Page 147 of Knot Their Soldier: Part Three

It's moments like this that I miss them the most.

"Okay." Everlyn slaps her knee and pushes to her feet. "Time to run this test. You’re all making me nervous, and I want you out of my hair."

She disappears into the back room.

I don't follow.

I stay where I am, listening to the sudden quiet she leaves behind, only broken by the dull thunk thunk thunk of a knife stabbing between fingers.

My heart beats harder with every second that passes, and all I can think about is how far I’ve come since the day they told me I was infertile.

I remember how empty my future felt after that, as if it had been wiped clean and I was walking steadily into a void. I was just a useless, defective Omega with no purpose.

For years, I looked at myself through that single word.

Defective.

It was written into my medical file, pressed into every conversation about my future, and carved into the way I learned to move through the world. I stopped imagining anything beyond existing because every version of tomorrow seemed to end in the same place, with me alone, unwanted, and useless as an Omega because my body could not do the one thing everyone said it was made to do.

Then I found the Pack.

Or maybe they found me.

Either way, loving them changed the way I saw the woman staring back at me in the mirror. They didn't make me valuable by choosing me, but they did make it impossible for me to keep pretending I had no value at all.

Against all odds, they gave me their trust. Knox with his squad, Shade with his care, Viper with his softest parts, and Blaise with his darkness. That trust meant I wasn't useless anymore.

With them at my side supporting me, I stopped trying to shrink myself, and I stepped up to fight to become something more.

Today, I am more than the label stamped on my file.

My body is strong enough to endure grief, war, death, and bullets.

I hold the love of four war-torn soldiers in my heart, and built bonds so magnificent they woke an ancient power capable of stopping an army.

I am an Omega who died, fought her way back to the living, and came back new.

Whatever Everlyn’s test says, I refuse to let it reduce me to who I was.

If I’m pregnant, we will face that future together. If I’m not, I will still walk out of this infirmary as Halley Sparks, mate of Pack Scorch, soldier of Blackgate, and an Omega whose worth was never dictated by her womb.

I draw in a breath and let it steady my pulse.

My body is mine.

And I am worthy.

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Halley

It could be minutes or hours, but Everlyn returns to the room with her datapad in hand. I study her features, searching for any hint of what the test revealed, but she's an experienced doctor and gives me nothing.

I'm struck by the urge to kick her in the shins just to get her to show me some sort of reaction.

The Pack halts, going completely still.

Shade drops his datapad onto the table while Knox's head snaps up so fast it's a blur. Viper’s hand closes around Blaise’s wrist mid-stab, stopping the knife before it can drive into the table between his fingers.