3. Chapter Three
Chapter Three
Viper
I’ve walked away from more battlefields than I can count, covered in blood that wasn’t always mine.
I’ve accepted death more times than most soldiers get to fear it.
It never felt like this before.
Before Halley, dying was an ending.
Now it feels like following her home.
My Omega's blood cracks where it’s dried on my skin, flaking off as I walk deeper into the forest with Knox at my back.
I should want it gone.
I don’t.
It still smells faintly of her beneath the iron. Lavender and lightning, ruined by blood, but there.
It’s the last thing of hers I will ever have.
I used to feel a little regret when death came close.
Tonight, there’s only relief.
My mind is slipping. I can feel it going with each heavy step I take deeper into the forest.
I've been spoiled by Halley and her stabilizing presence. Her love has kept the Blood Lust at bay, but now she's gone, and there is nothing stopping the tide of rage from rolling in.
I'm almost numb to it, but grief is sitting on top of it, pinning it down.
Halley saved my life that day in the hospital.
I was supposed to die there, either by lethal injection or a bullet to the head. Everyone knew it. The doctors, nurses, and Shade. Even though he wanted to get me help, he knew what my fate would be that day.
Then she looked at me with those gorgeous eyes and changed what my ending looked like.
She gave me the chance to fall in love and finally be loved in return. Now that she’s gone, it makes sense that I’m due for the bullet she stopped. It's a debt to the universe that must be repaid. A cosmic rebalance.
I’m not afraid of it.
I’ve had more time than I was owed.
The Blood Lust surges, a wave of fire burning under my skin, and I stumble to a stop. It brings with it an unquenchable need to kick, punch, rip, and tear. An inescapable urge to cause maximum damage.
My hands tremble as I turn to face Knox. For a moment, I only recognize him as a threat to be torn apart, but I blink and steady my mind.
"Now," I grit through my teeth. I'm losing control.
I bite my inner cheek, hoping the pain will ground me. The tang of copper only serves to ignite the hunger for blood rising within.
I'm glad it's Knox. He's always been stronger than me, capable of holding everything inside while I leaked emotions through my armor. He's the best leader a soldier could ask for and has made a damn fine brother. The perfect one to do the deed. He’ll hate himself for it, but he’ll do it right.
"Halt."
His Alpha Command is crisp and binding. As my commanding officer and Pack Prime Alpha, his voice holds me tighter than anyone else. It's comforting, almost, to give up my control to someone I trust.
"Kneel."
I drop to my knees, and they sink into the soft dirt. The ground is still wet from a brief rain shower yesterday. I remember how the clouds looked as they moved in, and how the moonlight lit them from behind.
Halley slept by my side last night, her small, delicate hands threaded through my chest hair, spent from a vigorous round of lovemaking. The whole Pack joined in, petting and showing her their boundless adoration as they watched her take my knot so beautifully.
I have many regrets in my life. Too many to count. But if changing a single moment meant never knowing the touch of my Omega, then I'd endure them all again happily.
Knox pulls his sidearm from the holster at his belt, and his fingers fumble on the safety. His hands are shaking, and I frown. It's uncharacteristic. My Prime is unflappable, only ever vulnerable around Halley.
He sucks in a breath and opens his mouth twice as if working his way up to speaking. I stay quiet and wait, watching the moonlit grass sway in the gentle breeze.
"I know I didn't say it enough. Fuck, maybe I didn't say it at all... but you're the best of us, Eden."
My head snaps up at the sound of a long-forgotten name.
"What? You think I don't remember your name?" He laughs mirthlessly. "Who could ever forget that big lump of a kid who knew how to love despite it being beaten out of him daily?"
"I remember yours," I croak. "Thorin."
He licks his lips and smiles weakly. "They did a number on us, didn't they?"
He doesn't have to say who. I know. The same people who took us away from our families, raised us to become killers, and stole any hope of a future.
The moonlight makes the scar across his nose more visible, and I remember when they put it there.
The day after he was chosen as a Prime Alpha, he came back from his first mission with the bridge of his nose torn open. We healed slower back then, young and not fully grown into our dynamics.
The instructor praised the wound, called him a warrior among warriors, then reopened it with his blade. Again and again. Day after day.
Until Thorin disappeared beneath the scar and Knox was all they left behind.
"They didn't break us completely."
He cocks his head at me.
"We were still able to love Halley. She still saw some light in us."
Another humorless, self-deprecating laugh echoes in the small clearing. "Yeah. We did. We figured it out in the end. Not bad for a couple of soldiers only meant for death and killing."
We lapse into silence again, and Knox rolls his shoulders back. The rage is pushing past the grief now, and my hands clench into fists, begging to lash out.
Adrenaline pumps through my veins, scalding and bubbling and stripping away my restraint.
Talking is getting difficult, but I push the words out anyway.
"You don't have to follow us."
I know what he intends to do when he's finished with his duty to me. That gun has more than one bullet destined for an Alpha's forehead.
He watches me carefully, his eyes tracking the veins I feel bulging down my neck.
"I do." His mouth twists. "You know I do. I'll see you and Halley soon."
He raises the gun, and I lean into the Alpha Command still holding me tight, embracing it despite the beast inside railing against its restraints to be set loose.
The gun clicks as he flicks the safety off.
I close my eyes and exhale.
'I'm coming, pretty girl.'