Page 179 of Knot Their Soldier: Part One
Shade carries me across the small clearing.
I seems that I have a habit of running away from the Prime Alpha. I squirm in Shade’s arms, and my belly flips at the thought of a verbal spar with the Prime Alpha again. I don’t know if I can explain to him why I stopped the heated moment earlier. Shade is easy to talk to. Knox is not.
After the kiss and flirting, I don’t think I can go back to the way things were. I feel like I’m on uneven footing, like I’m not sure how to approach him anymore. Previously, I always had my shields up around him. A spiky little porcupine ready to defend herself.
I see him differently now.
As we approach, even though Knox’s frown deepens, his dark burgundy eyes soften.
“What’s wrong? Is she hurt?” he asks Shade, concern in his voice as his eyes sweep over me, looking for injuries.
Blaze and Viper appear as if summoned. Their faces are etched with concern as their eyes rove my body.
Shade walks into the middle of them and deposits me in the group’s huddle. “Nah, just wanted to hold her close, ya know?” he says with a grin and a shrug.
I steady myself on my tired legs and let the radiating body heat from the four massive men dissipate the chilly evening mountain air from my skin.
I’m wrung out both physically and emotionally.
Knox clears his throat and, for the first time, he looks entirely uncomfortable and not at all in control. “Can we talk? All of us. Together.”
Knox doesn’t usually ask, he demands. Except he’s asking, and I don’t know how to handle him like this.
“But first.” Knox steps closer to me and places a heavy hand on my shoulder. Tingles explode, mixing with the heat from his hand and traveling down my arm. I tense and look up at him with trepidation.
His voice is gruff as he speaks to me. “I’m sorry.”
My jaw drops. “You’re… sorry?”
“Yeah, I apologize for… well, I’m sure you can give me a list of grievances.” His lips quirk as he raises a thick brow at me.
My heart flips in my chest. What is happening right now?
I flick my eyes to Shade and the Beta simply shrugs, looking equally flummoxed.
“Our mission was to train you to be a soldier, and I should have taken your designation into consideration. I didn’t, and it put you in a difficult position while compromising the success of the mission. I mean to remedy the oversight, if you’ll agree to a fresh start,” he continues, his features soft and determined.
I swallow before nodding. “Yeah, I think we can start fresh. I’m not ready to give up, are you?”
“We don’t quit. Our team sees our missions through,” he clips, removing his hand from my shoulder. The tingles don’t dissipate. They linger, and I have to stop my body from chasing his retreating hand.
I try to bury the feeling of rejection as he talks so professionally about the mission.
He only sees me as a mission.
A stumbling block to the squad’s success.
This is what I wanted. That layer of professionalism between us. Except now that it’s back, I yearn for the flirtatious Alpha who brought me a blanket from my nest.
I shift my weight and look down at my feet. I wish I could go back to keeping a wall between us, but they’ve quickly become something far more important to me.
“This time, we’re not going to train you to become a soldier.”
My stomach drops.
“We’re going to train you as an Omega Specialist. To do that, we’ll need to investigate the impact your presence will have on our squad in combat and non-combat situations. We’ve already noted some very interesting implications due to prolonged close proximity, but we need a thorough report on the effect of physical touch,” Knox says in a rush, the words stumbling over themselves.
I glance up at him and bite my lip to stop smiling at spotting the light dusting of pink on his tanned cheeks.
