Page 50 of Knot Their Soldier: Part Three

The former warehouse supply officer in me, however, is less impressed.

I screw up my nose at the truck, then at Knox.

It’s punks like him who used to wreck my inventory counts, dammit.

Blaze lifts me out of the truck and carries me a short distance over the muddy tracks the truck left, settling me carefully on the icy path.

The wind blows, and after enjoying the milder climate at the bottom of the mountain, the cold air is a shock.

I spent months here, enduring the cold that settled into my bones no matter how many blankets I burrowed under or fires I stood beside. I thought it would make me instantly miserable, but the cold feels good against my overheated skin.

People in the yard have started to notice me. One head turns, then another. Work slows and conversation breaks apart until it becomes very clear that word of my violent death had indeed reached Blackgate.

'Pretty girl, think you're gonna spook a few comrades,' Viper says through the Pack bond, and the others rumble in agreement.

The whispers start, but they're not exactly being quiet or subtle.

"That’s her."

"She was dead."

"How is she alive?"

My mates tighten around me without speaking. Knox snaps to attention while Shade's gaze tracks the yard, mapping threats.

An Alpha near the road stops with a crate in his hands.

His nostrils flare as he scents the air, and his eyes widen as his gaze locks on me.

Heat crawls across my skin, and suddenly I feel every inch of my body beneath my clothes.

Before I can step back, my Pack closes in around me. Knox shifts in front, Viper takes my left, Shade moves to my right, and Blaze stays pressed close behind me with one hand firm at my waist.

The Alpha’s stare disappears behind them.

My breath eases.

Whatever he sensed doesn't matter, because my Pack blocks him from looking again.

"Sparks, you bitch!" a high-pitched voice shrieks.

I duck under Viper’s arm in time to see Everlyn storming across the inner courtyard. She barges through a group of soldiers doing push-ups and cuts straight through the mud without looking down, clean scrub trousers catching splatter with every furious step.

Jason trails after her, reaching once for the elbow of his mate before pausing and thinking better of it.

Oh, frack me.

She's angry. Really, really angry with me. Her face is flushed, and her eyes look bright from tears threatening to fall.

I brace myself.

Everlyn closes the distance fast, and while my Pack tenses around me, they let her through without stopping her.

Her hands clamp onto my shoulders, and the anger dissolves right before my eyes.

"It's true," she says. "You're alive."

She holds me at arm’s length and drags her gaze over me from head to toe. Then she catches my jaw, turns my face to one side, then the other, and searches me with ruthless focus.