Page 110 of Knot Their Soldier: Part One
“It’s quiet here,” he says, almost to himself. “It’s been a while since we’ve been away from the front lines. It takes a while to get used to the quiet and staying still, you know?”
“Oh? I thought you were based here.”
He looks down at me with a puzzled expression. “No… we arrived two days before you did to set up the camp and scout the area. We were based at Dunefold Fortress until Viper—”
He doesn’t continue. I know what happened to Viper. I just don’t know how it happened. Everlyn has told me about the ongoing vicious battle at Dunefold Fortress, the human forces sending wave after wave at the weakest point in our border defense. A lump forms in my throat thinking of the squad fighting day in and day out in such a dangerous place.
“Oh.” I frown. He cocks his head to the side and studies me in silence.
“Halley?”
“Yeah?”
“Didn’t Knox explain this to you?”
I shake my head. “No. He’s been rather cagey with information.”
“Ah, yeah, our Prime Alpha can be a bit prickly to outsiders.” Shade grimaces and traces a shape in the soil next to his feet. “As a Prime Alpha, his training emphasized the importance of working with limited information and executing his orders without question. He struggles to understand that others weren’t born into this madness as he was.”
I can’t help but snort. “No kidding.”
I didn’t realize Alphas could be ‘born’ into the military. Where were his parents? His family? I guess he has the same fate as me; naïve to the way of the world outside of my own experiences.
Such a small insight into Knox’s way of thinking changes my perspective of him a tad. Maybe I could give his harsh leadership some slack. Well, only if he relented on the radio silence regarding my mysterious O-space powers.
“So, are you going to tell me where we’re going?” I ask, swiping the bead of sweat rolling down my neck before it can disappear beneath the bite collar.
“There’s a temporary communication tower on the hill. It’s been acting up over the last couple of days; transmissions from base haven’t been coming through. It’s the last thing we need to check for the day.”
I sneak another glance at him. I’ve been doing it all day and I can’t seem to stop. With a straight nose and high cheekbones, he’s handsome in an understated way.
His ethnicity is ambiguous, but he said he’s from the east. His eyes are narrow and his nose sharp. His black hair is cut short and the sun dances off his tanned skin. It makes me want to lick it to see if he tastes the way he smells – like dark chocolate.
With the cloying Alpha scents at camp, I didn’t notice Shade’s.
But, rut-damn, do I smell him now.
It’s subtle, and I only catch it when he moves, but I’ve been sucking down gulps of air to chase it. I can’t get enough.
At first I thought it was just notes of bitter chocolate, but after a while I realized the pine scent I’ve been smelling in camp wasn’t from the surrounding trees at all. In fact, there are no pine trees in the forest. It’s him.
He’s a square of dark chocolate melting on my tongue as I read a book in a pine lodge. Comforting, cozy, romantic.
His eyes flick to mine, and he frowns slightly. How have I not noticed how wise his brown eyes are? They seem to look right into my soul and see everything that lies there.
I feel my cheeks flush as he holds my gaze, and then he looks away again with his nostrils flared.
Frack.
My perfume. I’m turned on and he knows it.
I clear my throat and quickly change the subject, desperate to distract him from the arousal throbbing in my core.
“Just how far into the abyss is this camp?”
Shade plays along and chooses to ignore the sweet scent of Omega perfume.
“I can’t tell you where we are, this is a black site after all, but the comms tower allows us to stay in contact with base.”
