by J. L. Wilder
God. What was he going to do with her?
She was out a moment later. “You promised breakfast,” she reminded him.
He had. And even though he was eager to get back on the road, he was hungry too. Better they get something to eat now, before the need to do so became urgent. “All right,” he said, “but it’s going to have to be someplace fast. We have to get moving.”
A look of cautious trepidation came over her face. “They haven’t caught us, have they?” she asked.
And dammit all to hell if that expression wasn’t every bit as attractive as her body. He felt a physical compulsion to go to her, to take her in his arms and protect her. To keep her safe. He’d heard people talk about this feeling, a drive to protect their omegas in the face of danger.
But she’s not my omega, he reminded himself fiercely. She’s just a job.
“No sign of them,” he said. “But let’s keep it that way.”
She nodded. “What do you need me to do?”
“Just stay behind me,” he said. “I don’t think they’re down there, but it’s possible they’ve set some kind of trap. If there’s a fight, I want them to hit me first.”
“Okay.” She was pale, but her jaw was firm, and he thought she would be able to handle herself.
“If I’m killed,” he added, “you run.”
“Is that likely?” She looked scared.
“No,” he said. “We’re going to be fine. We’re just going to walk down to the bike, get on, and drive away.”
She nodded.
“Okay,” he said. “Let’s go.”
As it turned out, the walk down to the parking lot went without a hitch. Emmett had been right to think that there were no Rangers down there. Wherever they were, they hadn’t caught up with him and Hazel yet, which meant that they probably didn’t have their scent.
They were probably looking in the wrong direction.
That was an encouraging thought.
“THIRTEEN DIFFERENT kinds of omelet?” Hazel stared, wide eyed, at her menu. “I didn’t know there were different kinds.”
“Of course, there are different kinds.” Emmett couldn’t help laughing at that. He spent most of his mornings in diners, and he’d seen just about every omelet humankind could devise. “Omelets are just eggs with anything you want thrown in.”
“Rita always made them with cheddar cheese,” Hazel said. “When we got them back home.”
“That’s it?” he asked. “No vegetables?”
“No.”
“No meat?”
She looked scandalized. “We never had meat with breakfast! Meat is a dinner food.”
“What about bacon?”
“That’s not good for you.”
“You’ve never had bacon?” He was floored. “Okay, you’ve got to let me order for you.” He reached across the table and took the menu out of her hands.
She snatched it back. “I want an omelet. I don’t need you to order for me.”
He chuckled. “Fair enough, I’m sorry. Will you at least get it with a side of bacon, please? You’ve been missing out.”
She eyed him dubiously. “Matthew says only savages eat meat before five o’clock.”
“Savages, huh?” For a guy who couldn’t get out of the house and go rescue his own omega, Matthew sure seemed to have a lot of opinions about how other people should live. “Well, live savagely for once in your life then. You’re not going to regret it, I promise you.”
The waitress came around, poured them each a cup of coffee, and took out her order pad. “What can I get for you?”
“Chorizo skillet, please, and a side of bacon.” Emmett handed her his menu.
“For you, ma’am?” she asked, turning to Hazel.
Hazel looked at Emmett.
Emmett raised one eyebrow.
“The spinach omelet,” she said decisively, and handed over her menu.”
“Anything else?”
“Nope. Nothing. That’s it.”
When the waitress was gone, Emmett burst out laughing. “Wow,” he said. “You really don’t want that bacon, do you?”
“You’re not my alpha,” she said, smirking at him.
“If I was your alpha, you’d be eating bacon at every meal. No meat before five o’clock! What a weird rule!”
“It’s for health,” she said primly.
“Bacon doesn’t magically become healthy when the sun goes down,” he chortled. “Man, though, that’d be amazing. I would eat entire bacon meals.”
“You have an obsession.”
Hazel ignored him and added creamer to her coffee.
“So,” Emmett said, striving to sound casual. “Matthew.”
“What about him?”
“He says you and he aren’t, you know. Mated.”
“Yeah, we’re not. So?”
“So, nothing. I’m just interested, I guess, in how it all works. I’ve never had an omega in my pack.” He was lying through his teeth and he knew it. He was interested, all right, but not in a vague sociological way. He wasn’t making a study of pack dynamics. He knew how mating worked. He wanted to know how it was going to work for her.
And he should not be pursuing that line of questioning. He should not want to know that. Not only was it thoroughly not his business, but he was also allowing himself to fixate on his attraction to her when he should be letting it go. You have an obsession, she’d said. She had no idea.
