Chapter 50 #2
Panicking, a male survivor stumbles away from the chaos, shoving bodies aside, a gun swinging in wide, dangerous arcs. As he backs into the shadow of the treeline, his finger slips and the gun goes off. Someone in the crowd drops to the ground with a scream.
The branches above the man shake.
Blaze drops from the canopy above like a hunting cat. They hit the ground together in a tangle of limbs and terror. The man gasps, but the sound cuts short as Blaze drives his boot down on the side of his neck.
There is a wet, splintering crack that I hear even over the cacophony.
The man’s body twitches once, then goes limp.
Others who were darting for the trees skid to a halt, confronted with Blaze’s manic, unblinking stare. They hasten back to us.
Knox joins the fray. “On your knees, Beta!”
His Alpha Command slices through the mob. It’s strong and somehow still controlled despite his turbulent emotions.
Knees slam into the ground, unable to resist his primal order.
For a split second, I feel relief. In a moment, Maddie will fall to her knees, I’ll run to the safety of my Pack, and no one will get hurt.
Except Maddie doesn’t waver. Neither does the Beta at my back.
The relief slips away as quickly as it came.
Alpha Commands don’t work on a crowd, and in the heaving masses, Knox is unable to focus his order on only Maddie.
Prime Alpha Zero follows Knox’s lead.
“On your motherfucking knees!” His bark joins with Knox’s, and his Alpha Command drops another handful of survivors.
It’s still not enough.
Maddie stands unwavering.
The other Alphas join in.
“Get on the ground!”
“Hands behind your heads!”
“Drop! Now!”
They’re not Prime Alphas, but each Command forces another Beta to submit. They just can’t pinpoint Maddie through the masses.
Panic among the soldiers rises as the situation remains out of their control. Nervous fingers settle on triggers.
I swallow the bile sticking in my throat.
Time has run out.
A loud gunshot cracks to my right, and I flinch. My ears ring, and a warm, wet splatter on my shoulder feels sickeningly thick. Something heavy collapses against my back before sliding off with a soft grunt, followed by a low, gurgling sound.
The knife twists. White-hot pain detonates in my side as the blade tears free.
A sharp scream rips out of me, followed by a long wail of agony.
“Ahh!”
“Halley!” The distant answering roar is desperate and full of horror.
The agony ricochets up my ribs, stealing my breath. My knees weaken, boots catching on the corpse behind me. I stumble, vision swimming.
Maddie’s arm snaps around me, holding me upright. The cold press of her gun digs into my scalp, and I blink hard, forcing back the tears burning my eyes.
“No way. Nuh-uh. You don’t get to die yet, you dumb bitch. You’re my ticket out of here,” she snarls down at me, and I whimper.
She hauls me up onto my tiptoes, her strength surprising, and uses me as a shield, her head carefully tucked behind mine. Any bullet seeking to take her out will have to pass through me first.
She takes lurching steps backward, my feet scrambling under me to gain purchase, and I vaguely register that she’s moving us toward the closest parked vehicle.
She holds me against her tightly and leans her back against the truck.
“Don’t move.” Her breath is hot at the back of my neck, pushing the gun harder against my bruised temple, before releasing her hold on me to test the door handle.
It clunks uselessly. Locked.
Her rough hold returns. This time, she locks her forearm over my throat and squeezes.
Panic takes over as I scratch at her arm, desperate to relieve the pressure on my windpipe.
"Give me the keys, right now!" she screeches, but it sounds distorted, like I’m underwater. "Last chance. Let me go or I fucking kill her."
The thump-thump-thump of my pumping blood drowns every other noise out. None of the other Beta survivors are with us. Did they submit? Are they dead or dying? Either way, it seems this trip will be just me and my homicidal gal-pal, Maddie.
Frack, my side hurts. My head feels light and loopy, worsening rapidly by the lack of oxygen reaching my brain.
I’m not sure if anyone replies to Maddie’s demands.
Instead, through my hazy vision, I watch the Pack and the other soldiers circle us with rifles raised, searching for a clean shot.
Multiple people are shouting Alpha Commands. Demanding submission, and my body responds, going limp and pliant.
