Page 30 of Bonds of Fate

Gray is staring down at him when Nix turns his head, watching his expression carefully, waiting for the words to sink in.

“What do you mean there aren’t any? Like, there aren’t any in our pack? Or at all?” Nix feels his anxiety ratchet up, even though he already knows the answer. “No teasing, Grayson. I mean it. That’s not very nice.”

“Angel, I wish I were.” He sighs and pulls the stopper to empty the tub. “Come on. Let’s dry off, and then we can talk in there. Jay should be here any minute.”

“What do you mean? I can’t be the only omega in the world. Finn said in that story yesterday that the Goddess made alphas, betas, and omegas—as in,plural.”

Grayson climbs out and helps Nix over the side of the tub into a warm, fluffy white towel. He uses another to rub Nix’s damp hair, and Nix’s brain can barely hold on to his hard questions; it feels so good. “I don’t know.Wedon’t know. Dr. Spencer, your endocrinologist, has never met anyone like you, and she’s from a big university in Toronto.”

Nix can’t fathom that he’d be the only one. Did they go extinct? The story talked about balance and how the shift in the Were population is occurring already. Maybe there are more, but his pack doesn’t know. “Maybe there’s more on the internet?”

Sleep pants in hand, Gray shrugs. “I think Finn is making some careful inquiries, but we don’t want to announce your omega status to the world when we don’t know what that means. We just need to see what he can turn up. I know Jay and Gideon have a plan. Have I made this worse?”

“Not worse, Gray. It’s a lot, but I’m not worried because I’m with you and Jamie and Gideon and the others.” Nix wants to believe that if he’s with his mates, nothing bad can happen.

If he keeps telling himself that, maybe it will be true. He’ll just need to be sure Dawson never finds out about any of it because Nix is sure that if he ever finds out about the Were community, there will be nothing stopping him from broadcasting it to the world to hurt everyone Nix holds dear.

“Should we bleach your roots for you sometime?” Grayson asks, running a hand through the wet strands and tucking them behind Nix’s ears.

Nix shakes his head vehemently. “No, thank you.” That is the last thing Nix wants done to his hair.

Grayson meets his eyes in the mirror. “Of course. You don’t like the blond anymore?”

“I never really did.Heliked it. Said it made me at least a bit more attractive and that blonds have more fun. Gray, theydo nothave more fun. I can vouch for that. I’d just like to be me again. Can we do that instead?”

Grayson is frozen, fists clenched at his sides. He smells like a garden on fire.

He’s angry—but Nix knows it’s not directed at him. He can feel it, deep in his chest, an undeniable certainty and it’s the craziest thing.

“It’s okay.”

“It’s really not, Nix. It’s not okay. Fuck, I want to rip that fucking wolf’s head off. Maybe take his heart out first, I wonder if that hurts more. I’ll ask Finn later.” Grayson absentmindedly puts Nix’s arms into a fluffy white robe. He ties the belt tightly and rubs a finger over theGraysonembossed over his heart.

Nix gasps, heartbeat echoing in his ears. “What did you say?”

“The heart or head thing? Sorry, I’m not usually prone to violence, but–”

“No. That Dawson is a wolf. Are you saying he’s Were? This whole time?”

His voice is thick with despair. He knows it sounds like a wail, but he can’t help it—as the past five years of his painful existence flash before his eyes, a grotesque mockery of the life he’s lived with his mates over the last twenty-four hours.

The realization claws at him, sinking its teeth into his gut. If he lets himself think about it, he can see it now—the same instincts, the same behaviors, but where his mates had shown those things with love, Dawson had twisted them into something else. Something cruel.

“Fuck. Nix. I shouldn’t have said that. It doesn’t matter, right? Human or Were, he’s still a psychopathic piece of shit. The police are taking care of it. Now that you’re Were, he’ll be tried like one, too. Penalties are more dire.”

Nix knows he should be listening—it’s stuff he’ll want to know about things that affect him, but he can’t let this go. Then it hits him. The biggest implication of all.

“Dawson is Were. Jamie is Were. When he left me…er…Florida,he did that internship with Ripley Records, but—”

The memory of how he’d been told Jamie hadn’t worked there and how, on that fateful day, he’d met Dawson Hayes on the front steps, and how it had been the beginning of the end flashes through his mind because Dawson Hayes works for Ripley Records. “Does Jamie know Dawson from when he worked there?”

There’s confusion on Grayson’s face. Sweet Grayson hasn’t made the connection.

But Jamie has. “Nix.” He’s standing shirtless in the doorway to Grayson’s space, a look of shame and sadness marring his handsome face.

“Jamie, did Dawson Hayes work with you? Does he? Has he known you all this time?”

There’s no doubt in Nix’s mind that Jamie has been dreading this question. He’s got an answer already prepared. “Long Road Home is still with Ripley. I don’t know him, exactly. We had a run-in at Ripley early on during the music show and internship days, and Luca reminded me Hayes has never liked me because of it. Leo said he even worked on one campaign for us earlier this year, too.”

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