Page 21 of Knot Their Soldier: Part Three

"Hi?" I croak. It's barely a word, more of a hiss.

Shade’s face crumples, and a choked sob breaks free. "You’re here. You’re really here."

"And where the fuck did you think you were goin', Sparkles?"

Blaze’s voice shakes beneath anger, but I know he's not angry at me. His hands run up and down my arms, over my shoulders, across every part of me he can reach, like he is checking I'm real by touch because he doesn’t trust his eyes yet.

"Um."

It comes back in pieces.

Maddie.

The gun.

The pain.

I lift my hand with great effort, and it shakes from the strain. I run my fingers over the side of my neck where I remember the blinding agony erupting from.

Now there is only a raised scar.

"I died?" I ask, because the words are too ridiculous to be real.

"Yeah," Blaze snarls. "You did. You fucking died."

The rumble in his chest travels through my back, a deep vibration that makes me want to burrow closer into him despite the scent of rage pouring from him.

It's a lot. Too much to take in, and I can't make sense of it.

How am I alive?

"You healed after death," Shade says, his voice low and shaken. "It should’ve been impossible, but your wounds closed, and then your heart restarted."

The bond is there again, linking me to Shade and Blaze, but it feels tender and strange, like a limb torn off and sewn back on.

A few faint memories drift through me, hazy and broken around the edges.

"Did we talk while I was dead? Through our bond?" I ask, my breath shaking around the words. My voice sounds raw and unfamiliar.

"I don’t think you were still dead by then," Shade says carefully. "I think your mind reached for us after you came back. Like you were trying to find your Pack before your body fully caught up."

It’s too dark to read his expression, but I can picture his eyes moving the way they do when he’s solving a problem.

"I felt the bond shatter," he says. "Completely. There was nothing there. Then it started coming back, piece by piece. I stayed with you, so I heard your heart beat first. Blaze was slower to respond. He had a..."

Shade’s gaze flicks over my shoulder.

Blaze goes still behind me, and through the bond, something jagged and ugly flinches away before I can catch it.

"A rough time of it," Shade finishes.

"Rough time?" I ask.

Shade gives me a small shake of his head, silent and firm.

I’m tired, feeble, and too confused to push. Whatever happened to Blaze while I was gone, I know instinctively that I’ll need more strength before I can face it.

"And Viper? Knox?" I ask instead, suddenly aware of the two missing pieces of my Pack. I feel the chill of their absence.