7. Chapter Seven
Chapter Seven
Halley
The forest blurs around us, branches whipping against my cheeks as Blaze tears through the underbrush with me on his back.
With each pounding footfall, I feel the Pack bonds sparking back to life in my chest.
Shade is frantic ahead of us, and Blaze is hot with dread beneath me.
Knox feels distant. Our bond never fully formed before all of this, but I can still sense him at the edge of me.
And Viper...
My breath catches.
Compared to the golden pull of the others, Viper’s bond is thin and unstable, flickering as if one more tear could sever it completely.
Oh frack, no.
I understand why Blaze and Shade are so panicked.
Without me, Viper’s Blood Lust came back.
Which means we have to get there before he loses himself forever.
My grip tightens around Blaze’s neck as fear moves through me. It's immediate and cold, but it doesn't completely take the wheel.
Death already took me once. I won't let it take Viper too.
The trees thin, and a moonlit clearing opens ahead.
In the middle are two figures I'd recognize anywhere.
Viper and Knox.
Knox stands braced, his body held tight with brutal control. Viper’s massive frame is just as still, but every muscle is straining, and his skin is twitching unnaturally.
Blaze skids to a halt at the edge of the open space.
I shove off his back before he can stop me.
My legs nearly fold the instant my feet hit the ground, but I force myself forward anyway. I need to reach Viper, to feel his arms around me and prove our bond hasn’t faded for good. He needs me. His Blood Lust is taking over, and he needs his Omega to bring him back.
I make it two steps before my knees give out.
Shade catches me around the waist and hauls me back against his chest.
"Stop, Halley," he hisses. "You can’t get between them when they’re like this."
I twist against him, already opening my mouth to argue, when the oddness of the scene hits me.
Viper isn't standing across from Knox as an equal, fighting against the sickness.
He's kneeling.
Knox stands over him, his face contorted in pain with… oh frack, with a gun pressed to Viper's forehead.
Understanding dawns, and my stomach drops.
Viper isn't fighting his Blood Lust. He's giving in to it.
And Knox isn't trying to stop him. He's going to shoot him.
"This can’t be happening," I rasp.
This isn't a rescue mission. It's an execution.
Every muscle in Viper is tense, and the cords of his neck bulge with effort.
Those beautiful green eyes I could lose myself in forever are gone.
Nothing but black, empty voids remain with angry red veins pulsing down his temples, more pronounced than I’ve ever seen them.
Even in the hospital, when we first met and his sickness scared me most, he didn’t look this… beastly.
Back then, he was lost, but still fighting for himself.
Now, he looks terrifying, unnatural, and resigned to his fate.
His scent rolls over me, and my stomach lurches.
Fetid rot and corruption. The same foul wrongness I smelled in the camp when Alphas in Blood Lust attacked.
For some reason, I never placed Viper in the same category as those monstrosities. How could I? He’s my sweet, gentle giant. The Alpha who holds me with careful hands and unexpected softness.
But I can’t ignore what’s in front of me.
He smells like them and looks like them.
What if my Alpha isn’t in there anymore?
Why isn't he fighting against it?
The questions come, but I have no answers.
"Knox!" Shade shouts.
His voice cracks through the air like a whip, and the crickets stop chirping.
Knox flinches, his fingers tightening on the gun to steady his aim.
"Shade?" His voice is wrecked. "What are you doing here?"
"Stopping you," Shade says. "Knox, look at me. You don’t have to do this."
Knox's jaw locks with grim resolve, but his eyes betray him. Tears track down his face, catching in the moonlight as he blinks like he can force them back through sheer will.
"I do." His voice scrapes out. "You know I do."
"He asked you to do this because he thought Halley was dead." Shade takes one careful step forward. "She isn’t."
Knox doesn’t look at me, and I realize that he can’t. His whole focus must stay pinned to Viper to maintain the Alpha Command holding him in place.
"Halley is gone, and without her, there is no Viper," Knox says, and the words sound like they’re killing him. He doesn’t want to give Viper this final mercy.
But he will. Knox won't shy away from his responsibilities, and he will perform his duty to his loyal lieutenant to the bitter end.
"He asked me for mercy. I gave him my word. "
"And I’m asking you to wait," Shade says, voice shaking. "Please, Knox. Give her one second. Give all of us one chance before you do something none of us can survive."
