Page 170 of Shattered Omega: Part Two

And every scar she now carried.

It was because… it was because of me.

“Nothing is yours,” Vandle whispered. “Everything yours is theirs. Even if she should be, she isn’t. She’s their mate.”

There was a long, long silence as his words sank in.

“You love her?” he asked.

My voice was rough. “Of course I love her.”

He cocked his head. “Then a bond was a cruel gift.”

“The bond?” I asked.

No. It was the only thing we had been able to give her.

“I do wonder what your parasite thought when the cure continued after the facility shut down. He must be waiting for the miracle he gambled on to vanish. I can imagine he and his pack are searching for other solutions. Solutions like her.”

“Never.”

“Tell me. Does she love you?”

“Yes.”

“And what happens if you dark bond another pack’s mate?”

I frowned. “They… they can negotiate. The scent matches can make an offer to trade for the bond. But it’sourchoice if we hand it over?—”

Vandal cut me off. “It’s a princess bond… Which means shealsohas a say?—”

“She hates them.”

“And yet, they have the most powerful bargaining chip in existence.”

I stared at him, the realisation dawning on me before he even said it.

“They hold the keys to your salvation.”

“We would… still have to give up the bond.” It would be our choice before hers. That was how it worked.

It was why the dark bond Dusk had given her offered her safety. Our bite meant she couldn’t be bitten by another.

Mates were the one exception. They could offer the princess bond, but it wasn’t just that she had to accept.Wehad to choose to give it up, too.

“I told you,” Vandle breathed. “Nothing in this world is yours, 66, not your body, your soul, not your aura. What makes you think you could claim an omega?”

My aura flared, fear blinding me as I seized him by the shirt.“She is not theirs.”

“They can steal her from you. If that pack bites her, it will be like your bond doesn’t exist,” he hissed. “And the moment they learn who you are, they will know that too.”

FORTY-TWO

SHATTER

When I reached the apartment, I felt safe at last.

It was late in the evening now, and I’d survived the ball.

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