Chapter 36
“Pack lead?” Flynn had frozen. “What does that mean?”
I shrank down. “I don’t... I thought you knew.”
“Knew what?”
I’d read the logs Decebal had given Dusk. I’d heard what Gareth and Eric thought, Flynn had negotiated pack lead with his money, and I was hoping that it was something he was anxious about.
“Outside, before you stopped him, Eric said that… I don’t know, um… you negotiated pack lead, but when I was bitten in, then that didn’t hold up anymore.”
Flynn didn’t know I was aware of his aura sickness—and that did nothing but aid my case.
“He said that?”
I nodded.
“That traitorous fuck... Is Gareth in on it, too?” He straightened as if he was going to stand.
“No, wait…” I tried to make him look at me. “I just got here. I can’t screw this up already?—”
“Telling me was the right thing to do,” he said firmly.
“Please don’t tell him I said anything. I know Eric hates me already. Flynn… please,” I whispered. “An alpha like you should be pack lead.”
He frowned at me, pausing.
“After I’m bitten in, I will back your claim. I’ll refuse them anything if they go against it. I don’t trust anyone else to keep me safe,” I said, brushing my chin where Eric had grabbed me.
“You’re the best of them…” I swallowed. “I thought I would never be loved again. And they’re angry, and they have every right to be, but you, Flynn. You’ve never been like that—you knew, always, that I was your mate. You came to find me at their doorstep… Your instincts were right.”
He was staring at me, muscles unwinding.
He nodded, jaw clenched. “I always knew there was something different about you,” he said quietly.
“Of all of them, your instincts were the sharpest. You are pack lead, Flynn, and you know their strengths and weaknesses.” I pressed my palms to his chest. “I will be theirs, but yours first. I want to change their minds about me, but I can’t do it without you.”
He was nodding slowly, arrogance etched into his features.
“We can’t afford to fight now,” I said. “Show them you’re worthy of pack lead by claiming your scent match.”
There was a long pause. “Yes…” He nodded. “I’m glad you told me, but you’re right. We need to wait.”
I let out a breath of relief. “Thank you.”
I think I had done what I needed to do. The next part of the plan was risky without the confirmation I was seeking in that study.
Flynn went still, eyes wide, cutting me from my thoughts.
“What?” I asked.
“It’s… Eric. He’s… fuck.”
Gareth was in the doorway, eyes wide. “They have him.”
There was a snarl on Flynn’s face as he took a step toward the door before turning back to me. “You’ll wait here. Negotiations might be sooner than we think if they’ve got Eric.”
I’d woken when Decebal’s backup had arrived.
Now, he was gone, leaving me with an alpha I hadn’t met before.
I was in the parking lot before an old building, and I was seated, deadly still in the back of a car that was locked. The alpha in the front was watching me in the rear-view with a furious, ice-blue gaze.
I took a deep breath, steadying myself.
I could feel the walls closing in, narrowing my vision until there was only one thing left.
Her.
I needed to get out—had to reach her. But I was on the brink of collapse, one flare of my aura away from losing it.
If I lost myself now, I wouldn’t be able to save her—and I knew she must be in the building up ahead.
She was still vacant in the bond.
What kind of fear was she hiding?
I couldn’t think about it.
Another breath.
Only one alpha.
I could take one.
There was supposed to be two, but Kai—Decebal’s red-eyed pack mate—had ducked out without warning, slipping a gun into his belt and sprinting for the building ahead before anyone could stop him. The alpha in the front seat had cursed, darting from the car, shouting after him, but he was too late.
Another breath.
The alpha in the front spoke. “So much better things I could be doing with a Friday evening than babysitting while they get all the fun,” he muttered.
I didn’t like him one bit, not down to his pretentious-ass whiskey and chocolate scent. It was calming, focusing on that and not her.
Anything but her.
Another breath.
I shut my eyes.
Another.
I love you, Shatter.
I had to hold onto that love. It was the thing that had brought me back.
I love you so fucking much.
“What are you doing?” Whiskey and chocolate growled from the front.
I didn’t open my eyes. My aura flared, loose and fucking huge.
He swore, but I’d already thrown myself at the door. It buckled like a tin can and I was out in the air.
I was met by the alpha, who’d stumbled out of the front seat, cocking his gun as he did. Dirty blond hair, ice-blue eyes, and—well, fuck. I knew him—kind of. Rich circles ran small. He was a friend of the cousin who’d sent me to Decebal, and a prick with a reputation about as shit as my dad’s had been.
“Back in the car,” he snarled.
One chance. One, because he was Decebal’s pack.
“Move,” I growled.
I paused as he levelled the gun at me. “Back in the car.”
He thought a gun was enough?
I was already waning, madness lurking and trying to rip me into its depths.
I held on for now. For her.
“You know,” Logan Mandela sneered. “You give alphas a bad name, letting an omega leave you this weak?—”
He didn’t finish.
My lips drew in a snarl, and my aura flared viciously. I noted the way tanned skin lost its colour as he realised what he’d felt from my aura was the smallest spark of a bonfire.
Then I lunged for him faster than he could react to. Faster than the trigger.
The gun hit the ground as I grabbed him, slamming him into the car hard enough for it to dent.
My chest was tight, crimson seeping into my vision as I crushed his throat. He made a choking sound, expression twisted, eyes wide with shock.
Not the enemy.
Find her.
I loosened my grip on his neck, but he threw his weight against me, his own aura pale beside mine. I reacted like lightning, smashing my forehead into his and feeling him go limp in an instant. I didn’t bother lowering him to the ground, instead satisfied with the dull thump his body made as he hit the ground.
I turned to the huge building, every instinct flaring with my aura as it threatened, again, to swallow me, but with it came a thousand sounds. The wind rattling against the fence behind me, distant sounds of cars on nearby streets, the creak of a door somewhere deep within the building.
Shatter…
I’m coming.