Chapter 50
Chapter Fifty
Halley
"Maddie?" I squeak. "What are you doing?"
“You lied.”
A wave of suffocating fear from the Pack hits me like a brick wall. They surge towards us.
‘No, don’t! You’ll spook her,’ I shout internally.
They halt.
If threatened, Maddie might pull the trigger. They’re trained to be fast, but they’re not faster than a bullet.
Knox stands frozen, a snarl fixed on his face as he stares at my attacker, his fists balled. His jaw clenches and chest heaves.
Shade is a statue, his eyes taking in the scene with abject horror, his tablet clatters to the ground and the soft glow of the screen illuminates his boots.
“Liar.” Another voice hisses from behind me, and a new pressure appears at my lower back. A knife. Another Beta survivor has pulled a knife.
"I... What did I lie about?"
It must be some kind of misunderstanding. I can fix this. They listened to me before, so I can get them to listen to reason again.
‘Halley, get out of there,’ Viper’s voice is abrupt, but I can barely hear him over the crowd.
The survivors swarm around us, a shield of chattering, twitching energy.
I lose sight of Knox and Shade.
‘Halley? Don’t move, we’ll get you out,’ Shade calls.
"That Alpha. That one right there." Maddie juts a finger at Prime Alpha Zero. "I recognize him. I'd know him anywhere. He's the one that came to our village and took my brothers away. He lied about giving us rations and left us to starve to death. He’s a murderer."
I risk a glance at the Alpha in question. His eyes are wide with shock, a rare show of emotion.
It can't be true because the Prime Alpha Zero I know is honorable. He’s helping me find Ember. He left the Fathim military, everything he knew, to dedicate himself to helping thousands of survivors find safety. I know how hard that must have been for a Prime Alpha to do.
He’s a good person.
I stare at him, willing him to deny her words.
His gaze shifts to mine, and the truth is written all over his face, a dark, heavy weight of guilt and shame that I can't ignore.
Maddie isn't lying. Prime Alpha Zero is the monster who ruined her life. And he's standing right here.
Zero holds up his hands.
"I’m so sorry. I was following orders," he says, his voice hoarse. "When I discovered what happened to the villages I recruited from, I left my post, took as many enlisted soldiers as I could and defected. I’m here to make up for the hurt I’ve caused."
I realize now that his stoicism isn’t because he’s hiding his emotions due to duty. It’s because they’re busy eating him alive from the inside out.
"Bullshit," Maddie snarls, pressing the gun harder.
I swallow my gasp. “You defected because you didn’t want to go to war to defend us from the Human invasion.
You're scum, and you deserve to die. But you won't die, will you?
You Alphas are like fucking cockroaches.
So unless you give me what I want, I'll kill her instead.”
She taps the gun against my temple twice, and a whimper slips from my lips.
I hear Knox snarl, even over the shouts of anger, and I know he’s coming to get me.
‘Knox! Don't do it,’ I plead, but he can’t hear me.
To save me, the Pack will have to hurt the swarming Beta civilians. I can feel it through our bond. Right now they do not give a rutting damn about anyone else. All they see is their Omega in danger, and their focus is razor-sharp on getting me out, no matter the cost.
But I can’t justify my life for the sake of others.
I can almost feel the pain radiating from Maddie in unsteady waves, scraping against me. Her grip on the weapon is white-knuckled, tendons straining under pale skin. Sweat drips from her temple and slides along her jaw before disappearing into the stained collar of her shirt.
Maddie is desperate. A woman with nothing left to lose. I know without question she will pull the trigger if she feels slighted, and she will not care what comes after. Death would be a release for her.
There has to be another way for us both to survive.
‘Please. Please. Please,’ Shade’s inner voice is distant, drowned out by the Packs’ combined surging emotions.
Through the crowd, my eyes catch a glimpse of Viper, and I flinch as I recognize the veins creeping along the side of his wild eyes.
Blood Lust.
'Viper? Big guy, calm down.' Our connection is filled with nothing but static.
I know in my heart if I die today, Viper will plunge into Blood Lust and only a bullet between his eyes will stop the slaughter.
Knox will hold a grudge against every Beta civilian, finding any excuse to make them pay for my death, and loyal Shade will be beside his Prime all the way.
And Blaze…Blaze will kill his sweet other half, Blaise, and become something worse than a nightmare.
I stay perfectly still, too afraid to shift in case the knife at my back slips in the Beta’s unsteady grip.
I have to fix this, but every option feels like a gamble. Using any of my abilities is too risky.