She picked up a pack of crunchy breadsticks and opened it. “I’m twenty-three years old,” she said. “That’s prime mating age.”
“Is it?” He’d never heard that before.
“Well, that’s what Matthew says.”
“Okay, but Matthew also says you shouldn’t have meat with breakfast.”
“Do you want to hear this or not?”
“Okay, sorry.”
“So, the pack just celebrated my twenty-third birthday,” she said. “That’s not like a regular birthday. It was an occasion. Almost like a wedding. And in the days following, I was supposed to be mated with somebody.”
“With who?”
“Don’t know. Matthew was still making his decision.” She sipped her coffee. “It was the night of my party when I got kidnapped.”
“Damn.”
“Yeah. I was still in my ball gown and everything.”
“You weren’t in a ball gown when we found you.”
“No, they cut it off when they did the tattoo,” she said.
“Okay, so if you hadn’t been kidnapped, Matthew would have matched you up with one of your packmates and you would have gotten started making babies?”
“Yeah. Pretty much.”
“And what, you’re fine with that? Having your whole life decided for you by your alpha?”
“Well, what choice did I have?” she asked. “He was the alpha.”
“I mean, I guess...”
“You’re an alpha,” she shot. “Don’t tell me you never decide things that affect your packmates.”
“Not things like that. I wouldn’t tell them who to mate with.”
“Oh, give me a break.” She bit into a breadstick and pointed the end at him. “I heard you talking to the others back at the tent. Someone wanted to keep me, right? And you told him the pack didn’t keep omegas because you had to be ready to move at all times. If someone wants to be in your pack, they can’t have a mate at all. Isn’t that true?”
He was quiet.
“So, you know. Don’t go acting like my alpha’s a tyrant. He was trying to do the best he could for our pack.”
He nodded. “That’s fair. And I’m sorry. I don’t know the guy well. I do still think he was wrong about bacon, though.”
The waitress returned with their food. “Chorizo skillet, spinach omelet, and a side of bacon,” she said, setting everything down. “Enjoy.”
Hazel stared at her omelet. “This is huge,” she said. “I don’t know if I can even finish this.”
He laughed. “Eat as much a
s you want and don’t worry about it.”
For a few minutes, the two of them ate in companionable silence. Emmett thought over what she’d told him. If she was going back to a situation in which she would be mated against her will, was it really the right thing to take her back to the Coywolves? Maybe he was being too hasty. Maybe she shouldn’t go back to them.
But no, that was just his attraction to her talking. It was nice to fantasize about a world in which the two of them could run off together, in which they could eat breakfasts at diners across the country and ride down innumerable highways with her arms wrapped pleasingly around his waist. But that was just a fantasy. You couldn’t take an omega on the road. It was a terrible idea, and it would put his entire way of life at risk.
And besides, she did want to go back. She acknowledged that her pack wasn’t an ideal situation, but it was far from a worst-case scenario. It wasn’t as if the Coywolves were the Rangers. You’re not my alpha, she’d said. She’d chosen and submitted to her alpha. She was part of his pack.
Then she reached across the table, plucked a slice of bacon from his side plate, broke off the end, and popped it in her mouth.
He was startled. “Hey!”
“You were right,” she said, shrugging. “I did regret not ordering my own. And you were right that it’s really good too.” She finished the strip she’d stolen.
“Well, we’ll order you some of your own,” he said, giving her a mock scowl. “Don’t steal my breakfast.”
“Okay, okay.” She grinned. “You were right, and Matthew was wrong.”
Emmett couldn’t help it. His heart soared. It was a tiny thing, barely worth mentioning, the issue of whether bacon was any good. But she’d taken his side instead of Matthew’s. She’d chosen him.
Oh God, he must be going crazy.
He devoted his full attention to his chorizo skillet, trying hard not to pay attention as Hazel grabbed the waitress and ordered another side of bacon, trying not to let the moment get to him.
It was just bacon, after all. Just a side dish at a diner breakfast.
It didn’t mean anything.
Chapter Nine
HAZEL
The bacon was decidedly better than the jerky had been. And having breakfast with Emmett had been downright fun. Hazel had plenty of friends among the Coywolves who she enjoyed spending time with. Some of them were even contenders to become her mate, and there were a few she definitely wouldn’t have minded being mated to. But with any of her friends back home, it would have made a difference what they were doing. Some activities would have been fun and interesting, and others would have been kind of a drag.
