Page 111 of Shattered Omega: Part Two

Then I felt her prodding at me through the bond. I made sure it was open for her. It was hard not to feel calm with her scent everywhere and her touch occasionally brushing my neck or cheek as she worked through my hair.

“You’re done with the information, then?” I asked at last.

“Oh no. Um… You seemed a bit stressed… in the bond.”

My hair stress was that obvious?

Sure. Right, that was my problem. Not the looming threat of the death of my packmates I’d just been delivered by Decebal.

I let her continue detangling my hair for a little longer before I dared ask. “What’s the takeaway?”

There was a long pause, and when she spoke, it was in a small whisper. “It’s… bad.”

My heart sank.

I’d looked through the papers, I’d processed it—to the best I could, though I didn’t have the mind she obviously did.

“Will you help me save them?” She sounded anxious. “Both of them.”

I froze, and the hairbrush halted its movement.

“What do you mean?” I asked. The meeting we just had was proof enough that saving them was exactly what we were trying to do.

“Dusk is…” She trailed off, hairbrush falling away, and I shifted so I could see her. She settled on her knees before me, something pleading in her eyes. “He spends so much time thinking about you and Umbra and… and me, that anything he’s planning might…”

“Leave him behind?” I asked.

She cocked her head, the look in her eyes confirming it as she examined me. Her wide eyes were a storm of nerves and ferocity the likes of which I’d never seen.

“There are other options he didn’t have before—ones that could help, but he’s not going to want to try them.”

I narrowed my eyes. “If it helps Dusk, it helps Umbra. He’ll be in. Why don’t you want him to know?”

She chewed on her lip, eyes calculated. “Because they involve me.”

I considered that, but I didn’t think it was the full truth; not if she was coming to me instead of him. “You mean they might hurt you?”

“No. I mean…” She tugged on a lock of hair. “Not necessarily. But my… my scent matches are involved. I think he’s going to shut down anything that might make me a part of it.”

“They hurt you.” That fact was a hot coal, constantly present in the pit of my stomach, igniting rage at every reminder.

Her brows drew down and the nightshade in the room turned sharp. “They’re hurting Dusk and Umbra.”

“But you think it might put you at risk.”

“I don’t know. I need to go through some of my Arkology books, but I have some ideas…”

“I don’t want you in the firing line, Little Reaper. You’re already more a part of this than you should be?—”

I cut off as her hand snapped out, grabbing my shirt in her fist, eyes blazing. “You didn’t see them the day Dusk collapsed. You didn’t see how close to death they were—what Umbra was doing to stay alive.” Her voice cracked, tears filling her eyes. “I think that’s where they’re headed, and we can’t risk being too late.”

I stared at her, hating, once again, how much I’d missed.

“This is it for me, I’m already a part of it. You—they—are my pack. My family. It’s all I’ve dreamed of. I won’t…” She took a breath, voice shaking. “I’m not going to let them die.”

Warmth spread through my veins. With every corner I turned and every new thing I learned about her, she became more extraordinary.

“Okay,” I said. If being her support is what I had to offer this pack, I would do that. And I would make damn sure whatever insane plan her crazy little brain came up with didn’t get her hurt in the process.

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