41. Chapter Forty-One
Chapter Forty-One
Halley
The front line reeks like a slaughterhouse.
Knox leads me toward the barricade with Shade close at my shoulder, and every step strips away the distance that protected me on the wall. From above, the battle had looked terrible, but contained: smoke, movement, flashes of gunfire, soldiers reduced to dots on a road.
Down here, they have faces.
Enemy bodies are piled at the entrance to the road to Blackgate. Some hang over the barricade while others lie twisted in the dirt with rifles still trapped under their hands.
It stinks of death. The air carries sweat, spent explosives, ruptured bowels, and fear. It coats my tongue and cloys in my sinuses.
The enemy is still regrouping, unseen through the haze of fallout, but every so often, a rifle pops when one of them drifts too close, and another body drops to the ground.
We're hovering in the eye of the storm, and it's filled with both dread and anticipation.
Our Alpha soldiers rest in bloodied armor with their faces streaked with grime.
Their bodies are marked by violence that would have killed them if they couldn’t heal supernaturally fast. There are bullet wounds knitting closed under torn uniforms, their skin dragging itself back together in ugly, angry seams.
The ones who cannot heal are laid in a row at the base of the cliff.
Someone has taken the time to arrange them respectfully, and evidence of care in such a forsaken place somehow makes my heart hurt worse.
Their boots point toward the road, and their blood runs downhill in thin lines.
A few faces are familiar beneath the dirt and damage, though some are only recognizable by the callsign stitched to their combat vest, or the last lingering notes of their scent.
A bullet through the temple. A leg blasted to shreds up to the hip. A throat opened too deep to close. One body has no head at all.
Alpha healing means nothing when there is no blood left to pump or body left to save.
My stomach rolls as I look from our dead to the road below, where the Humans are pulling themselves back into formation.
If this is what they did while their full attention was still on the Pass, how will we survive when they come at us with everything they have?
But as I take the battlefield in with new eyes, I realize we might just stand a chance.
The Blackgate road branches left from the approach to the Pass, then climbs along the side of the mountain.
At the first barricade, it's barely wide enough for eight Humans to come at us shoulder to shoulder.
The ground is steep with broken loose rock that slips under boots.
There are channels carved into the dirt by rain, and large protruding rocks waiting to trip anyone who moves too fast.
The road cuts along the mountainside, boxed in by cliff wall on one side and a deadly drop on the other.
A steady bend in the road blocks clean shots from below and keeps the Humans picking us off from a distance.
If they want Blackgate, they have to climb into this narrow stretch and fight for every step.
The tactic is as clever as it is brutal.
A familiar pulse flares through the bond a split second before I see them.
Blaze appears first, vaulting the barricade gracefully, his armor dusted white from the collapse and darkened in places with blood that I hope is not his.
Viper is right behind him, heavier and slower, landing with his rifle clutched in his hands.
As he approaches, he slings it over his back and opens his arms with a wide smile.
My knees almost buckle with relief.
Viper cups the side of my neck with one gloved hand and presses his helmet against mine for half a breath.
"Hi," Blaze says, like he's a young Alpha shy around his mate, instead of a battle-worn soldier who probably killed dozens in the last hour alone.
"Hi, Blaze," I respond, and he bites his lip, eyes raking over my helmet, armor, and face. It's sweet, he's making sure I'm all right despite the fact that I haven't set foot in the battle yet.
"Did I ever tell you how fucking hard you make me when you wear combat gear?" He bites his lip and makes an obscene grunting sound. "'Cause, damn girl, you look good."
I choke on my spit. Okay, nope. The degenerate is shamelessly checking me out.
Viper smacks Blaze's arm. "Dude, really not the time to be hitting on her."
My mouth twitches and I press my hand against my lips to smother a giggle.
Blaze just grins, cocking his head to the side as he adjusts himself in his trousers. "I've definitely had a wet dream featuring you dressed like a fucking warrior princess, holding a rifle, and bent over—"
He cuts off with a squeak as Shade reaches down, grabs his crotch, and squeezes. "And that's enough out of you."
Blaze yelps and dashes out of Shade's reach.
I can't keep the giggle from bursting from me this time, but it's quickly drowned out by gunfire cracking from down the road.
