Chapter 38
Everyone in the room felt it the moment Umbra’s aura untethered.
The Lincoln pack had tried to run.
Umbra, moving faster than should be possible, shoved me back so hard the world spun.
That wasn’t what broke my world into pieces. It was feeling him detach, as if with every flare of his aura, he was being ripped free of it entirely.
A gunshot fired, but when I pushed myself up, no one seemed to be hit. Umbra had Gareth by the neck and he was dragging him back into the room before slamming the door.
My head was ringing, panic choking my lungs and making it hard to breathe.
How long before he was gone?
Before he was dead?
With every burst in which he used his strength, he was ripping energy from himself. And when that fire burned out…
“No…!” My word came out half growl, half groan of agony.
He wasn’t just destroying himself, he was ripping a wound across our whole pack. One that would fall to pieces when he was gone.
If he felt that same pain, he didn’t show it as he held Gareth. I heard the bone crack in Gareth’s arm as he flung him against the wall and his scream rent the air.
Eric cowered in the corner, and their gun—or what remained of it—was an almost crumpled ball of metal.
Umbra had as much power as he wanted, but the more he used, the faster he would die.
He turned from Gareth, going instead for Flynn. Flynn held his hands up, eyes wide with terror. “W-wait! We can?—”
Umbra seized him.
Flynn’s aura was like a wisp in the air, nothing beside Umbra’s.
Eric used the opportunity to scramble for the door.
Trying to find purpose or direction, I threw myself toward him, a growl rising in my throat.
They would die tonight.
And my brother would die with them…
I shoved the thought away, flaring my aura before I was caught by another wave of agony, blistering and white hot.
I recognized it. The exact same thing I’d felt when I’d touched Flynn only weeks ago.
The floor came up to meet me and I struggled to stay conscious.
Umbra… was… I tried to make my mind focus.
He was pinning Flynn to the wall by his neck. I felt the pain of that touch as if it were mine, but his eyes burned with hatred, not seeming to feel the agony, only the power surging through his veins.
I tried again to stagger to my feet.
The only reason Flynn wasn’t dead was because Umbra didn’t want him dead yet.
“You took everything.” Umbra’s voice was guttural. There was nothing left of him—of that man who’d saved me over and over.
A memory flashed behind my eyes.
Fists bled for how I pounded them against the metal door to our cell. I screamed until my throat burned.
They’d taken him again, and again, and again.
I could do nothing to stop it.
I threw myself against the door until I collapsed. The panic had faded to a selfish despair. It went beyond helplessness.
I needed him.
I couldn’t be in this room alone—I wasn’t strong enough to do this without him. He was my compass.
And they’d taken him from me.
Now they were taking him again.
My chest heaved, each breath agony. Flynn was shouting, but I couldn’t make the world right or the words make sense. I had to, even if it was over.
When I’d dragged him from those experiments, I’d become what he’d been to me. Years and years would never be enough, but one thing had never changed.
I still wasn’t strong enough to do this without him.
“No…”
I pushed myself up, begging my aura to be enough to fight this. My palm pressed against a cracked concrete wall.
Then I heard the slam of a door and a sound that made my heart trip.
Her whimper of terror was enough to draw me up, and my worst nightmare swam into my vision. Shatter was pinned to Mord’s chest, his hand over her mouth, gun to her temple.
He didn’t have to say anything.
Umbra’s aura vanished in an instant and he sagged, dropping Flynn, and crashing out of the high. I staggered toward him, catching him just in time, every instinct alight with fear, eyes fixed on her. Her cheeks were tear-tracked, her whole body shaking, and her glistening eyes saw nothing but Umbra.
She was here, just like I was, desperately reaching for us across a torn-up bond that survived like the last dying embers in a storm. She was a touch of life that nearly broke me, even without a word.
“Against the wall,” Mord said quietly.
Lost in a way I’d never been, knowing I could lose them both in seconds, I drew Umbra back a step.
“Get his gun!”Flynn snarled at Eric.
Eric, who looked shell-shocked, stumbled forward, grabbing my gun that had hit the floor and passing it to Flynn.
“We’re going,” Flynn spat at Mord. “We don’t need them. Not for any of this. We never have. Give her to me.”
I jolted with fury as he jammed his gun into Shatter’s side, fist closing in her hair. Mord’s gun moved in a flash though, pointing not at me, but at Umbra. At my side, he was shaking, barely able to stay upright.
Had he burned through too much already?
Not that fast… surely not that fast?
But… he shouldn’t be able to touch Flynn. What if that connection had drained him faster…
“Lock the door,” Flynn added. “It’s made to keep in alphas.”
Mord cocked an eyebrow, not taking his eyes from us. “I don’t think it’s built for alphas like this?—”
“If he comes through—” Flynn cut him off. “—shoot him in the fucking head.”
Mord’s cold eyes were fixed on us, and there was a strange curiosity in them. I heard Flynn’s words before the door slammed shut.
“He’s dead anyway. What’s the fucking difference?”