Page 175 of Knot Their Soldier: Part Three

I never knew where this strength was coming from or why this fight for life kept rising inside of me.

It was my Omega guiding me through my fear and pain and self-loathing, trying to lead me here. Trying to make me whole enough to stand in this battle with my Pack at my back and fate at my shoulder.

She is not broken anymore.

She stands with me now, strong and certain and vast enough to fill every part of me that used to feel insignificant and small.

I know now that I was always meant to be here. On this blood-soaked road. In this last battle. At the center of my Pack, with the fate of my people balanced on how I next use my voice.

The knowing settles into me like a hand at my back.

One last push.

"Listen to me," I Command.

Power pours through the word, and it tears out of me.

This time, my voice doesn't vanish into gunfire and distance. It reaches its target whole, zeroing in until it's just the two of us.

The space between us tightens as the familiar presence of my inner Omega stretches and prowls forward, and the veil of O-space shimmers over my eyesight.

I feel the Command catch, sink its teeth into his consciousness, and pull.

His body lurches as I reach into his core and take possession of his free will and soul. His pupils blow wide, and every scrap of resistance vanishes under the force of my Omega Command.

There is no payment for this power anymore. My nose doesn't bleed, and my head doesn't pound like I'm being split in two, because my Omega and I are at peace. The division between us has vanished, and we are now unified. We are whole.

I disengage from the Command, coming out of it like I'm breaching the surface of water. The shimmering fades, and the battle roars back in with startling reality. Bullets strike stone and flesh. Fighting as a synchronized unit, Knox and Viper call out to each other while fending off a fresh surge of enemies coming up the road.

But here, in the center of that chaos, the Command has landed cleanly. My words are in his veins, his blood, and his organs. They are his gravity and his absolute reality.

The officer lurches to his feet, his body moving under the force of my Omega Command with an unnatural gait.

Stepping away from the protection of Knox and Viper, he enters the fray.

The enemy is keeping their distance from our Pack. Knox, Shade, and Viper have amassed a pile of bodies that acts as a dam to keep the horde at bay. The officer has to crawl over the wall of his dead comrades to reenter the fray of the battle.

In the few moments it's taken me to deliver the Command, the road has begun to choke with the sheer number of enemy soldiers churning uphill.

Still, my corrupted puppet turns and forces his way into the swarm, carrying our last chance and hope deeper into the enemy line.

He slams into the nearest soldier and nearly goes down. Another catches him, curses, and shoves him off hard enough to send him stumbling into two more men. He draws in a breath and shouts, stumbling over his words in his haste to spit them out.

"Retreat!"

Hope is sparking beneath my skin because the Command is holding, and I stop breathing as I watch him push farther into the crush.

This is going to work.

Then the Humans part around him.

They're not obeying their officer like they did weeks ago when I used the same Command.

Instead, the nearest Human rounds on the officer and slams the butt of his rifle into the side of his head. The crack of it cuts through the rest of the battle noise with sickening clarity. The officer reels, blood spraying from his temple, but my Command holds him upright. He opens his mouth and tries to shout the order again.

A second soldier grabs his vest and jerks him backward.

"What did she do to you?" he snarls.