Page 26 of The Omega Thief

“Highness, you were born with your wolf, and you matured together surrounded by older wolves who could advise not only you but your beast.”

“You talk as if they were a separate being.”

Laronne smiled. “Do you not refer to him as such?”

Raz huffed, acknowledging Laronne’s words. “What difference does that make?”

“This is a mixture of experience and guesswork, Highness,” Laronne said, cautioning but carrying on. “I can see a scenario where your bonded was poisoned, and with his wolf recognizing this, simply panicked.”

“Panicked?”

He nodded. “He could have absorbed the poison in a desperate attempt to save his human host because he didn’t have the experience to know that their combined strengths would defeat it given time.”

Raz’s heart pounded in awful realization. “Are you saying his wolf sacrificed himself?”

Laronne didn’t reply, but he didn’t have to. “So what we’re seeing now is the result of the tear because Attiker’s wolf has been…overwhelmed—” He didn’t voice any other word. The thought his wolf had sacrificed itself and died unnecessarily was too heartbreaking to comprehend. “A mixture of the sudden bond plus the drugs would make any situation near impossible.”

Raz gazed at Attiker and lightly brushed a stray hair from his face. His breaths still came too slow and light. He fancied he’d warmed, but that simply could be because his own body had grown used to Attiker’s temperature so he wasn’t as aware of it.

“Just so I understand. You’re telling me because he has a young wolf, the wolf, in a possibly misguided attempt to save his life, took on a poison load into his own body that would have been way too much for his system, but together, they would have recovered. Furthermore, because the wolf took on so much poison, he was helpless to counter the effects of the separation? Which is why the tear in the bond has been so catastrophic so quickly…”

Raz ran out of words. It was a maelstrom of such epic proportions he was lost. “And there’s nothing you can give him to counteract the poison? Help his wolf recover?” Raz glanced at Laronne when the healer didn’t reply and followed his gaze with a heavy heart to the bed.

When he saw Attiker’s open eyes, his pulse seemed to leap his body, settling to furiously beat just under his skin. “Bonded,” Raz whispered, hardly daring to believe it. He glanced at Laronne to find grief painting his face. But that made no sense. Attiker was awake. He looked back at his bonded ready to shake him, or kiss him, something, when his eyes settled on Attiker’s open ones, and every beacon of hope in Raz flickered and died. Because the normal warm brown eyes Raz knew were dull, empty.

And in that moment, Raz could have cried because he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that Attiker’s wolf was dead and their bond was irretrievably broken.

Chapter twelve

Attikercouldhearsoftvoices, different to the ones he’d woken up to before. He must be covered because he was warm, or his skin was. Inside was a different matter. Which was a ridiculous thing to be aware of. How could he be warm and held safe and seem so cold and empty inside? It was—

Held? Wait.He was held. A familiar arm was wrapped around him, and he was encased. Attiker kept still. He barely dared breathe.

“Bonded?”

A familiar voice spoke hopefully. Should he answer? It was Raz, so Attiker must be alive. Rescued. That was good, right? Was he sick? Is that why he felt so… His dad would have called itout of sorts. His ma would be fussing, mothering him, and his dad would have just ruffled his hair and told him to enjoy it.

Or that would have happened if they’d both lived. He hadn’t forgotten that, or Grape.The rat bastard.

“I hope you don’t mean me.”

And despite feeling out of sorts, Attiker cracked open his eyes only to see skin. A lot of skin. He inhaled surreptitiously, then risked an upward glance. Yes. It was Raz. Naked. Naked and holding him. Not they hadn’t been in this position before, which seemed to have led to his problems. He bit his lip to make sure he didn’t make any other comment out loud.

“How are you feeling?”

Which was a good question. “Alive,” he settled on, which drew a mild tightening of Raz’s arms, but then he relaxed.

“What do you remember?”

“What am I supposed to remember?” Because that could easily be a trick question.

He heard a sigh and took pity on His Royal Impatience. “I remember being taken by Grape. They didn’t tell me why, but as they used the fever white, I’m guessing it was for some control.” Although that was a good point. “It didn’t work.” His mind was as ornery as always. He wouldn’t have called it sharp exactly, but give him a moment. He was catching up. In the meantime, stubborn would have to do.

After a moment, he had to ask. “How am I not some drooling addict?” His heart clenched, but he pushed that image away.

“Your wolf protected you,” Raz said after a moment. But he didn’t sound happy about it.

“My wolf,” Attiker murmured and thought about that. He didn’t feel large and furry. But then he hadn’t before. Not that he’d had time to think about it much in between getting arrested, assaulted, and kidnapped. Any inner animal was probably keeping quiet and wondering what it had done wrong to deserve Attiker.

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