Following the animal’s guidance, I stabbed right, waiting for Renaldo to protect himself before sidestepping him and twisting to drag his back to my front. Before he could gather himself enough to retaliate, my knife pierced his jugular, and it was over.
Over, over, over.
He twitched in my arms, and I thought of all the omegas he’d hurt. I thought of what he could have done to Ashla had he ever gotten access to her. I thought of my people in the city who he’d convinced to do his bidding.
It was over now. He could never hurt another soul.
I’d cut off the head of the snake.
Ashla
Chapter Twenty
An eerie silence fell over the Badlands. I looked to Tavia, and then to my mate, who stood over the dead body of the leader of the Human Keep.
As more omegas and soldiers realized what had happened, a cheer rose from the crowd. The resistance was over. At least this part of it.
Still clutching my weapon, I ran to Solen, and he caught me in his arms.
“Mate,” he whispered. “Are you hurt?”
“No. I’ve never been better. You killed him.”
“The anti-juice worked,” he said first to me and then repeated louder for the soldiers. “Use whatever of the blue bullets you have left on the mutants. We will appoint soldiers to round up the healing mutants so we can get them medical attention.”
My heart broke when I realized how many mutants were transforming back into their omega form. How did I not notice these people had gone missing? How did I miss the cries and the protests from their families?
The problem was, I knew, we all did, and there was nothing we could have done about it. So I blocked it out for my own sanity.
But there were so many of them.
“Do we have enough space to take care of all these people?” I asked.
Solen shook his head. “Evander will take the lead on that. It looks like he still has a battle on his hands, but as we return to the city and announce the fall of the Human Keep, the beta uprising will fall into line. The good news is there’s hope we can help the ones we thought were too far gone to save.”
“Everyone has a chance at a new life.” An unfamiliar feeling coursed through my veins. Joy. My fellow omegas were rejoicing in the streets, hugging each other and crying happy tears. Others worked with the alpha soldiers to round up the transforming mutants. But I didn’t see many omega females, and I feared they were still in those bunkers. All those infrared spots couldn’t have been mutants. There were too many of them. “What can we do to make sure everyone stays safe? There’s always chaos in transition, and I’m worried about the females in heat.”
Solen kissed my temple. “You’re always thinking of everyone else. Talk to the king. Tell him what you think is best for the females.”
“It still blows my mind that talking to the king is an option. Even more that he’ll listen.”
“He likes you. He always has, or he would’ve never given you such an important job.”
Until recently, he had a funny way of showing it. “All of the bunkers need a makeover. Soft beds, showers, and kitchens. We need to put people in charge of keeping them clean and safe. They need to look more like your secret desert bunker and less like a garbage can.”
“Those are great ideas, my little spitfire.” We walked hand in bloody hand back to our vehicle. “Today we still have battle ahead of us. But I can’t wait to get you into our bed to properly celebrate this victory.” He climbed into the passenger’s seat, in front of the screens and controls we didn’t have to worry so much about anymore, and I hoisted myself up into his lap and straddled his massive thighs to give him a victory kiss.
“I have more ideas about that.”
“You two need a room,” Tavia said as she crawled into the back of the truck. “There’s still more ass to kick before we can get down to the real work. All that smoke, those are our soldiers fighting to keep these beta assholes from storming the castle.”
“Perhaps you have a future in speech writing,” Adalai said.
“Whoa, destroying the enemy gave this guy a sense of humor.” Tavia winked at the King. “I have no problem rallying the troops. But I hope after today neither of us have to do it for a long time.”
“We agree again, Tavia.” The King considered his own screen, which I assumed gave him information even more classified than what Solen had on the screens in front of him. “Let’s get to the other battles before lives are lost unnecessarily.”
We headed back into the city limits, shooting as many mutants as we found with the anti-juice. Reclaiming peace would be a huge job.
We encountered Evander and Rielle’s battalion first, and just our appearance was enough to make the good news about the Keep spread through the troops. But our work was far from done. They had many more betas to deal with, but they didn’t have the balls to fight the King’s battalion directly. They fell quickly, and word of our arrival beat us to the castle and Cassian’s troop.
It was surreal to walk into the castle, hand in hand with my mate, this omega general who single handedly changed the future of our city. For the first time, I felt like I truly belonged here.
But all was not calm inside the castle walls. The omega workers were frantic and scrambling. The only time I’d ever seen anything like this was far behind the scenes, out of the sight of the
