiet footfalls, and Mord Sato appeared around the corner of the shelf. He stepped past the table and dropped onto the bench opposite.

He considered me for a long moment, dark eyebrows cocked.

“You know,” he said mildly. “She seems just the temperament the Lincoln pack are looking for. Obedient. Quiet. Ready to please.”

A little flare of rage stirred my touchy alpha instinct as I took him in. His scent was strange, ebony and something unreadable. He had a jagged scar down the left side of his face, dark eyes that seemed to see everything, and long black hair, tied up loosely. The alpha who’d just watched something that belonged to me.

Would it be helpful to just… put a bullet in his skull right now?

Middle of a library might be pushing it, even for me. But I’d killed more dangerous men than Mord Sato in the name of my pack’s safety.

Or purely for vengeance.

I stamped it all down, knowing that any reaction I gave was information. I didn’t want him believing there was more to my relationship with Shatter.

As I cooled my thoughts off, I realised I didn’t buy what he claimed.

“That’s why you’re skulking in libraries? To check my omega’s temperament?” Not a chance in hell. “What a waste of talent.”

“And what is it you think of my talent?” he asked, something humorous glinting in his eyes.

“I know it’s below your paygrade to be hired by rich cowards to fight their battles.”

“Want to know a secret?” Mord asked, absently fixing the stack of books on the table a previous student had left.

I raised an eyebrow, waiting.

“I had no intention of taking this case before I read up on you and your so-called brother. Far too many holes to make sense—and the more I poked, the less my client’s claims seemed like paranoia.”

“That doesn’t change the nature of the job,” I replied. “A fall from grace for the man who put Riot in the GPRE sights.”

Mord snorted, a flash of genuine delight in his eyes. “I truly love that rumour.”

“It’s not true?” I don’t know why he wouldn’t want it. Lie or not, Riot was one of New Oxford’s most notorious criminals—he hadn’t been caught by the GPRE, but Mord’s involvement had brought it down to the wire according to Decebal.

Mord considered that. “I suppose it is, more or less.”

“And now you’re cleaning up frat boy messes?”

“I enjoy difficult puzzles. Call it professional curiosity.”

“Professional curiosity?” I wasn’t buying it.

“I’ll tell you, if you’d like to hear.”

“Tell me what?”

“Why I took the case.”

I cocked my head, waiting, unsure if I should expect a lie.

“Your pack’s hidden paper trail has a Harpy signature—don’t worry too much, you can’t hide in plain sight without a trail of some kind. It’s… lets say Harpy, but…” He nodded his head in a so-so motion. “Not quite. Ex-member, non-drug related—which rounds it down to one guy in the city.”

I frowned. He wasn’t far off at all. Both Decebal and his pack mate, Kai, were from the Harpy Gang in the Gritch District. They’d got out, which didn’t happen often, but it was Kai who was responsible for all of our forged documents.

“The arrogant leader of the Mandela pack might get involved with distasteful operations to boost his fragile ego, but that only makes the fact that his pack mate, Kai Ekkon, can’t be bought all the more stark. He’s one of the best, and notoriously ethical, which begs the question, what have you—with your dark bonded omega—done to convince him to help?” Mord asked.

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