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It wasn’t over. I hadn’t lost everything.
Because if Vex was still mine, they were, too.
VEX
Three days of bleary, semi-conscious panic but he’d finally stabilised.
Ebony was going to be okay.
One more assessment was all we needed to be officially discharged. Love, Drake, and Rook waited just outside, close enough that I could see them, and their scents lingered. I refused to leave Ebony.
To my surprise, it was an omega who entered, I knew from the faint scent of ocean breeze. She wore scrubs, had wavy dark hair tied up in a bun, and sat down in a chair beside the bed with a clipboard, adjusting rose-gold glasses. She was, perhaps, in her thirties, and had tattoos down to her wrists. Most interesting were her golden eyes and the faintest trace of a dead dark bond on the back of her neck.
“Nice to meet you Vex,” she said with a warm smile. “My name is Jackie. I’m a trauma specialist with experience in gold pack specific events. I’m on your healthcare team, and I’d love to talk to you if you’d be willing.”
“Are you like… a shrink?” I asked.
She gave me a dimpled smile. “My role is flexible to fit the needs of the omegas I work with, but I can talk you through any questions or feelings you’re having, if that is what you want. I’ve looked through your file extensively. You were in a complicated situation, and I wouldn’t be surprised if you had some questions I may be able to provide answers to.”
“I do…” I said, voice hoarse.
“I hope I may be able to help you navigate it. Please, ask away.”
“I…” Images of those last moments before I’d killed Zeus flooded my mind. Ebony drew me closer, feeling my discomfort.
There had been blood everywhere.
“When I attacked him. Do you know what happened?”
I know the theory, but some of it hadn’t happened the way I’d thought it should.
“You fought his command, you fought his bond, and you rejected his authority as your pack lead.”
“I rejected it?”
“A dark bond is a bond taken, not agreed upon. It’s a lot more difficult than people realise, to bite an omega and keep them at arm’s length in a bond. A dark bond—most especially with a gold pack—is a true exchange. One with costs. The pack may well have shattered at the death of their lead, but there’s another, much more likely explanation from what I’ve heard from your alphas.”
“What?”
“You destroyed that pack, Little Omega,” Ebony murmured to me.
“I… what?” I frowned, peering up into his silver eyes. He was tired, the dusky tan of his skin, ashen, but he looked sure.
“Dark bonds aren’t natural,” Jackie said. “And nature has a way of balancing the scales—especially when a gold pack is scorned.”
I swallowed, looking back at her, all the insecurities I’d been shoving down before Ebony was better, surfacing. “What’s going to happen to me?”
“To you?” Jackie’s expression softened, and she stopped tapping her pen as she examined my expression.
“I killed him. I’m gold pack…” My voice was weak. He was an alpha—I’d killed my own pack lead.
“It’s very clear that Zeus had every intention of killing your mate. Blood was drawn fast enough that traces of Agritox were found in Ebony’s bloodstream. Even if there wasn’t, there’s also evidence he’d threatened…” Jackie paused, looking rather sickened. “Threatened your execution.”
I shivered, memories of Zeus’s threats of Hunting Arenas worming their way back into my mind. I’d tried to forget it with all of my might. But… “Evidence?” I asked. How could anyone know what Zeus had said to me?
Ebony tucked my hair behind my ear. “He slipped up.”
“So… I’m not in trouble?”
