Chapter 35
brYLEE
The drive back to camp is silent, but the air is so thick with unspoken fury that it feels like I'm choking on it. The other soldiers were picked up by a spare bus, but me?
I don’t get that luxury.
I can feel each of them like a furnace enveloping me.
Colter's massive presence is a wall of simmering rage, Kylian's usual golden energy is replaced by a sharp, dangerous crackle, and Luka's silence is somehow more terrifying than any shout would be. Ridge sits in the driver’s seat in front of me, his jaw set so hard I'm surprised his teeth don't crack.
He hasn't said a word, and that's the most frightening thing of all.
When we exit the vehicle and reach the relative privacy of their large command tent, the dam breaks.
"Are you out of your fucking mind?" Ridge explodes, his voice a low, dangerous growl that vibrates through the canvas floor of the tent. His eyes blaze with a fury so intense it almost makes me step back. Almost. "What in God's name were you thinking?"
Shedding the hat and wig, letting my natural hair tumble down my shoulders, I stand my ground and cross my arms over my chest. My uniform is stiff with dried blood and grime, and I'm exhausted down to my bones, but I won't break. Not yet.
"I was thinking that my scent matches were sent to the front line without me, and I couldn’t let that stand.”
"You took Teddie’s place! A-fucking-gain!" Kylian paces restlessly, his hands running through his hair. "You drove a bus through an active firefight! Brylee, that's not…that's not something you do!"
"I’ve trained for this," I shoot back, my voice rising with my own frustration.
But my throat is too dry after hours on that damned bus. And I’m too hot in this bodysuit, so hot that I start to see their anger as wavering lines of heat and their faces grow hazy. I sway.
Always observant, Colter swoops forward and grabs my elbow, preventing me from face-planting.
“What?” he asks.
“Water,” I reply.
Luka goes to the side of the tent and grabs a plastic water bottle, cracking it open. I down half of it before sloshing a little more onto my face.
They’re all still simmering…just awaiting the moment that I’m okay so they can rage again. At least they’re waiting.
Blinking slowly, adrenaline starting to fade, I shed my uniform jacket as I trudge slowly over to a partition.
“Too hot,” I explain as I pull at the buttons on my shirt.
Once I’m behind the partition, I swiftly remove my clothes and strip out of the horrid, heavy, sweat-soaked bodysuit.
After a quick rag-bath, I take my time getting redressed, hoping that my alphas’ tempers will have cooled a little as they wait.
Glancing at the socks and boots, I give up, though.
My feet ache so badly that my arches throb, and there’s no way I’ll put those back on tonight.
I pad barefoot back out from behind the partition, and four sets of ferocious eyes find me.
So, they haven’t cooled down.
Not a single bit.
Ridge picks up the argument exactly where we left it, as if a single second hasn’t passed. “You were not trained enough.”
"Hell, you trained me yourself. Don’t give me that. Other students at Eros are being sent here, so why not me? Why—"
"Training is not the same as this!" Luka interjects, pushing his glasses up his nose. His voice is tight, controlled, but I can see the tremor in his hands. "The variables in a live combat situation are exponentially more complex. Your emotional state alone would have been a liability."
"My emotional state?" I laugh, but it's a harsh, broken sound, brittle even to my own ears.
"You want to talk about my emotional state?
How about yours? How about being left behind like some fragile piece of glass while the four people who are my entire world get shipped off to the front lines?
You think I'm just supposed to sit around at the castle and wait to find out if one of you comes back in a box? "
The words hang in the air, raw and bleeding. I see the impact on each of them. Colter flinches, his broad shoulders hunching slightly. Kylian stops pacing, his face stricken. Luka looks away, his jaw working beneath his beard.
But Ridge just steps closer, into my space, dominating it, engulfing me in liquid heat that sizzles and sparks through my veins. He's not backing down.
"We left you there to keep you safe. That was the entire point. You’re our omega, and—"
"I don't need your protection!" I yell, my voice cracking.
"I need you! I just found you, all of you.
Do you have any idea what it felt like? That emptiness?
Waking up alone? I spent my entire life feeling like a piece was missing, and then I found you—all of you—and you were just…
gone. I'd rather die here with you than live one more day without you there. "
My chest is heaving, tears of rage and exhaustion burning my eyes. I'm not just arguing anymore; I'm laying my soul bare.
