Viper vaults over a fence without slowing, his boots splashing through puddles of blood.
For a heartbeat, I think he’s going to keep running and ignore Knox’s order. But something in him, perhaps an echo of our Pack, yanks the leash. He veers just enough to miss plowing through Blaze.
I follow, and find Blaze crouched over a whimpering Human.
Fuck. Rutting fuck. Not this shit again.
He has them pinned like a butterfly and is carving their skin with his combat knife.
I let him out of my sight for just a moment. But that’s all it takes.
“Ah, that’s better,” Blaze croons casually, like he’s polishing his knife instead of mutilating someone. His gun lies forgotten at his feet, and his face is dripping with his victim’s blood. Blaze twirls his knife, blood flicking from the blade with every spin.
He grins, eyes alight.
“Come,” he gestures towards the incoming group of Humans. “See how pretty your friend looks now.”
At first they blanch, blinking in confusion, and then the terror hits. They take stumbling steps backwards as they reconcile what they’re looking at.
Eventually, once they’ve gathered their wits, they attack with a scream.
Blaze giggles maniacally, his knife flashing as he darts between his targets at lightning speed, slashing enthusiastically.
A bullet tears through Blaze’s shoulder, shredding flesh. He doesn’t even flinch. Just laughs harder.
"Blaze!" I shout, shooting one of the Humans taking aim at the Alpha through his scope. "Get your fucking head in the game, you mad bastard."
With a roar, Viper charges the group from the side, sending half of them flying with a swipe of his rifle. The remaining soldiers take one look at the hulking berserker, shriek, and decide that two insane monsters of war warrant a hasty retreat.
But it's too late to escape.
Knox steps into the fray without a word, his movements fluid and eerily calm. One by one, he dismantles the attackers with no wasted energy, no hesitation. A jaw breaks under his fist like splintering glass. He doesn’t grunt and doesn’t yell.
Our Prime Alpha hasn’t used guns in weeks. Now he wades into battle barehanded, drowning himself in blood until the rage and heartache burns out. But it never does. Only bone-deep exhaustion pulls him back from the edge.
He doesn't want to feel that empty space in his heart. None of us do.
We’re a Pack who lost our Omega before we even had her.
I still remember the sound she made when she came on my tongue. It lives in the back of my skull and refuses to shut up. It’s the moment I thought she was choosing us, and I relive the memory every night when sleep refuses to come.
While Viper and Knox chase down the retreating enemy, Blaze returns to his prey. He ignores the screams of the Human, too consumed by whatever the dark-twisted voice in his skull is telling him.
I grab the collar of Blaze's armor and drag him to his feet.
“That’s enough,” I say, even though I know it isn’t. Not for him.
I close my eyes. Just for a second. Just to pretend this isn’t happening. The stench of death, the sobbing Human, the familiar namecarved into skin. I file it all away into that screaming room in the back of my mind, where everything that hurts goes. It’s getting crowded in there.
Blaze smiles at me with pride etched in his wide, terrifying grin, and says softly, "I’m finished, Shade. What do you think?"
The Human trembles and sobs at our feet.
I sigh, squeezing my eyes shut for a moment. We can’t go on like this. I thought I’d seen it all, but Blaze still manages to shock me every damn day.
Carved across their forehead, in uneven block letters, is a name that haunts our dreams.
Halley Sparks.
