Page 89 of Shattered Omega

He still looked empty inside but those dark eyes met mine, and he leaned against the doorframe, crossing his arms and staring past me at the pack behind.

Okay.

Okay. I clasped my fingers. I could… I could do this.

I turned, seeing Flynn, Gareth and Eric waiting. Gareth was lounging on another of the clinical looking metal chairs, Flynn was perched on the edge of the table, cracked beer in his fist, and Eric was leaning against the wall, arms crossed, watching me darkly.

Their scents were all in here;. passionfruit, sesame seeds and sunflower, and coconut and plum. It was hard to put a dam on the memories that tried to surge back at those scents.

I watched Flynn’s gaze drop from my eyes to my chin and neck, and a shadow crossed his face.

Bruising, maybe?

Gareth was staring, too, before shooting Eric a glare.

Flynn cleared his throat. “As I’m sure you know, we intend to make you an offer you don’t deserve,” he said. “But only if you help us.”

“Help you?” My voice cracked. I tried to find the balance. I couldn’t fall into their arms too quickly, not if I wanted this to be believable. Some of my hatred and fear of them, I think I needed that. “You… hurt me. You forced me to… to…” I trailed off, unable to say it, not looking toward Eric. Trying to shove away the memories of their teeth on my flesh, on the way Flynn had held me still while?—

“Forced you to what?” Eric asked, raising an eyebrow. “You blame us for our response when you hid the scent match all this time?” He leaned forward. “When you told us you were stalking us, then tried to pretend you didn’t want?—”

“Th-that’s not—” I swallowed, hand jumping to my collarbone. To the canvas of scars they’d left on my skin.

“We were pushed to the edge of insanity,” Eric snarled. “We didn’t hurt you, we claimed you. How could we not? You tricked us, lying about the scent match and driving us mad—what did you think was going to happen?” he asked. “What alpha would have done differently, knowing you’d just spent a heat with them? Not knowing why it was twisting us up.”

I stared between them, trying to ground myself, to find a plan amidst my panic.

Flynn was the one who went on. “We’re willing to take you back even after you’ve been defiled by other alphas—yet it seems you’re nothing but ungrateful.”

I recoiled, heart thundering in my ears as I stared at him with wide eyes. I opened my mouth, ready for… for what, I didn’t know. Venom rose in my chest, hatred like I’d never felt.

Ungrateful?

The pause, the blinding fury at what he’d just said. It was the only thing that saved me. I froze, suddenly dragging every ounce of hatred to a screeching halt as my mind scrambled with that.

No… I took a breath. Now I was here, now they were talking, I could hear echoes of these words in what Ransom had told me they’d said.

I knew this part.

They still believed that I was trapped in the middle of this, caught between a dark bond and mates who’d rejected me. They still believed everything that I’d wanted them to believe the day I’d put on that dress that revealed all of my scars.

I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to find my voice.

“You still… you still want me?” My voice was weak.

“That’s why we brought you here, but you will first understand how much you have to make up for. A princess bond is no small offer—not to an omega like you.”

“Why… why would you do that?” I asked.

“We are not the kind of alphas who would leave behind a scent match,” Flynn said.

That was a lie.

They would leave me a thousand times over, if they didn’t need this bond. But they didn’t know I knew that.

“You haven’t made this easy,” Flynn went on. “Your lies have left us humiliated, and even when we bit you, you asked for him—when you could have just told us about the scent match.”

“I… I was going to.” My mind raced, still dizzy with this card I was trying to play. “I was—that’s why I needed Roxy to help me figure it out b-because she was your omega and she would know if you would still want me when you found out I was gold pack… But Dusk knew I was—he had a picture, and he told me I could never tell you, so I had to be sure.”

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