Him. An alpha.
“Planning on rejoining me any time soon?” Saav asked, standing on the other side of the counter, watching him with that black gaze.
“I’m waiting to see why you’re still here. Is there something I can do for you, Saav?”
“You weren’t waiting. You were lost in whatever weird thoughts you engineering types have running round your brains.” Saav scowled and flicked a thumb in the direction Warr had gone. “Do you think we need to be worried?”
That surprised him. Saav wasn’t one for casual chats, so if he was asking, his question was serious. “Warr? No. He’s got a job to do and nothing is going to stop him from getting it done. The female might be a distraction, but he won’t let it divert him from his main mission.”
Saav scratched at his beard thoughtfully. “Not sure he’s on the same mission as the rest of us.” He looked thoughtfully down at the helmet Warr had left behind. “Not sure about that at all…”
Max had had plenty of days when she should have just stayed in bed, but she’d never had an entire fucking week of it. Just two days ago she’d nearly been captured by a damn alpha. She’d escaped but had broken her damn wrist in the bargain. It had been hastily reset and treated as the camp moved during the night, and she’d thought coming here, to one of the most desolate and ruined former cities that were outside the radiation zones, they could finally escape the bastard aliens. But nooo… dust on the horizon all around them said the aliens were closing in, and worse, Harris had gone missing.
“Bring us around.” She stood in the back of a Land Rover to bellow orders. “Last stand. Drop and give me a perimeter.”
They were going to have to make their last stand here. Now.
The only consolation was that they weren’t the only rebel army. Others spanned South America, there was at least one in Australia, and the legendary Iceni had made the area once known as the United Kingdom a no-go for the Tolath. They weren’t even the only rebels in these parts, though the rest were smaller bands with far less weaponry and organization. If they fell here, it would mean a major victory for the fucking invaders.
If that was how this day went down, she’d kill as many as she could on her way out.
She wished Harris was here. Or Serena. She needed someone to bounce ideas off of, but Serena had chosen the wrong side and Harris… she had her suspicions about what had happened to her second in command. He was tall, arrogant, and also missing. If she ever saw Bas Barnes again, she was going to do very unpleasant things to that man.
Her lips curled into a mocking sneer. That wasn’t likely to happen. Not with the size of the force coming their way.
“Tami!” she called out the name of one of the younger omegas jogging past. “Find the rest of your squad and move out. Activate every tripwire, trap, and failsafe we’ve got set up in this place.”
“On it, ma’am!” The woman took off at a run, already on her radio. The more of them they could take out before they reached the main body of her army, the better.
“Bring the Rovers into a circle,” she shouted, her forces obeying without question. “Disperse the rest of the vehicle-mounted guns into the rat-runs. Let’s make it as difficult for these fuckers as possible.”
She hopped off the back of the Land Rover as it stopped, nodding to the driver as she jumped out. “Jenny, rig this circle on a dead man’s trigger for me, and then get them the fuck out of here.”
Jenny’s expression went taut, but she nodded. Max was glad she didn’t argue. She obviously knew what Max was about to do. It was one of their contingency plans, and they all knew the score. If they were going down, they were going down in a blaze of glory.
At least Max was. She planned on making sure as many of her girls got out as possible.
Her forces followed orders with a speed and skill that made her proud. Years of living and fighting side by side had forged them into a fighting force that could have held their own against any of the ones that existed in the old days before the Tolath.
Jenny moved from vehicle to vehicle, setting up the explosives that would be the grand finale of this fight. Max’s last stand. One final fuck you to every alien asshole she could draw into range.
She fired off orders as she paced the circle of vehicles, breaking her troops into smaller groups and sending them out into the city to fight as long as they could before vanishing into the wastelands. They wouldn’t all make it, but that was the nature of war. She’d made her peace with that years ago, and so had they.
Jenny jogged up, her expression a neutral mask as she handed over a simple trigger device. “You give ’em hell, Commander. It’s been an honor.”
“You too. See you on the other side. First round’s on me.”
Jenny snorted. “I figure you’ll be running the place by the time I get there.”
Max held her hand out, shaking Jenny’s with a firm grip. “You’d better fucking believe it. Now get out of here.”
That was it. No hugs, no tears, and no final goodbyes. They didn’t do that. Max turned away as the rest of her forces melted into the ruins and climbed up onto the back of the Land Rover. Lighting a flare, she waved it above her head.
“Here I am, you bastard,” she hissed, her eyes narrowed on the dust plumes in the distance. “Come and get me.”
It took less time than she’d thought before she heard the roar of air-bikes converging on her position. Throwing the flare onto the ground away from her, she unhooked the trigger and armed it. The thought that she was standing on enough explosive to take out a large town didn’t bother her. If it went up, she wouldn’t feel a thing. But this was about more than that. It was about making sure she took as many with her as possible. Which meant she had to let them get close, but not close enough to disarm her or the circle.
Her jaw set as she braced herself against the side of the Rover, flipping the safety off the big machine gun. They called her “the fat lady,” and it wasn’t over until she sang. This would be their final duet.
“Let’s make it a good one. Shall we, old girl?” Max muttered and opened fire as the first air-bike came into view.
4
Warr’s experimental heads-up display still didn’t work properly. Jaxx hadn’t been able to fix the thing, but he had managed to alter the readout. The tech might still be convinced almost every rebel out there was an omega, but that erroneous information was no longer displayed. Now it only noted one thing—species. Yellow for humans, blue for Tolath warriors. Jaxx had only needed to make one other alteration. The spy, Hardy, had been scanned during their last encounter. If she was here, she’d be tagged in bright green.
There.
The bright green marker appeared on his display as she moved out of cover and… set off a flare?
Fury tore through him as he absorbed the rest of the data. What in the name of Kranov was she doing? Was she suicidal? The insane female stood inside a ring of parked vehicles, firing a weapon that readings indicated was almost as big as she was. More data scrolled across the screen. Explosives. She was surrounded by explosives.
He roared in frustration as half the warriors within firing range focused their weapons on Hardy. In the heat of battle, some of the younger ones had forgotten their training. If he didn’t stop this, they’d charge right into the trap his crazy little rebel had set up using herself as bait.