Page 54 of Knot All Is Ruined: Part 1

Attention Commander Lucian—

News has reached me about the Southern military's vicious attack on the Qita. I’m recalling all personnel who remain, to be reassigned where they can be most useful. I’m ordering you back to the Capital so I can be debriefed on how you could let this happen. We cannot let this attack on our land and people stand. The South is becoming far too bold if they dare to destroy an outpost run by my own son. It calls into question the priorities highest on the list, one being if you are the right man to take over once I’m gone. Furthermore, you’ve been unable to produce an heir of your own, which has always been a requirement.

Our people cannot win this war if their leaders are not ruthless in their mission to destroy the South and all they stand for. That being said, I expect you to stand before me and explain your actions in three days' time.

General Rasvan.

I read the letter three times before I deleted it and stood. If he wanted the soldiers to be sent back to the Capital, fine, but I wasn’t going with them. Over the many years of observing my father and learning to survive him, I knew what that letter was. It was my death sentence. One I planned to ignore fully in favor of going to find my Omega. She was all that mattered now. Once I rescued her from the South, I would then decide what to do about my father. It was clear that he was no longer fit to rule our people because the only way he could have known about what happened here was if he knew it had been coming.

Had this been what Babaka was talking about? Using the attack here to remove me and rally our people who were losing hope each passing day about ever seeing victory? If that’s the case, I needed to know how he managed to communicate with the Southern military to make these horrific blitz attacks happen. My time of laying low and waiting for the bastard to die was over. There had to be a better way, a way that didn’t involve my country dying at the hand of a crazed power-hungry man.

What I needed was her.

The fiery Omega that had stolen my heart that first night we met and tightened her grip on it each passing day. Being with her was such a bittersweet feeling, but I couldn’t stay away even though I knew it would be better for us both if I did. My sweet, stubborn, combative Dani had no idea how I felt or how she’d slowly changed me in ways I never knew possible. Her view of the world was so different from anything I could even fathom. If I had her with me, I know we could find a way to save the North before it’s too late. The actual question was— would she help me?

Had I destroyed any hope of convincing her that I was in love with her? That she was my true north, leading me in the direction I needed to go even if I refused to see it. Did she have any clue how hard it was each and every time I had to leave her? That I made sure men I trusted to look after her were left at the outpost. God, how do I even begin to beg her forgiveness and ask for a second chance to be together? Not because we needed to survive, or that she was an Omega and I was an Alpha, but because I fucking loved her. There were moments over the years when I’d seen a look in her eyes that told me she had feelings for me, and that was a hope that I clung to like it was the rope that would save my life.

I knew I didn’t deserve her or her love, and if I wanted Dani to even give me a second glance, I would need to prove I was sincere. Along with groveling… lots of groveling. Everything about the start of our connection was fucked up and twisted, making it nearly impossible to see her even considering giving me a second chance. Despite all of that, I had to try. It was time for me to stand up and fight after allowing myself to be controlled for so long. What better thing to fight for than a woman who deserved everything good in this world; I wanted to give her that.

This is how I landed myself skulking in the forest, watching Dani through a pair of binoculars for the past week. Every time I saw her, she was with two or more men at all times as she moved about the base. It didn’t seem like they were keeping her captive, but noticeably, she wasn’t free to go places without an escort. What I found odd and didn’t make any sense whatsoever was the fact they were training her. I’d seen them out in the practice yard working on her hand-to-hand skills that I’d started teaching her. They’d also spent a fair amount of time in the shooting range, but the way it was set up, I couldn’t see more than her entering and leaving. Nothing about this was making sense.

As the week progressed, she smiled more. Her cheeks were filling out now that she was getting regular meals. I hadn’t seen her look this way before. The carefree way she walked, no longer watching for threats that could pop out at any second. She even laughed so hard she doubled over, clinging to her stomach with her face flushed with life. What I couldn’t stand to watch was how all these men with her observed her with the same expression I had when she wasn’t looking. The simple touches they gave her that I never could, and the chaste kiss she placed on one of their cheeks nearly had me going mad with envy.