"Knox," I try to call, but my throat is ruined. His name comes out thin and broken, barely more than breath.
Blaze strides past Shade and me before I can try again.
Viper’s upper lip curls. A vicious snarl tears out of him, his black eyes locking on Blaze as the red veins at his temples pulse harder.
"Stay back," Knox grits out, without taking the gun off Viper.
Shade’s arm tightens around my waist, holding me against him when I try to go after Blaze. If I could just get close enough, they'd see. They'd know.
Can they not feel that the bond is healing? I try tugging on the bonds, yanking them as hard as I can, but our connection is so fragile they barely move.
Blaze stops several feet from them and yells, "Oi, you melodramatic asshole, put down the fucking gun." He throws one hand back toward me. "Halley is alive!"
Knox flinches. His eyes squeeze shut, as if Blaze's words have stabbed him in the heart.
The Command slips.
Viper takes the opening, surging up from his knees with a savage snarl, and his teeth snap inches from Knox’s throat.
"Hold!" Knox shouts.
Viper crashes back onto his knees, his body locked in place by the fresh Alpha Command, and his face twists with rage. Any other Alpha would fail to leash him like this. It’s only years of serving under Knox, obeying his Prime Alpha’s voice, that leaves Viper vulnerable to the Command.
Knox presses the gun back to his straining lieutenant’s forehead.
"Now isn't the time for your fucking games, Sergeant."
Viper's black, restless eyes sweep the area as his tongue darts out, tasting the air, searching until he catches my scent.
He freezes.
I hold still, desperate for recognition, for the smallest flicker of Viper. I need him to see me. His mate. His Omega.
His eyelids lower, and a low growl rolls out of him.
My stomach drops, because that isn't the reaction of an Alpha seeing his dead Omega alive again.
It's a predator locking onto prey.
Viper roars, and the raw and primal sound shakes the trees around us. It doesn’t sound like my Viper’s voice. It sounds like a monster wearing his skin.
Shade’s arm tightens around my waist. "Oh shit."
Viper surges to his feet, and Knox’s Command snaps under the force of it.
"Kneel!" Knox shouts, driving another Command into him.
Viper jerks to a stop. His shoulders hunch, his muscles strain, and his teeth bare as the order locks around him.
Then he rolls his shoulders and takes one heavy step forward.
"Kneel!" Knox tries again, but the Command breaks almost as soon as it lands.
Viper takes another step, slower this time, dragging against the weight of the Commands, yet still coming.
Straight toward me.
Blaze backs up, putting himself between Viper and me.
"Ah, fuck," he says. "That’s not good."
"No shit," Shade breathes.
He eases me behind him with careful hands, shielding me with his body even though his own fear is pouring through the bond.
"Stay behind me, baby," he says, voice trembling. "We won’t let anything happen to you."
"Never again," Blaze vows.
He crouches low, putting himself beside Shade, both of them forming a wall between me and the feral Alpha stalking closer.
My legs shake, still weak from being, well, dead very recently, and I collapse against a tree. Bark bites into my palms as I cling to it, trying to stay upright while two men I love prepare to defend me against the third.
Viper roars again, fighting harder against Knox's Command to get to me now that Shade has blocked me from his view.
"What’s the plan here, Shade?" Blaze asks.
There’s a tremor in his voice.
Blaze is nervous. Maybe even truly afraid of a fight for the first time in his life, which is so alarming I actually pinch myself to make sure I really did come back from the dead and this isn't some strange parallel universe.
But this is real.
And he's terrified of Viper in Blood Lust.
Scorch Squad has spent years avoiding this fight, but it's here, and they're going to protect me with everything they've got. Even if it's against their own brother.
"We have to pull his focus off Halley," Shade says.
"With what?" Blaze splutters. "My sparkling wit and good looks?"
Viper takes another dragging step toward us, shoulders straining against Knox’s Commands.
"Maybe he doesn’t want to hurt me," I say, peeking around Shade’s shoulder.
Viper's black eyes snap to me. He snarls, teeth bared as he gnashes them.
I duck back behind Shade.
"Then again," I wheeze, "maybe he does."
Viper drags another step, forcing Knox to shift with him. His gaze sweeps past Shade and Blaze, and catches on me.
