4-The Sexy Soldiers Hate Me

Fallon:

“Your brother raped Ace's sister. And you covered for him with fake reports so he could walk free. Ring a bell?” Cage hissed, running a hand through his blond hair to fix them.

I was clueless.

Just moments ago, their greetings had made me feel important.

Now even breathing among them felt forbidden.

My throat tightened.

Even swallowing felt difficult after hearing the accusations thrown at me.

“Oh...” The sound barely escaped my mouth.

The four of them had me trapped inside the moving bus.

“After what she did to my sister, I say we put a bullet in her head,” Ace retorted casually.

Now I finally understood why he sat so quietly in the back.

His sister had gone through something horrific.

After something like that, it was no surprise that life had lost its meaning for him.

A chill ripped through me, covering my skin in goosebumps.

No.

I hadn’t survived an abusive marriage just to die at the hands of more men.

“I’m not Freya,” I admitted suddenly, the truth leaving me in a rush.

For a brief second, relief loosened the pressure in my chest.

But their expressions never changed.

If anything, they looked even more suspicious.

“You don’t believe me?” I asked quietly, looking between all four of them.

“That’s exactly what Freya would say,” Cage muttered.

There was something unsettling about him. He stared at people for far too long, barely even blinking.

When I tried to shift away from the seat again, his hand landed on my shoulder to stop me.

“Hey, don’t touch me.”

Heat climbed into my face instantly.

I wasn’t used to men.

Out in the woods, there had never been anyone except Nathan.

My husband was the only man who had ever touched me.

“And now she’s pulling the woman card,” Rome scoffed, rolling his eyes while the others backed him up with grim nods.

“Not wanting to be touched isn’t a woman card,” I shot back.

I pointed at Cage instinctively, then quickly lowered my hand the second I saw his jaw tighten.

“You didn’t care about that when it was my sister,” Ace growled.

Every word sounded forced out through clenched teeth.

“You’re a senior invisible officer. You should already know nobody gets special treatment in the military,” Miguel commented.

He barely spoke and whenever he did, it sounded like he was shooting daggers with his words.

That hit me hard enough to remind me how badly I needed them to believe I wasn’t Freya.

“Look, I’m telling you—”

Cage’s radio suddenly beeped before I could finish.

He motioned for the others to watch me, like I was somehow going to jump out of a moving bus and escape.

“Yes, sir,” Cage responded as he lifted the radio.

“Bali informed me you guys found a soldier on the road. Are we confirming a missing military bus?” a powerful voice thundered through the radio.

Cage’s eyes shifted toward me before moving to the others.

The look they exchanged instantly put me on edge.

Something was brewing in their heads, and I knew I wasn’t going to like it.

“No sir—” Cage began.

Before he could finish, a hand clamped over my mouth, cutting me off completely.

“Keep your mouth shut unless you want to die,” Rome muttered beside me as his hand clamped over my mouth, forcing me back against the seat.

Panic slammed into me.

Before either of us could react, I jerked my knee upward and drove it straight into his fucking crotch.

A sharp grunt tore from him. Honestly, I didn’t know why the bastard was hard in the first place, but I didn’t hesitate.

Rome stumbled backward and collapsed onto the seat, both hands clutching himself between the legs.

I immediately turned toward Cage.

“Yes, I’m here with them,” I said quickly.

The second the words left my mouth, the atmosphere shifted.

Ace’s face darkened with anger.

Cage looked stunned.

Miguel’s fists tightened at his sides while Rome struggled to recover beside them.

“Who am I speaking with?” the chief asked through the line.

“I’m Freya Benson from the Invisible Military Office,” I answered without hesitation. “Isolation Center Two.”

I rattled off my details as quickly as possible. If they tried to kill me after this, someone would know exactly who I was with.

“Freya Benson? ummmm?”

The moment the Chief recognized my name, my stomach dropped.

Great. She’s more notorious than I thought. 

“Yes, sir,” I answered carefully, my gaze flickering across the faces around me.

“Oh, this is perfect. We finally got our hands on an invisible officer, and this one is really important" the Chief said with relief clear in his voice.

That was enough for me to understand one thing.. He has expectations.

Expectations I probably couldn’t meet when I barely understood half the things they were talking about.

“Freya, stay with them and head to the main center. We need your help with some encrypted codes.”

While he explained, I scratched the back of my neck and glanced toward the four alphas surrounding me.

They watched me closely, like they were waiting for the call to end before tearing into me.

“What kind of help?” I asked. “I’m not even sure I have all my gear.”

I tried to sound confident, though I had a feeling my wording already gave me away.

“It’s fine. You have your band, correct?”

My eyes dropped to the band wrapped around my hand.

“Yes,” I murmured.

“Good. That’s all we need. The band carries the codes, and as long as you’re wearing it, we can access them. Which means we need your pulse active at all times. Once you’re dead, the band dies too. It won’t work on a corpse.”

Cold dread crawled beneath my skin.

I glanced at the others and swallowed again.

“Yes, sir.”

I slowly stepped away from the radio while the Chief continued briefing Cage about the next route and how to reach the academy center safely.

The moment Cage cut the radio, he looked straight at me.

Rome pushed himself off his seat and cracked his neck before rolling his shoulders.

He bounced on the balls of his feet, shaking out his hands like he was about to step into a fight.

Miguel and Ace moved next.

The two climbed out of their spots slowly, their eyes locked on me like I was something dangerous trapped inside the bus with them.

Within seconds, they had me surrounded.

“You think you’re smart? You think you can survive this new world by spreading your legs?” Rome snarled.

Before anyone could make the first move, the bus slammed to a violent stop.

The others barely shifted, already braced for impact, but I was thrown forward so hard that I crashed straight into Cage.

The force nearly took him down with me.

He caught himself by gripping the seats while my hands pressed against his chest to keep from falling.

The second I became more aware of his hands on me, I pushed away from Cage and shot him a glare like any of this had been his fault.

I had practically slammed into his chest.

For a brief second, our eyes locked.

Blond wolf-cut hair. Sharp gray eyes. He looked almost unreal.

Like a piece of art carved too perfectly to belong in a world full of zombies now.

I quickly pushed the thought away.

Admiring someone who clearly wanted me dead was the last thing I should have been doing.

“What the hell happened? Why did we stop?”

Thankfully, Ace storming past us pulled Cage’s attention away before the moment could become even more awkward.

Or maybe the awkwardness only existed for me.

Nathan was the only man I had ever allowed close to me. Because of that, even the briefest contact felt far too noticeable.

Cage didn’t seem affected at all.

Without another word, he headed toward the driver.

I quickly moved aside to let them pass.

As the others crowded toward the front of the bus, Miguel slowed just enough to throw me a cold, warning look before continuing forward.

Like this wasn’t over.

“There’s a metal gate blocking the road,” the driver explained. “It’s locked. Someone has to get out and open it.”

I leaned to the side to get a better look.

A giant metal gate stood across the road like a border checkpoint.

Probably another pack’s territory.

At this point, I doubted anyone even knew whose.

The moment the driver finished speaking, all four of them turned toward me.

My stomach tightened under the weight of their attention.

Then they exchanged looks, and small smirks slowly spread across their faces.

“Someone has to go down there, open the gate, and prove she deserves this uniform,” Ace added while looking straight at me.

And just like that, I knew exactly where this was going.