Chapter 9
“What did he want?” Dusk asked.
“He had a lot of questions,” I said. “About the bond and my pack. He wanted to know if I wanted to be in the bond?—”
“What did you tell him?”
“I didn’t say anything. Not directly. I let him… come to his own conclusion.”
Dusk relaxed—well, as much as he could after what had happened. No alpha in this room was comfortable that I’d been taken in broad daylight.
We were back in the apartment, and I was sitting on Umbra’s lap on the couch. I knew he was the most unstable right now. His arms were wound around my waist, discomfort stark from him through the bond. Dusk and Ransom were mirrors of that. I could see they were shaken.
“I need you to go over every question he asked.”
“Okay. I can write it all down.” It was easier to remember details when I pretended I was studying or doing homework.
“For now, Shatter never leaves our sight,” Dusk was saying. “Not even for one class.”
“The Lincoln pack wants to meet with me,” Ransom said, looking up from his phone. “Got a text from… Flynn, it looks like.”
“He just wants to see you?” I asked.
What did that mean?
Ransom wrinkled his nose in disgust. “Probably wants to know if there’s a…”
“Rich prick connection?” Dusk supplied.
“I can go,” he said. “They likely want to see if there’s any way I can get them a trade for Shatter, but it could give information about where they’re at—what they’ve figured out.”
“You sure?”
“I haven’t done anything else to help yet, have I? And this was the plan. Stall them until we have a better option.”
“Alright.” Dusk looked like he was processing. “You go, we need to know where they’re at. But give away as little as possible.”
“I’ll tell them early next week. We can get a list of shit I can try to get out of them if I can play my cards right.”
Dusk nodded. “And I’m getting everything Decebal has on Mord. Until then, we play it safe. Shatter sticks with us everywhere.”
“What about school rules?” I asked. We weren’t allowed weapons on campus. Mord had only gotten away with it because he wasn’t caught.
“They don’t give a shit about school rules, so neither do I. But I need to know you’re onboard with this, too. I thought we were being careful enough before, but if Decebal says Mord is bad news, I’m not risking anything.”
I hugged myself, sinking against Umbra. “Yeh.” I didn’t like how afraid I was of the Lincoln pack, and to be honest, I felt much stronger when they were with me, anyway.
But there was one issue with how fast this was escalating. There was one place I had in mind for answers about the bond Umbra and Dusk had with the Lincoln pack, and if I sought it out, I knew I needed to do it alone.
True to their word, I went to bed that night among all three of my alphas. Dusk hugged me close, with Ransom on the other side, and Umbra behind him.
There was now officially a sleep schedule on the fridge since my alphas were at risk of knocking each other out in the fight to cuddle me without it. I loved them so much. Mord and the Lincoln pack were a problem, but until anything else happened, I needed to do my job of balancing them.
Their attraction to me certainly felt relevant to that. Even in Omega Studies, there was a huge focus on making sure your alphas were obsessed. There hadn’t, however, been a single chapter on early morning fights and fridge sleeping schedules.
I think they needed to update their curriculum.
I smiled at the thought, wriggling against Dusk contentedly and inhaling the soothing scent of midnight opium.
One more day of school—with all of them in Arkology classes, and then it was the weekend. They would protect me, and I would protect them. We were going to survive—I had to convince myself of that.
There was one thing I couldn’t shake—something that nagged as I closed my eyes.
Mord’s words, right before he’d left, stuck like a barnacle. I’d been too scared to process them fully at the time, but now they were irritants. Puzzle pieces that wouldn’t fit anywhere right.
I think I’d figured out the first.
Geo-tracking a bonded omega wasn’t an Arkological function of bonds. Alphas could not locate the omega they’d bitten, nor the other way around. But Arkological methods weren’t the only thing Dusk had access to.
Dusk had bugged me.
That’s how they knew where I was today.
It also answered a faint question that had been nagging me since he’d found me at the library. There was no reason at all he should have known I was there, but I’d been too caught up in the emotional aftermath of hearing what Eric had said about me to Roxy that day.
I wondered again if I was being paranoid, then almost snorted out loud. I wouldn’t put it past Dusk for a second.
Really, I should have guessed. It was a very Dusk thing to do.
I’d thought back to everything I had on me that day. Bag and pencil case had been easy to search this evening with them around, but I’d come up blank. Clothing wouldn’t be reliable, which left one option.
But searching my boots wasn’t easily done while they were all in the living room.
I lay in bed awake for a long time, waiting until Dusk’s breathing was slow and his arms had slackened around me.
Then, with the utmost care I managed to slip from his arms and off the bed. Pillows that smelled like me would do for a short while. I slipped through my bedroom door and down the hall.
This shouldn’t take long. Then I’d be back, and Dusk would never know.
I kneeled beside the front door and picked up my boots. Carefully, I examined every side, crack, and crevice. Finally, my fingers hit a bump.
I tugged the leather inside out to peer at what I’d found.
“Ha!” I declared. “Sneaky fucking alphas.”
The little black piece was latched on securely, placed in the upper lip near the laces, and where I’d never feel it.
He was tracing me.
I left it. I wasn’t offended that Dusk wanted to know where I was, but if I took it off now, he’d know I knew.
Then I wouldn’t be able to get around it when I needed to.
Emboldened by my success, I set my boots back and stood, now reconsidering the other thing that had surprised Mord today.
The conversation with him had gotten me this far.
He’d mentioned my admission papers and documentation, and some of those were in the safe we no longer had. I crossed to the kitchen and opened the third drawer on the island where Dusk kept other documents—the less serious stuff.
Within, there were the pack’s admission papers, folders with copies of identity documents of the pack, including me. But then…
I frowned, seeing my name on one tucked at the back. It was alone, as if Dusk didn’t want it paired with the others.
My chest was tight as I retrieved it, concern scratching at the back of my mind. But when I scanned the document, my mouth fell open in shock.
I read it over again, and again.
It was official documentation as far as I could tell—even if it was definitely, definitely, forged.
My name was on it.
Shatter Kingsman.
And suddenly I understood Mord’s surprise when I hadn’t grasped the meaning of that title. Dusk had told me he’d changed my name, and… well.
He… had.
“Motherfucker…”
He hadn’t told me?
Why hadn’t he fucking told me?
My heart crashed against my ribcage, drowning everything else out, and my chest swelled with equal parts fury and elation.
“Shatter?” I jumped violently, looking up to see Dusk taking the last few steps into the living room.
For a long moment, I just stared at him. He wore sweatpants and socks, but he was topless, and the scars across his chest that matched mine were pale beside rippling dark muscle. He was breathtaking in the moonlight that filtered in through the living room window. I couldn’t take my eyes off of him, half my brain seized by feral omega instincts, the other half tumbling into pure rage.
It took me a moment to find my voice, and by his expression, he’d gathered exactly what was in my hand.
“What the hell is this?” I asked, voice weak.
I knew, of course. I’d read the words a dozen times already, and I was equal parts elated and… well, fucking furious.“Ah.” Dusk cleared his throat, palming the back of his neck. “Well… A uh… technicality.”
I blinked.
The leaf of paper slid from my fingers and onto the island with a swoosh.
The world bled crimson, elation snuffed out in the blink of an eye.
Whathad he just said?
“A technicality?”
Dusk opened his mouth, then closed again, and his face, at least, had the decency to drain of colour.
“I… shit. I didn’t mean it like that.”