42. Chapter Forty-Two #2
Then Knox gives the order, and my Pack surges forward with me in the center, charging straight into the broken Human line for the tiny chance that we can save our people.
Rebel gunfire screams over our heads from the barricade behind, punching holes through the enemy line ahead of us. I marvel that no friendly fire hits us, thankful for the steady hands of our comrades, proving once again that Alpha soldiers are deadly in their accuracy.
Knox tears a path straight through the center, rifle cracking at point-blank range before he slams the stock into a Human’s face hard enough to throw him backward.
Blaze barrels through the gap Knox makes and widens it with cheerful brutality.
Viper shoots clean and fast, every hit a swift kill.
Shade stays so close to my back that I can feel his breath puffing on my sweaty neck.
The Humans quickly realize that we're in their midst, and they swarm around us.
The Pack meets them head-on, carving out a path forward, deeper into the crush.
A Human lunges at me, and Viper drops him before he reaches arm’s length. Another comes in from the left and Shade puts a round through his neck. Blaze kicks a body off the cliff edge without breaking stride and lets out a gleeful giggle.
Knox shouts, "Push!"
As a unit, we surge forward again, and I follow them deeper into the mass of our enemy, ducking when told, huddling behind the bodies of my mates.
It's not enough to stop the stray bullet from nicking my arms and legs.
Warmth trickles down my skin, but the sting barely lingers before my rapid healing seals the wound.
We continue to drive forward straight into the teeth of them, and the adrenaline pumping through my body sweeps me up in the frenzy of violence.
I still haven't fired my weapon, but I feel the itch to help my Pack fight growing with each injury I see them take to protect me.
I start feeling like what my Pack has been trying to make me into all along.
A soldier.
A fighter.
An Omega capable of fighting alongside her mates.
The deeper we move into the enemy, the closer they come, until we're boxed in on all sides and my Pack abandons their rifles for their pistols, knives, fists, and in Blaze's case, teeth. The Humans don't hesitate to throw themselves straight into our Pack kill box.
"Move," Knox barks. "Go, go, go!"
I dash after Knox, Blaze, and Viper, tripping and stumbling over the mess of death beneath my boots. Shade stays at my back, not once leaving his post.
Viper slams into my other side a second later, his broad body knocking half a dozen Humans off the cliff edge by himself.
A round hits him square in the chest plate.
Another tears through the meat of his upper arm.
He grunts, shoves me and Shade lower with one huge forearm, and keeps firing over our heads like nothing happened.
Like he isn't using himself as a meat shield.
Blaze covers our other side as a Human farther back uses the cleared space around us to get a clean shot and squeezes off a burst. The rounds tear into Blaze’s flank and thigh. He just grins wider, darts forward so fast I almost miss when he kicks our attacker so hard his chest caves in.
"You're gonna get yourselves killed," Shade says, voice clipped as he ducks and fires past Knox’s shoulder.
"But what a way to go!" Blaze says with a cackle.
A Human barrels straight at me through the crush, rifle abandoned, knife out, eyes wide with panic and hate. I plant my boots, bring my rifle up, and fire once into his chest.
He jerks but keeps coming.
I fire again, this time into his throat.
He drops hard enough to skid through the blood at my boots.
I don't have time to reflect that I just killed a person, because another man lunges out of the smoke on my left. I pivot and put a round through his face so close the spray showers me. The gun's recoil punches up my arm. My ears are ringing. My pulse is pounding so hard I can taste it.
My training takes over before fear or panic can take hold of me.
Front sight. Breathe. Squeeze the trigger.
"Good girl," Viper growls, blood still running down his arms and side, looking somehow more handsome than ever with his eyes wild with pumping adrenaline.
Arousal flashes through me, and I finally think Shade might be right. I think I have a violence kink, because no sane Omega would be turned on right now.
We keep pushing deeper into the enemy against all odds.
Knox drives forward again, using the sheer force of his body to break the enemy line open one half step at a time.
Viper keeps his frame between me and the heaviest fire.
Blaze bounces in and out of the crush with a grin.
Shade stays tight to my back, firing his pistol with cold precision whenever one of them makes an opening.
We carve through another knot of Humans, and then Blaze’s attention snaps sideways.
I feel it through the bond before I see what catches him. A sharp spike of focus. Almost predatory.
'Officer.'
The declaration slams through the bond.
I follow the line of Blaze’s gaze and spot my target at last. A Human officer, marked by cleaner armor, better weapons, and trying to keep a wall of soldiers between him and the worst of the fighting.
He's still too far away for me to Command him, and I can feel the Pack starting to tire. Blood loss and the energy spent healing drag at them with every passing moment.
Blaze looks back at me and smiles. It's not the manic, euphoric grin he's been sporting, but one that is earnest and full of love and endless devotion.
Frack.
'Oh no, no, no. Blaze, don't!' I shove at him through the bond, but he just winks at me instead.
'No,' Shade fires back instantly.
Knox’s rejection crashes in right on top of it. 'Stay in formation.'
Viper’s answer is pure force. 'Absolutely not.'
Blaze turns and resumes fighting, but his intention is already set.
He knows the officer is too far for our Pack to reach without it costing us more than we want to pay. But Blaze has always been fast and tricky.
He can make it on his own, when the bulk of our Pack won't.
"Love you too," he shouts out loud.
My stomach drops as Blaze drives deeper into the Human crush, because this cannot be how we lose him. We said we would stay together. We said we would do this as a Pack.
"Blaze!" I shout, but he does not look back.
He cuts through the crowd in black armor streaked with blood, his rifle flashing as he clears a path no one else could reach. Humans close in behind him almost as fast as he drops them, swallowing the space between us until I can only see pieces of him through the bodies pressing from every side.
Viper lunges after him, but Knox catches the back of his vest and hauls him into place before the line around me breaks.
"Leave him," Knox barks, even though it clearly pains him to say. "Keep moving. Keep Halley covered."
Viper turns on him with his teeth bared, and for a breath I feel the fight in him, the panic, the rage, the brutal refusal to let Blaze vanish alone. Then a Human crashes between them with a knife raised, and there is no time to fall apart.
The blade punches into my shoulder.
Pain burns down my arm, but Viper is already there, roaring as he rips the Human off me and tears him apart with his bare hands. Shade fires over my other shoulder. Knox shoves me forward before the enemy can pin us in place.
I search for Blaze through the blood, smoke, and bodies, clinging to the stupid, desperate thought that he has gone rogue before. He always comes back. He always comes back grinning, filthy and pleased with himself, like death couldn't catch him because he was too slippery and fast.
Then I see him one last time, ducking beneath a rifle barrel as three Humans turn on him at once.
More bodies surge between us.
Blaze disappears.
I cannot follow him.
I cannot grieve him.
I lift my weapon and keep attacking, because Blaze is fighting to give us a chance, and I won't fail him by giving up now.