Page 30 of Knot All Is Ruined: Part 1

Oh, would you look at that, the sneaky Omega just boxed me in with my own rules.

“You make a valid point,” I conceded. “I still stand behind my question, and I have every intention of answering the first question. Personally, I felt it was best to do it in private since I would normally never allow a subordinate to speak to me in such a manner.”

I held up a hand to stop her from speaking as the outrage on her face spoke volumes. “I’m fully aware you are not part of the military or under my command. Nevertheless, as the person who brought you on base, I am responsible for your actions while you’re here. Which is why I didn’t address the offense in front of the private.”

Crossing her arms, she let out a little huff of indignation at my words. Fuck, why did everything about this woman just want to make me smile? It’s like she had no idea she was the mouse in this situation and I wasn’t just a cat—I was a lion.

“Strawberries,” she stated flatly. When I just stared at her questioningly, she sighed and elaborated. “They're my favorite fruit.”

“You’re in luck, this is the season for them. We have strawberries coming out of our ears. Would you like to pick some to snack on?” I questioned as I led the way through the rows of plants. “This whole greenhouse is just for fruit, and the strawberries have taken over half the place. We had a bad crop last year so we grew as many as we could to save the seeds.”

Grabbing a small white bucket, I handed it back to her and swept my arm towards my left to show off the rows of plants hanging from the rafters of the greenhouse. We’d had to get creative to cultivate so many hanging them from floor to ceiling seemed to be the best solution. Danella stared at the sight, but it took her all of a second before she was heading for the first plant.

“This is amazing,” she murmured as she picked a ripe berry and bit into it.

The hum of delight as the juice of the fruit rolled down the corner of her mouth and down her neck had my cock hardening. Never had I wanted to lick the trail of juice off of someone as badly as I did her. Stunned at my feral response to her, I shook my head and forced myself to look away. Everything in my body ached to act on the attraction I had to this Omega and her sweet, spicy scent.

Pull it the fuck together. The last thing she needs is you losing yourself to rut and using her as all the other Alphas had. For fucks sake, you’re better than this.

The scolding did little to calm my raging hard-on, but I managed to get my emotions under control. Maybe Petru was right about her? Why the hell else would I have such a visceral response to this woman I barely knew? Enough, I growled to myself. There was too much to do and not as much time as I would like to make it happen. If we were going to get her friends out of Asturg the fewer people who knew they were even here, the better.

“Before you asked me what it was with us Alphas,” I said, breaking the silence between us. “Am I to assume you had an issue with me making Private Ambroz wait until I was ready to hear what he had to say?” She gave me a sideways glance and then only nodded her head, giving me a response without actually speaking.

God damn, why was it so attractive to see her finding all the loopholes in our game?

“Since I know you won’t hold a conversation for fear of asking a question, you’re going to have to forgive me if you know this information already,” I stated before taking a seat on a pallet of bagged potting soil. “The first thing we teach each and every recruit in the military is how to take orders without question. Doing so can be the difference between life and death. Most are here at this base because they are either newbies training, soldiers recovering from wounds, or elites like myself and my team taking RnR between missions. Those of us who are senior military are expected to train and teach anyone of a lower station. You never know what situation you might find yourself in so every moment is a learning moment.

“That private had no idea who I was with, and if he’d just come right out and blurted his message it could have been detrimental to our mission. Yes, we are on base and that means there’s a ninety percent chance that no one will use the information against us. Except as proven with you being here, it's never a hundred percent. By asking him to wait, hold his tongue, and trust that I would tell him when it was safe for him to speak, he is learning to be a better soldier,” I explained. “You might see it as a power play, and I’ll admit I wanted to see if it would bother you. Since you don’t seem all that keen on talking to me, I have little choice but to gather what information I can other ways.”

She paused in her picking and turned to face me, brows knit together as she processed what I said. “Are you telling me—” She stopped mid-sentence and ground her teeth together before she could finish that question.

