Page 49 of Knot Their Soldier: Part Three

My Omega broke the only rule I’ve ever trusted.

People die, bodies fail, blood spills, and hearts stop. That’s always been clean and simple.

Then Halley died.

And she came back.

Now Blaze wants to know what changed. He wants to study every breath, blink, and new note in her scent. He wants to peel the miracle open and find the answer buried underneath.

I press my nose closer to her throat and tighten my arm around her waist.

Dying changed her, that's for sure, and she came back with new edges I haven’t learned yet. But, as long as Halley is still in there, still my Sparkles, I don’t care what new personality traits she's got.

This new, confident Halley is still Halley.

The tightness in my chest eases, replaced by that giddy little rush only my Omega ever gives me.

Bet she still squirts like a fountain and squeaks when her nipples are flicked.

Halley's fingers slow and stop, withdrawing from my hair, and I pull away, blinking against the sunlight.

"Aw, no. Don't stop, Sparkles," I protest, but she just smiles sweetly at me and nods toward the front.

The imposing gates of Blackgate rise before us, and I know my little escape into Halley-land is over. For now. I'll find another way to burrow into her soon. If she thought I was stalking her before, she ain't seen nothing yet.

Her death has done nothing but make me utterly obsessed.

Chapter Thirteen

Halley

The truck rolls under the archway of Blackgate Fortress, and the air inside the cab shifts with anticipation.

I’m in the backseat with Blaze tucked against me, his arm snug around my waist and his nose burrowed in my neck. I should probably ask him to loosen his grip, because my skin feels flushed and feverish, but instead, I press closer.

None of us knows what waits inside. Word may have reached Blackgate by now, and they may believe I died yesterday. They may look through the windshield and see me sitting here beside my Pack, breathing, blinking, alive, and panic before anyone asks what happened.

I expect my stomach to twist with its usual anxiety, but it doesn't come.

The difference is clear and undeniable, but I leave it alone. I'm starting to get used to this change, and it doesn’t feel wrong or foreign; in fact, for the first time since I presented as an Omega, I feel whole.

What I do notice is the heat.

It sits deep in my body and keeps rising, moving out through my skin, until my cheeks feel hot. My thoughts lag when I try to follow them, and I have to blink twice before the checkpoint comes into focus.

Knox slows and lowers his window.

The guard steps toward us with his hand already raised to wave us through. His gaze passes over Knox, sees me in the backseat, and his arm stalls in the air.

Recognition hits his face and his jaw drops.

"You…" he starts.

Knox doesn’t give him time to finish. He accelerates through the checkpoint, leaving the guard staring after us as the truck rolls deeper into Blackgate.

He parks away from the other vehicles, nearest to the side of the fortress where our little cabin resides. This truck is Pack Scorch’s now, and anyone hoping to return it to communal use can take that complaint directly to the Prime Alpha currently radiating possession from the driver’s seat.

My inner Omega is embarrassingly pleased with the territorial Alpha display.