Chapter Two
Halley
I bolt upright with a scream.
Air. I need air.
My chest heaves as my heart thumps hard. The sheets are soaked through, plastered to my skin like a second, suffocating layer.
I shove them off and claw at my forehead.
Nothing.
No blood or cuts. Just smooth, intact skin.
I check again. And again.
Because I felt it. The blade dragging through flesh, slow and deliberate. I heard him. Blaze was laughing, his eyes never blinking, never looking away, just staring right into my soul.
But it was just a dream.
Right?
"Halley?"
Everlyn appears in the doorway. My room is a tiny closet I’ve claimed within the space I share with her and Jason.
"Another nightmare?" she asks, sitting on the edge of my nest, swinging her feet, bracing herself on her hands.
I pick at the fraying blanket across my lap, like tying the ends of the loose threads might stitch something inside me back together. I guess I should stop calling the cot I dragged into this small storage space a nest. It brings neither comfort nor happiness.
"Yeah," I breathe, raking down my sleep-tangled hair before twisting it into a messy bun. Damp strands stick to my neck.
She offers me her canteen and I drink, grateful that the cool water soothes my raw throat.
"You okay?" she asks when I hand back the canteen.
I hum, intending to lie, when she ducks her head to catch my gaze. She raises an eyebrow, daring me to fib. She knows me too well.
I rub my forehead again. "They always feel so real."
Everlyn nods in understanding. I know what she's going to say because she says it every morning. “They might be real. We still don’t fully understand how Pack bonds work. You’re linked to them in a way I can’t explain. At least not scientifically.”
Maybe she’s right.
Or maybe my brain just likes hurting me with memories that feel too sharp to be fake.
It’s been three months since everything fell apart. The only success? Reuniting with Everlyn and Jason. A consolation prize for blowing my life up and failing my mission.
After I hit the turnoff to Blackreach, the truck gave out, of course it did, and I had to hike the rest. Just me, my gear, and a mountain range that looked like it wanted to kill me for sport.
The peaks stretched into the clouds. Jagged cliffs, snow-blind white, one lonely road snaking through like it regretted being built in such a harsh environment to begin with.
I camped at the threshold and waited. For Everlyn, for Jason… for courage, honestly.
I told myself I was being cautious.
But really, I was just scared to go in alone.
The passageway was too quiet. That kind of quiet made you feel like you were already labeled as prey. No birds. No bugs. Just wind whispering between the cliffs as if it knew something I didn’t.
Then came the boots.
Gravel crunching in a rhythm no animal would make. I gripped my rifle and held my breath.
One soldier appeared, almost as startled by my presence as I was of his, quickly followed by a whole squadron of heavily armed, unmarked soldiers.
They moved fast with precise movements. I didn’t even get my rifle raised. One blink and I was down, wrists yanked back, a gag shoved in, and then…
A hood. Darkness.
I lost track of everything. How long I was in that hood, how many hands dragged me, how many bumps in the road jarred my hips. Just static in my brain and the growing certainty that I was well and truly fracked.
I tried to summon my O-space, careful to only reach for the submissive abilities.
I sure as frack didn’t want to use my Omega Command, not while I wasn’t sure if it would work on so many at once.
I needed something more subtle to calm them.
Something they wouldn’t realize was affecting them until it was too late.
A purr. A flicker of perfume. Rut damn, I would've settled for a shaky little Omega whimper to flip their instincts and make them hesitate to harm me.
Nothing came.
I focused on my breathing instead, just like Shade taught me.
Eventually, they yanked the hood off, and light exploded across my retinas.
I blinked, squinted. Vision blurring until the world finally came back into focus…
I should’ve guessed.
General fracking Stone.
“Omega Sparks,” he said, punctuated by a smug tsk sound. “You’ve failed your mission. I’m disappointed.”
He’s disappointed.
Right.
This is from the Alpha who blackmailed me with my brother and sister’s lives.
The same one who sent me to “train” with a squad of super-soldiers who could’ve snapped me in half before breakfast, and savaged my mating gland by lunch.
I carved myself into something unnatural at his whim, swallowed my instincts and broke parts of me that were meant to stay soft. I became an Omega capable of killing, because of him.
And now I’m a disappointment?
Of course I am.
Because I failed. I disobeyed orders and left my post.
I tie another knot in the frayed blanket, tugging it tight. The enduring chill within Blackgate Fortress brings me back to the present, but although the memory fades, a bitter taste lingers.
"Remind me again why you left a squad of super-soldier hotties to be here?" she asks with a coy smile and tilts her head, as though she didn’t just catch me mentally drowning.“Because when someone kidnaps your family, you do stupid shit like running head-first into chaos.”
She tightens the drawstring of her scrubs, getting ready for her shift in the medic bay. “Yeah, well, if you’re stupid, then so are we. Jason and I came to rescue them, and ended up in General Stone’s web as well.”
It’s the not knowing that eats me alive. My Omegas could be anywhere. In a cage, in a grave, or worse, in the hands of someone who thinks Omegas are toys you wind up and break.
Dazz talks big, but he’s got this soft heart he tries to hide, and it bruises easily.
Flicker was never built for this world. She’s all soft wonder and moonlight, and some days I think we should’ve marched her back to the enchanted woodland she clearly escaped from.
And Ember… Ember won’t go quietly. She’ll fight even if it gets her killed, just to prove a point.
"I feel lost without them," I admit.
Guilt tears at my insides because, truthfully, I don't know who I am referring to. My fellow rejected misfit Omegas, or the squad of soldiers I abandoned.
"I know you do," she says sadly, and I'm thankful she doesn't pry further.
"Come on, get dressed, and let’s have some breakfast."