Taking a breath, she tried again. “I don’t see the point in talking to you when you’ve already told me my country has asked for me back. There is nothing I have to say that you will want to hear, and I just want to go back home where it's safe. I’m allowed to have a life and an opinion.”

“Freedom is everything to you,” I stated without questioning the truth of that for a second. “What would you do to give that same freedom to more than just your friends?”

It was a risk to use that as my second question since she might just blow off the whole thing and not bother answering it. While I’d set up this game to keep her on her toes, there was no reason for her to answer, but fuck, if I didn’t pray she would.

“Freedom is something I believe everyone should have and that might seem naive to you, but speaking as someone who’s had little of it… Yes, It’s everything to me,” she answered in a soft voice that didn’t match the fire flickering in her eyes. “As for your question, when it comes to my friends, there is nothing I wouldn’t do to give them back the life they deserve. None of us asked to be sent here, hell none of us asked to be torn away from our families and sent to a Care Center. Right now, I would say fuck packs, fuck being an Omega, and fuck designations for trapping us in these roles. What makes an Omega so weak in everyone’s eyes? How is it that we’ve been told since day one that we can’t protect ourselves so others have to do it for us? Tell me, Sorin, where in the history of our world did an entire designation get demoted to being fucking breeders? Huh?”

It would seem my question had lit a match to tinder I didn’t know was there. The courage and authority she had right now with her back straight, head high, and eyes boring into mine, had me eternally glad I’d chosen to sit down. This woman was an explosion waiting to happen, and I abso-fucking-lutly wanted to be there when she finally went off. It would be a sight to see, that's for damn sure.

“Will you help me change it?” I asked, ignoring the fact she just asked me multiple questions I had no clue how to fucking answer.

This seemed to stun her into silence as her bucket slipped from her fingers and landed on the floor. “Change what, the world?” she asked with a bitter laugh. “You really believe I’m going to fall for some bullshit like that? Let me guess. You’re going to tell me that if I help you then my friends and I can go back home, no problem. However if I don’t, then we’re fucked. Is that it? Was that what you wanted, to find my weakness and exploit it? Does anyone really even know we’re here, or was that a lie too? God, to think I even entertained the idea there might be a decent male out there in the world.”

The speed at which this whole thing derailed before my eyes had me reeling. What the hell just happened? How could one innocent question have just flipped the switch on the situation? It was as if she connected all the dots in the blink of an eye but twisted them into a skewed sense of reality.

What had the world done to this woman to make her so jaded?

“Damn, and here I was thinking I had the corner market on being the cynical bastard but fuck if you didn’t just slap our Major’s hopes to pieces,” a deep raspy voice I knew well interjected.

I knew the fucker wouldn’t let me talk to her alone. He, out of all my men, hated the unknown and any new people, especially since she was a woman. Turning to my left, I watched as Victor ambled over to us, hands in his pocket with licorice root in his mouth. He’d quit smoking but took up the nasty habit of chewing on those instead. Out of the two, it was the lesser evil, and not having to deal with him if he ran out of smokes was well worth it.

Victor and I were the same height, and we both spent far too much time in the gym bulking up. Only I didn’t have the fuck around and find out energy that oozed out of him. He was a prick, but there was no one I trusted more to have my back when shit hit the fan than Victor. His hazel eyes never wavered from Danella’s, and she planted her feet, much as she had with me, not backing down. Fuck, I hadn’t considered these two either might end up either killing each other or fucking for life the way the sparks flew between them.

“What hopes would that be?” Danella challenged. “The crafty Alpha hasn’t told me shit.”

Victor looked over at me, a little surprised. “Shit, she got that pissed at you and you still haven’t actually told her what you wanted? Yeah, I don’t think this plan of yours is gonna work, boss. Better to just tell Oscad sorry we don’t know which Omegas you’re talking about at this point. She’s not gonna barter.”