Page 138 of Shattered Omega: Part One

Umbra...

For Umbra it would be worse.

“...Dusk...!” The most beautiful voice pulled me back from the edge of insanity. From the edge of collapse. From tumbling, mind and body, from the edge of the cliff to which my whole pack was clinging. “...What’s going on...?”

She was here.

Her grip was tight. She was... Shatter was helping keep me steady. It was easier to keep my feet knowing that.

“Should I get help...?” Her words floated into my scrambled brain.

“NO!”My growl was unsteady.

No.

No one else could see us like this. It was dangerous. We could lose everything.

But she was ours.

She would...

“Umbra...”I hadto tell her.

I heard how frantic she was, fear etched into every syllable of words I couldn’t comprehend. I was trying to take a step with her weight beneath me. So small, yet she hadn’t let me go...

Time behaved strangely. There was a mist of rain on my skin. A blur of orange leaves and grass beneath each staggering footstep. She hadn’t left and she was taking us behind the buildings. The back way to keep us out of sight… Stairs blurred in my vision, and with each footfall agony threatened to steal me away.

Then we were facing a door. My hand was pressed to it, my bones still rattling in their joints. The clink of keys sent my head pounding, as if someone had rung a tower bell in my skull.

Then we were inside. Home. I knew from my pack’s scents—of hers, which was here still, a salve on a burn.

Umbra.

He must be upstairs. But she couldn’t help him... not yet.

I was at the counter, fumbling with drawers until I found the right one. Another key from my keychain... Shatter helped me, and then I was pressing a bottle into her hands.

She looked terrified. “D-Dusk… What’s happening?” She fumbled with the pill bottle.

“Umbra...” My voice was barely working.

“He... I give them to him?” she asked.

No.

I tried to shake my head. “You... take them.” She had to... to take the pills. There were two left. That was enough.

“These are...?” Her voice cracked as she realised. “I don’t understand.”

“Your scent...” He needed her.

Ouromega.

I’d given her scent blockers only hours before, but there were two pills left. Her scent would return in minutes. The pain of my knees smashing to marble was a faint echo beneath the earth rending agony of the bond. It was on fire, crumbling to pieces. Umbra at the middle of it all.

“...Dusk...!”

Blackness edged in now I knew she had them.

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