Unified Omegas (Alpha Elite Series Book 7)

by V T Bonds

  “He’ll need a few hours to recover, but he’s okay.”

  Shya’s purr leaks from the nest, easing my heart further.

  “What happened to him?” Jumoke asks.

  “Shrapnel was too big to leave in his thigh, so Evie took it out. Between that and a bone-deep gash on his arm, he went into hypovolemic shock,” Vander responds from across the room. He meets my eyes in the hygiene bay’s mirror as he washes himself and the instruments he used.

  I raise my eyebrow in question, requesting clarification.

  “Too much blood loss.”

  I bury the worry gnawing at my chest as I wonder about the repercussions and glance over at the bed. Two clear bags full of crimson liquid hang on the wall, each one with a drip line leading under the blankets.

  I send a wave of support to Shya as a vision of her lying in my arms with blood seeping from her head bounces around in my skull.

  “Is one for Shya?”

  Vander follows my gaze and nods.

  I sigh in relief and hide a grimace as my shoulder and hip flare in pain.

  Jumoke’s growl yanks my attention to him.

  “You’re hurt. Have you gotten help?”

  “I’m fine.”

  “Bullshit.”

  My joints ache and I’m exhausted, the retreat of adrenaline making me want to sink to the floor and weep, but I don’t need medical attention.

  “I am fine, Jumoke. Your babe is fine,” I say, reaching for his hand to place it on my belly.

  I stop short when my fingers meet the shirt sleeve I wrapped around his hand.

  A shaking begins deep in my chest, the vision of his mangled fingers replaying in my mind.

  “Yeah, I lost a few. Don’t worry, Anastasia. I’m skilled with a-a-l-l-l my fingers.”

  It takes a moment for his innuendo to make sense, and another weird noise leaves me.

  “Fuck, I love the sounds you make,” he groans, dropping his head to the floor and closing his eyes with a blissful expression on his face.

  “We have to clean it.”

  My heart soaks up his levity, but my instincts demand I take care of him. Immediately.

  “Not until after you get out of that suit and prove you’re not hurt,” he demands.

  Nova steps into the room on quiet feet, carrying a large bundle.

  “I brought you some things from your room,” she says, ignoring Jumoke’s instinctual snarl over someone entering his den without his permission.

  “Clean clothes and semi-dirty bedding. It may not be what you want, but I left everything else untouched so you can have a nest when he’s able to move,” Nova says.

  “Thank you,” I respond, unable to take my hands off Jumoke to receive her gift.

  “I’ll set this right next to you then,” Nova murmurs, sidling around my lifemate while ignoring his quiet growl.

  I snap my gaze to him when he stops making noise, concern flowing through me.

  “I’m sorry I’m such an ass,” he says through gritted teeth.

  Evie’s cackle pulls our attention to the doorway where she stands with her hands on her hips.

  “Never thought I’d hear those words come out of your mouth, Jokester.”

  Vander captures her attention, his ominous growl filling the room and making everyone tense.

  “Your turn, my little queen. Face down over there,” he demands, pointing to the pallet a few feet beside us.

  She cocks a brow at him.

  He smirks and props his ass on the counter next to the sink.

  She huffs and strides over to him, grabbing his wrist and nipping his finger. His lips flatten as blood springs forth, but before he can say anything, she licks it a few times and drops his wrist.

  “Oops, looks like you’ll have to wash your hands again.”

  When she steps beside him to use the sink, he visibly stiffens, staring at her back and grinding his teeth.

  Through the mirror, I see her eyes soften as she glances at him.

  He stays as still as a statue until she moves to the pallet.

  Nova dares Jumoke’s fury, knowing he could still lash out despite his weakened state, and rests her palm on my shoulder.

  “I have to get back to the women. Kwame and Britani will come help once we get far enough away from the facility, but there are so many, Seeck and I haven’t secured everyone yet. Two Betas are helping, but there are some… severe cases. Do you need anything?”

  She doesn’t want to go back to the room full of wretched, scarred souls.

  A wave of unease passes through me, leaving me tired and wrung out.

