Chapter Ten
Viper
Blackgate Fortress isn’t how I remember it. I trained here for three weeks when I was still a rookie, enduring the blistering winds and frostbitten toes. Back then, it was a deserted, bleak, and crumbling ruin on a cliff’s edge.
Shade drives up to a large, fortified gate, the headlights illuminating the stone walls of the stronghold. A hive of activity buzzes from within. The fortress is no longer deserted and is once more fulfilling its purpose as a military outpost.
It commands a view of the sprawling mountain range separating Fathim from the lawless Blackreach Province, its panorama extending for miles in every direction.
The steep rock face it’s butted up against protects it from the rear.
It's strategically placed to keep watch over the only narrow passage through the mountains.
In an instant, soldiers surround the truck, holding us at gunpoint. Their voices boom, filled with hostility and suspicion.
“Get out of the vehicle with your hands raised!”
‘Easy does it, fellas,’ Shade warns.
We exit the vehicle slowly and stay behind the bulletproof doors. We don’t raise our hands either. That would be a tactical error. Instead, we keep our ready weapons low as a sign of no intention of hostility.
We might have come here for help, but we won’t leave ourselves undefended.
Halley clambers unsteadily from the truck with no such precautions, and a hush descends upon the soldiers.
The muzzle of their guns lower.
Halley peers up, squinting against the bright floodlights. With the light shining on her face, I can see how our three months apart have changed her. Her eyes are sunken with dark circles, and she's lost weight. Her hair, which used to be so shiny and lush, is dull.
Some of the anger that has been flooding through me dims.
I wonder what she sees when she looks at us.
"Sparks?" someone asks.
"Jason!" she cries out, hobbling forward with her arms extended. She falls into the embrace of a Beta.
A low growl threatens to escape me, and I clear my throat to cover it.
This Beta touches her like she belongs to him. Familiar. Too familiar and my inner Alpha wants to sever his jugular for touching our Omega.
Through our newly reforged bond, I feel the same aggression rippling from my squad.
Jason, the Beta with a death wish, mutters, “Can't believe that asshat sent you out there.”
I've been thinking the same thing. Who the fuck deployed our Omega into a war zone?
“The others came back without you and I thought the worst had happened," the Beta gushes, scanning her face for injuries. “Your leg! You’re bleeding—”
"Jason, I’m fine. See?" she lifts the torn fabric, showing off my handiwork. "All bandaged up."
I spent longer than necessary cleaning the closed wound, inspecting the edges for any sign of puckering or poorly meshed skin. I wrapped the white bandage with utmost care.
My Alpha hums. She’s wearing something of mine. Even if it is a simple bandage.
"The Prime Alpha needs Everlyn." Halley points to the slumped body propped up against my side. Knox is standing, his gun at the ready, but he’s breathing heavily from the strain. He’s absolutely coated in blood, and he looks like a mess. He is a mess.
Everlyn. Recognition suddenly clicks into place.
Everlyn and Jason.
They're the friends Halley radioed when we couldn't get in contact with General Stone or Barkrood Base. These are some of the people she left us for. The ones she called her family and chose over us.
‘This guy?’ Shade mutters in the link. Exactly what I’m thinking.
I scan Jason head to toe, looking for something impressive or special which would warrant Halley abandoning our squad. There's nothing. He's a basic, normal as fuck Beta.
"Damn Sparks, what did you do to him?" Jason cocks his head, eyes narrowed as he inspects Knox’s ravaged form.
"Me?" she squeaks, lower lip quivering.
"Hey, hey, I'm kidding. You know I'm kidding. Come here." He pulls her in for another hug, and she winces as her weight shifts to her injured leg. It’s healed, but clearly still hurting.
This time my growl does escape, and it's loud enough to vibrate the ground under our boots.
Halley stiffens, and Jason turns to us, brows raised.
He slowly releases her and takes a step back. He looks at Halley and then again at us, his expression softening as realization settles over him.
“Are they…?” he jerks his head in our direction.
“Yup.”
“And are you doing okay with—”
“Nope.”
“Do you want me to get rid of them?”
I widen my stance, cross my arms, and stare them down with a glare so fierce it could melt steel.
We’re not going anywhere.
Halley sways unsteadily on her feet, her face pale and pulled in pain.
