Page 9 of The Silver Pact

“So sweet, always trying to turn my eye.” Her rasping comment comes out with a surprisingly unexpected tease.

I chuckle and stroke her face gently, smoothing her hair back. My door opens, and Ross gets out of the way, rushing into the house, Adrian a few steps behind.

“Seriously, Silver, what’d you do?”

“You should see the other guy,” Silver mutters, and then appears to fall to sleep. I tense up, but Adrian doesn’t appear to be concerned at all. Instead, he just follows me through my house until I stop at a door. Ross opens it, and I slip inside.

“That will make things easier, actually. I need permission to undress your omega and inspect her for injuries that could be hidden.”

Everything in me balks, but I don’t know why. She’s not mine. Then I remember the bite. She is now. I shrug. “Do what you need to do.” I cast Ross a flat look when he protests.

It hurts to put her down on the bed.

It takes everything in me to walk away.

“Her injuries are superficial. She appears to be suffering from dehydration and lack of nourishment. The bruises are contained to her face and arms. She has a couple on her legs. But nothing else.”

“That’s because I learned how to fight,” Silver snaps. She glances up at the IV bag and winces.

It’s clear she’s exhausted but trying so hard to be angry and defensive. Her eyes keep falling back to the bite mark on her skin. There’s a whole lot of horror on her face when she looks at my mark.

I’m not sure how I feel about it. Truthfully, it pisses me off, and I want to go and put more of my marks all over her. Give her something to really be horrified about.

And then, what I’m thinking makes me feel ill. I promise myself I won’t be an idiot. Then she glances at the bite, all horrified, and the cycle starts again.

But then, every now and then, a wave of reality hits me. I marked an omega without talking to the pack. I claimed an omega who isn’t ours, who we don’t even like. An omega who hates everyone, who everyone hates.

“Oh, god,” I say out loud and sway.

Adrian frowns and flicks me in my forehead.

“Hey!”

“Get it together. I’m not going to save your pretty face if you faint.”

I snarl at him. He snarls back, completely unintimidated. But I do catch a hint of a smile in his blue eyes. He runs a hand through his black hair and packs up his things.

I ignore him and stagger to the nearest chair and flop down into it. After everything that happened with Brandy, we’d sworn to never take an omega. I look up when Quint and West enter the room. I can’t tell what they’re thinking. Not even a little bit.

But when Ross comes in, there’s a giddy happiness on his face that makes my stomach jerk even worse than if he were frowning.

Oh, no, this will not be good.

“What have I done? She’s horrible. She’s going to destroy us.”

Ross’ face falls, and he glares at me.

West shakes his head and turns away. Only Quint silently seems to agree with me.

It’s a disaster!

“Can you get out? I need to pee.”

I whip my head around, glaring at the selfish omega and her snarling tones. What the fuck have I done? This is going to be hell on Earth.

four

Silver