Chapter Fifty-Nine
Viper
I’m so hard I could cut steel.
Halley pulls herself out of the water, using her trembling arms, and I’m completely captivated.
Water spills down her rounded body, caressing her like I desperately want to. I watch with rapture as a droplet weaves around her belly button, following the contours of her soft belly and disappears into damp trimmed curls. My balls tighten and pre-come leaks from my cockhead.
She tries to scramble up the rock, kicking her little legs to gain traction, and splashing us in the process.
I launch forward and pluck her from the water, my fingers wrapping around her small waist. I’m addicted to holding her and pressing her soft curves against my hard muscles.
It’s a hundred times better when she’s naked.
Or, worse, depending how you look at it, because I’m not sure if I can forget how it feels.
The usual sweet sigh of comfort she involuntarily makes when I hold her doesn’t come. Instead, it’s a high-pitched keening sound.
I look down at the wet Omega pressed against my naked flesh and swallow.
I hastily place her feet back on the ground before she can feel how rock hard I am for her, but when I try to step away, her hands scramble over my chest to hold me close.
“Pretty girl?”
“Mmm, yeah. Just give me a moment to get a handle on myself,” she whimpers, her voice strained.
Is she hurt? I have an overwhelming urge to protect her.
A bouquet of sweet-scented slick blooms from her, and realization slams into me.
She’s struggling with arousal, too.
As I steal a glance at my brothers, I notice the predatory glint in their eyes. Even Shade has a desperate tinge to his healing features.
“I-I should get back in the water.” She moves to jump back into the icy rippling water, and I reach out to stop her.
Knox is faster.
He cuffs her wrist in his hand and tugs her away from the water’s edge. “No, you’re already shivering. We need to warm you up.”
“T-that’s not a g-good idea,” she chatters through her clenched teeth. Tiny goose pimples are dotted over her arm as she uses it to cover her heavy breasts from us.
It doesn’t cover much. Our girl is very gifted in the bust department. And the rear department. Frack, those curves should have a whole shop of their own.
Knox doesn’t heed her words, instead tugs her to the fireside with a deep frown of concern on his face.
“The water is frigid even for Alphas,” he grumbles as he settles her on the blanket, fussing like a mother hen.
Shade drapes a large towel over her back, and she swiftly pulls it tight around her exposed form. A small pang of disappointment hits my gut as her body is hidden from me once more. It’s overridden by the need to protect her.
“Blaze went in,” she says in protest, her lower lip dropping into a pout.
“Blaze likes a bit of pain,” Blaze says, referring to himself with a heated smirk.
“Viper should have known better than to let you swim.”
Sure, except I’m utterly fucking powerless to refuse the Omega anything.
I suspect our fearless leader is also as powerless against the whims of our Omega.
It should feel like a violation, like I’m being manipulated. Yet, she makes me feel powerful by being in her presence.
“Let me?” Halley protests weakly, without any real venom in it, as she watches as Blaze uses his affinity with fire to stoke the campfire flames in record time. It roars into a bonfire and the wet sheen on her skin begins to dry.
“I don’t need any more heat, I need to cool down.”
“Cool down? It’s not exactly warm weather up here in the mountains.” Knox shakes his head, looking at the neighboring white-capped mountains.
It’s true. I’ve felt it getting colder even in the short time we’ve been based here. It won’t be long until we’ll need to requisition winter coats.
“It’s not that kind of heat…” she mumbles, pressing her face into her knees and wiping away the lingering water.
“Oh?” Knox frowns, looks down at her small form. His nostrils flare and realization slams into him almost comedically. “Oh!”
Blaze chuckles as he tosses away the thick stick he’d been using to stoke the coals and slow claps.
“Well done, boss. Math can be difficult for some people, but it’s good of you to admit it. Four horny soldiers, plus a gorgeous Omega, minus clothing, equals cock-hardening, slick-summoning sexual tension.”
“Shut up, Blaze.” The lightest tinge of pink dusts the tips of Knox’s ears.
“The water helped,” Halley mumbles, looking chastised.
She thinks she is going to be in trouble.
I shoot Knox a look, and he quickly jumps into action.
“No, no, you haven’t done anything wrong,” Knox says as he squats in front of her, hoping to capture her avoided glance. She stares resolutely at her toes as she hugs her knees to her chest.
“This isn’t like before… I’m not—” Knox is out of his depth for once, and I relish in his stammering. The words eventually spill out like a fire hydrant. “I’m an ignorant cockwomble for treating you like your natural Omega responses are shameful. They’re not. You’re not. Shameful, that is.”
