Chapter Forty-Three
Blaze
The beast lunges, a blur of lethal intent, and Knox dodges with equal speed. His blade is a streak of silver slicing through the air. It slashes the feral Alpha’s abdomen, but it merely grazes the surface of his skin.
The wound trickles a single slither of blood before sealing shut, his Alpha designation lending him enhanced healing. His blood smells fetid and wrong.
A primal howl tears through the air, echoing the Blood Lust Alpha’s unleashed fury. Swiftly, he pivots towards me, massive arms clamping together to crush my skull. I evade, spinning on the leafy forest floor, in time for his deadly grip to find only empty air.
A burst of laughter punches from my lips. I feel good. Really fucking good. I’m usually fast in a fight, but today, I feel light as a feather.
“What’s the game plan, Cap’n?” I shout at Knox. The dude always has a strategy for battle. He doesn’t ‘wing it.’
“Kill the bastard!” he snarls as he jumps out of the way of a devastating punch to his gut. The feral Alpha stumbles off balance, and Knox uses the momentum to drive his knee up into its bloodied jaw. I hear the audible crack and I puff out an impressed breath.
Breaking an Alpha’s bones is not an easy task. That was one hell of a hit. Knox must be just as pent up for a fight as I am.
“Halley’s really fucked with your head if you can’t come up with a better plan!” I chuckle, loving the flood of adrenaline.
The feral Alpha roars in anger, its movements becoming erratic and unreadable.
“Leave her out of this!” Viper snarls down the sights of his rifle. He takes a shot, and the bullet nicks Frank’s temple, close but not a bullseye. Before he can take another shot, the rifle is swiped from Viper’s hands and thrown down the mountainside.
Without a gun to hide behind, Viper has no excuse to hold back anymore. It might be wrong how excited I am to see the big guy back in the thick of a fight after being sidelined for so long.
The Alpha lunges towards me, throwing his weight into a punch. I sidestep and slide my blade across the top of his arm. It’s a deep cut and doesn’t immediately heal. I can see the sinewy mesh of his muscles twitching between the split skin.
It’s beautiful, and I want to poke it.
A blow to my head sends me flying across the forest, and I slam into a boulder. Pain explodes from my nose, and I know it’s broken. Blood streams over my lips and down my neck.
“Now you’ve done it, you’ve messed with my pretty face!” I shout. “How’s my Omega supposed to fall in love with me looking like this?!”
“Focus, Blaze!” Knox shouts and then grunts as a sickening thud echoes.
I laugh as Knox lands on the ground beside me, holding his ribs as he gasps for air.
“Focus, Knox,” I mimic at the Prime Alpha, and poke out my tongue. Then I get my footing and stand. Time to stop messing around.
The more I move my muscles, the more I realize how different they feel. Stronger somehow.
My head is fuzzy from the impact against the rock, and I have a pounding headache, but my blood is pumping hard. My skin burns as my healing accelerates and my vision sharpens. The thrill of a battle, my favorite feeling, floods me with power and the rush to get my blade through flesh.
Viper is going toe to toe with the Blood Lust Alpha, each punch earth-shattering. Viper is a beast in a fistfight, but this is something else. He’s faster and stronger than I’ve ever seen him in a fight.
It’s a blur of snarls and growls as the two behemoths land punches and kicks.
I race across the clearing with a growl and jump on Frank’s back, locking my legs around his thick neck. His huge arms are swatting at me like an annoying gnat, so I slash and slice as the screams of his rage fill the clearing.
Viper keeps up his relentless attack as the feral Alpha struggles to defend from us both.
It’s not enough to put him down. He’s too powerful, and too far gone.
His body is already healing the deep slashes from my knives, and he’s struggling to pull me from his shoulders.
My grip falters, and I cling to his back and stab at the pink line where the wound on his gut healed.
A weak spot.
Healing the same place twice takes longer and we need to slow him down so we can get a clean shot at his head. Blood gushes down his legs in a thick stream of crimson, soaking the ground below him.
Knox grabs one of the beast’s flailing fists, places it on its stomach and drives his knife into it, trapping his hand. I do the same with his right.
Viper kicks the back of his knees, and they buckle underneath him until he’s kneeling. The feral Alpha looks dazed as he stares down at his hands on his belly with confusion until Knox grasps a fistful of his hair and holds his head upright.
“Now, Shade! Take the fucking shot!” Knox shouts.
I hear a quiet, steady intake of breath, and then the familiar crack of Viper’s sniper rifle.
A spray of blood mists over us.
Enemy neutralized.
Knox releases the Blood Lust Alpha, and he slumps forward and falls to the forest floor.
I squat to take in deep, ragged breaths, and run a hand over my nose. Fucker has already healed in the wrong position. I suck in a breath and snap it, setting it back into place before spitting out a mouthful of blood. My nose has always been a bleeder.
I grin up the hill to where I know Shade is watching us through his scope, and shoot him a bloodied grin.
Knox presses his fingers against the body’s neck before nodding in confirmation. Dead.
“Fuck yeah!” I tilt my head back and howl like a madman, adrenaline pulsing through me.
“Target neutralized. Returning to camp. Over,” Knox grumbles into the radio, stretching his neck and wincing.
“Roger that, boss man.” I mock-salute our fearless leader.
He turns to me with an exasperated sigh. “Blaze? Cut down those hanging dudes before they wake up.”
Oh yeah. I’d forgotten about my little marionettes. That was fun.
Knox kicks over the dead Alpha to rip our knives from his hands and stomach. He hands me mine and I wipe the coagulating blood off onto my trousers before sheathing it on my belt.
My nose tingles as it heals and I give it an experimental inhale of air, only to be hit with the dizzying scent of Omega in heat.
Rut-damn. Halley’s heat might’ve broken, but it still smells like breedable Omega on this mountain.
I also smell the lingering scent of the scattered Alphas rambling through in the area, still posing a threat to our Omega.
Viper stands and stares up the hill, his head cocked as he strains to listen. “Shade hasn’t responded.”
Knox’s brow furrows, raising the radio.
“How copy, Shade?” he asks the military short-hand for checking in.
The radio crackles.
I mentally count to three before anxiously rolling my shoulders.
“How copy, Shade?” Knox barks again, the worry seeping through his voice.
There’s no response.
“He’s got to be out of battery,” Viper mutters.
I look between the two Alphas, their expressions tight with concern, and I’m filled with a sinking dread.
A pop breaks the static, and the voice of our Beta emits from the hand-held radio. “Copy, Prime Alpha. We’ve had an incident at base camp. Over.”
I snatch the radio from Knox.
“What kind of situation? Are you alright? Is it Halley?”
There’s another long pause, until finally he replies, his voice slurred, slow. “She’s safe.”
I don’t wait to see if Knox and Viper are behind me. I’m sprinting through the forest, my legs pumping as I leap over fallen trees.
My mind races with thoughts of Halley.
Did an Alpha get to her?
Is she hurt?
My heart pounding in my ears is from fear, not the run.
I run back to base camp in record time, and when I skid into the clearing, my feet slipping on the soft mud, the sight before me has me frantic.
A dead Alpha lays in the center of the training camp.