The gun lowers an inch.
"Princess?" My name breaks in his throat.
Viper drags another step toward us.
Knox doesn’t react, only gapes at me in shock.
I lift one trembling hand in a weak little wave. "Hey. I'm still here. Too stubborn to die, I guess."
A rough and disbelieving laugh escapes him, but Viper growls again, and the sound tears Knox back into the situation.
"Viper!" Knox shouts. "She’s alive!"
Through our fragile bond, I finally feel Knox. His emotions crash into me, and I feel his grief splitting open into frantic joy. He straightens, dragging himself back into Prime Alpha mode even with tears still on his face.
"Look at our Omega," he Commands, voice shaking around the order.
Viper doesn't fight this Command. He's already looking at me.
But the words "our Omega" must reach him, because his blackened eyes blink slowly, and when he opens them, I swear I see a brief flicker of green.
I gasp, hands reaching for him.
Then the darkness returns.
The red veins pulse as if renewing their hold over him, and Viper takes three more straining steps toward us.
Blaze holds his ground, but Viper is almost within reach.
The bonds in my chest twist with distress and despair. I press closer to Shade’s back, clinging to the solid warmth of him while his racing heart pounds against me.
"It’s too late," Shade says. "He’s never been this far gone before."
He raises his rifle, settling the butt against his shoulder, and aims at Viper’s head.
"He’s gone."
"He isn’t!" I shout, but my voice is still so weak it wavers into a croak.
Shade tenses, but he doesn’t lower the gun.
"We don’t have any choices left, baby girl." His voice breaks around the words. "He’s feral. If he reaches us, he’ll kill us, and then he’ll go back to that camp and tear through everyone there. I can’t let that happen. Viper wouldn’t want me to let that happen."
I know.
Frack, I know.
This is how Blood Lust ends. It's what everyone accepts because there can be no mercy for something so dangerous.
I should know, I killed two Alphas in the same state. A bullet between their eyes because I was told they were irredeemable monsters only capable of death and violence.
But Viper is not a monster.
He is my Alpha.
Our Packmate.
The Alpha who held me like I was precious in that hospital, even when his own mind, consumed by Blood Lust, was trying to destroy him.
He came back.
I made him come back.
The fear stills. It doesn't disappear, but a quiet confidence rises in me instead. I know, deep in my heart, that I can still save him.
"This isn't how it ends," I say, and this time my voice holds.
"It's impossi—"
I stumble around Shade and grab his arm, digging my nails in until his eyes snap to mine.
"Don’t you dare tell me what is and isn’t possible, Beta Specialist Shade. Not when I just came back from the rut-damn dead."
He holds my stare, searching for something as his eyes dart between mine.
I don’t look away.
At last, his grip loosens on the rifle. He lowers it with a rough, shaking breath.
"Fuck it," he says. "What’s one more miracle after a resurrection?"
Viper roars behind me.
I don’t turn around.
He wouldn’t want me to see him like this, and I don’t need to because I know exactly who he is. He's a fighter. If he can come back from this, he will. He just needs some help.
"How did I stop him last time?" I ask. "Back in the hospital?"
Shade was there with his ever-watchful eyes, and I know he analyzed the scenario in excruciating detail.
"It was like you locked onto each other. Completely. You called for him in some primal way, and he answered."
Viper takes another lunging step forward.
We’re running out of time.
"Give me a theory, Shade. I know you have one."
His gaze flicks to Viper, then back to me. "Your bond was containing the Blood Lust. Even when you left us for those months, it stayed connected enough to hold him back. Weakly, but enough."
He swallows, and his voice drops.
"When you died, the bond broke. The containment shattered with it."
I swallow and nod.
"But they’re back," I say, pressing a hand over my heart. "Shade, they’re right here. I can feel all of you."
I reach for the faintest thread, damaged and unstable but still tied to me.
"Even Viper."
Shade holds my gaze. "Then remind him."
Knox shouts a warning, but the word barely reaches me before his Command breaks under Viper’s resistance.
Finally unhindered by Knox's Command, Viper launches.
His black eyes are locked on me, and there is no trace of the Alpha who calls me pretty girl.
He doesn’t see me. He doesn’t see his Omega, his mate, his heart.
So I have to make him remember.