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“Next they want the healthier of the pack.”
My heart dropped.
No…
It was only me and Dusk left, and I’d worked so hard to become the weakest so they’d take me. I’d starved myself. I’d bled and scarred. I’d done everything to be here in his place.
“H-how long do I have?” I wouldn’t let them have him.I would never let Dusk go through this.
Dr. Wren’s expression was sad, as if he didn’t believe it was possible. “Two weeks.”
I’d paid…?
Had I?
For Ransom, that was worth a million lifetimes of what I’d?—
“Enough.”
I clenched and unclenched my fists at Dusk’s voice, taking a breath.
Dusk wanted hope, so if he caught it before it started, I could force myself to wait until later.
Then he could believe there would be an end to this for me.
I took a breath, sinking back on the couch and nodding.
Silence passed, in which Dusk returned to his textbook. He shared most of his classes with the Lincoln pack, a deliberate move since we wanted to get close to them, but he was surprisingly engaged with the coursework.
I was in a few of the shared classes, but the rest I’d selected on feelings alone, disgusted at the idea of sitting through dozens of Arkology lectures becauseour enemies happened to be stuck up idiots. The classes I had chosen were proving a sight more interesting. Philosophy, for example. Not bad. Could give me some ammunition next time Dusk told me my karma belief was bullshit.
Well.
I hoped.
“You really okay with her going to study time with their omega?” I asked.
Tomorrow was Roxy’s after class hang out that Shatter wanted to go to.
Dusk shrugged. “She’s never going to believe a bad thingIsay about them, but maybe…” He trailed off.
I pondered that. Not a terrible plan, actually. She knew how obsessed Dusk was, and I knew how farfetched anything we had to say about the Lincoln pack was. But if she made friends with their omega… might she learn for herself?
Still, I didn’t totally trust it. We both knew what her first class had looked like, Dusk had bribed an omega to give us the rundown.
The story had made me want to pack her up in a woollen bag and carry her around with me forever so she could never get hurt. Well, that would be second best, since Dusk wouldn’t let me beat up omegas.
If it did go well, though? I was quite proud of her actually. Making friends and shit.
It’s what she needed.
TWENTY-TWO
SHATTER
A really, really strange thing was happening now that I was living with the Kingsman pack.
Always, I knew where Dusk was even when I wasn’t looking at him: across the room on the couch, a foot from me in our lecture hall booth, or walking behind me as we made our way to the cafeteria. Every time I sensed him moving closer, all the hair on my body would stand on end, and it would become impossible to focus on whatever I was doing (even if it was trying to read an Arkology textbook). My heart rate would shoot up and goosebumps pebble my skin, every part of my body tense and giddy, waiting for his touch. And then it would all crumple and I’d melt into a puddle of frustration if he was just passing by to grab a drink, or reaching for a pen.