I sigh and nod.
My stomach still churns from the nightmare, but if I don’t consume something, Everlyn will tell Jason, and then he’ll pester me like an annoying brother until I eat.
I change into my black thermal top and gray overalls. The outfit is plain and dull, but I like how the pants have multiple pockets to hold things in. Also, it doesn't remind me of the uniform Knox made for me. I’ve kept that bundled up in the bottom of my bag like a dirty little secret.
I shrug on the bulky coat and wrap the threadbare scarf around my neck and up over my head. The moment I step out into the courtyard, my breath catches. An icy wind blows off the snow-capped mountains and whips through the stone fortress, stinging my exposed hands and face.
Blackgate Fortress, perched high in the mountains, watches over Blackreach Province’s sole entrance like a wraith. The pass I never worked up the courage to cross.
I tuck my palms under my armpits and scurry to the mess hall behind Everlyn. The moment we enter, the roar from the wind dulls and the soft warmth from the open fireplaces chase the chill from the air.
The large chamber is crammed with Alphas and Betas.
A small army of disenfranchised soldiers who rallied behind General Stone when he defected from Fathim.
They’ve sworn themselves to protecting the Blackreach Mountain Pass — the threshold to the last place Demi-humans can escape the influence of The Capital and the invading Human forces.
I search the crowd until I spot Jason sitting with co-workers from communications, who spend their time intercepting transmissions.
Jason's dark brown hair is cropped short. He might be tall for a Beta, but he’s still dwarfed by the surrounding Alphas. His cornflower blue eyes light up when he sees us, drawing me in as a beacon. I smile and wave as we join the food line.
Like me, Everlyn and Jason were caught before they made it into Blackreach, and are now reluctant recruits in his army as well. They can’t go back to Fathim.“You okay?” Jason asks once we’ve settled across from him with our bowls of oatmeal and chipped mugs of tea.
“Bad dreams,” I mutter, stirring the porridge until it looks more like glue than food. I don’t say anything more. It’s hard to explain that they’re not just twisted dreams. I feel them.
Knox’s icy fury pressing against my ribcage like a warning.
Shade’s grief curling in my throat until I wake up choking on it.
Viper’s panic, raw and untethered, echoing through my bones.
And Blaze...
Blaze laughs. That wild, unhinged sound close to my ear, and far too real.
And maybe Everlyn is right. It could be.
Because what I know for sure, is the bond we unintentionally created during my training didn’t break. It just… stretched. Warped.
They’re still out there, and I feel them like phantom limbs. Even though I left, the tether’s still there. And every time I sleep, it drags me back to them whether I want to or not.
Jason nods, sipping his tea. He doesn’t say anything. He never does when my voice starts shaking like this, just waits for me to finish lying to myself.
"So, how was night shift?" Everlyn asks her mate before taking a bite of her breakfast.
He sighs, the mug thudding as he sets it down, his brows pulled tight. "We intercepted chatter from a Human scouting party. They're deeper in Fathim than we thought… and are approaching a town. Our reports show the Beta coup messaging is strong in this region, and they're unlikely to evacuate."
In other words, the stubborn folk of this town are about to meet a violent end. With each passing day, the war in Fathim becomes more dire.
I close my eyes. I can hear the fireplace crackling behind me, and breathe in the firewood smoke.
It smells like Blaze. Woodsmoke and fire. For a second, I can almost believe he’s beside me again, staring while I eat, like I’m the last good thing he’ll ever see. I’m fracked because that big weirdo has somehow made me miss his strange habits.
My gland throbs beneath my bite collar.
When I open my eyes, Jason is watching me with a peculiar expression.
"Another thing, General Stone wants to see you," he says.
I groan.
I'm sick to death of the crusty old General meddling with my life and want nothing more than to tell him to frack off. Except, I have to oblige. He has my life and the lives of those I love in the palm of his hand. He dangles the location of my Omegas in front of me like a carrot on a stick, teasing me with the promise of reuniting us. I’m not a prisoner here, but I can’t leave either, not when that asshole is my only lead to finding them.
"Great. What does the old toad want?" Everlyn snorts, rolling her eyes.
The Betas at our table shift uncomfortably, shooting her warning glares. Most people in Blackgate Fortress are unyieldingly loyal to the General and won’t hear an ill word about the aging Prime Alpha.
Everlyn just shrugs. She's the only doctor here, and it grants her freedom to say what she wants without reprimand. They need her.
"When?" I sigh.
"After breakfast," Jason replies.
“Great,” I mutter. “He’s gonna make me late for my shift.”
To keep busy, I work long hours managing the fortress supplies. Warehouse operations is my area of expertise after a decade working in them at Barkrood Base. It’s familiar. It’s safe. The kind of mindless, repetitive work I can disappear into.
After the initial week of intrigue surrounding the new Omega among the troops, most of the soldiers stopped paying attention.
It suits me fine. The last thing I need right now is some nosy soldier getting into my business.
The odd part is, the Alphas don’t even look at me.
Given the horrifying alternatives, I’m not about to question that particular miracle.
Everlyn rolls her eyes again and turns to me. "Good luck with the chief asshat. Meet me in the medical bay after, I need to check your pheromone levels, they’ve been tracking lower each day."
On General Stone’s orders, Everlyn has been monitoring my health.
Daily blood tests, physical assessments, and mental health evaluations are all compiled in a daily report he pores over.
We both hate it and think it’s insanely creepy, but it’s still helpful to see how my body is reacting to the separation from the squad.
Each day, my strange abilities fade away.
I nod silently as I watch Everlyn kiss Jason goodbye.
A pang of fear stabs my heart. Something inside me knows that whatever Stone has summoned me for, it won’t be good.