Chapter Thirteen #2
“The Capital thinks they’re safe behind their walls. But they’re already surrounded by enemy forces. Resources will dwindle and infighting will tear them apart. Fathim is lost and Blackreach will be the only safe place for Demi-humans.”
I blink.
Blackreach Province as a sanctuary.
It makes sense. The Black Mountain range that borders the Blackreach Province is nearly impassible. There is one place wide enough to deploy troops through. And it’s guarded by the very fortress we are in.
I’m a little disappointed with how… smart it all is. For an Alpha who has behaved like a villain, he’s actually executing a very tactical plan that will save a lot of people.
I prefer to think of the world in black and white. Good and bad. But maybe General Stone is both a manipulative asshole and our species’ savior.
Clever bastard.
"What's that got to do with us and Halley?" Shade presses, his tone dark, and his eyes flashing.
“The pass into Blackreach must never be breached, but even the most dedicated army will weaken in it’s defenses over years of assault.”
He’s right. I saw it happen during my years in command at Dunefold Fortress. The enemy never stopped coming. Never relented. Always finding new ways to test our limits. And it fell.
Stone nods at me. He knows I understand.
“We need a weapon that will turn away any hostile force without the cost of Demi-human life.”
He turns from me, eyes catching on Halley like a hawk sighting prey.
She squirms under his intense stare and makes a strangled choking sound. Her fists gripped tightly at her knees.
“Yes, Omega Specialist Sparks,” Stone nods in answer to a wordless question, amusement dancing on his features.
Halley releases a shuddering exhale. Twice. Then, so softly even my enhanced hearing barely catches it, she speaks.
“Omega Command. The weapon is my Omega Command.”
Stone smiles. A slow, satisfied thing that makes my stomach turn. “Precisely so, Omega Sparks.”
Halley sinks lower in her chair. She looks so small in the room filled with large soldiers. Has she always been so tiny? My mind is so consumed with her that she always looms larger than life, a constant, vivid presence.
“You were so close,” Stone sighs. “So close to becoming everything I spent years building.”
He clicks his tongue. Disappointed. Like a teacher scolding a student who didn't finish her homework.
My teeth grind together so hard my jaw aches.
“But the silly little Omega ran before she could learn discipline.”
Halley flinches, and I nearly snarl.
"I’ll admit,” Stone continues. “I didn't have high hopes for her contribution to the project from the beginning. Too naive. Too old to mate. Not formally educated. But that spectacle she put on in the hospital with Lieutenant Viper? That was something, wasn’t it?"
Viper's growl fills the silence.
I hate how he talks about her, like she’s a thing, a burden, and is only useful because he swooped in and gave her a purpose.
“I could have locked you in a room with her during her heat and let you claim her. Forced the bond. Maybe I should have. ”
Rut have mercy. I can’t even fathom how horrendous that would have been. I don’t want to think about the damage a forced bond would do to an Omega… to us.
Halley shakes. Deep tremors. The scent of her panic bleeding into the room.
She’s not just scared. She’s ashamed. Humiliated.
“But before she gained unfathomable power, she needed to be leashed. To learn obedience, structure, and discipline. To become a soldier who follows orders without question. What good is a weapon if it refuses to fire?”
A low growl rumbles in my chest, joining Vipers. My hackles are up.
“Watch your mouth,” I say, slow and deliberate, leveling the old Alpha with a glare, no longer caring about disrespecting my superiors.
“Still,” he continues, lifting a hand like he’s presenting us a gift, “I fixed it. You’re here now. And you can finish what you started.”
That phrase.
Finish what we started.
Shade's hands flex at his sides, barely restrained fury in every line of his body.
“My men reported that Omega Sparks performed well on her mission to Rheamont. Despite her objections, her Omega Command is indeed still viable and far more advanced than projected. It’s raw and uncontrolled, of course, but that’s what you’re here for.”
Blaze flicks his lighter and holds the flickering flame.
“In hindsight, I acknowledge that I should have provided you with additional details during her previous training. Perhaps you would have broken her in faster. Alas, no matter. This time you will know why you must bring her to heel. Teach her how to obey, to follow orders without resistance,” Stone says plainly.
He makes it sound like she’s a pet that we let run wild. What does he want us to do this time? Put a shock collar on her?
I swallow. I certainly won’t be voicing that thought; the fucker would probably agree.
“Once she is under your control, you’ll mate her.
Tie her to your Pack. You must claim her with a bite during her heat for the best chance of a strong mating bond.
Without it she’s unstable. The Command inside her is too much for an unmated Omega.
If she keeps using it as she is, it’ll tear her apart from the inside out. ”
Every part of me rebels at the thought. I won’t let her die. Least of all, because if Halley dies, if we let her slip through our fingers again, whatever’s left of this Pack? It won’t survive it.
