Buried and Shadowed (Branded Packs #3)

And now here they were, calmly discussing forming a partnership. Of course, they’d carefully not mentioned the word mating. As if once they did, things would get too serious.

“Gibson?” Mandy asked, her voice soft. He loved that voice, the way it wrapped around him and his wolf. He always felt like he was being petted when she spoke directly to him—not that she did that often. But when she did? He buried himself in it, rolling around like a pup in freshly cut grass.

She reached out and put her hand on his fist. He hadn’t even realized he’d put both hands on the table, as if he’d needed to grip something in order to stay centered, grounded in reality. His brain hurt, his heart just as much, but for some reason, it wasn’t as bad as it had been the past few days. Since he’d first found out that he was the Omega, he’d had to wade through emotion after emotion, sometimes falling to his knees when it became too much. Over time, he knew he’d be able to find each individual thread and work with it, either taking the feeling into himself if it was too much for the other shifter, or using it to make sure they were healthy. One day, he would even be able to heal physical wounds, but from the way he weakened with just the onslaught of emotions, he was pretty sure that would be years off, if ever.

And yet…and yet he’d known exactly what Oliver was feeling during his vision. He’d also known it was Oliver and not another that might have been near.

And as he focused, he could also feel the nervousness, the excitement, and the raw hunger of Mandy. He wondered for a moment if it was because her emotions mirrored his own, as well as Oliver’s.

“Gibson,” Mandy said again, squeezing his hand. “What’s wrong?”

He swallowed hard and blinked away the torrent of his thoughts. “I’m okay.” He paused, tasting the lie. “Or at least I will be. It’s weird right now.”

She winced, and he quickly turned his hand over to hold hers in a firm grip.

“I’m not saying being here with you and Oliver is weird, though in reality, it kind of is since we’ve done so well avoiding one another.” Oliver snorted, and Mandy gave him a small smile. Gibson relaxed somewhat. “We’re not avoiding each other now, though. And because of that, or maybe in spite of it, I can actually relax for the first time in days.”

“What do you mean?” Oliver asked.

Gibson met the other man’s gaze even as he ran his thumb over Mandy’s hand. He felt her shiver, and he knew he had to stop soon or he’d take them all too far too quickly. Though since they were shifters, there wasn’t really a chance to be too quick. Once the wolf, bear, or cat decided, the man followed. Ready and willing.

“With the two of you here, I can actually unravel whose emotion is whose. It’s not as overwhelming. I can breathe again.” He hadn’t known how much being an Omega had been affecting him until he sat between these two at this scarred wooden table. What would it feel like to be with them fully, to know that they were his and his alone?

He swallowed hard, knowing he needed to give them space before he did something stupid like bend them over the table in question.

“Really?” Mandy asked. “Is there anything we can do to help? I know it has to be a lot all at once.”

“Plus, we still don’t know who attacked you,” Oliver said, his tone dark. “There’s something going on. I can feel it.”

Gibson squeezed Mandy’s hand as her wolf brushed up against his. He liked the feeling. “I feel it, too. There’s an undercurrent I can’t place.”

Mandy sighed. “I thought the leaders of SAU going underground but leaving their guards in place would be enough of an undercurrent. Between that and the three Packs learning to live together as one, the amount of tension should be enough. But if what you’re saying it true, if what Holden scented when you were hurt is true, then we have more problems than just humans.”

Gibson’s jaw clenched. “It was a shifter.” He’d known that of course, had scented something not human, but it’d happened too fast for him to fully gauge what kind of shifter.

Oliver nodded. “Though we don’t know who. They did something to their scent.”

“So we have humans after us, keeping us in cages, and now infighting within our own,” Mandy said slowly. “I don’t like it. I feel like we’re right on the edge of so many things, and with one breath we could fall, changing it all.”

“We have strong Alphas and Betas, as well as shifters who can take care of their own,” Gibson said, more to himself than them. “I trust those in power more than I thought I’d trust anything, and that’s saying something.”

Oliver nodded. “I agree. Whatever is going on isn’t happening with those in the upper hierarchy.”

Mandy frowned. “It’s not with the submissives either. I’ve never seen us so healthy. Now that Holden and Soren are mated, things are settling. And I know it’s a lot to put on your shoulders, Gibson, but with you now as the Omega, it’s almost complete.”