Chapter Nine
Halley
The engine’s growl is the only warning before the truck surges forward. Shade grips the wheel, spinning it with practiced skill as he high-tails us out of Rheamont.
The metallic ping of bullets hitting the vehicle is loud, and my ears are ringing. Through the thick plated glass window, the world outside is a blur of fire, bodies, and retreating shadows.
My thigh is soaked in blood, hot and pulsing. The hole in my leg burns as if it's trying to brand me from the inside out. I can feel every jolt of the wheels like a punch to my nervous system.
I sneak a glance at the others. They're sitting with straight spines and clenched muscles. The tension in the truck is thick, like it has its own palpable heartbeat.
Something inside me pulls tight. It’s achingly familiar.
The bond.
It’s not fully repaired, and certainly not glowing gold or anything dramatic, but it’s humming. Present.
I want someone to say something. Anything. For Shade to call me baby girl. To ask how I’ve been.
But no one does.
The silence makes the pleasant hum of the bond morph into an ache.
Viper pokes my leg.
“Ouch, mother-fracker!” I shriek before I get a firm bite on my lower lip to catch any further cuss words.
He huffs and examines the injury.
Omegas don't heal as fast as Alphas or even Betas, but I'll be fine after a few days of bed rest.... except—
“Woah,” I breathe. The wound has almost stopped bleeding, and the edges are knitting back together.
I’ve never recovered this fast.
I know without a doubt it's happened because our Pack is back together.
Well, not together, but close enough to smell them loud and clear, even beneath the scent of combat.
Shade’s dark chocolate and pine. Knox’s ink and spices. Viper’s gunpowder and roses. Blaze’s smoke and charcoal.
It smells like home.
My gaze flicks to the others. Shade focused behind the wheel, Blaze hunched in the front seat pointing directions erratically with a grin stitched on, and Knox slumped and bloodied but still right there beside me. Unwavering.
Viper’s palm braces my jaw, forcing me to meet his stare.
I swallow and my eyelashes flutter.
His Blood Lust has receded, and the veins at his temple are faint pink lines. His vivid green eyes are as lovely as I remember.
Viper’s hand lingers on my face.
He doesn’t speak, just studies me like I’m some specimen under glass, as if he’s looking for proof that I’m real, or that I’m still the same girl who used to sit beside him between training sessions and steal his protein bars.
He brushes his thumb over my cheek.
I almost shatter.
It’s barely a touch. Soft enough to pass for accidental, but it isn’t.
My instincts surge, all yearning and need. The bond flares like a muscle flexing beneath the skin.
I lean in without meaning to. My body seeks him out, remembering exactly how good it feels to be held by this Alpha.
He blinks once. Then all warmth drains from his eyes, and a mask slides back into place.
He clears his throat.
“Follow my finger with your eyes,” he says, moving it side to side.
I try to follow his instructions, I do, but I fail because I can’t stop looking at him.
It’s the same Viper. The same broad features with a heavy brow and pillowy lips. Yet, there’s something that’s changed. He has a coldness that was never there before.
“Focus, Omega.”
I don’t know what stings more, the hollowness in his voice, or the note of betrayal barely veiled beneath it.
He’s angry with me.
Behind him, Knox slumps against the wall of the truck bed, blood oozing from his wounds. His eyes are glassy, but he hasn't looked away from me once. There’s so much unsaid, and it throbs in the space between our heartbeats.
I try to speak, to say anything to cut the tension, but the words never make it out. My teeth chatter violently.
“You’re in shock, but not concussed,” Viper says in his deep, rumbling tone. “And your thigh wound needs…”
He trails off.
My thigh wound needs nothing. At this rate, it’ll be completely healed in an hour.
The truck lurches over a pothole, the suspension whining with the weight of it.
Knox shifts.
His hand twitches toward me as his body rocks with the motion, as if he can steady me. Because in his delirious state, he’s still in the fight, keeping me safe from threats.
He’s pale, slick with sweat, his shirt clinging to the mess of dried and fresh blood.
“Knox needs you.”
Viper hesitates, looking at Knox, then to the front of the cab, questioningly.
Knox is the one who gives orders in Scorch Squad, but he’s currently fighting consciousness. As the lieutenant, he’s the next in the chain of command. He shouldn’t need Shade to give him the go-ahead… and yet, he asks for it.
Something has changed in the squad dynamics since I’ve been gone; that much is clear.
Shade catches the unspoken question in the rearview mirror and jerks his head in affirmation. “Do it, LT.”
