Buried and Shadowed (Branded Packs #3)

He swallowed hard and forced his gaze away. She wasn’t his. Same as Oliver.

He was alone, right where he should be. He couldn’t do what he had to do for his Pack if he had others, if he had someone to share the burden. They wouldn’t understand, and he didn’t want them to have his burden. It was what he had to do.

And Mandy would be happy with Theo.

And Oliver…Oliver would find his peace one day with his role as Foreseer.

He felt Mandy’s gaze on him, as well as Theo’s glare. He pushed himself into his work, lifting and hammering until sweat coated his body and his lungs burned. By the time he looked around again, they were gone, and he could finally breathe once more.

Gibson bent down to reach for his bottle of water and the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end. He rose slowly, ready to lash out at whoever had put his wolf on edge. Yet as soon as he turned, claws out, someone else came from the other side.

The last thing he remembered before something smashed into the back of his head was a sharp pain radiating from his skull, pulling all thoughts of matings and confusion from his mind.




“Gibson,” a voice growled. “Wake up, wolf. The bleeding’s stopped, but you need to wake up.”

Gibson blinked his eyes open and promptly shut them at the blinding light. He growled, trying to remember what had happened, but could only focus on the fact that his wolf couldn’t stay still.

It prowled within him, lashing out and nudging at him. It wanted something, but he couldn’t quite figure it out. Rage filled him, followed by relief, and an overwhelming sense of unease and responsibility. Before he could navigate through the emotions, his wolf howled within and he opened his eyes.

“What happened?” he gasped.

Holden knelt over him, his eyes wide, though not his own. Rather his wolf’s. “Omega,” he whispered.

Gibson swallowed, trying to catch his breath, but the emotions assaulting him wouldn’t let him do anything except lie there and try to remember how to be him. “What?”

“You’re our Omega,” Holden whispered. “I have no idea how it happened, but, Gibson, we’ve been waiting for you for a lifetime.”

Gibson looked into his Alpha’s eyes, then around him at the other wolves who knelt in a semi circle, awe in their gazes. He couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think.

He couldn’t be the Omega. That was a place of power and great pride. They were the ones who helped heal the Pack from within and brought them together while the Alpha and Beta protected.

He couldn’t be the lost wolf Omega.

Yet as rage, happiness, awe, fear, sadness, angst, and nervousness assailed him, he knew it had to be true.

He was the Omega.

Gibson blinked.

His Pack was screwed.

“Who hit me?” he asked, his voice raspy.

Holden’s eyes narrowed. “That is something we’re going to figure out, Omega,” he growled.

Omega. Yes, Gibson thought, his Pack was screwed.





Chapter 2


Mandy ran her hand over the quilt at the end of her bed and frowned. How could things change so quickly overnight and yet remain so much the same? Her world had shifted, her axis forever altered, yet here she was, staring at the handmade blanket and wondering about her place in the world.

She’d done much of the same the day before, and yet her Pack had changed when she hadn’t been looking.

They’d found their Omega.

Her wolf sighed happily, content for the first time in her life. Well, maybe not fully content since there was something missing just out of her reach, but as content as she was going to be unmated.

She couldn’t quite believe that Gibson was their new Omega. He’d always been on the sidelines, the one there, but not completely. He’d marked each and every one of the Pack and most of the cats and bears, as well. He’d been the one to take what should have been an ugly reminder of their captivity and make it something beautiful, unique, theirs.

And yet she was never sure he felt that way.

She could still remember the way he’d never once looked in her eyes when he did her tattoo. It had only been a couple of years ago, and though he was a few years older than she was, Mandy had thought they’d had a connection.

Her wolf had chosen him right then and there.

Of course, Mandy hadn’t done a thing about it.

How could she when he never looked at her, never spoke to her, never once acknowledged her?

He wasn’t like some of the others, who felt submissives didn’t have a place in the Pack because their first instinct wasn’t to fight, but to soothe. Instead, he pulled away and did his best to ensure they were never alone together.

If she had been any other wolf, she might have confronted him on that. But her wolf hadn’t been able to.

And when the other man had entered their den, her wolf had done much of the same as it had with Gibson. Only now, instead of yearning for just one, it yearned for two without doing a thing about it.