Chapter Fourteen
Halley
“Stay. Mate your Omega. Fight for what’s right. Become the best versions of yourself.”
The General’s order bounces around in my skull, echoing and twisting the words.
I don't want it. At least, not like this.
There is no bone in my body that wants to turn into some war machine, issuing Commands and bending others to my will.
Frack.
Not after Rheamont. Not after I almost lost myself to the Command’s corruption.
And double frack.
I might be a naive romantic, but I don’t want to be mated simply because it’s for the greater good.
My dreams were never big. Still aren’t. I want to be more than a broken Omega, kept like a caged bird. I want my family of Omegas close and safe. I want a taste of adventure, a little nibble of what life has to offer.
Instead, I’ve been forced to take a huge bite and told to chew.
The General is telling me I'm the key to some new era. The only thing stopping the annihilation of our species.
A tear slips down my nose and falls to the stone floor. Another splatters beside it.
The impulse to run is strong.
Like I did when I stole my father’s truck and left my family farm all those years ago. And again when my feelings became too real, and I left the Pack.
Except it’s not an option this time.
I have nowhere else to go.
And the rut-damn conniving bastard still holds the information I desperately require. He knows where the Omegas are.
"Give us time to talk this over," Knox says to the General, but it sounds like he’s talking underwater.
General Stone nods. “Fine. I’ve set aside a dorm for your squad. I expect an answer ASAP.”
My thoughts are muddled, a swirling fog choking my emotions, leaving me adrift and disoriented.
When the others stand, I copy them, moving on autopilot.
I’m exhausted and aching from the hellish day I’ve had. How is it dawn already? Only a few hours ago I was on the front lines of the war, surrounded by death and violence. Certain I would die or be consumed by my sadistic Command.
The need for sleep is weighing me down. However, as my body turns to follow them out the door, I halt.
I can’t leave yet. I have unfinished business with the Alpha behind the desk, pulling the strings.
I roll my shoulders, summoning whatever meager confidence I can scrape up.
When Knox, Viper, Shade, and Blaze have walked through the door, I give it a shove. It slams after the squad with a resounding boom.
It’s just me and General Stone.
"I made good on our agreement, it's time to fulfill your end of the bargain." I trust my voice isn’t shaking as bad as my legs as I stride back towards the desk.
I'm not stupid. His consistent pattern of lying and manipulation will probably continue, but hope is all I have left, and I still hold a sliver of it close to my heart.
The General glances up, his eyes piercing into me. I try not to shrink in front of him as his gaze travels the length of me.
I don't know what he sees when he looks at me.
Someone easy to mold to his cause?
A misfit with no right making demands of someone with his authority?
A silly little girl with a silly little dream of saving her friends even as the rest of the world burns?
Whatever he sees, it makes him sigh.
"Omega Sparks, circumstances have changed and I can't—"
I advance on him, my eyes narrowed. For an Alpha obsessed with creating a powerful Omega, he hasn't thought about the implications.
I might be smaller. Younger. Weaker. But, thanks to him and his meddling, I'm not defenseless. Not anymore.
His gaze flicks across me, sharp and fast, cautious.
Good.
He doesn’t see a helpless Omega, but a weapon he built but can't control.
"You will tell me where they are," I say softly, my voice calm and cold as steel.
It’s not a Command. I can’t, I won’t ever again, but he doesn’t know that.
I must let him believe I’m barely holding myself back.
The General might be a high-ranking Prime Alpha, but no one messes with an Omega’s family.
My scent permeates the space, and the lavender and lightning storm pheromones shift into something sharper.
"Tell me where they are," I repeat, my tone broaching no argument. The threat is implicit.
Tell me, or I’ll make you.
His lips press into a thin line of disapproval, but I don't look away.
I need him to tell me where Dazz, Ember, and Flicker are.
The O-space shimmers. Coming unprompted and unwanted. Maybe it’s not too far from the truth. I might be moments away from losing control.
I swallow and force it down.
"Tell. Me.”
Finally, when the air feels thick and I can barely restrain the allure of my O-space, he answers.
"I don't know."
I blink, and the shimmering stops. "What do you mean, you don’t know?"
"I don't know where they are," he sighs, as though frustrated he has to repeat himself.
“How can you not... Why wouldn't you know where they are? You're the one who took them from The Omega Division.”
He shrugs, placing his elbows on his desk. "I sent them with my most trusted soldiers, but I did not ask for locations in case I was compelled to disclose them."
General Stone's brow raises accusingly at me.
I take a step back as the rush of blood roars in my ears.
He knew.
The rut-damned fracker sent me on that mission to use my Omega Command on civilians, knowing full well he couldn't fulfill his side of our agreement.
"You lied," I whisper, simmering rage spilling over.
"I said I’d tell you what I know—"
"You lied!" I yell. "You…You said... You told me if I went on that mission you’d tell me where they are, knowing all along you couldn’t make good on that promise."
“I never said I knew where they—”
“You're a manipulative, power hungry Alpha and I’m not playing your twisted games anymore.” My eyes sting as tears of frustration threaten to spill and I clench my teeth to hold myself together. “You don’t care about the greater good, you just can’t stand the idea of not being in control.”
