31. Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-One
Viper
Day Three
Last night, Shade laid out the numbers at the war council, and the truth became impossible to ignore. We are close to losing everything. Again.
The high of our Pack mating has burned off, and the reality of the world has come crashing back in. We may feel ready to start this new life as a mated Pack, but war is not going to wait for us to get settled. It has caught up, and it has cornered us here.
There is nowhere left to retreat. Blackgate Fortress and the Pass will be Pack Scorch’s last stand.
I hate that Halley is such a key part of this.
I wish she would go deep into Blackreach Province, find a settlement there to hide in while she still can, but she refuses every time we raise it. Win or lose, she wants to be here when we fight the final battle.
I want to be irritated with her for that stubbornness, but I can’t. Our Omega is strong, fearless, and fully capable of making her own choices. As her Pack, our job is to protect her, stand beside her, and respect the decisions she makes, even when they scare the fuck out of me.
So that is what our lives have become. A countdown.
How long until the enemy arrives?
And beneath that, another clock keeps ticking in all of us.
Eleven days until we know whether Halley is carrying our child.
It hangs there between us, loud as a gunshot. I've never been a man of many words, but I think Halley knows that I'll support her no matter what.
Halley has been glued to Knox’s side wherever he goes, and somehow her presence alone is enough to open doors that would have been slammed in his face.
Even the most self-important Prime Alphas seem willing to listen when she walks in beside him.
Add Zero to the picture, and the three of them have quickly become a force no one can ignore.
Shade has practically barricaded himself inside the Comms Office, surrounded by reports, transmissions, and scraps of intel, shaping them into briefings the war council can actually use.
It is stretching even him to the limit. He looks calm, if you don't know him, but I do.
He's scared. Out of all of us, he's the one who seems to grasp the full scale of how badly this might end.
Blaze has been left to his own devices, which is about as reassuring as it sounds.
And me?
My role is simpler. They don't need Stone's executioner in decision-making rooms. They need support and someone to hold this Pack together while the pressure tries to split us apart.
So I keep moving.
I take messages from Knox to officers who pretend they aren’t taking orders from him, but still carry them out.
I collect the information Shade needs and deliver it before he has to ask twice.
I bring Jason the updated roster for comms rotations, then swing by the armory to check Blaze hasn't been terrorizing them again. I make sure Halley eats before she walks into another room full of soldiers staring at her like she’s both a miracle and a nightmare.
Whispers follow me everywhere I go.
Murderer. Traitor.
They can say what they want, because their opinions won't change what I did, and I’m not interested in groveling for forgiveness to be more palatable.
Hiding isn’t an option either. I’m out in the open where they can all see me, and if anyone’s stupid enough to try their luck, they can do it to my face.
Some already did, and they’re with Everlyn in the infirmary now.
The pang that sits in my gut has nothing to do with regret, and everything to do with consequences. Stone’s death cracked the leadership open and left this army weak at the moment it needed to be its strongest.
I catch Shade in a corridor outside comms. His shoulders are tight and his eyes are bloodshot. He looks as if he hasn't slept in the last twenty-four-hour cycle.
I tell him so.
He denies it and keeps reading something on Jason’s datapad and pretending the numbers don’t scare him, but I can feel it through the bond anyway.
"You won't like this," I say, smiling in what I hope looks reassuring.
His head jerks up, finally looking at me with a frown. Okay, so not reassuring enough. "Not like what, Viper?"
I toss him over my shoulder and stride toward our cabin.
"You need sleep," I tell him, ignoring the sharp jabs to my ribs.
The curses he uses are creative and definitely stolen from Blaze. He pitches a minor protest once I drop him in the nest, but once the scent of the bedding wraps around him, he's out like a light.
Our nest smells like a sleepy, calm Omega. It's basically a sleeping pill, and Shade never stood a chance.
I slip out of the cabin, moving on to my next self-imposed mission.
Find Blaze.
Save whoever his current target is.
Redirect Blaze to guard Halley.
I might be the General's murderer to every other person in this fortress, but to my Pack? I'm their rut-damn lieutenant.
I’m halfway up the hill from our den when the Pack bond pulls tight around my ribs. My steps slow as I try to parse out what I'm feeling.
This feeling belongs to Halley.
I close my eyes and focus on her through the bond.