Halley’s eyes go wide in shock as she pops her head up.
She forgets about covering her breasts with the blanket, and she points a shaking hand at him in accusation.
“What did you just say?” she whispers.
We exchange glances in confusion.
Knox clears his throat and repeats himself, “I have no idea what is normal and healthy for an Omega. I’m an idiot. It’s okay to be… aroused around us.”
“No, not that.” She flaps her hand at him. “What did you just call yourself?”
Blaze looks at Shade and stage whispers, “This is the weirdest sex talk ever.”
Shade clips him up the ear and I roll my eyes, but also agree with him.
Knox still looks completely confused and flicks his eyes at us for help.
“Ignorant cockwomble?” I provide with a shrug.
“…cockwomble,” she repeats with amazement, nodding like I’ve provided her with a grand prize rather than a nonsense insult.
I agree, it’s a stupid word, but it doesn’t warrant the fascination flashing on her face.
“O-kay.” Blaze pulls a face like she’s acting ridiculous. Like he’s one to talk, the psycho.
Halley isn’t paying attention. She’s fixated on our Prime Alpha.
Not on his face, but his physique, studying his shape with squinted eyes before asking slowly, “Where did you hear that word?”
Knox still looks utterly bamboozled, but slowly replies to her strange request. “I had an Alpha on my team who was a pain in my ass. No other way to describe him but a fucking cockwomble.”
“Hey!” Blaze shouts, his arms widespread.
Yeah. The phrase cockwomble was created to describe Blaze. It still fits.
Such a cockwomble.
He was a lot goofier back then, before the trauma of our jobs piled up.
Despite being an absolute liability, he was a perfect fit for the squad.
He adds a levity that breaks down our barriers and makes us laugh even in the grizzliest of circumstances.
Blaze has changed over the years. He’s still a liability, a pain in our asses, and a fucking cockwomble; but he’s also my brother-in-arms. I can’t imagine a life without him by my side.
Halley’s features are a whirlwind of emotions, each one flickering across her face.
Silence stretches through the glade, broken only by the sound of the thundering waterfall and creaking trees.
“It was you,” she finally whispers, frowning up at Knox.
“Me?”
She licks her lips and nods. “Did you… I mean, were you a drill instructor at Barkrood Base a few months ago?”
We move around so much I can’t even remember where we were a month ago. It was before our posting at Dunefold Fortress. Before everything went to shit.
Shade pipes up. “Yeah, Knox did a week stint while Viper and I sorted out a weapons shipment and Blaze was on that fucked up mission with—” he cuts himself off from sharing classified information.
A wicked excitement shivers through Blaze. “Oh yeah! That was a lot of fun. It’s been a while since I got to see so many severed—”
“Nope. Not another word.” Shade gives him another clip behind his ear.
Blaze pouts.
“It was you,” Halley repeats.
Knox sits back on his haunches, utterly perplexed. “Halley, we’ve never met. I’d definitely remember meeting you.”
“He’d have gloated mercilessly if he got to meet such a pretty unmated Omega,” Shade agrees.
Halley suddenly looks chagrined, her lower lip slipping between her teeth, and she gnaws on the plush flesh. It quickly turns a pretty deep pink and I remember sucking on it as we frantically kissed in the ICU.
I grunt and adjust the front of my pants.
“We didn’t meet,” she mumbles. “Not exactly.”
“Hmm?”
“We— I mean, I thought you looked familiar, but I’ve only ever seen you from afar before.”
When she’s met with more furrowed brows, she stumbles through the rest of her explanation. “There’s a spot on the roof of The Omega Division that has a direct line of sight to the base training field.”
There is a hushed silence as we all put together her words.
Blaze gasps and springs backwards, pointing an accusing finger at the Omega. “You perved on Knoxypants!”
She squeaks and stands, determined to retreat from the situation. Her flushed skin is still dewy from the water and it’s all I can do not to come as my eyes dart down to the swell of her breasts peeking above the blanket. Rut damn, those curves are dangerous.
“No! No! It wasn’t like that… I mean, not all the time.
Okay, it was a little like that,” she pleads, backing away from Knox, one hand fisting the blanket tightly around her chest, the other outstretched in a placating gesture.
“You have to understand how boring it is in The Omega Division. We needed a bit of entertainment, and it wasn’t hurting anyone, and the Alphas never noticed. ”
She takes a step back and Knox prowls forward.
“How many is ‘we’?” he asks in a clipped tone.
“Four of us…?” she says, cringing.
“Knox, how the fuck did you not notice four unmated Omegas spying on you?” Shade asks, failing to keep the rising mirth from his voice.