Viper frowns and exhales sharply through his nose. His hand slips from my leg, slowly, like it’s painful for him to let me go, and moves to Knox’s side. A pleasant warmth still lingers on my thigh, a ghost of his touch causing a tingling sensation.
The Prime Alpha hisses and attempts to kick him away, baring his teeth. “Omega. Look after… Omega.”
“I’m fine,” I lie, my voice sounding steadier than I feel.
Truthfully, I think I’m in shock. My body won’t stop trembling, and flushes of both hot and cold rip through me.
I feel undone on a cellular level. Using my Omega Command has wreaked havoc on my body.
Add in the bullet wound, reconnecting with my ex’s, stress from surviving an active war zone, and I’m one wrung-out Omega.
Viper rips open his Knox shirt, revealing the extent of the damage. Most of the bullet holes are already healed with shiny pink new skin, but there is one in his chest and another in his stomach that are still spilling blood.
Viper snarls, pressing gauze to the wounds, and Knox grunts.
It sends my Omega instincts haywire.
Protect. Nurture. Soothe.
It claws at me.
I shuffle closer to the wounded soldier, settling down next to him.
Knox’s hand is still outstretched toward me, limp and smeared with blood, and I scoop it up. Our fingers don’t interlock, but I hold on tight, needing the contact. Needing him to know I’m here with him.
He's coated in a sheen of sweat, his body burning through its last scraps of energy to heal.
“You’re okay,” I murmur. “Viper is going to stop the bleeding then your healing will catch up in no time.”
His lips twitch, maybe trying to form words, but all that escapes is a harsh exhale.
Viper works in silence. His face is set, jaw clenched so tightly I can hear it grinding. He has a nasty looking contraption gripped in his meaty fist. He presses it to Knox’s open wounds repeatedly. It looks like it hurts, but Knox holds steady with each click.
I watch as metal staples force the still-bleeding gunshot injuries to close, giving Knox’s Alpha healing a chance to fuse his skin back together. When it’s done, one by one the staples are forced from his skin and drop to the floor with a metallic ping.
Shade shifts gears up front, and the truck jolts slightly, jerking me forward with the motion. I catch myself with my free hand on the vehicle wall, blinking through the dizziness. When I look up, they’re all watching me.
All four of them. Not with fondness or tenderness, but with unreadable expressions, like they’re trying to see past my skin to the truth underneath.
I avert my eyes and lick the salt from my lips.
I feel exposed. Bare. The silence is starting to hurt more than the ache in my healing wound. I can’t take it anymore, I have to fill it with something. Anything.
“I should still be bleeding. I’m not supposed to be healing this fast, my body has been so slow lately. I guess it’s because you’re near… because my Pack is—”
“Don’t,” Shade snaps, his tone sharp and immediate.
I flinch as if he struck me.
He doesn’t look away from the road, but his nostrils are flared.
“You don’t get to call us that now, not—” his voice catches and he clears his throat. “Not after everything.”
My chest constricts.
“I didn’t mean…” I start, but the words die in a pitiful whimper.
I don’t know what I expected. That in saving me from death on a battlefield, it meant they forgave me? That they’d welcome me back with open arms? Tell me that I still belonged with them?
I left. Betrayed and abandoned them.
And they haven’t forgotten.
I want to tell them how sorry I am, how much I missed them, and that I never meant to hurt them. But the words stick in my throat, and I fail to find the courage to speak them. I’ve used up my daily quota for bravery, it seems.
The minutes tick by, punctuated only by the occasional sharp inhale from Knox and the grind of the gearbox.
"Where are we going?" I blurt out. My voice sounds high-pitched and panicked, and I internally cringe.
"A field base," Shade answers from the driver's seat, cold and emotionless. "You and Knox need medical attention."
I stiffen.
They’re taking me to the Fathim military.
They can’t.
My chest is tight, the urge to beg pressing against my ribs like a trapped scream.
I have to refuse. Because if I don’t, we’ll keep driving straight to a Fathim military run site where they’ll never let me go.
“Stop," I shout, my voice cracking with desperation. "Please. You can't take me there.”
“You’re not in a position to give orders, Omega Sparks,” Shade clips back.
Frack. Was he always such a hard-ass?
“I can’t go to anywhere near the Fathim military,” I say quickly, the words tumbling out of me before I lose my nerve. “They’ll send me to The Capital. I’ll be given to… they’ll make me be…”
I’ll become some influential Alpha’s plaything. Not a mate. Not cherished. A whore for their amusement.
And worse… I’ll never find my Omegas.
That gets their attention.
Viper goes deathly still.