  Jumoke speaks before I open my mouth.

  “Water and food. Lots of water.”

  I turn to him with brows furrowed, not wanting to give Nova more work, but his fierce expression stops me.

  His soul demands I care for myself and our babe, and I feel the intensity of his dedication in my marrow.

  “Please,” I say after turning to Nova.

  She looks me up and down and nods before standing and leaving the room.

  As Vander kneels beside Evie’s bloody back and Dirk snores loud enough to shake the nest, Jumoke offers me a pleading purr.

  “The clothes off, now. Let me see you,” he demands, the rumble soothing my agitation while his eyes pierce my soul.

  He’s still worried.

  Instead of wasting time arguing with him, I stand and lift my undershirt over my head, hiding my wince in the material as my shoulder complains. I smooth my expression before lowering my arms again.

  The air wafting over my skin feels wrong, so I leave my bra alone and strip out of the suit pants, struggling with the weird fastenings.

  As I squat to untie the ridiculous boots he procured for me in Baseon when we went to speak with Minette, my hip grates and throbs, the joints swollen and painful.

  Jumoke’s growl makes the hair on my nape stand on end, the fury it carries too intense for someone who underwent surgery mere minutes ago.

  When I look at him, I follow his stare and sigh as I see the huge, dark bruise forming on my hip. It travels up over my hipbone and streaks down my thigh.

  “Yes, it hurts, bu-”

  “No. You are not fine. You need ice, like, twenty minutes ago.”

  “And you need your hand mended! My bruises will heal. You have an open wound. What if it gets infected or you lose too mu-”

  He reaches across himself and fills his fist with my loose hair.

  “You come first. Always. Get ice on it, now.”

  My toes start going numb from the awkward squatting position. With my pants around my ankles and my boots halfway untied, I have no choice but to kneel and lean as he pulls me toward him.

  I lose myself in his sensual, urgent kiss, gasping for breath when he lets me loose but wanting nothing more than to lower my body next to his and enjoy more kisses.

  Nova returns with food and water, an odd note of embarrassment flowing between us.

  I sigh and stroke my lifemate’s face before moving back to a squatting position and unfastening my boots.

  “Thank you, Nova,” I say, meeting her eyes despite the awkward situation.

  Placing my palm on the floor behind me, I gingerly lower my butt to the floor and finish taking my boots and pants off as she walks around Jumoke and lays the food and water on the floor next to me.

  “She needs two cold packs,” my lifemate all but snarls at her.

  I send him a flick of warning through our bond. Nova is not our personal valet. She has other things to do, other people to help, and on top of that, she deserves more respect than he’s shown her.

  “There aren’t any more in the infirmary. We’ve already used the reserves in the cargo bay, too,” Nova says, worry coloring her tone and unrest wafting from her soul.

  “Each den has an e-pack in the bottom of the wardrobe. They have cold compresses in them,” Vander rumbles from across the room, his arm moving in a methodical rhythm as he stitches Evie’s back closed.


  I speak before Jumoke opens his mouth.

  “I’ll get the one from our den, after we clean your hand.”

  Nova steps toward the door as my lifemate growls again, her eyes going wide as Seeck tweaks their bond.

  “Go, Nova. He needs your help,” I say, catching snippets of his urgency.

  She nods and disappears into the hall.

  Jumoke turns irises with shimmery flecks of gold my way, but Vander speaks before anger erupts out of his handsome lips.

  “I’m almost done here, then I’ll start on Jumoke’s hand. Anastasia, go get the ice packs. Be quick, so he doesn’t come after you when I start prodding at his fingers.”

  I slip on a fresh pair of pants and slide a shirt over my head, every motion filled with tight pain. When I bend to put on a sock, I give up and struggle to my bare feet.

  “I’ll be right back. Rest, love.”

  Turmoil fills our bond as I step from the room, and I miss his eyes on my body just as much as I miss his touch.

  Limping now that I don’t have to worry about anyone watching, I use the wall to steady myself and turn down the narrow corridor to our private rooms.

