The ice crunches beneath our boots. It reminds me of the crunch human bones make when Viper's fists land. Fuck, we've had a rough time lately, but if we can play this right, we have the chance to get our Omega back in our arms. We can still become a Pack. We just have to climb over a wall of emotional baggage and save our entire species. Easy.
I suck on my teeth and decide to take mercy on the big guy and breathe some levity into my tone. "So, you gonna kiss and tell, LT?"
Viper snorts, fogging the air. He gives me a side glance. “I’ll do one better.”
I cock my head in confusion. Better than telling us how he fucked our Omega with the battering ram we know is between his thighs?
He raises his hand, offering it to me like it's a treasured artifact.
"I can give you ataste."
I sniff tentatively and moan.
The fucker still has her slick coated on his hand.
Chapter Seventeen
Halley
I can’t sleep.
I sit upright on a lumpy mattress, my back resting against the cold stone wall of the medic bay. Everlyn insisted I stay through the day for observation, and I was too tired to protest.
But sleep won’t come. When the assistant medic asks, I say it’s because of the temperature. Here in the Blackreach Mountains, the air plummets below freezing when the wind picks up and the medic bay has only an ancient iron radiator to heat the entire room.
They bring me another blanket, but it doesn’t help. I still feel chilled to my bones.
I shiver, wide-eyed and alert, as the last twenty-four hours run like a loop through my mind.
I wasn't prepared to see so much death.
So much blood and violence and carnage.
When I close my eyes, I see the faces of the innocent civilians lying in the streets with their eyes open and unblinking, staring up at the sky forever.
I see the enemy, too.
Until yesterday, Humans were faceless monsters. Only beasts to be slaughtered in the name of self-preservation.
Now I know they look just like us. They’re individuals with personalities, unique hairstyles, and tattoos.
And I saw hundreds of them die.
When I close my eyes, I see their mouths split open on a scream as they died in gruesome, horrifying ways.
I know what their guts look like. What they look like when their spine is ripped from them. The expression they make when an Alpha's fist lands in their sternum. I know they bleed red like we do.
I hate that Iknow.
I think it’s right that I can’t stop thinking about it. I never want to sleep soundly after seeing another soul die. Maybe that’s something Alphas were designed to withstand, their bodies and instincts shaped to bear the burden of violence without breaking. But it was never meant to be the role of an Omega.
When the attendant ducks out for breakfast, I shuffle over to the radiator and drop into the chair right in front of it. The heat seeps into my limbs, slow and stubborn, loosening the stiffness in my body but doing nothing for the storm churning in my chest.
Scorch Squad is here.
They’re here in Blackgate Fortress.
And I had sex with Viper.