Danella was mine. She bore my mark on her proving my claim. Those Southern bastards had no right to touch something that didn’t belong to them. This needed to end. I wasn’t going to be able to get to her on base, so I needed to get them outside those protective walls.

Dropping from the tree I’d been watching from, I headed over to the cave I’d been living in. It was also where I kept my new friend who’d been more than willing to share lots of information about these men. Seems he had a grudge of his own towards the men who were keeping my Omega from me.

“Draza, wake up,” I snapped, throwing water in the Beta’s face. “I need your help.”

He spluttered awake and glared at me, shaking the water off since his hands were tied behind his back. “What the hell, man, haven’t I done enough for you to untie me?”

I raised a brow at him. “If our roles were reversed, would you untie me?”

“No, I suppose not,” he admitted.

“You’re right, there’s no way for me to get on base and do what needs to be done. So I need you to tell me what kind of emergency would force your military to pull them from what they’re doing in order to deal with the problem?” I questioned, squatting before the man.

“Sorin’s team is the best of the best, which means they go after the worst of the worst. You need something no other team could be trusted to do,” Draza explained. “I’m assuming you know about our power plants?”

I nodded and motioned for him to continue.

“There is one they just finished building farther south. It’s bigger than any they’ve built before and is supposed to be able to power the entire capital city. This would allow the other power plants to be used for other purposes since they won’t be bogged down with keeping the Capital running. From what I hear, computers run the new system they used so it doesn’t need to be manned by a whole crew. They believe it will be safer there since it’s farther south, nowhere near the battle line. If you can figure out a way to disable the system, they will absolutely send Sorin’s team to deal with the problem. One of his guys, Toma, helped create the computer program that runs it,” Draza informed me.

“How far is it from here?”

“On foot, three days. If you get your hands on a vehicle, cut that travel time in half. I might even be able to do that for you, get you a vehicle, I mean,” he offered. “Look, I've only been missing for three days? I could easily make up a story they’ll believe, and I pull shit like this all the time.”

I didn’t trust this man for shit, but if he was going to be helpful, then who was I to look a gift horse in the mouth. His hate for Sorin’s team was strong enough that I trusted he would do whatever it took to get his revenge. Which is what he thought I wanted after I told him I was a soldier from the outpost they destroyed. What he didn’t realize is that I also held him personally responsible for what happened since he’d shared with me that he’d been there.

“Alright,” I said, leaning forward and cutting the bindings on his hands. “You have yourself a deal.”

Chapter twenty-nine

I had no idea how utterly out of shape I was. The first two days of training were hell on my body, although I‘d never felt better. Muscles I didn’t even know I had cried for mercy at the end of the day. I could barely stay awake for dinner, and I knew all of them were taking it easy on me even if they didn’t draw attention to it. Thankfully with how tired I was, there were no issues with nightmares. It might also be because I knew Sorin was just on the other side of the room, but I wasn’t going to focus on that.

Sorin didn’t mention that he’d given me some of the best orgasms of my life that day, nor did Victor mention I sobbed all over his shoulder to the others. It seems that while they told each other everything, some things they didn’t volunteer. Which I was perfectly alright with. That day had been full of turbulent emotions and one of the worst nightmares I’d had. So I was going to call it a fluke of a fucking day and move forward. The only thing that changed was the fact I was trying to be more open to getting to know the guys better. None of them were pushy unless it came to training, then I wanted to punch them all in the face.

The morning started at the crack of dawn, with breakfast, conditioning in the gym, and hand-to-hand combat training with Sorin and Victor. After that, I got an hour's break to work with Cris as he assessed what I knew from working with the doc back at the outpost. I quickly realized just how archaic the tools and supplies we’d had to use were compared to what was standard for the South. It was fun to learn again, and Cris was an excellent teacher finding ways to tweak what I knew to be more effective. When my time with Cris was over, I went with Petru to the shooting range and learned the name of every gun, ammo, and tool we carried with us on missions. It was three days before I even started the process of learning how to shoot.