Shattered Omega: Part Three: A Dark Why Choose Omegaverse

Chapter 1

Madness stirred like a light breeze disturbing dust down an old, forgotten alley.

It was the middle of the night, and I’d just returned. The ruins of my omega’s nest lay about me: splintered wood from pieces of bookshelves and shredded leaves of textbooks strewn across the floor. The air was cool from the broken window across the hall in Dusk’s room.

The Lincoln pack—alphas I now knew held territory even within the bounds of my pack and family—had broken into our home to take more.

All of what was under my protection, destroyed.

What should be hers, gone.

More taken from me, just like it had been taken before…

Carnage lurked around every corner, white walls of the old facility were now a canvas of crimson. Alphas executed in cages like mutts that had used up their value.

We were next.

I was weak, leaning on Dusk to stay up. With every step, congealing blood glued my feet to the floor. He was mine to save.

My pack…

More gunshots sounded in the distance.

In Shatter’s nest, the covers and sheets upon the bed were torn, their fluffy, white insides spread across the room. Pens and pencils were snapped and scattered around.

Her desk was broken, splintered in two, and there were deep gouges across the walls.

It was everything important to her. My precious omega’s perfect world.

“Nothing you have is yours…” Vandle’s voice echoed in my head.

I hadn’t protected her—we couldn’t, not even with the one thing that should be ours to offer. The greatest gift an alpha was born with. Yet, her sanctuary, the safety we’d promised, was poisoned. Just like the bond upon her neck—the ultimate claim and commitment we had to offer.

It was turned to dust before our eyes.

Cracked walls of hallway after hallway looked the same. Footsteps echoed down the next, every sound bouncing dully off of concrete.

In seconds, we were met with guns, and two men clad in suits, wearing masks.

My aura flared, just for a moment, then shuttered out. I was too weak. The only body I had in this life, stripped to the bone from test after test.

They were going to take him from me…

We were dead.

A low growl shuddered in my chest as Dusk stepped in front of me, his aura flaring. Stronger than mine now.

It would do no good.

When the gunshots sounded, I tensed, desperate to die before I saw his body like the rest.

Only, it wasn’t Dusk that fell.

Our executioners crumpled, gunshots ringing in my ears, but we were caught by only the splintering dust and debris from where a bullet exploded into the old concrete at our left.

Behind them was another. An alpha that did not look like he should be here at all. His auburn hair was in a messy bun, and he wore a dress shirt, vest, and jeans like he was going on a night out in the city. His pure white sneakers were smeared with splatters of red.

A gun trembled in his grip, but he lowered it, piercing green eyes widening as he saw us.

“Umbra.”

At Dusk’s voice, the vision died, and I glanced toward the door of Shatter’s nest. He was leaning against the doorframe, and I wondered how long he had been there. The faint scent of midnight opium, dark vanilla with sharp ambers, was grounding and familiar.

And… I blinked… how long had my aura been out?

…Not yours…

I shoved away that thought.

“Why aren’t you with her?” My voice was a barely audible rasp.

The thought shook me from my daze, and I went tense, about to go to her. She was in Roxy’s apartment tonight.

“Ransom can keep her safe,” Dusk said quietly.

The unspoken other half of that sentence was like a cruel taunt in the silence.

Better than either of us…

A simple touch from Flynn, and that might be the end for me. We were, I realised, perhaps the only alphas in the world who were completely debilitated when it came to protecting her from the Lincoln pack.

“You should be with her, too,” he said as he entered. I caught the shift in his scent, the bitter edges of midnight opium becoming sharp as he stepped over torn paper and wreckage.

I didn’t answer as he sat on the bed at my side.

“I checked out,” I said, voice quiet. “I let this happen.”

“You didn’t check out,” he replied, and I opened my mouth, but he got there first. “You needed to heal?—”

“I—”

“Or I wouldn’t have had anyone left.” His words shook with something beyond irritation. That was fear I felt from him in the bond.

I clenched my jaw, taking another deep breath. “Well. I’m out of time.”

For healing…? Is that what I had done, anyway? As I’d slowly carved a painting across my body, one scar at a time?

A painting that was, after all of this, useless.

I had become weak, and maybe it hadn’t mattered before, but now Ransom was back. Now we had her…

My little Nightshade, gentle and sweet.

She didn’t deserve this… Not the person I had turned into. A person who should never have been allowed to be. Pushed by Dusk to change—when this nightmare had been going on the whole time.

When had I become fool enough to believe I deserved that?

