Chapter 8 #2
He smirks. Then it fades, and something dark, dangerous, and mixed up with emotions I can’t readily place, settles in. “I’ll see you after.”
Then he smiles, turns, and jogs out of the warehouse.
I stare after him, adrift and sore in the best way.
God help me, I’m in love with him.
I mean, I’ve fancied myself in love more times than I can count, but those pale beside this.
My hand settles on my chest. Love, this fast? How is that even possible?
Easy, I realize. So damn easy, it’s not even funny.
A stupid grin lights my face. He’ll see me after.
Zeb
I keep to a fast jog as I follow the cleared corridor between buildings to the front line.
My enhanced physiology lets me maintain this pace nearly indefinitely, within reason and the limits of a human body…
And then some, because, you know, I can tweak things.
I once broke down an entire kidney just to get extra cellular matter to work with after a particularly serious wound.
Don’t recommend it. Growing it back hurt like a motherfucker. Which is when I found out some parts of the body are off-limits to my manipulation. Ignore the rules and pay the price.
My visor glows with a tactical overlay. I see Ethan and Ryker’s locations, blinking steadily, along with the rest of the team. The map updates in real time. I’m closing in.
Usually, I’d be focused on the mission. But leaving Esme is like ripping open a wound I didn’t know existed.
She didn’t want me to leave. I’ve really fucked up, gone too deep into the role too fast, gotten emotionally invested, and, worse, made her emotionally invested in me.
The pain of separation sits like a stone in my gut weighing me down.
Every step away and it only gets heavier and harder.
Fuck.
If nothing else, this particular undercover mission has given me a newfound respect for the alpha-omega dynamic.
I should cut myself some slack. Alphas are trained for deployment from the day they reveal, ripped from their everyday lives at thirteen, sometimes younger, sometimes a little older.
From there, they’re molded. Refined and turned into something the Empire can dump on a battlefield.
But controllers? They’re not just alphas.
They’re the elite of the elite. They get extra training. Training in omega control.
I didn’t receive any of that training, not even the basic combat stuff, until I was eighteen.
At first, they thought I was a theta, then a beta, then they decided I was a delta.
By the time they’d finished with me, I was just plain confused.
I was seventeen when someone realized what I was, and that’s when a fast track into training began, none of which involved omegas.
Off in the distance, a transport ship lifts into the air, trying to escape.
BOOM.
A rocket streaks upward from our flank to blow it out of the sky. A fireball blooms above the rooftops, and a cheer goes up.
Good. That will keep them nervous about fleeing. They will send in reinforcements. Probably already on the way. But maybe we can do this. Maybe Jenda was on that ship, and my work has been done for me.
I’m delusional. A part of me is wallowing in a happy scenario where I go back to Esme.
Only she’s not for me. She deserves an alpha, not a fraud. Better if we never meet again, that way she won’t have to deal with the blow of learning I faked everything and played her.
Yeah, she’s going to hate my damn guts.
I don’t blame her. If I get out of this alive, I’m going to just go ahead and shoot that recruiter, or better yet, whoever it was in command that felt an omega, any omega, was a good idea at all, that my cover needed an extra layer.
I catch sight of Ryker hunkered down behind one of our armored vehicles outside the Uncorrupted’s base. Weapons fire arcs in both directions. More armored vehicles offer cover for our men.
Our enemy has a building to hide behind.
The front door is still closed and sealed tight. We haven’t breached it yet.
Ethan’s pinned on the opposite flank, protected by the wall of a neighboring building.
From the enemy base, another ship is rising fast, engines hot.
It provides a distraction, and I sprint for the armored vehicle. Bullets ping into the metal as I dive for cover next to Ryker.
“Fuck,” Ryker yells into his helmet radio over the tumult. “A ship got away. Do we have orbital cover in place?”
The confirmation comes that it’s been taken down, but an enemy vessel has just warped into space above the planet.
Fuck. “We need that door down and right now!” I yell.
Ryker taps his comms. “Ethan! We need to pop the door. I’ve got this.”
Ethan’s glare burns into Ryker across the short distance and hail of gunfire. “Lilly’s going to kill me if she finds out I let you loose with—”
“We don’t need to tell her!” Ryker says. “Just give me the authorization. You know I’m good at this—I’ll get it done!”
Ethan exhales sharply, mutters a string of curses. “Shit,” he snarls. Then taps his wrist piece. “You’re authorized. Don’t get fucking killed. Or I swear to God, I’ll bring you back just to strangle you myself!”
I catch the flash of Ryker’s grin, his eyes hidden behind the visor.
“What the fuck have you just authorized?” I demand of Ethan.
Ethan grits his teeth. “Don’t ask.”
My head swings between the compound door and the enemy fire strafing the space in front of it.
Ryker has already dropped low and crab-crawled to a nearby armored vehicle. I watch, stunned, as he hauls a rocket-propelled grenade launcher out of the back.
“Cover me!” Ryker shouts, already striding into the open like it’s a sim and not a war zone.
“Fucking crazy,” I mutter. But I raise my rifle and start laying down suppressive fire.
The rest of our soldiers do the same,
A high-pitched whizz cuts the air. And then the entire front section of the enemy base explodes amid a shower of shrapnel.
The impact throws bodies—Uncorrupted soldiers—flying like rag dolls. A massive gap yawns where the doors used to be, smoke billowing.
“Fuck yeah!” Ryker shouts.
“Go! Go! Go!” Ethan yells.
We run, boots skittering over rubble, jumping debris, and smoke stinging our eyes as we draw near. We need to get inside before they can regroup.
No more excuses. No more ships leave. But if any do and if my target is on one of them, then I need to be on it too.
Esme
It’s only later, when the first casualties arrive, that I recognize the last emotions I saw on his face: desperation, longing… and deceit.
He was lying to me. Has been from the start.
He’s never going to see me again. The realization hits like a tsunami. The floodgates open and whatever his closeness did to mask my abilities is gone.
A cry escapes me. I double over, and someone rushes forward to catch me before I hit the floor.
The pieces come together in a jumbled rush.
Whatever his mission is, it’s dangerous, important, and done in collusion with Ethan Black and Ryker Sherwin, probably under instructions from the highest levels of command.
Dangerous. So dangerous... he doesn’t believe he’ll come back.