Buried and Shadowed (Branded Packs #3)(16)

“Oh, Gibson,” Ariel said softly. “I’m so sorry.”

Gibson was about to pass out, but he used the last of his energy to grip her hand. “No need,” he rasped. “I’ll get used to it. Congrats, Mom.”

She smiled at him, and that was the last he saw before he passed out, the intensity of the emotions too much for him.




He came to with his head cradled in a soft lap that smelled of sweetness and submissive wolf. The scent of bear and promise came from his side, and Gibson’s wolf immediately relaxed.

“Well, that settles it,” Holden said with a growl, and Gibson opened his eyes.

His head rested in Mandy’s lap as she ran her fingers slowly through his hair. Oliver sat on the hardwood floor next to him, his legs crossed. The bear frowned at him, though the relief in his eyes calmed Gibson a little.

Holden stood at Gibson’s feet, Ariel at his side. He could scent Soren in the room but he didn’t feel like turning to see the other man.

“What settles what?” Gibson croaked.

Oliver held out a mug of water. “Drink this.”

With the help of Oliver and Mandy, he gulped down the water greedily, his parched throat easing.

“What settles what?” he repeated, his voice less scratchy this time.

“They calm you,” Holden answered finally. “You stopped screaming and woke up as soon as they were near you.”

Oliver gripped Gibson’s free hand. “Don’t scare us like that again.”

“That’s rich coming from a man who passes out with every vision.”

“Stop it,” Mandy said softly, her eyes downcast. With so many dominants in the room, this had to be hard for her. “Please.”

He reached up and cupped her face above him. “I’m sorry, sweetness.”

“If we help you, maybe you and I can help Oliver,” she whispered, though everyone in the room would be able to clearly hear her since they were all shifters.

“Maybe,” he said just as softly.

“I think the three of you need to spend more time together,” Holden said into the silence. “Maybe you’ll be able to gain control of your abilities. And if you can’t, well, I’m pretty sure the three of you want to be together anyway.”

“You can’t order anyone to mate, Holden,” Ariel chided. “But he’s sort of right, you know. If you guys find your own path, you should be able to help one another. And then maybe the Pack in time.”

Gibson looked up at Mandy and then at Oliver. “What do you say? Want to try to figure this out?”

Oliver grunted. “I thought we already decided that.”

Mandy traced Gibson’s jawline with her finger. “We’re here, all three of us. We’re going to find our way. And if we help center each other, then it’s a sign in the plus column.”

Gibson sighed, knowing he should get up from the floor, but he couldn’t. Not yet, not with Mandy so close.

If she and Oliver found a way to help him navigate the turbulent waters that came with being an Omega, then he’d take them to the moon and back. But that wasn’t the only reason the three of them wanted to be near each other, and they knew it.

Things were changing rapidly, and it was all Gibson could do to keep up. With the dangers lurking outside the den walls and now from within, he’d take the good with the bad.

Because it was all he had left.





Chapter 5


Mandy ran her hands over her arms, suddenly very cold. Something was coming; she could feel it deep down to her bones. There was a change in the air, and her wolf could sense it. The fact that she’d left Gibson and Oliver to their own devices because they’d needed sleep after the events of the day was only part of it.

Her mind still whirled from their conversation earlier that morning. The whole thing was like an out of body experience, and yet she knew it had been her at that table, her with Gibson’s head in her lap when he’d been in pain. And that kiss? Those kisses? She’d just about melted to the floor, her body a pile of mush thanks to those two very dominant men and the way they’d taken control of her and the kiss.

She’d wanted Gibson for as long as she’d been able to want a man in that fashion. And she’d wanted Oliver from the moment she’d first laid eyes on him. That she’d wanted both hadn’t fazed her, though the idea that she would make a move toward them was the thing that had been farfetched. It didn’t seem real that they would want her, as well.

In only a matter of hours, they’d somehow opened up to one another and found a connection she’d never thought possible. They wanted her like she wanted them, or at least wanted to see what they could have. It may have been the desperation talking, the idea that their lives were in danger at the edge of this new world, the edge of a war that was being fought around them, but she would live with that. They were going to try. And yet it was only the beginning.

“Mandy?”

She turned at the sound of Theo’s voice, her shoulders automatically tensing as she did so. That didn’t usually happen around him, and the fact that it did hurt like nothing else. She hadn’t seen him since he’d dropped her off at her place when she’d told him she didn’t want to be his mate. She’d missed him, of course, but the space had been needed. And then with everything going on with Oliver and Gibson, she’d pushed Theo to the back of her mind. It might make her a horrible friend, but she’d only been able to deal with one important thing at a time.