AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I don’t know what happened...” I whispered.
“You bit herandscent marked her. She’ll be walking around with that beat-down all evening.”
“Markedher?” Why had I done that... ?
Oh bother.
I needed to get better control of myself. Apparently, alphas were totally capable of balancing me in the bond—until they were the things my instincts were going nuts over.
“They’re just going to think I’m even more crazy.”
I tried not to pout.
I didn’t regret it, I just couldn’t fit in no matter how hard I tried.
Roxy chuckled. “I doubt anyone here has dealt with honest-to-God territorial omega instincts in their lives. A good dose of reality, if you ask me.”
THIRTY-NINE
UMBRA
“You’re like…” Vandle’s voice was charred and cracked with misuse. “Like me.” He met my gaze, head cocked, Shatter’s scented handkerchief balled up in his fist.
“Yes.” This was it, I realised, as I stared into mismatched eyes. The first breakthrough we’d had in forever. Vandle was awake.
“I was in the experiments,” I said. “Like you.”
He grinned. “They put you back together, so they could break you again…”
“Tell me what you know about that?”
“Too much,” he rasped. “He liked me, you know? The Doctor.”
“Dr. Wren?” I asked, heart racing. “He… he helped me.”
Vandle’s smile stiffened, the edges of a snarl drawing at his lips. “No. He toyed with you, with the others.”
“Toyed with us?”
“That was his job too, you know? To push you. To see how far you would go to protect each other.”
I felt my blood chill, but Vandle was going on, the cracks working themselves out of his voice as he used it. Now he was, he couldn’t seem to stop.
“But he cared aboutme.” There was a madness and frenzy to his words. “He freed me when I should have died, kept my secret so I could help him spy the auras and give him more data. But no matter what I did or said, they never…” He flinched, scrunching his eyes shut for a moment. “They never stopped. Not until they were forced to. And they killed everyone…” His expression twisted into something sick. “Everyone… but you?” He frowned, but then shook it off. “And then, when I went back, they opened it again.”
“The facility?” I asked.
“Why?” His eyes went wide, one blank white, one red, and he ran his fingers along his scalp. I could see red marks through his buzzed-short hair as if he did that often. “I went in. Took one of their white coats to make sure things had changed. I was going to leave forever after that. But…” His speech was getting frantic, the edge of a growl in his voice. “They hadomegas. And I couldn’t… I had to stop them. What they did to us, I couldn’t…” His breathing came too quick, and I was worried he would slip back into silence.
“What did you do?” I asked. Keep him talking. I would know if he lied, which would be a good indicator of the usefulness of this conversation. I knew the answer already.
He was responsible for the mixed-up vial.
Shatter had been the one to pay, getting an injection that had broken her.
“I thought…” His breath caught. “I thought it would be enough to stop it. But… it didn’t work.” His madness broke fora moment, sorrow cresting his expression as he looked down at the handkerchief in his fist.
“You recognise her scent?”
