Page 19 of Knot Their Soldier: Part One
Carefully, I peel out of his grasp and guide him to the bed. When he sits on it, the structure groans under his immense weight.
He looks lost as he studies me with a healthy dose of confusion.
“Am I dead?” he croaks in a cracked voice. It’s a deep tenor that rumbles from his chest.
My heart pangs. For so few words, he says a lot.
He expected to die, and he wasn’t upset by the idea.
I give him a soft smile. “No, soldier. You’re alive.”
His face drops in despair and I almost feel guilty for telling him, but I can’t bring myself to feel bad about stopping the Beta from shooting him. He deserves to live.
“Lay down with me,” I whisper, patting the bed, unwilling to break the silence stretching through our small sanctuary.
He moves slowly, as if he’s drifting in a dream, until he’s resting on his back.
Trusting my instincts, I climb onto the bed and slide down next to him. I press my body into his side as if I can soothe his inner turmoil with my touch.
He breathes deeply, like he’s trying to embed my scent into his lungs, and he groans when I rest my head on his chest.
He finally gives in to his own instincts, and drags me bodily on top of him, his thick arms wrapped around me securely.
A tickle in my throat heralds the start of my purr. It bubbles up through my lips and rattles my chest, filling the room with a comforting sound that has the Alpha’s entire attention.
He grunts and I can feel him relax deeper into the bed. His fingers trace slow circles against my skin, and the scent of his blood rage finally fades.
I’m not sure how long we lay there, but his breathing has slowed and deepened, the trembling has stopped, and his skin is no longer coated in a sheen of sweat.
He smells even better now.
A mix of danger from gunpowder, and the serenity of a rose garden.
His heart beats strong and steady against his ribcage.
A soul-aching tiredness is dragging me down. My eyelids are heavy and the warmth radiating from the solid muscles below me lulls me into a deep sleep.
The last thing I hear is the rumbling in the Alpha’s chest as he mutters, “Thank you, Omega.”
Chapter Five
Viper
Waking feels like dragging myself out of a frontline trench after ten days of rain, the mud so thick it congeals on your boots and tries to suck you down into its sinking depths. I force my heavy, gritty eyelids to open only to squeeze them shut at the harsh glare of bright overhead lights. Everything is white.
I take deep breaths to keep the panic under wraps. I don’t know where I am or how I got here. The last thing I remember is the battle at Dunefold Fortress. The human forces had broken our ranks, infiltrating the fortress and silently killing our troops as they slept like gutless snakes.
A cloying smell of blood woke me from my sleep, the coppery tang in the air unmistakable and triggering. I don’t feel fear often, but I felt it as I gasped awake. My brothers weren’t in their bedrolls beside me and all I could think was‘my team is bleeding out.’
Horror-filled images of Shade with his throat slit, rivers of blood spilling down his chest as he gurgled for my help.
Knox with his hands bound, and his permanent snarling scowl etched into his lifeless face. A bullet hole right between his eyes.
Blaze being consumed by his namesake, flames bubbling his skin and burning away his cheeky grin forever.
And as if I’d opened the front door to my mind, the red fog rolled in. A haze spread through me and sparked like an electrical storm, biting with electric anger.
I had a brief moment of acceptance before it took control.