Maddie’s the reverse. I can feel her muscles contracting and shaking with the effort to shake off the repeated Commands. Her hatred of Alphas is overpowering her instinct to submit.
If I strain, I can almost hear Knox’s voice among those shouting Commands. It’s comforting. Who knew I’d grow to love the sound of that bossy Alpha?
I recognize Shade as one of the blurry figures moving before me. Time is slowing down, and I can't seem to focus on anything but the way his mouth moves, the silent words lost to me. There is a grim determination in his gaze.
I give him what I hope is a reassuring smile, but it does the opposite and he lurches towards me desperately, held back by another soldier gripping his flak jacket.
A warmth trickles a trail down my back, wetting the waistband and leg of my trousers, and pools in my boot. I huff in frustration. Knox made these trousers for me, and I hate how my blood is staining them.
A whiz passes my head and heat splatters over my cheek. Maddie grunts, and her grip on me weakens.
I gasp for air, and the pin-pricks of light in my eyes recede.
“Alpha bastard shot me in the shoulder,” she hisses in my ear, her voice clipped tight with pain. “You see how they shoot at us, risking your life? I told you Alphas couldn't be trusted. They don't care about saving your life. They just want control.”
She wheezes and coughs violently, splattering blood over my shoulder and down my top.
So many stains on my pretty uniform.
Fatigue is weighing me down, and I vaguely understand that I’m losing a lot of blood from the wound in my back.
A serenity settles over me.
I’m going to die.
I may heal fast, but I’m bleeding out faster.
"Don’t be dumb, Alpha. You're fast, but you're not faster than my trigger finger," Maddie shouts. “Toss the keys to the Omega.”
The gunshot in her shoulder is weakening her, and she clutches me with increasing difficulty. I’m shorter, and she has to crouch or lift me up to keep her head covered.
“Fuck it.” I feel the moment she resigns herself to her fate, her breath stutters out and she leans heavily against the truck. “This ain’t a bad way to go, is it, Omega? Better than starving to death, cold and alone. These fuckers are gonna remember not to underestimate a Beta, huh?”
This is it.
For both of us.
She’s given up hope of escaping, but I know she won’t let me go. She’ll take me with her to the very end.
Viper stalks through my fuzzy peripheral vision, his hulking muscles bunched as he fights against his Blood Lust.
If Viper can fight against himself, then so can I.
I will not go down without one last fight.
My Command might be sulking in the recesses of my mind, lazy and defiant to my wishes, but if it understood how close we are to dying, it would fight.
It would come out swinging. Because even in all its darkness and twisted hunger, it is still me.
It wants to live as much as I do. It loves the Pack as fiercely as I do.
And it will tear apart anything that stands in our way.
Here and now, at the razor’s edge of my existence, there is no time for the careful control I learned with the Pack. No time to play nice. If my Command will not rise on its own, I will drag it into the fight myself.
I’m not afraid of it anymore.
And if it swallows me whole, if it sinks its talons deep into my mind with no return, then so be it.
With the last of my strength, I reach inward and seize everything I have ever buried — fear, rage, bitterness, every foul thing I have felt. I welcome it. I wrap my hand around that darkness and wrench it upward.
My Command bursts free, kicking and screaming in its raw state.
It thrashes in my grasp, wild and volatile, as my exhausted mind struggles to reel it in. If I can just hold it, twist it into focus, I can end this entire nightmare with a single word.
One word, and Maddie will let me go.
I squeeze my eyes shut, forcing unshed tears to roll down my heated cheeks.
Come on, Halley. Focus.
You have it now. Hold it. Do not let it slip. Show it the danger. Let it feel the truth. It will stop resisting because it loves you. It wants us to live. To thrive. Aim it at the enemy. Let it fight with you, not against you.
A spark flares deep inside, sizzling through my numb veins. The power swells, hot and alive, curling tighter and tighter until I can almost taste ozone crackling on my tongue.
“Let’s go out with a bang, yeah?” Maddie says softly, right beside my ear, and she adjusts the gun.
I want to live.
But if I cannot have that, then I will finally prove to myself that I was always more than a defective Omega. I will be more.
I am a soldier, and I will die with courage, fighting.
I roll my head back, look over my shoulder at the woman I once tried to save, and lock eyes with her.
“Release me,” I Command.