His aura was still out as he lifted me, and it was so massive it was almost hard to feel, as if it shifted the fabric of the world itself.
PHANTOM
Above me, I heard the faint buzz of the intercom.“Karma Thomas. Your appeal has arrived. Proceed to the waiting room with your pack.”
I stared up at the ceiling from where the voice came. “That’s…”
“Third call.” Karma muttered.
My pulse thundered in my ears.
I looked over at Karma, numbly noticing he’d stopped throwing himself into the metal like it might get us somewhere.
I stared at the old analog clock that was fixed to the wall above the doors, reminding me of an old school gym. We had ten minutes left before the doors shut.
A strange silence passed between us, each second feeling too long.
Five minutes passed…
Six…
The terror from both the omegas in my pack had been crippling for a time in this cage, keeping us from them. Only…
Past tense.
Had been crippling.
The fear had vanished…
Were they okay?
“Do you…?” I frowned, trying to hone in on it.
Karma nodded. “Something happened.”
I looked at Vandle. He was slumped at my side, eyes unfocused as he tried desperately to stay conscious. Both the new silk boxers I’d stolen, and my shirt, were torn to shreds and tied on the wounds down his side. They shouldn’t be deadly, but they would be if the bleeding didn’t stop. They were soaked, but it seemed the flow had halted or become just a trickle.
His distant eyes met mine, finally a flicker of hope in them as if he felt it, too.
I looked back to the clock.
Eight minutes had gone by.
Two left?
Could we evenreachthe waiting room from here in two minutes?
I watched in horrified silence as the second hand ticked down.
Twenty seconds.
Ten.
And then—“Fuck!”
Karma kicked the cage bar as our time officially ran out.
“We can—” But I cut off as I felt an aura ripple through the air like static. It was something so huge, so overwhelming, that it drew everything else to a halt.