This isn’t the anxiety that’s been sitting in all of us since Everlyn said we had to wait two weeks, either.
Halley is frustrated.
I close my eyes and follow the thread of her through the bond. She’s close. Inside the fortress, two levels up, in one of the smaller strategy rooms near Knox’s temporary command office.
Another pulse moves through the bond, tighter this time, and threaded with irritation. Someone is saying something profoundly stupid, or ignorant, or both.
Blaze can wait.
Whatever trouble he’s found will still be problematic later, and if it isn’t, then someone will have learned an important lesson about watching their surroundings.
The strategy room door is closed as I approach, but voices carry through the old stone.
Prime Alpha Revik is speaking when I reach it. I know his voice from two corridors away because he always sounds seconds from starting a fight. "If Omega Command is our strongest advantage, then Specialist Sparks must be permanently deployed to the front line like General Stone ordered."
My hand stills on the handle.
Knox answers before anyone else can. His voice is low and controlled, which means he’s already angry. "Specialist Sparks is standing right here, why don't you ask her what she wants to do?"
A brief silence follows.
Then Zero says, "Choose your words carefully."
At least one Prime Alpha in that room has sense.
I push the door open without knocking.
The room turns toward me. Knox stands at the head of the table with both hands braced on the surface. Zero is beside him, arms crossed, expression carved into professional disapproval. Several Alphas crowd the map, all rank, muscle, and instincts packed into one overheated room.
Halley stands at Knox’s right side.
My attention goes straight to her.
My pretty girl looks calm. Her chin is lifted, her shoulders are set, and her hands rest loosely in front of her instead of curled into fists.
The bond tells the truth. She is at capacity.
Every person in this room is looking at her and needing to see a different version of Halley. Knox sees his mate and his stalwart partner. Zero sees hope and guilt. The others see the Omega Command and a girl who came back from the dead.
Nobody is seeing Halley. The real person under all of that expectation.
Her eyes meet mine across the room, and the tension in the bond stutters.
Knox’s gaze cuts to me. His jaw tightens as he thinks at me, 'You shouldn't be here.'
I know. I've been told that it's not good to remind others that the Alpha trying to become the new General is in a Pack with the bastard who killed the old General.
But this is an emergency, in my opinion.
I cross the room.
Halley’s brows draw together. "Viper?"
"Pretty girl," I say, keeping my voice low enough so it's clear it's for her alone. "You done?"
Her eyes narrow. "What? No, I'm not done. I’m in a meeting."
I tug on our bond, and I raise a brow, reminding her that I can feel her being crushed under the weight of expectation. She can't hide it from her mate.
She just crosses her arms. My stubborn little Omega.
"Yeah, you're done," I say, and bend toward her.
Before she can argue again, I lift her off her feet and sling her over my shoulder just like I did with Shade. If a solution ain't broken, don't fix it.
One arm slides behind her thighs.
Halley makes a furious sound against my back. "Viper! Put me down!"
Knox’s growl cuts through the stunned silence, because no Alpha enjoys watching another male pick up his Omega and challenge his authority in a room full of rivals, even when that male is Pack. His red eyes lock on me, and I think he might fight me for possession of Halley, but then he pauses.
He can feel what I feel.
Halley's bond, which has been tightly coiled all day, has loosened a bit. She's spitting mad and furious at me, but at least she's getting it out of her system.
"Put me down you giant oaf!" Halley says, beating my back with her tiny fists.
There she is. There's my Omega. Not the person about to fracture under the strain of what the future holds.
Zero’s mouth twitches. "I suggest we take a brief recess."
Revik looks like he wants to argue but doesn't, which means he has survival instincts after all.
'Bring her back once you're done,' is all Knox says to me through our connection, and I nod in acknowledgment. He understands that I'm not taking her for selfish reasons.
I stride out the door.
"You embarrassed me in front of the war council," she says, her voice nasal as she hangs upside down.
"You were miserable," I reply.
Her irritation flares through the bond, but beneath it the pressure eases another fraction. She hates that I’m right.
She makes a frustrated sound and digs her fingers into the back of my jacket. "Knox needs me there."
"Knox needs Omega Specialist Sparks but not at the expense of Halley."
She stops fighting. "I was handling it."
"I know you were."