Page 180 of Knot Their Soldier: Part Three

An Alpha crashes into the barricade beside me, half his shoulder torn open and healing gradually. Knox grabs the back of his vest, yanks him into place, and points downhill. "You won't bleed out from that, so shoot."

The Alpha bares his teeth and obeys, staying behind the barricade while the thick bleeding slows, not once pausing to catch his breath under the watchful eyes of his Prime Alpha.

An arm hooks over the steel in front of me. Viper fires once, and the hand disappears in a spray of blood.

I take another three shots, one slicing through an elbow, making my target drop with a scream.

"Pretty girl," Viper says without looking away from the road, "I taught you better than that."

"What?"

"Higher. I want you making headshots only."

I raise my muzzle higher. Viper taught me to shoot like an executioner, not like the amateur in a summer field I once was. The next shot I take is clean and exact, and makes my big Alpha nod in approval.

Shade calls to me, too busy grappling with his current victim and stabbing them in the face to take the shot himself. "Blue jacket. Left side."

I quickly find the target Shade called and line him up in my sights. He's aiming up at the cliffs where the Beta soldiers are still throwing what must be the last of our grenades into the incoming army.

I fire, and the man's body jerks backward into the crowd.

"That's my girl," Shade says, already shooting past me to take out the man who filled the space my target just left.

The bodies on the other side of this barricade are already starting to stack up, making it easier for more and more Humans to climb over the wall. Viper slams the butt of his rifle into the man’s face, shoves him backward, and shoots the next two before they can climb over him. Blood runs down Viper’s arm from a tear in his sleeve. He doesn’t seem to notice.

I do.

"You’re hit, take a moment to rest," I implore, dragging him beside me so he's protected from the stray bullets still flying.

"Every battle-worthy Alpha can fight with a gunshot or two," he grunts. "I’m fine."

I feel so helpless. My mates are being shot and stabbed, and there is nothing I can do.

Shade takes up Viper's post using his pistol instead of his rifle to give him better maneuverability, saying in between shots, "Two? More like two dozen."

Viper gives him a flat look. "What am I supposed to do, cry about it?"

Shade scrunches his nose. "Not particularly. You're an ugly crier."

Despite everything, a breath of something almost like a laugh catches in my chest.

The barricade starts making a familiar groaning sound as it buckles under the weight of the piled dead and surging waves of Humans.

Knox turns just enough to find me over his shoulder. His face is streaked with blood and dust, his eyes bright with command and, for perhaps the first time, genuine fear.

"We have to retreat again," he says almost to himself, as if he's trying to work through his strategy out loud.

It's too soon to retreat to the next barricade. We need to hold them off for as long as possible, but their numbers are just too great.

Knox scrubs at the scar on his nose, squares his jaw, and issues the retreat order into his radio.

He then starts bellowing again, "Retreat!"

Noticing that our forces are retreating once more, a surge of Humans pushes forward, as if emboldened and hungry for the ground we're forfeiting.

They start spilling over the top of the wall faster, and the fight quickly turns primal.

One Alpha, blood still slick down the side of his face from a half-healed head wound, catches a Human by the front of his vest, slices his neck open, and flings him backward with enough force to bowl through the men behind him. Another, his glowing green eyes reminding me of Viper, takes three rounds to the stomach, folds for half a breath, then surges forward and buries his knife in a face. He keeps going while blood runs down his legs and the torn flesh in his abdomen drags itself closed into a wet, ugly puckered pink scar.