  Every last bit of pretense leaves me as I stop in front of our den, the daunting task of entering our den without my lifemate filling me with dread.

  I don’t want to do this alone.

  After coming so close to losing my true love and the father of my unborn child, this simple task seems too much. I’ve run over dunes, survived an explosion, and hefted over double my body weight multiple times today, and yet I can’t bring myself to type in the door’s code.

  Slender fingers wrap around my throat, cutting off my airway as a feminine body slams mine into the door.

  “What have you done to my mate?”

  With my chest aching and my ears ringing, I struggle to get free but can’t find a way out.

  A familiar scent fills my nostrils, the acrid stench of chemical cleaners almost hiding the Omega’s pheromones.

  “You always were pathetic,” she hisses in my ear, tightening her grip around my neck and shoving my front harder into the door.

  Georgia’s angry hiss bounces around in my scattered brain, her hatred so unexpected I don’t know what to do with it.

  “Stupid cunt. You stood next to me for years and never knew I was watching you. Waiting. Well, the time is now. You’re coming back with me and finally giving me what I want. There’s no way Jumoke won’t come for you, especially with your… delicate condition.”

  The pressure in my lungs threatens to suck me into oblivion, but my brain snaps into clarity, pieces aligning where I didn’t realize they were missing.

  She’s Alpha One’s mate. He may have the title and the power, but she pulls the strings.

  I’ve seen her multiple times over the years, but never him.

  How warped is their bond that they’ve been able to spend time separated?

  Every hint of cruelty she’s shown over the years flashes through my memory. Never anything damning, but a flash of hatred in her eyes, a slight pause when she comforts a patient, or calculation running across her face as she speaks.

  I was too sick to see it before.

  I’m not sick now.

  With fuzzy blackness growing at the edge of my vision, I blast my knowledge into the web of souls surrounding mine.

  Jumoke’s howl shakes the door I’m smashed against.

  As my knees buckle and my mind slips toward darkness, Georgia’s curse ghosts across my ear.

  I suck in air as I fall to the ground, blinding pain burrowing into every cell when I land on my injured hip.

  My scalp sends streaks of distress down my spine as she drags me behind her by my hair.

  Kicking and reaching for her wrist, my body doesn’t perform as it should, still struggling to recover from lack of oxygen.

  When my eyes focus, I realize she’s heading toward the small escape hatch at the end of the hall, away from the mayhem barreling towards us.

  With floppy, uncoordinated motions, I grab the knife from my belt holster and fling my arm over my head.

  It connects with something, but I don’t have the strength to keep hold of it.

  The agony from my abused scalp stops until my head whacks onto the floor, my relief in being released swamped by wavering lights ricocheting through my skull and roaring waves in my ears.

  Wrapping my arms around my midsection to protect my babe in case of an attack, I clench my eyes closed and focus on breathing through the misery.

  A masculine hand settles on my shoulder.

  Locked in adrenaline and pain, I try to shove it away, but it doesn’t budge.

  Vander’s scent wraps around me as he scoops me up off the ground.

  The roaring in my ears settles to faint ringing and I force my eyes open, squinting since my head throbs.

  Jumoke’s ashen face fills my view as Vander lowers me to the pallet where my lifemate should be laying.

  I hold my hand out to my Alpha, pleading for him to lay with me.

  His fury matches my pain, our bond full of horror and shock.

  He shouldn’t be up so soon after surgery. Tears leak from my eyes as I realize his unwrapped wound bleeds freely onto the floor under him as he holds his hand out to the side.

  He willingly drops down beside me, despite his urge to chase after Georgia.

  I motion for Vander to continue working on my lifemate’s hand, my throat throbbing with each ragged breath.

  Vander doesn’t waste time nodding to me. With a stoic expression, he kneels next to Jumoke and resumes cleaning his wounds.

  Evie stomps into the room, her growl a living thing.

  “How did we not see her?”

  Kwame and Britani follow her in as Dirk and Shya stumble back into their nest, Dirk’s unsteady movements making enough noise for me to hear him over the faint ringing in my ears.

