Page 184 of Knot Their Soldier: Part Three

In the next instant, he's sitting upright.

I slip backward, falling on my butt, staring at him in shock.

How is he moving? He was knocking on death's door only a few moments ago.

"Viper, wait."

He ignores me and plants his good hand against the ground. His face twists in agony, but he still forces himself up to one knee, his whole body shaking with the effort, and then pushes himself onto his feet.

He sways, clutching at his side.

I scramble to my feet after him, grabbing at his arm to steady him. "You shouldn't be standing."

His cracked lips pull back from his teeth, and he rasps, "Battle hasn't stopped, pretty girl."

The pet name destroys me. Even at a time like this, he's still my big sweetheart Alpha.

My heart is still somewhere on the ground beside the pooled blood when my brain finally comes back online.

"Knox," I gasp, twisting toward the road. "Oh frack, Shade!"

I look past Viper and find Knox standing among a sea of dead bodies.

I stare at him, stunned.

Humans are coming at him from every side, and he is holding back the flood up the road alone. Behind him, the blast has gouged a crater into the ground. Smoke curls up from blackened stone, and blood and pieces of flesh are scattered across the slope.

His rifle bucks until the magazine runs dry, then he drops it and keeps going with his hands. His red eyes are blazing as he snarls like a beast of Human nightmares.

Everything he does is brutal and exact. One man takes a knife under the jaw, while another gets his knee kicked so hard it bursts. A third reaches for him and loses the arm for it when Knox rips the weapon free and turns it back on him. Blood covers his chest, his face, his hands. I cannot tell if any of it belongs to him.

He should be overwhelmed by their numbers already. Instead, the enemy keeps breaking against him, and he will not let them pass. This is why soldiers follow him and why the Prime Alphas listened when he took control of Blackgate Fortress. They recognize an apex predator. He is faster, stronger, and smarter than any Alpha I have ever seen fight. Even in training, he never moved with such killing intent.

He's fighting for his life.

What pours down the bond is so violent it almost chokes me.

It's an endless stream of pain, and rage, and fear, and despair.

Oh. Oh no, he's not fighting for himself.

It's grief.

He's fighting for the Pack he thinks lies dead behind him.

My chest caves in around that realization. I shove everything I have through the bond in one frantic pulse, aiming it straight at him.

'Alive,' I push through our mental link, fighting through the noise and chaos choking our internal communications. 'We are alive, Knox.'

I don't think he hears me, but he must feel something because his head jerks in our direction and the painful waves lessen through the bond. His shoulders heave as he chokes on a sob of relief, and he shifts from attacking like a man with nothing left to lose, to defending.

Shade. I need to find our Beta.

My eyes sweep over the explosion site until I find a familiar body a few yards uphill, leaning upright against a twisted section of steel, drenched in blood and not moving.

My stomach drops out.

"Shade!"