Page 27 of Knot Their Soldier: Part Three

"Viper!" Knox shouts. "She’s alive!"

Through our fragile bond, I finally feel Knox. His emotions crash into me, and I feel his grief splitting open into frantic joy. He straightens, dragging himself back into Prime Alpha mode even with tears still on his face.

"Look at our Omega," he Commands, voice shaking around the order.

Viper doesn't fight this Command. He's already looking at me.

But the words "our Omega" must reach him, because his blackened eyes blink slowly, and when he opens them, I swear I see a brief flicker of green.

I gasp, hands reaching for him.

Then the darkness returns.

The red veins pulse as if renewing their hold over him, and Viper takes three more straining steps toward us.

Blaze holds his ground, but Viper is almost within reach.

The bonds in my chest twist with distress and despair. I press closer to Shade’s back, clinging to the solid warmth of him while his racing heart pounds against me.

"It’s too late," Shade says. "He’s never been this far gone before."

He raises his rifle, settling the butt against his shoulder, and aims at Viper’s head.

"He’s gone."

"He isn’t!" I shout, but my voice is still so weak it wavers into a croak.

Shade tenses, but he doesn’t lower the gun.

"We don’t have any choices left, baby girl." His voice breaks around the words. "He’s feral. If he reaches us, he’ll kill us, and then he’ll go back to that camp and tear through everyone there. I can’t let that happen. Viper wouldn’t want me to let that happen."

I know.

Frack, I know.

This is how Blood Lust ends. It's what everyone accepts because there can be no mercy for something so dangerous.

I should know, I killed two Alphas in the same state. A bullet between their eyes because I was told they were irredeemable monsters only capable of death and violence.

But Viper is not a monster.

He is my Alpha.

Our Packmate.

The Alpha who held me like I was precious in that hospital, even when his own mind, consumed by Blood Lust, was trying to destroy him.

He came back.

I made him come back.

The fear stills. It doesn't disappear, but a quiet confidence rises in me instead. I know, deep in my heart, that I can still save him.

"This isn't how it ends," I say, and this time my voice holds.

"It's impossi—"

I stumble around Shade and grab his arm, digging my nails in until his eyes snap to mine.