Buried and Shadowed (Branded Packs #3) by Alexandra Ivy, Carrie Ann Ryan Read Free Book Online Page B

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.”
    “I hope I can do something to help at least,” Gibson added. “But you’re right, this feels like it’s someone we’re missing, someone in the center of the Pack that might feel ignored.”
    Oliver reached out and gripped Gibson’s other hand. He sucked in a breath, his wolf content for the first time in his memory. He pushed that aside, though, knowing his Pack needed him to think about what had happened, instead of what could happen between the three of them.
    “I think…I think we need to look at the Pack as a single unit, instead of three. There are three sections now forced to live as one.” Oliver tilted his head. “I think this might be something we haven’t thought of.”
    “A vision?” Mandy asked.
    “Not this time,” Oliver answered. “A sense of knowing.”
    “We’ll be on alert,” Gibson said. “We all will be. And we’ll figure it out. Because we’re too close to the end of the SAU for us to fall apart from within.” He paused. “And while we’re doing that, we’re going to take a chance.” He met their gazes. “And see what we can have between the three of us, because my wolf knows what you’re feeling, at least part of it, and I don’t think I can keep to myself anymore.”
    Mandy narrowed her eyes.