58. Chapter Fifty-Eight #3
Blaise guides me around Viper’s Aim, and we walk for ten minutes before he raises his hand in warning. I halt immediately.
"This is Shade’s Smile," he says.
I glance at him. "That sounds suspiciously polite."
"Yep, that sums it up pretty well."
He leads me toward a narrow gap between two mossy rocks. At first, I see the obvious danger, a thin wire stretched low across the path, almost hidden under leaves, but glinting in the afternoon light filtering through the canopy.
"That’s the trap?" I ask with raised eyebrows. This seems far too innocent after the monstrosities I have been shown so far.
Blaise’s grin spreads. "Shade helped me create this one and I think you're going to love it."
He points to the left, where a patch of mud looks wetter than everything around it.
"It's… mud?"
"And?" he prompts, vibrating with excitement as he watches me piece the trap's design together.
"The wire is bait," I say slowly. "And when they notice it, they step around it."
Blaise nods vigorously. "Right into the mud."
"And then the mud sticks to them, making them easy to track."
Blaise bounces on his heels, clapping his hands in approval. "My Omega is so clever!"
I sniff, and immediately wrinkle my nose, covering it with my sleeve. "Ugh! It stinks, Blaise!"
"It's dyed oil mixed with stinkhorn for scent," Blaise says, deeply pleased. "Sticks to boots and stinks for hours, so the Alphas on patrol can follow it."
I stare at the harmless-looking path with new respect.
"Oh, and there is a motion-detecting camera that sets off alarms back in the comms office."
"So Shade designed a trap that doesn’t catch them but makes them easier to follow back to where they came from so we can track enemy movements."
"Yep."
"That's smart." I nod, grinning. "And it sounds exactly like him."
"It's pretty, clever, and reliable."
I press my lips together, fighting a fond grin. "You named it after his smile because it’s pretty?"
Blaise blinks as if only just realizing what he said, but doesn't correct himself.
He knows that I'm very aware that he and Shade have been moving their relationship from sexual into more romantic waters.
It's actually extremely sweet, and I hope that they'll soon feel comfortable to show that love openly in the Pack.
I can't think of anything more beautiful than two of my mates loving each other.
He sighs and then gets a dreamy expression on his face. "Yeah, Shade's so pretty. You both are, and when you're together, it breaks my brain a little."
I giggle and reach out to hold his hand, glancing around the trees, waiting for the next horrible little masterpiece to reveal itself.
"Well," I say. "Where’s the one named after me?"
Blaze’s grin changes, and the mischief eases back, leaving him looking at me with an earnestness that makes my side of the bond ache with affection. He steps closer, so his warmth reaches me through the cold.
"All of it."
I blink. "All of what?"
He spreads one arm toward the forest, the wires, the grenades, the hidden snares, and the spikes.
"It’s called Halley’s Mercy."
My breath catches.
"That’s what you named the murder forest?"
His gaze stays on mine, open and oddly vulnerable for a man who has spent the last half hour showing me all the creative ways he can kill the enemy.
"It protects us," he says quietly. "If I built this place for only me, anyone who crossed the line would die before they knew they’d made a mistake."
His gaze drops to our joined hands, and his thumb moves over my knuckles.
"But I hear you some nights," he says. "When the dreams get bad. I hear and feel through the bond what killing still costs you."
My throat tightens.
"So I tried mercy." His mouth curves, faint and uncertain. "A gross concept and very complicated, but there's a first time for everything, right?"
Frack. I make a noise that is caught between a laugh and a sob.
"I built warnings into the main approaches, things that would make any smart scout stop in their tracks and turn back.
If they keep coming, most of the traps also have warnings before their trigger, and even if they activate, some disable rather than kill.
His eyes find mine again, bright and painfully earnest. "That’s the mercy part. The Halley part."
Rut help me, my little psychopath has learned compassion, and I can feel myself somehow falling more in love with him. The bond between us is buzzing with my overflowing emotions.
I step into him and press my face against his vest, right over his brutal, beautiful heart that somehow decided this was how he would demonstrate his love for me. With jokes, danger, and a forest full of second chances built by hands that, up until now, only knew how to kill.
"You’re the strangest romantic I’ve ever met," I whisper.
His arms close around me, firm and warm, and his purr rolls through my cheek.
"You love my brand of romance."
I laugh softly against him.
"I do. I really, really do." I lift my head and look up at him. "Thank you for showing me this, Blaze."
"Anytime, Sparkles."