I feel stupid. My gut screamed at me, ‘Don’t trust him', but the glimmer of hope in my heart refused to let the slight possibility he was telling the truth slip by. I need to reevaluate what I’m doing here.
I’ve wasted three months on the chance this withered old Alpha would tell me their location, but the whole time he had no clue.
I turn, intent on leaving and figuring out how to find them on my own, when he speaks with a desperate tinge.
“Stop and be smart, Omega Specialist Sparks. You’ll never find them on your own. I can reach out. Find where they went.”
I shake my head. "I can’t trust anything you say."
And yet, my heart sinks as I recognize the truth in his words. Blackreach Province is big. Really fracking big, and even if I knew where to start looking I’d get lost without the proper gear.
He stands and walks around his desk, his size used to intimidate me, but after spending so much time with Scorch Squad, I see him for what he is. An old man.
“If you stay and train your Command with Scorch Squad, I’ll prioritize contacting them.”
“I want to know where they are,” I demand, my lower lip beginning to wobble with emotion.
I can almost taste his desperation, an acrid bite that settles on my tongue. His ambition. His fear. At his core, General Stone believes that if he loses control of me, he will lose this war.
I sigh.
Double rutting frack.
There is no chance he will ever tell me where the Omegas are.
It’s his leverage to keep me compliant. A trump card that compels me better than an Alpha Command ever could.
“I can’t do that. No one can know their location, it’s safer that way.”
The dim flicker of hope that I’d find my Omega family, which valiantly burned deep in my heart, splutters and dies.
And yet, in its place, a spark of serenity grows.
I finally get it. The awful, gut-twisting truth I’ve been too stubborn to face.
I was never meant to save them.
What was I gonna do? Really?
Even if I somehow slipped past the General’s army, even if I somehow knew exactly where they are in the endless sprawl of Blackreach... what then?
Drag them out of hiding? Rip them from safety just so we could all end up running for our lives together?
And even if, miracle of miracles, we found some hole to crawl into, how long before the Humans sniffed us out and finished the job?
The realization is like a punch to the chest. I want to fold in half. Break down. Cry big, ugly tears until there's nothing left.
But I don’t. I lock my knees, and I swallow the grief burning my throat, because I can acknowledge the truth now. They’re safer without me.
Wherever Dazz, Ember, and Flicker are... they're better off under the protection of Stone’s soldiers than tangled up in my disaster.
And me?
My place is here.
With Scorch Squad.
Learning to be the monster the General needs me to be.
Learning to survive long enough to make it count.
As long as the General can prove they're safe and alive, it'll have to be enough.
It has to be enough.
I hate how much it is enough.
Hate the gross, guilty relief that floods through me, unclenching this awful knot I’ve been dragging around for months.
I can lay down my burden.
Instead, what I must do is prepare.
War is coming. I need to get stronger and grow my powers.
Not just so I can protect my Omegas, but everyone.
I glance back at the old Alpha behind the desk and feel the heat rise in my face at the smug little twitch in his lips, like he knew I’d land here all along.
I want to spit in his face.
I want to scream.
I don’t.
Instead, I nod once.
I might hate the game, but I’m not too stupid to know when I’m holding the only hand left to play.
I used to think hope was this gentle, ethereal thing held together by whispers and dreams. I know now that it’s not.
Hope is an Omega with blood on her hands, and fear in her heart, making deals with corrupt old men.
It’s doing what’s right even when it feels wrong.
It’s pulling herself out of the mud, patching up a bullet hole, and having another go.
“I’ll stay," I spit, “One month. If you don’t give me proof of life by then... I disappear. Your precious experiment will fail without me.”
There.
That’s my ultimatum. I have no clue whether I will actually follow through on my threats. It feels like I can barely predict my own emotions at the moment, but if I have to play his game, then he has to play mine too. Let him feel the strain of dangling on someone else puppet strings.
He tries to protest. “It’ll take longer than that to find them—”
“One month, General. Or I walk. That’s the deal.”
I spin on my heel and wrench the thick wooden door open. I don’t let myself acknowledge the four soldiers waiting outside. There is no doubt that they heard the entire exchange with their enhanced hearing.
I shove past them, ignoring the buzz in my ears.
I feel overwhelmed. Smothered underneath the mountain of information dumped on my head.
It's too much.
Someone calls my name, but I don’t stop.
I need air. I need to breathe.
“She’ll Command entire armies.” Stone’s voice rings in my head.
Oh rut. I can’t. But don’t think I have a choice.
I run down the steps and sprint across the courtyard. I'm not sure where I'm going, but I can't be anywhere near the squad or General Stone, or anyone else for that matter.
I need to scream. Rage. Do something to expel this ball of frustration from my chest.
I find a door that leads down to a basement, and I take the stairs quickly. There is another set of doors that I shove open and I find myself in the middle of a massive cellar. A string of light bulbs flickers on, casting a dim glow over rows and rows of large oak barrels lining the walls.
It smells like rum and earth, and I draw in a deep breath, trying to calm the storm inside me.
As I'm walking past one of the rows of barrels, I hear footsteps and then a voice that stops me in my tracks.
"Halley?" A deep voice echoes off the walls.
I breathe in and freeze as I smell roses and gunpowder.
It’s my big, stubborn, sweet Alpha.
Viper.