Page 249 of Knot Their Soldier: Part Three

Rut help me, my little psychopath has learned compassion, and I can feel myself somehow falling more in love with him. The bond between us is buzzing with my overflowing emotions.

I step into him and press my face against his vest, right over his brutal, beautiful heart that somehow decided this was how he would demonstrate his love for me. With jokes, danger, and a forest full of second chances built by hands that, up until now, only knew how to kill.

"You’re the strangest romantic I’ve ever met," I whisper.

His arms close around me, firm and warm, and his purr rolls through my cheek.

"You love my brand of romance."

I laugh softly against him.

"I do. I really, really do." I lift my head and look up at him. "Thank you for showing me this, Blaze."

"Anytime, Sparkles."

Chapter Fifty-Nine

Halley

I’m in Knox’s office after dinner, barefoot on the rug Viper dragged in to cover the worst of the stone. The fire burns low in the hearth, steady and warm, while the sconces cast a soft glow across the office.

We’re all here, not working on the same things so much as existing in the same space.

Shade sits in the leather armchair closest to the fire with a datapad, scrolling through lines of code for the surveillance system. The glow reflects faintly in the glasses he’s started wearing when he works, catching along the clean angles of his face and making him look unfairly handsome.

I’m still getting used to them, mostly because every time he looks up over the frames, I forget what I was supposed to be doing and start thinking about kissing him instead. I indulge that impulse every time, much to Shade’s bemused appreciation.

Viper has claimed the chair by the wall, long legs stretched out, a knife turning idly between his fingers as he goes over the manifest for his next escort over the mountain.

Blaze is on the floor near the fire, back against the stone, in the process of taking his favorite pistol apart, cleaning it, and putting it back together again. There is a suspicious amount of blood crusted on the weapon.

Knox stands behind me where I'm sitting in his seat at the desk, looking over my shoulder as I run him through the kitchen stores report for this week. It won't be long before we run low on fresh produce like vegetables now that there are no farms operating in Fathim, and we've been working hard on finding a sustainable solution that will keep this fortress stocked for the many years to come.

I try not to let it stress me out, because at the end of the day, I know we will work it out as a Pack.

I smooth my hands over the skirt of the dress Knox made me.

It isn’t the first time he’s put his hands to work making clothes for me.

Once, he cut up his own uniform and sewed me a new uniform because mine didn’t fit. Back then, we both pretended it was merely practical, nothing more than a Prime Alpha solving a problem for his subordinate.

I know better now.

It was always an Alpha providing for his Omega.

This dress carries the same quiet devotion, although Knox made it from softer, brighter, prettier fabric. The fabric is pale and floral, scavenged by Blaze from some ruined corner of the world and brought home like treasure. I don't know when he had time to sew it, but I suspect he forfeited sleep for it. I wear it often just to see his eyes track me across the room with a strange, soft yearning.

When I asked Knox why he made me such a whimsical dress, he looked almost embarrassed. Then he told me he thought I might like looking like a normal civilian for once, an Omega with a life instead of a soldier with a mission. After all the war and blood and death, he said, seeing me in something beautiful gave him peace. Like proof that we'd created a reality where his Omega could wear a flowery dress and be safe.

He says he's not a romantic, but then does things like this.

The bond rests warm and easy between all five of us, and before long, a bloom of contented Omega perfume settles into the room. Knox makes a pleased rumble at the base of his throat and strokes my hair.

This room smells like our Pack. It's familiar, grounding, safe, and one breath of it is enough to ease the tightest parts of my mind.

Shade shifts in his seat.

It’s subtle, just a pause in the movement of his hands, but I feel a change in him through the bond. He lifts his head slowly, pretty brown eyes looking at me over the edge of the datapad. There’s something careful in his expression, the same one he gets when he's weighing a decision that he's not entirely sure of.