Shatter needed better.

And I knew Dusk wasn’t ready to do what had to be done if it came to it—to protect her, like we had so far failed to do.

He couldn’t.

He wasn’t the one at the epicentre.

Not like I was.

He would stop me if it meant losing me, but I didn’t know that we could afford that anymore. We were cursed, and he wasn’t ready to face the truth.

That there might come a day when there was only one option if we wanted her freedom.

And maybe—just maybe, if I did it, then she would be enough to save what remained of him…

“Umbra.”Dusk’s voice was cold as he felt me through the bond.

My claim swept in, a fist closing around his place in the pack.

When Dusk had taken pack lead from me, I had been so broken I hadn’t cared if I lived or died. The only thing keeping me here was him, and he had told me I needed to let it go.

Myaura was stronger, though.

Strong enough to stabilise another alpha’s aura sickness… Strong enough to take pack lead back.

I had been too late last time—to protect what was mine. It might have been from another life, beyond memory, but that scar remained, a disruption across my soul that would never fade.

I could never be too late again. Not with her. There would be no coming back from that. The world would burn, and I would turn to ashes with it.

“Don’t make it a fight.” My voice was rough.

We could skip this part.

He could hand it over.

I tilted my head, gaze sliding to him.

His jaw was clenched, lips drawn in the faintest snarl, whole body coiled as if anticipating a strike.

“Why?”

A storm was coming, and what was going to happen next? It wasn’t possible she wouldn’t be a part of this; she was tangled too deep.

“I will do what needs to be done,” I said quietly. I would protect her without hesitation or remorse, even if it meant she hated me.

But I could already feel his conviction. Dusk wouldn’t give it up.

“I won’t lose you while saving her.” He sounded so sure. So… Dusk.

Stubborn and impossible.

And for years, his words created the realities I existed in. Unquestioning. Too broken to push back.

But backing down wasn’t an option for me.

For her.

I got to my feet, aura crackling in the air. It felt strange to me now I knew why it was so fragmented.

Dusk still hadn’t loosed his aura.

I turned to him. He hadn’t moved, a vicious expression frozen on his face. His rich skin was ashen, and fists balled at his lap.

It wouldn’t last.

He would fight. His side of the bond was wide open. That conviction of his swallowed him whole.

Fine.

This was how it was going to be. I could end it fast, and he would recover quickly enough.

I could feel the person Id become over years of sickness now falling away, a weakness drowning in what lay beneath.

And beneath was darkness.

That was the person Shatter needed now.

But before I moved, the air changed, the scent of poisoned petals sweeping in like a tide, and my gaze snapped to the door.

“Shatter?”

Myomega.

My… my stolen mate.

Why was she here?

In nothing but an oversized black T-shirt and socks that revealed the smooth tawny skin of her bare legs. She must have walked like that from Roxy’s apartment—ran, if the heavy heaving of her chest was an indicator. Her honey hair was up in a messy bun, the redness of her eyes was visible even from here in the dim light from the hallway. Distress from what had happened—from the ruin of this very room.

“What’s happening?” Her voice was quiet, but I heard the quake in it. Her golden eyes flickered between us.

She was as bright as the day I’d first met her, a blinding star.

My shadows waned, and I tensed, trying for a moment to claw them back.

“Nothing,” I told her.

She had to go back to Ransom where she was safe.

Well… Not dressed like that. Absolutely not.

“What are you doing?” she pushed.

“It’s… between me and Dusk.”

“I don’t…” She swallowed, brows bunching. “I don’t think it is.” I saw the way she bit her lip to try and stop it from trembling.

No, no.

This was wrong.

She had been hurt enough tonight.

I couldn’t do this in front of her, could I? I tried to conjure all the conviction back, but she took a step, then paused, the sole of her foot in nothing but socks, touching the nest floor. I saw the shiver pass through her, like she was treading into a nightmare, but she barely hesitated.

Oh—“Wait!” I crossed to meet her. There were splinters of wood still scattered everywhere, and she would hurt her delicate little feet.

My mind wavered, tugged from darkness to light, and back again, and I barely noticed that by the time I’d drawn her up into my arms, my aura had vanished completely.

She cupped my cheeks, a frown still shadowing her face. “Tell me.”

My gaze found Dusk for a moment. He was watching me carefully as if he didn’t know what I was going to do.

I shut my eyes for a moment, inhaling her scent, and the calm that flooded in was like a drug. I stepped back to the bed and sank down onto it, holding her against me tightly, the tension in my body uncoiling.