If shared trauma isn’t proof we’re fated to be, then what is?
I want to hold my mutilated soul in the palm of my hand and compare it to hers. I’d look down into her pretty purple eyes and tell her, “See, Sparkles? We’re the same!”
In hindsight, our glaring shared Daddy kinks should have been a clue.
Halley continues. “I thought I had no choice in my future, but sometimes fate throws you a lifeline.”
“And sometimes fate hangs you with that lifeline,” the woman mutters, watching with a suspicious but reluctantly interested expression.
“Yeah, sometimes it does.” She pins the Beta woman with a steely, resolute stare. “Butthischoice is simple. Come with me and live, or stay here and die.”
The camp is silent, broken only by the sound of crickets chirping in the long grass.
The young woman scans Halley’s face for a long, tense moment. She takes in the defiant little Omega before her and finally exhales.
“Fine,” she simply says, and turns to gather her things. “Ain’t no bigger fuck you to The Capital than the Beta scum they left to die surviving.”
The others mutter among themselves, and it becomes obvious that the young woman is in charge here. Her agreement is enough, and just like that, the band of survivors is moving.
Halley blinks rapidly at the quick change of heart, but I spot the small smile of success that graces her flushed face.
Her voice echoes through our connection.
‘I did it, Blaise. I convinced them and I didn’t use my Omega Command. I didn’t have to strip away their free will.’
She wants Blaise, and surprisingly, Blaze steps to the side.
‘You certainly kicked ass,’I tell her, pride curling in my chest.
‘Stop talking about ass, Blaise,’she shoots back, her tone exasperated but warm.
‘You bet your ass, Sparkles.’
‘I’ve created a monster,’she mutters, half to herself.
‘Yeah, but I’m your monster.’
Chapter Forty-Nine
Halley
I lead a group of weary survivors to Blackreach Pass, retracing my earlier steps. They’re exhausted, wary, and injured, which makes travel slow.
Blaze hovers somewhere nearby, hidden and unseen, and I can feel his hypervigilance simmering at the edge of my awareness through our newly formed connection. It’s like a distant hum of electricity, a wire buzzing just below my normal range of hearing.
He’s on high alert, his predatory instincts hunting each member of our band like they’re an immediate threat to my health.
It’s not a bad thing. My Omega likes feeling protected by her strong Alpha.
"Where did you say you came from?" I ask the woman I'd negotiated with. Despite her young age, she holds a role of authority within this ragtag group of survivors.
With every step alongside me, her grimace deepens, a limp growing more noticeable the farther we go. It’s probably an injury from the village attack, but I don’t dare draw attention to it. Like a wounded wolf, she hides her pain behind a fierce exterior, her eyes flashing with warning.
I can’t imagine the sheer desperation clawing at her, the feeling of utter hopelessness.
"I didn't," she clips.
"Ah, well, I guess I wanted to say I'm sorry you had to leave your home.”