Perfume is out. Maddie has already proven that it only sends her into a rage.
A purr could calm the crowd, but my O-space feels like it’s stuck in my chest, refusing to rise. The sparkling edges stay buried, smothered by the weight of my anxiety.
That leaves the Omega Command, my last resort. It is still unreliable. I have not tested it on anyone outside the Pack since training began, and with our bond a tangled mess of rage, fear, and protectiveness, I cannot trust their emotions to hold me steady.
Negotiation might be the safest path left. Maybe I can give her what she wants.
"Maddie, I’m so sorry that it’s gone this way, but there is a simple solution. Yeah? Prime Alpha Zero is going to evacuate the camp of all personnel, and then you can take everything you need to survive and leave.”
"So, they’ll just give us supplies? Just hand them over, no strings attached?
" she hisses sarcastically in my ear. "I'm not an idiot. I know how Alphas work, they won’t give us anything they promise. They won’t give up control.
They decide how much we get and where we're sent. Fuck that. Omega, you’re our golden ticket to get what's owed to us and go where we please. "
The Betas in her group are looking at her nervously. This wasn't the plan, but they’re ready to follow her. Ready to die for the chance of freedom away from the oppression of others.
“Do you hear that, Prime Alpha Zero?” she spits his name with venom. “You try anything and I pull the trigger. This precious little Omega’s brains will splatter on the floor before you can even flinch.”
Oh frack. Oh, rutting-frack.
I was wrong. Negotiating won’t work with someone like Maddie. She’s too blinded by her hate.
The panic kicks up a notch, and more growls fill the air, and not only from my Pack. Other Alpha soldiers have slunk from the shadows, violence flashing in their eyes. Threatening an Omega goes against their instincts, and their very biology won't let such a threat go unpunished.
The situation is going sideways. Fast.
Okay. New plan. I have to Command her, even if it’s risky.
I dig deep, forcing my mind toward Omega injustice and every moment of cruelty I have endured, trying to spark the anger I need to fuel my Command. Still nothing.
All I can feel is fear, sharp and cold, twisting tight in my chest.
Frack.
This is so typical. Even after weeks of intensive training, the moment I need it, the Command is nowhere to be found.
I plead instead. “Maddie, please. I don’t want to die. Just let me go, this isn't the way.”
Maddie ignores me, her breathing labored as adrenaline pumps through her veins. She drags me even closer, and it stings where her nails dig in, drawing blood.
She calls out to Prime Alpha Zero again. "We want two trucks full of food, water, and medical supplies. You'll give us that and let us go safely through the Pass or I swear, I’ll put a bullet in your pretty little Omega’s skull. Don’t fucking test me."
I can hear the truth in her words. She will kill me.
My voice is shaking and high-pitched with tension. "Let's be rational about this."
Maddie rears her hand back and smacks the gun against my head hard.
My head bursts into a blinding throb, and everything is suddenly fuzzy. The faces before me swirl and spin.
"Shut the fuck up, Omega," she hisses. "I'm doing the negotiating here. I'm in charge!"
Someone, Knox maybe, roars.
A wave of killing intent slams into me through the Pack bond, hot and suffocating. My pulse hammers in my ears.
The Betas feel it too. Every Alpha in the area is radiating rage, the kind that promises pain. The air thickens with the scent of it, sharp and primal, and the Betas shift uneasily, instincts screaming at them to run.
The realization is hitting them too late. Maddie’s personal vendetta has just painted targets on all their backs. You do not hit an Omega. Not while an Alpha is watching.
The crowd heaves, and a hard shove knocks into the person behind me.
White-hot pain sears as the knife jolts into my back.
I grunt. The sound is raw, wrenched from somewhere deep as agony rips its way through me.
Between the sea of bobbing heads, I see the moment Viper smells my blood.
‘Oh, frack. Viper, no!’
His eyes darken, and then he detonates.
The roar that tears out of him is inhuman, a sound that rattles my bones and makes the ground shake.
Pandemonium unleashes.
Betas shriek in panic at the sight of an Alpha in Blood Lust, scurrying like prey.
Most dart to escape Viper, shoving past each other in blind desperation, tripping over fallen bodies, and scrambling back to their feet.
Some fight back, revealing concealed weapons. Viper’s arm lashes out, backhanding the nearest civilian mid-swing. The metal pipe clatters onto the dirt, a hand still grasping it, severed from its owner.
My breath sticks in my throat as Maddie shuffles us to remain in the center of the turmoil, protected by a wall of civilians.