  Britani darts across the room and drops to her knees beside me, ignoring Jumoke’s growl as she lifts my chin.

  “She was in the infirmary, helping with the worst cases. Only Nova and Seeck have been in there. Everyone else has been in here or in the cockpit,” Vander says, his gravelly voice full of self-loathing.

  He couldn’t have known, but he blames himself.

  Britani stands and runs toward the door, but Kwame grabs her arm and raises his eyebrow in question.

  “She needs ice and a brace for her neck,” she snarls, her vibrant green eyes brooking no argument.

  Kwame tugs the rope in her hair before following her out into the hallway.

  Evie paces the room, making me wish I could close my eyes and fade into sleep.

  Jumoke slides his hand into mine and squeezes, urging me to stay awake.

  “What happened? How did she get away?” My lifemate’s strained voice makes my heart leap in my chest.

  He’s torn. He wants retribution but needs me in his arms.

  “Out the emergency hatch near the dens. Kwame stopped me before I could follow. We’re being trailed by half a dozen armed Sky-Flyers. She’s wearing a feckin’ tracker,” Evie says, keeping her steady pacing.

  Vander, never taking his eyes off my Alpha’s hand, lays out plans with such succinct surety I wonder how anything slips past him.

  “We have to ghost them, find a place to drop the refugees, then figure out where Alpha One is relocating.”

  “I know where they’ll go. We can’t follow unless we’re at one hundred percent, so get these poor bastards stitched up and holed in their dens until they’ve recovered. Blokes had better heal fast. The less time we give them to hunker down, the better chance we have of flushing them out again.”

  Evie stomps from the room, mumbling things I can’t hear under her breath.

  I feel morbid mirth rising in my lifemate, so when I see his chest fill with air and his mouth open as though to speak, I lay my palm over his mouth.

  Behind Vander’s cool façade lies gales of angry power, ready to lash out
with the slightest provocation.

  Jumoke turns his face toward me, arching his eyebrow in a heart melting and devastating expression.

  I tighten my diaphragm to speak, but my vocal cords prove too swollen to produce sound.

  Concern buries his mirth.

  I give a slow, careful shake of my head, knowing any big movement will drown me in agony.

  Britani and Kwame return, and after some tentative moves, a brace supports my neck. Britani fumbles with the ice pack for a while before giving up and handing it to Kwame. He gives a look full of love to Britani before studying Jumoke for a moment.

  When my lifemate swallows down his instinct to growl at the other Alpha, Kwame kneels next to me and ties the ice to my swollen trachea so quickly and easily I don’t feel a thing.

  I smile my thanks before he stands and backs away.

  Exhaustion tugs at my eyelids, but I blink them open again and check Vander’s progress.

  Dirk snores loud enough for me to hear it, causing Britani’s eyes to widen.

  “We came close to losing all four of you today, didn’t we?” she asks in a scratchy voice, her soul reaching out and caressing me, Jumoke, Shya, and Dirk.

  Kwame gathers her in his arms, tugging her braid and settling the tide of her rising emotions.

  Vander sets my Alpha’s wrapped hand down and stands before speaking.

  “They’ll recover. Let’s give them some space. They need to rest,” our fearless leader says as he walks around us.

  He ushers out Kwame and Britani before closing the door behind them. The lock clicks, sealing it from both directions as he inputs the code.

  The muffled quality of my hearing presses cottony silence into my skull.

  A shaking begins deep in my marrow, and as I drop from prolonged adrenaline, I seek my Alpha.

  Wishing I could twist my neck to bury my face in his shoulder, I wrap my arm around his, hooking my elbow on the inside of his and pulling his hand onto my belly.

  Even though I sense the pain his purr causes him, I soak up his rumble, needing every miniscule fleck of comfort he offers.

  Unable to return the favor, I open our bond wide, welcoming him into my heart’s nest and filling his lap with happy, wriggling little dears and wrapping my arms around his shoulders.

  As his huge, warm palm settles over where our babe grows, a smile tugs my lips upward.