Whatever.
“I’ll fix it,” I mouthed to Phantom as Crescent picked through the bag.
There was a very cute blush creeping up her cheeks.
I cleared my throat. “Not exactly uh… much selection.”
“That’s okay…” Her voice was wispy as she turned a thin lacy thong over a few times as if unsure what it was. “Thank you.”
Not glancing down while she changed beneath the covers was the hardest thing I’d ever done. But since Karma hadn’t fucked her into oblivion, I supposed I should have some standards.
Okay, so I glanced once. But like, we’d already seen her in basically nothing.
And I got an eyeful of those cute little pale thighs draped by wisps of moonlight-silver hair. Then I caught Phantom’s judgemental gaze and rolled my eyes.
She was my mate.
And she wasn’t exactly trying to hide from me as I lifted the blanket for her.
She was hiding from Phantom, though.
A smug little chuckle slipped out before I could stop it. Being an omega had its benefits every once in a while.
Once she was dressed in baggy sweats and an oversized top, she seemed comfortable sitting on top of the blankets. She folded her hands in her lap, allowing Karma to readjust how he was crushing us in a hug, then settling back in.
“Are you hungry?” I asked.
We had a stash of bars hidden in the little hole beneath Phantom’s bed. Because the doors were unlocked during the day, we had a few places other than the dresser to keep the things we didn’t want stolen.
She shook her head.
I was tempted to ask her more about everything she’d said—about why she thought she would damn us. Down here all the alphas had already been condemned; there wasn’t much more damning she could possibly do.
But Crescent was breathing softly, the air peaceful now that her scent was at a normal potency.
I didn’t want to distress her, she’d had enough of that today. So I let my fingertips play with a strand of her soft, damp hair and tried to calculate our chances of living to our appeal.
Phantom was right that revealing the gun today was a risk, but it was worth it. Plus, if I had to show the weapon, the best time was in a power play that humiliated Holden.
I just hadn’t expected it to come in the shape of an actual scent match. And the picture it painted was perfect: all ofAnarchy had just seen an omega claim Holden’s gift from under his very nose.
That, though, was the stars aligning.
Claiming Crescent would have happened whether or not I could spin it. Nothing could quite describe the need I’d felt when I’d seen her that first time—the bone-deep knowledge that she was mine.
A piece of me I hadn’t even known was missing.
Even now, I felt it like a white-hot scrap of metal in my chest, pressing against my lungs with every breath.
Perhaps the alphas in my pack needed her scent to know, but I hadn’t.
And it wasn’t just about what it meant for me.
I loved my pack, but even I couldn’t deny that we were just lost souls clinging to survival in a world that would otherwise leave us for dead.
But Crescent… The gravity of the world itself had changed with her.
A mate.