Page 105 of Shattered Omega: Part Two

“Then grab them and make them tell us.”

“Decebal shut that down,” Umbra muttered.

“Why?”

“Because they’re it,” Decebal said, leaning back in his chair. “If they panic and lie, we have no way of knowing. We don’t even know if the answers are actionable. I suggested the academy. Bugging them and getting close?—”

“That turned out fucking stellar, didn’t it?” Umbra asked mildly.

“Well, you can’t control your temper, and I wasn’t expecting an omega scrambling Dusk’s brain.”

“Fuck you,” Dusk muttered.

“What about now, with Shatter?” Umbra asked. “She knows all about Arkology shit. She’ll know if they’re telling the truth.”

“No—no. Not enough.” My voice was weak. “I still don’t… I don’t understand what all of this means. I’ve never read anything like this before.”

“Thank you.” Decebal waved at me. “Plus, once they know, there’s no going back, and you’re on your last goddamned life.”

I shivered at that statement.

“Okay. I’m with him,” Ransom said quietly.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Umbra groaned.

“So what’s the plan now? We just go back there and wait?” Ransom asked.

“Yes. You’ll be close if we turn anything up. And the moment they find out she’s their scent match, it’s not like they’ll begoing anywhere—” Decebal cut off at the growl from Dusk. Panic spiked my system, setting me on high alert.

“They only find out if Shatter wants them to.”

Every eye was on me.

What did I look like right now?

Not good. I nodded, trying to swallow back my terror. Instincts still warned of danger, the desperate need I’d harboured to keep that secret when I was in Flynn’s room, praying my scent blockers wouldn’t lapse; it lingered like a bitter taste.

I took another breath, feeling Umbra’s warm touch trailing gently up and down my arm. I was safe with wolfsbane and blood. Midnight opium. Lily of the valley.

Iwassafe.

I realised I’d withdrawn in the bond, curled up and afraid, but I opened it up again, gently reaching out and feeling them there.

Iwassafe.

I was… but… I felt a sudden wave of nausea, and for the first time since I’d run from Eric, the first ripples of hatred.Iwas safe, but they weren’t.

What they’d given me, their words, their actions, the pain—it had made me feel so small. I wanted to turn my back on my own reflection, frightened of how weak and pathetic and worthless I was.

They’d done that to me, and they’d done it before. The very people that made up the fortress at my back, that gave me the strength not to run…

They’d tried to do it to them, too—my pack.

Tried to make them nothing.

My mates had laughed as Dusk and Umbra had been ripped apart—had stood in that room, speaking as though they wereless than human. Making bets, and reducing them to nothing but a game. A bet.

I gripped Umbra’s hand tight, looking back at the papers before us.

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