Page 182 of Knot Their Soldier: Part Three

"Halley," Shade pants, trying to push himself up. "Get out of here, go."

"Not a chance. Stay down."

I knot the torn sleeve again, jam my combat knife under the fabric, and twist until it is taut. Shade’s scream rips through the gunfire. His whole body locks, and his face drains until it is sheet-white.

"I’m sorry," I breathe, but I keep turning the knife until the fabric bites deep and the blood flow slows.

Shade sucks in air through clenched teeth. His hand closes around my wrist, weak but deliberate.

"Move," he says. "Now."

Knox is already reaching for him. He hauls Shade up and throws him over his shoulder, one arm locking across the backs of Shade’s legs to keep him there. Shade groans, his pistol hanging loose in his hand, but he doesn’t tell Knox to put him down again.

Viper fires twice, then pivots toward me. "Run."

I run.

The next barricade waits up the road, and it's so close I can see the faces of our soldiers as they give us covering fire. Knox powers ahead with Shade over his shoulder. Viper stays between me and the enemy, forcing me onward with his body while I fire past him whenever I get a clear line.

Then a thin whistle cuts through the gunfire.

Knox’s head snaps up.

"Viper!" he roars. "Shield her!"

Viper hits me from the side so hard my boots leave the ground. One arm locks around my ribs, the other cradles the back of my head as he turns and curls over me.

There isn't time to ask why.

The world detonates.

Chapter Forty-Five

Halley

Heat slams through us. The blast throws Viper and me into the hard rocky cliff wall, and air crushes out of my lungs. Sound vanishes under a brutal ringing, and my exposed flesh tears.

I don't know which way is up. I only know Viper’s weight over me, and there is a terrible tremor in his body.

I blink against the grit in my eyes, and nothing comes back into focus. Sound is muffled, and my whole body throbs in strange, distant pulses.

Then Viper makes a noise above me that is full of pain.

My hands shove weakly at his chest. He is so heavy, and my arms shake with the effort, but he shifts enough for me to twist free and roll him onto his back beside me.

I look at him and forget how to breathe.

The right side of his body is burned black and red through his ruined armor. Flesh hangs open at his ribs. Blood pours out of him, and I stare in shock.

"No," I whisper, and then cough as dust and smoke flood my mouth, choking me.

I lunge for him, both hands pressing uselessly against the worst of it, trying to hold him together while my thoughts skid, crash, and refuse to make sense.

Even for an Alpha, this is too much damage.

I hear Everlyn in my head, "Alphas can bleed out like the rest of us, just gotta overwhelm the body with wounds."

Frack. Half of Viper is a wound.