And me? I followed along too… until I couldn’t and my suppressed emotions burst free.
Then came the misunderstandings. Always with the miscommunications.
Cue our clever Beta. The calm in our chaos and the only one who seems able to translate each of our languages to untangle the emotional wreckage we leave behind.
Shade is worth his weight in gold.
Honestly, I’m tempted to take Knox’s advice and show him some serious appreciation. I mean, if anyone deserves a blow job, it’s the guy who single-handedly keeps this Pack from imploding.
He said everything I needed to hear. Every sweet, thoughtful, perfectly worded promise.
But do I believe him?
Do I trust that they’ll change?
Do I even need to?
Because I thought I could survive without them, and maybe I can, but I don’twantto.
I want them.
So if that means swallowing my pride and following them into a freezing dark night to whatever place they’ve claimed as their territory, then that’s exactly what I’ll do.
I hug my arms around myself and step into the blistering cold.
A storm has rolled in during our tumultuous dinner, mirroring the turmoil inside.
Sleet stings my cheeks and blurs my vision. My boots skid on an icy patch, and I throw my arms out to stabilize myself. I grasp at a solid warmth. Viper doesn’t say anything, just presses his hand to the small of my back and nudges me forward, a silent strength at my side.
The wind is brutal, pushing at my back with gusts that threaten to topple me, but Viper doesn’t let me slip as we follow the deep footprints his brothers left in the snow. We track them across the icy ground to an outbuilding tucked into the shade of the mountainside that I’ve never noticed before.
A warm light spills through the windows, and smoke billows from the crumbling chimney. Deep muffled sounds come from within.
We stop at the door.
The wood is old and splintered; the doorknob rusted from years of hard winters. But the hinges are new, recently replaced. A new beginning for something old.
Viper’s fingers tighten gently on my elbow, grounding me in the moment.
‘Ready when you are, pretty girl.’
This is it. A reset. A chance to get it right this time.
My stomach is twisting in a strange mix of nerves and excitement.
Because if I walk through that door, I’m not just entering some military barracks or even the bunkhouse back in the training camp, I’m stepping into their space. Territory claimed by not just a squad of soldiers, but a Pack. A scent-saturated, testosterone-thick domain that makes my Omega squirm with equal parts anticipation and anxiety.
There will be nowhere to hide. They’ll see me. Really see me. Not the stitched-together version I’ve been showing everyone else for the last three months. The one patched with half-healed scars and duct tape. I’ll have to confront my guilt, insecurities, and raging desires. Viper has opened a floodgate within me, and my Omegacraveslike I’ve never felt before.
I sigh and white vapors swirl like a white flag of surrender. Yeah, the only way forward… is through.
I stamp my feet to dislodge the ice sticking to my boots and summon my missing courage.
The door groans as I push it open, and I'm hit with a wall of warmth. The room is small and sparse with a fire roaring in a crumbling hearth.
Oh yes. This is definitely their Pack den. It smells of sweat, gun oil, and territorial Alpha.
Their heads snap to the doorway and the intensity of their gazes makes me hesitate. Freezing wind whips around me as I shiver under their scrutiny.