“Stop fucking around and get her a doctor,” Knox snaps from beside me, frustration rolling off him, even as he fights against the prevailing winds of exhaustion.
If this Jason is supposed to look after our Omega instead of us, he needs to start doing a better job. If she were ours, she’d already be wrapped up in my arms heading to her nest with a doctor en route. But we’re not in control here, and this isn’t our territory.
Jason looks chagrined as he nods rapidly, reminded of the injured Omega in his care.
"Right, yeah. Come on, Sparks. Let's get you and your… comrades looked at." He places an arm around Halley's waist, taking her weight as she leans into him.
Jealousy burns through me. Jason stiffens.
I smell like a territorial Alpha.
Good.
He steers her toward the fortress gates, and as if drawn by a magnet, we follow behind. The moment we pass the threshold, a beefy Alpha soldier stops Blaze with a finger poked in his chest.
“Halt. No unauthorized personnel.”
‘Ah, fuck. Wrong person to pick on, buddy.’ I sigh and tighten my grip around Knox. If Blaze kicks off, we might have to run from a hail of bullets for a second time today.
"Move it or I break it," our Blaze growls, pale eyes flashing in warning.
Halley hasn’t noticed we’re stopped at the gate.
I suddenly feel desperate, my inner Alpha instincts clawing to stay by our Omega's side.
After all, she's left us behind before.
But, as if feeling the same primal need to remain close together, Halley looks over her shoulder and stops. Her face twists in concern.
Maybe she doesn’t want us here. Maybe we were just a ride back to her new home.
Doubt creeps in until Shade asks exactly what I’m thinking.
"You want us here, baby girl?" Shade uses her pet name for the first time in months, and she flinches.
"Yes, of course," she breathes. “You rescued me and Knox needs medical care.”
I won’t delude myself into believing she wishes for more, but I smile as she drifts closer, like she can’t help gravitating back into our orbit. She wants to stay close to us. That's good, because I don’t want to be apart from her for a second longer.
I’m starting to forget why I was so cold to her only hours earlier. This is Halley. Our Omega. No matter what has happened in the past, she doesn’t deserve to be treated with anything but affection.
The Alpha gatekeeper grunts and rolls his eyes. "I don't give a shit what the Omega whore wants. You ain't comin' in."
Blaze grabs the gatekeeper's finger and snaps it.
His knees buckle as he cries out in pain.
Blaze grips his throat, lifts him off the ground, and lets gravity choke him.
The Alpha's boots scramble for purchase as he gasps for air.
"I will wipe the floor with your blood if you speak another word against our Omega." Blaze’s eyes are burning with fury.
A jarring clatter of rifles being readied fills the air.
An Alpha as volatile as Blaze doesn't give a shit who this guy is, or the fact that we’re surrounded by armed assailants.
Shade sighs, like a long-suffering babysitter. “Let him go, Blaze. It’s already been a rough day.”
Blaze doesn't flinch, not even when the gatekeeper’s face turns red and the choking noises take on a gurgling quality.
"Blaze. Release him." Halley shouts over the chaos. It's not an Omega Command, but Blaze obeys her anyway, releasing his victim and snarling viciously like a wild beast denied its kill.
Halley limps toward us, and I can almost feel her determination to stand on her own, to keep going. But I see the tremble in her legs and the sweat on her brow. She's in pain and exhausted, but the scent of sweet Omega perfume permeates through the fortress courtyard.
We inhale deeply, our bodies leaning towards her scent. It’s an unconscious pull, primal and dangerous.
Is she perfuming because she liked Blaze defending her honor, or was it because he called her our Omega?
She turns to another guard. "Tell General Stone Scorch Squad is here to see him." Her voice is raspy, but firm, and the guard snaps into action. He steps aside and murmurs into his radio.
She turns to face us and smiles sadly. “They’re not going to let you in without clearance from the Commander In Chief, but I know Everlyn will insist on treating Knox as soon as possible.”
She hesitates. Her fingers twitch, like she wants to reach out and touch us. She takes a deep inhale, and I watch as she rolls her shoulders back, like she’s strengthening her resolve.
“I hope you get the closure you're looking for from the General.”
Is that what she thinks we’re here for?
A debrief?
I blink slowly and watch as our Omega walks away on the arm of another man.
Fuck.