Chapter Sixty-Two
Halley
As we enter the camp, I’m hit with a sense of déjà vu. Yesterday, I walked back into camp with Knox looking at me with the same stern scowl on his face.
Shade carries me across the small clearing.
I seems that I have a habit of running away from the Prime Alpha. I squirm in Shade’s arms, and my belly flips at the thought of a verbal spar with the Prime Alpha again. I don’t know if I can explain to him why I stopped the heated moment earlier. Shade is easy to talk to. Knox is not.
After the kiss and flirting, I don’t think I can go back to the way things were. I feel like I’m on uneven footing, like I’m not sure how to approach him anymore. Previously, I always had my shields up around him. A spiky little porcupine ready to defend herself.
I see him differently now.
As we approach, even though Knox’s frown deepens, his dark burgundy eyes soften.
“What’s wrong? Is she hurt?” he asks Shade, concern in his voice as his eyes sweep over me, looking for injuries.
Blaze and Viper appear as if summoned. Their faces are etched with concern as their eyes rove my body.
Shade walks into the middle of them and deposits me in the group’s huddle. “Nah, just wanted to hold her close, ya know?” he says with a grin and a shrug.
I steady myself on my tired legs and let the radiating body heat from the four massive men dissipate the chilly evening mountain air from my skin.
I’m wrung out both physically and emotionally.
Knox clears his throat and, for the first time, he looks entirely uncomfortable and not at all in control. “Can we talk? All of us. Together.”
Knox doesn’t usually ask, he demands. Except he’s asking, and I don’t know how to handle him like this.
“But first.” Knox steps closer to me and places a heavy hand on my shoulder. Tingles explode, mixing with the heat from his hand and traveling down my arm. I tense and look up at him with trepidation.
His voice is gruff as he speaks to me. “I’m sorry.”
My jaw drops. “You’re… sorry?”
“Yeah, I apologize for… well, I’m sure you can give me a list of grievances.” His lips quirk as he raises a thick brow at me.
My heart flips in my chest. What is happening right now?
I flick my eyes to Shade and the Beta simply shrugs, looking equally flummoxed.
“Our mission was to train you to be a soldier, and I should have taken your designation into consideration. I didn’t, and it put you in a difficult position while compromising the success of the mission.
I mean to remedy the oversight, if you’ll agree to a fresh start,” he continues, his features soft and determined.
I swallow before nodding. “Yeah, I think we can start fresh. I’m not ready to give up, are you?”
“We don’t quit. Our team sees our missions through,” he clips, removing his hand from my shoulder. The tingles don’t dissipate. They linger, and I have to stop my body from chasing his retreating hand.
I try to bury the feeling of rejection as he talks so professionally about the mission.
He only sees me as a mission.
A stumbling block to the squad’s success.
This is what I wanted. That layer of professionalism between us. Except now that it’s back, I yearn for the flirtatious Alpha who brought me a blanket from my nest.
I shift my weight and look down at my feet. I wish I could go back to keeping a wall between us, but they’ve quickly become something far more important to me.
“This time, we’re not going to train you to become a soldier.”
My stomach drops.
“We’re going to train you as an Omega Specialist. To do that, we’ll need to investigate the impact your presence will have on our squad in combat and non-combat situations.
We’ve already noted some very interesting implications due to prolonged close proximity, but we need a thorough report on the effect of physical touch,” Knox says in a rush, the words stumbling over themselves.
I glance up at him and bite my lip to stop smiling at spotting the light dusting of pink on his tanned cheeks.
He’s embarrassed!
My smile breaks free, and he returns a small genuine smile.
I can read between the lines.
He’s giving the go ahead to explore the burgeoning connection between me and the squad under the guise of the greater good for the military. I’m starting to see why he’s the strategic expert. He’s found a loophole, and I’m happy to play his game if it means I get to stay with them.
“Yeah,” I agree, and clear my throat, adopting his professional tone. “That will be beneficial. It’ll give the military very useful insights.”
Blaze snorts, throwing his hands up comically. “Can you two stop pretending you don’t want to knot the living daylights out of each other already?”
Knox’s blush grows, and I squirm.
Shade throws an arm around Blaze’s shoulder, which he has to stretch up to do, and even then he pulls the tall Alpha down to his height.
Despite their height difference, Shade is clearly the one in control.
“Blaze, just think. We have to perform rigorous studies into the sexual appetite of an Omega, how that affects the efficiency of an active duty squad and the progression of these new powers.”
My eyes widen as I process the implications.
Our training sessions aren’t going to focus on me becoming a mindless soldier anymore. As a squad, they’re going to help me discover what is changing within me.
A knowing sparkle appears in Shade’s eye. He watches me closely and smiles, slipping his tongue between his teeth and playing with the silver-balled tongue ring. “Are you going to be a good Omega for Daddy and his brothers, baby girl? We have a lot of data to collect.”
I squeak, and the gush of slick in my panties is immediate.
“Oh fuck yes, Sparkles,” Blaze says, looking like it’s his birthday and he’s been given the present he’s always wanted. “You like Shade’s twisted Daddy kink, don’t you?”
I know I have a full body blush, the pink extending all the way beneath my uniform.
“This is going to be fun. I love science! What should we experiment with first?”
“Not yet.” Knox pushes an excitedly bouncing Blaze aside and shakes his head in amusement.
“Tomorrow we make contact with General Stone. We update him on our current situation and the change in mission objective,” Knox announces with authority. It’s slightly negated by the boner straining in his pants and the smile teasing at his lips.
“Knoxy has spoken. Operation Omega Specialist is gonna be so much fun!” Blaze howls, winking at me.
Knox raises his hand and gives us all a firm look. “Not until General Stone gives us the go-ahead order. We do this above board.”
I have no idea how he’s going to convince General Stone to approve such a scandalous method of training, but I think he’ll be interested to hear about the abilities Scorch Squad-1 has developed since my arrival.
The psychic abilities, Shade’s ridiculous healing speed, Viper’s suppressed Blood Lust, and Blaze’s mental coherency and general lack of burning shit.
Also, I think I finally understand why General Stone forbid Knox from investigating the development of my Omega Command.
An Omega able to Command is a threat. If soldiers obey an Omega over their commanding officers, it displaces the entire chain of authority.
The power shift would break the already weakened hold the military has over the people of Fathim.
Blaze makes a face that says he thinks that is a flexible rule.
“No exceptions, Blaze.” Knox pins the team wildcard with an intense glare.
It doesn’t work on Blaze, but it certainly works on me. Knox exudes an aura of dominance that makes me feel compelled to submit to his orders unflinchingly.
“Right,” Shade claps his hands and rubs them together. “How about we get some grub happening before we lose the light completely.”
Knox swipes up a container, gives us one last warning glance, and stalks off to the rippling pool to fill it with water.
Blaze drags Shade off while rapidly firing questions about his time with me the day before. I only catch the first question, but it’s enough to have me squirming. “So what does she taste like? I bet she’s sweet…”
I guess they hadn’t had much time to catch up, and I’m realizing these four don’t hide a rut-damned thing from each other.