Ridge's face is a mask of conflict, fury warring with something else, something deeper. He looks at his pack mates, and a silent command passes between them.
"Out," he snaps, his voice low and hard. "Give us a minute."
Colter hesitates, his dark eyes fixed on me with a mixture of anger and concern. Kylian appears as if he wants to protest, but one look from Ridge silences him. Luka simply nods and guides the other two out of the tent.
The flap falls closed, plunging us into a tense, dimly lit silence.
The quiet wraps around me like manacles. Binding. Constricting. Punishing.
Ridge runs a hand through his golden hair, his back to me for a long moment. When he turns, the fury in his eyes has banked, replaced by a deep, searing pain that mirrors my own. "You could have died today, Brylee."
"So could you," I whisper, my voice hoarse. "Every single day."
He closes the distance between us in two long strides, his hands coming up to grip my upper arms. His touch is firm, almost bruising, but it's the only thing anchoring me, and I wilt into it.
"Do you have any idea what it would do to us? To find you? To lose you?" His voice is ragged, raw, a gaping wound doused in salt. "It would break us. All of us. We wouldn't survive it."
"And what about me?" I demand, my hands coming up to press against his chest. Against the precious heartbeat within. "How am I supposed to survive losing you? You're my pack, Ridge. My alpha. My heart. All of you. I can't… I won't do it again."
His eyes search mine, and the war raging inside him is plain to see. The leader versus the mate. The commander versus the alpha. He's fighting a battle with himself, and I'm the prize and the casualty all at once.
"You're the most stubborn, reckless, infuriating woman I have ever met," he breathes, his face inches from mine.
"And you're the most pig-headed, overprotective alpha I've ever had the misfortune to fall in love with," I retort, my breath catching in my throat.
Something in him snaps. The last thread of his control. His grip on my arms tightens for a second before one hand moves to cup the back of my head, his fingers tangling in my hair. And then his mouth is on mine.
It's not a gentle kiss. It's not a reassuring kiss. It's a punishment and a prayer, a desperate, angry clash of teeth and lips.
He kisses me with all the fury he's been holding back, all the fear and frustration and relief. It's a claiming, a branding, a raw, primal act that steals the air from my lungs and leaves me clinging to him.
I kiss him back with just as much desperation, pouring all my own fear and love into it.
This isn't about tenderness; it's about survival. It's about finding each other in the dark and refusing to let go, even if it burns us both to ash.
He breaks the kiss as suddenly as he started it, both of us breathing hard, our foreheads pressed together.
The air in the tent crackles with the energy of our fight, our fear, and the raw desire that now pulses between us as our scents mingle together.
His fingers are still tangled in my hair, holding me in place.
"You're a bad girl, Brylee," he snarls, his voice a low, dangerous rumble that vibrates through my entire body.
The words aren't just an insult; they're a judgment and a condemnation, and they send a dark, thrilling shiver down my spine.
My heart hammers against my ribs.
He's right. I broke every rule. I defied him, defied my parents, defied common sense.
And seeing this wild, possessive fury in him, feeling it directed at me… It awakens a part of me I didn't know existed. A part that craves this intensity, this consequence.
"Then punish me," I whisper, the words feeling both terrifying and absolutely right. I look him straight in the eye, my gaze unwavering. "I disobeyed you, Alpha. I put myself in danger. I deserve to be punished."
His eyes darken, the pupils swallowing the blue. A muscle jumps in his jaw. He knows what I'm asking for. The question is…will he give it to me?
"You have no idea what you're asking for."
"Yes, I do," I insist, my voice stronger now. "Please, Ridge. I need…I need you to show me."
A slow, predatory smile spreads across his face, but it holds no warmth. It's the smile of a wolf that has finally cornered its prey. "Oh, I'll show you. I'll make sure you remember this every time you think about defying me again."
He releases my hair and takes a step back, his eyes raking over my blood-stained uniform, which now hangs loosely on my frame. That gaze catches on my nipples, because I didn’t bother with a bra under the bodysuit.
"Strip. Now."
My hands shake slightly as I fumble with my uniform jacket. The fabric is stiff and uncomfortable, and I'm suddenly desperate to be out of it, to shed the last vestiges of the skin of the soldier I pretended to be and just be his omega.
I let the jacket fall to the floor. My hands move to my belt, but his voice stops me.
"Slower."