Shade’s knuckles whiten on the wheel. Even Blaze, who’s been muttering to himself, goes quiet.
The sharp tang of anger stings my nose.
I don’t know what they’re angry at.
Is it me?
The Capital?
My adrenaline is wearing off, and I can’t stop the violent shaking from chattering my jaw.
This feels like one of my recurring nightmares. The ones where I’m with the squad on the battlefield. Those dreams always feel so real I’m almost loathe to wake, because it means I’ll be alone in my sparse, empty nest.
Maybe it is a dream.
I squeeze my eyes shut and open them again.
I sigh.
Nope, still here.
And Knox is still staring back at me with his glowing red eyes despite his body literally stitching itself back together in what can only be an excruciating process.
He saved me. I’m safe. He can stop staring at me like I’m going to sprint back into enemy fire.
Damn Prime Alphas and their dedication to duty.
Blaze spins abruptly and pins me with a glare that makes the hairs on my arms stand up straight.
"What were you doing with a defected Prime Alpha in a war zone?" he asks, fast and aggressive. “That knothead your lover?”
Lover?
The way he says it, lover, it sounds like a knife being sharpened on bone.
Not merely curiosity or jealousy. An accusation wrapped in razor wire.
I open my mouth and close it again.
A thought slams into me and I fight not to visibly cringe.
If Blaze saw Prime Alpha Zero, does that mean he saw me use my Omega Command on him?
Did they see how out of control I became?
Shame washes over me, hot and sticky, and sweat beads on my forehead.
Shade hums. “Yes, great question. And who were those soldiers you were with?”
I have no idea how to explain Blackgate Fortress, or how I have become entangled in yet another of General Stone’s experiments. I stare at my bloodied boots.
The silence is deafening.
"Fine, keep your secrets for now," Shade relents. "Then tell me this, if not the military, then where is your lover so we can take you to him?"
Oh frack.
Is that what they think? That I’ve shacked up with the first Prime Alpha I could get my claws into. Is that how they see me? Some ruthless seductress?
I bury the insult, blink away the tears stinging the corners of my eyes.
"We have a hospital. If you have a map, I can show you the way."
"We? Who the fuck is we?" Blaze clips.
I've missed him so much. His silly jokes, and how creative and devious his mind is, the cheeky grin he’d shoot me before playing a prank.
Except, he’s not smiling now.
He’s baring his teeth, the muscles in his neck straining. His pale orbs are fixed on me, but there is something not quite right about his stare. It's like he's looking, but not seeing me, not really.
We hit a large pothole, and I'm thrown forward, slamming into Blaze's shoulder.
A feral noise comes from his mouth, and he shoves me away like I’ve burned him.
The back of my head slams into the wall, and my head rings while I gape in shock.
“Sorry!” I hear myself simpering, confused but very aware that an angry Alpha is nothing to be trifled with. I curl up on myself, pulling my knees to my chest, wincing as I graze the newly healed pink flesh of my wound.
Not willing to continue being thrown about the cab, I crawl into a seat and fumble around until I find a seat belt and click myself into place.
Blaze and I barely touched before he shoved me away, but his scent lingers on my sleeve.
Rut, even though he’s being cruel, I can’t stop my inner Omega from howling for the reassuring scent of my long-lost mate.
I bring the cuff to my nose and inhale.
Smoke and charcoal… and there is something new. It’s like scorched steel. Explosive and dangerous.
He’s changed.
They all have.
Maybe I don’t know these soldiers at all.
Knox shifts, the color coming back to his cheeks even as he speaks between pained breaths. "I'm not… my squad… won’t go somewhere blind."
The message is clear.
They don’t trust me. Not anymore.
That’s fair, but it still smarts like a slap to the face.
I don’t know how to explain. Every word I think of sounds like a trap, or a lie. So, I start with the basics.
“It’s the old Blackgate Fortress.”
They fall silent and share a loaded look.
“Near the Black Mountain Pass.”
Viper grunts.
I don’t have anything left to lose, so I add on a resigned exhale, “General Stone is there.”
Without hesitation, Knox thumps his fist twice against the metal wall, wordlessly communicating something.
Shade slams on the brakes, shifting down the gears, and turns the wheel sharply. The truck skids and jolts as we turn.
"What's happening?" I ask, but no one acknowledges me. "Where are we going?"
“To see our old commander,” Viper replies distantly, before ominously adding. "We have some questions for him."
I squeeze my eyes shut, trying to block out the surrounding chaos and the emotions I can't bear to process. I know I've hurt them, and I can feel the weight of their betrayal in every breath they take.
They might hate me, but my body still sings for their touch.