Blaze’s lighter snaps shut, smothering the flame.
Halley’s trembling intensifies, and her hands are clenched in her lap, white-knuckled. She’s holding herself together by threads.
“With the strength of a fully bonded Pack behind her, Omega Sparks won’t just be powerful, she’ll be unstoppable.
She’ll Command entire armies. Bring the strongest soldiers to their knees with a single word.
When the enemy comes, and they will come right to the foot of this mountain, she’ll be our weapon. She’ll Command, and they’ll retreat.”
Through our weak connection, I can feel Halley’s fear in the bond. A snag in a taut line.
Stone’s gaze goes distant, like he’s seeing some version of the future only he’s convinced exists.
“It’s time for you to do your duty.”
Stone lets the silence settle like dust after an explosion, the echo of his last words still rattling around the room.
Time to do your duty.
Shade doesn’t waste a second.
“You’re not a General anymore,” he snaps, stepping forward. “You left. Defected. And we’re not your soldiers. You can’t order us around.”
He crosses his arms, a deliberate challenge.
But I catch the flicker in Stone’s eyes. That smug spark, like a man who’s already stacked the deck and is just waiting for us to figure it out.
“You’re absolutely right, Beta Specialist,” Stone replies, his voice dipped in mock civility. “You don’t have to listen to a single thing I say…”
Then he leans in, just slightly.
“…but you’re going to anyway.”
Shade’s jaw tightens. “And why the fuck would we?”
That’s when Stone smiles. Really smiles. Not just a twitch at the corners of his mouth, but a full, victorious grin. Like a man who just played his winning hand.
“Because your duty is to defend Demi-human life. It’s what you were bred for. Trained for. They need you to protect them now, more than ever before.”
Fuck.
He knows exactly which buttons to hit. It’s a direct bullseye.
We might not be his soldiers. But he’s controlling us all the same.
A strangled snarl rips from Blaze’s corner. The metallic click-click-click of his lighter is rapid, uneven, with no rhythm and no calm. The fire isn’t working this time. It’s not anchoring him. It’s barely containing his wild rage.
Viper’s voice is low. “We’re not traitors. We won’t defect.”
I glance toward Halley.
At its core, this is why she left us.
‘Cause she knew we’d never go AWOL. Leave our duty. Walk away from all that we know.
Her breath catches. And the hair on her forearm lifts, reacting to the resonance of Viper’s voice. Even now, after everything, her body still responds to us.
Stone softens his tone, like a predator trying to appear reasonable. “Neither am I. I’m a patriot to all Demi-human lives. Alpha. Beta. Omega. Leaving the military doesn’t change that.”
I shift my stance, striving to steady the mess of thoughts thrashing in my head.
“Tell me, Scorch Squad,” he continues, voice dropping. “How bad is it out there? Have they asked you to kill civilians yet?”
My stomach clenches.
Shade's eyes go predator-sharp and I know which memory he's choking on. That evac mission last month. The one where the "insurgents" turned out to be Beta protestors marching on The Capital.
Viper’s hands curl into fists. He still hasn’t spoken about what he did that day. Probably never will.
Blaze disappeared for three days after. We covered for him. He came back, but the cracks in his already fragile mind had grown to gaping crevasses.
And me?
I didn’t question it. I followed the fucking orders. Right up until I realized what we’d done.
It keeps me up at night. The guilt and shame.
Afterward, when the brass issued the direct order to eliminate any civilians who resist, I knew we weren’t the good guys. Not the protectors of the people of Fathim. Just mopping up messes for people in power who’d already retreated behind their closed gates.
The others are silent. No one answers. No one has to.
Because we’re all thinking about the same orders. The same piles of bodies. The same lines we crossed and never really came back from.
But there is a way back.
Halley.
She’s hunched forward in her chair, shoulders drawn up like she’s trying to disappear into herself. Her arms are tight around her middle and the scent of her tears is rising, sharp and vulnerable and Omega.
She doesn’t look up.
Doesn’t look at any of us.
“If you want to save your Omega… you’ll need to leave Fathim and join my army.”
The room stills.
It’s not a threat. A truth.
If we walk out of this room and tell him to go fuck himself... Halley doesn’t get access to training. Doesn’t get a bond, and won’t stand a chance of surviving her Omega Command.
Stone places both hands flat on the surface of his desk and leans over.
“Stay,” he says in a firm, quiet tone. “Mate your Omega. Fight for what’s right. Become the best versions of yourselves.”
My hands curl into fists.
Fuck.
That’s what I want. That’s all I’ve ever wanted.
To be the best.
I’ve spent my entire career trying to be the perfect soldier. Loyal. Dutiful. Unbreakable.
There’s only one thing that could ever make me turn my back on my duty. One thing that could make me betray everything I’ve ever known.
Nothing, nothing, has ever cracked me like Halley Sparks has.