The moment is over, and reality slams back in. We're in the middle of a war zone, and there is no room for laughter or banter with my mates.
The dust from the collapsed Pass still hangs in the air in a dirty veil, but through it I can make out movement. Human soldiers climbing over rubble and bodies, scrambling to get back into position faster.
They don't look shaken or fearful, as I'd hoped. They look angry and determined.
My skin erupts in goosebumps as I suddenly feel cold under my armor.
It's as if all the newfound confidence I've had since my resurrection has abandoned me, and I'm suddenly acutely aware of how exposed and vulnerable I am. Omegas aren't meant for violence or war, it's not in my biology, and the primal part of me wants to run away and burrow under my nest.
I'm scared. Bone-deep frightened, but there's nothing I can do but endure it. I'm here for a purpose, and I won't allow fear to sway me.
A Human officer strides through the mess below, shoving his men into line with the butt of his rifle, before raising his arm and pointing straight at our position.
My gaze tracks our troops again. The bloodied soldiers hauling themselves up off the ground, preparing themselves for the next round of fighting.
Somebody farther down the barricade shouts for more ammo as they reload the belt-fed heavy machine gun mounted on a tripod.
The gun fires huge rounds, kicks like a monster, and needs a full crew of support Beta soldiers to manage it.
I was impressed as I watched it tear through lines of enemy soldiers from up on the fortress wall, but down here it's imposing.
The medics are dragging wounded Alphas with missing limbs back by their webbing because there is no time for anything gentler if they want to stop the bleeding in time.
Every minute we hold this road, it will cost something. Someone.
They might not defeat us on the next push, or even the one after that, but eventually their numbers will win where our strength cannot. They will keep throwing bodies at us until our dead outnumber theirs, and then they will climb over both.
My stomach tightens.
This is what Knox, Shade, Blaze, and Viper know. They spent months being pushed back all the way across Fathim, retreating again and again. Until now, when there is nowhere else to retreat to and no allies to come save us.
We're all that is left.
This is where the last stand of the Demi-humans is going to happen. Right here, on this small, dusty road.
A strange certainty slides into me.
I cannot say how I know, but it suddenly feels so obvious.
This is the moment.
The one that I've been preparing for since I met the Pack and began training to become a soldier.
No, it was earlier than that. I've been set on a course to lead me here from the moment I chose to escape my father and The Capital, and took refuge in Barkrood Base.
This is eleven years in the making, and fate has me exactly where it wants me.
I can feel the Pack stirring from whatever emotion I am funneling down our bond.
They must know too. Surely they can feel it in the air, sense it in their marrow, that we're at the end. Or the start. Whatever the reason, it's all come down to this, and it's time to fight the final battle.
Shade is the first one to say it.
"We need to use your Omega Command in this next attack, Halley."
I feel the whole Pack react through the bond at once, instinct and fear crashing together, but nobody argues.
They all know Shade is right.
The problem is how to use my Omega Command.
"We start small," Viper says, strain wavering in his voice. "We isolate one soldier, drag him in close, let Halley issue the Command, and see what happens."
Blaze nods immediately. "Yes, let's start small with an infantry soldier. We make it fast and simple so we have a warmup before we gamble on anything bigger."
Knox's expression stays tight, but he's nodding in agreement. "It'll give us data. A way to gauge her range and reaction time under active combat conditions."
They look to me for approval. My Alphas, fueled by protective instincts, want to take this slow.
I meet Shade’s eyes, and he gives one small shake of his head.
He knows what I know.
"We don’t have time for that," I say.
Blaze and Viper growl, and Knox crosses his arms, looking like he's about to argue.
I take a step closer to my Pack before he can speak.
"We don't have time for practice."
Blaze’s jaw clenches.
Knox starts, "Halley."
I catch his vest before he can pull rank on me, my fingers locking in the straps of his plated armor.
"Listen to me." I look at each of them, making myself hold every gaze. "You trained me for this. Every time you made me get back up when I wanted to stay down, it was for this."
My throat tightens, but I keep my fist in Knox’s vest.
"I know you want to keep me from the worst of what's about to happen and that you want the guarantee of a safer plan." I swallow and force the next words out while the gunfire around us picks up pace. "There isn’t one."
Viper’s face shifts, and I see how badly he wants to say my name and beg me to let him find another way.