But she didn’t feel that way about spending time with Emmett. It was strange, but Hazel sort of thought that doing anything with Emmett would have been fun. Breakfast had been a good time, not only because of the delicious omelet (and the bacon), but because of his company.
That was what having a crush was like, she guessed. It was an intoxication brought on just by being in the presence of the other person. Everything Emmett said seemed a little funnier to her than it really was. Every moment spent around him felt like a celebration.
She was not ready to go back to the Coywolves. Not yet.
They would be missing her, she knew, and they would be worried. But maybe some member of Emmett’s pack had found a way to get in touch with them and let them know that she was with Emmett now and not with the Rangers. Maybe, if they had that information, they wouldn’t be too worried.
One thing she knew for sure: when she got back, Matthew definitely wouldn’t waste any time in assigning her a mate. He must be furious that the plan to pair her off right after her twenty-third birthday had been messed up. And Emmett was right. Once she’d been given her mate, they would want her to become pregnant as soon as possible.
That was all going to start right away as soon as she got back home.
SHE FOUND HERSELF WONDERING, as she hugged Emmett’s waist on the back of his motorcycle, what it would be like to be mated with him. The thought made her feel warm inside in a way that had nothing to do with the sun shining overhead. To share a bed with Emmett, to be naked in his strong arms, to feel his claiming bite on her neck...
To bear his litter.
She closed her eyes and smiled, pressing her forehead into his broad back as they sped down the highway, very glad that he couldn’t see what she was thinking. He would think she was crazy if he knew. Hazel knew that Emmett saw her as nothing more than a job, a ticket to the reward money he hoped to claim. If he knew she was nurturing this crush on him, he would laugh.
Then again, he’d laughed when she’d told him about her aversion to meat at breakfast. And that laughter had become a joke the two of them had shared, not a joke at her expense. Maybe he’d like knowing how she felt.
What Hazel would have liked was to know where they were going. They had been on the road for about three hours now, having hit the highway straight from the diner, and Hazel’s sense of direction was giving her no help at all. This, she thought, was most likely because she’d never really been out in the world before, and therefore, she couldn’t be blamed for it. How was she supposed to know how highway systems worked, or which of the many roadside signs she ought to be paying attention to? An experienced driver would probably have been able to suss out which direction they were going, but Hazel had no idea.
She wondered what Emmett would say if she were to tell him of her troubles. He’d make fun of her, probably. He’d make some comment about how sheltered she was, and how every shifter should know how to figure out which way they were going by sniffing the wind or looking at the bark of the trees or some fool thing like that. She found herself wishing they could have that conversation, but you couldn’t talk on a motorcycle.
Not that she minded being on the motorcycle. Being pressed up against him the way she was was incredibly intense, like nothing she’d ever felt before. She was hyper aware of every inch of her body that touched his—her fingers splayed across his taut stomach, her arms gripping his sides, her knees bracketing his hips, her face pressed into his back. Everywhere she touched him, she felt more alive. More sensitive.
And that was something she definitely didn’t want to tell him. Because if he mocked her for those feelings, it wouldn’t be much fun at all.
Please don’t let us be going home yet, she thought as they sped down the highway. Let us have one more night together before I have to go back. She wasn’t ready for the adventure to be over. She wanted to spend more time with this wild man before returning to her settled, orderly, boring life with the Coywolves.
SEVERAL HOURS LATER, Emmett pulled the bike into the parking lot of yet another motel, and Hazel knew she had gotten her wish. They would have another day together.
It had been early evening when they’d left the diner, and once again, they’d ridden through the night. As soon as they got into their new motel room, Emmett shut the blinds and bolted the door.
“How long are we staying here?” Hazel asked.
“Until dusk, hopefully,” he said. “I’ve been zigzagging around enough that I don’t think the Rangers are going to be able to pick up our trail at this point.”
“Where are we, anyway?” she asked.
“Ohio.”
“Ohio!”
He raised his eyebrows. “So?”
“I’ve never even been out of Rhode Island before. I didn’t realize we were leaving the state.” She felt a strange pit in her stomach at the realization that she was so much farther away from home than she’d known.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“I don’t know,” she said quietly, taking a seat on her bed. “I guess so. I just didn’t know we’d come this far.”
“You didn’t think we were still in Rhode Island?”
“I hadn’t really thought about it,” she admitted, “but if I had thought about it, yeah, I guess I would have thought that.”
“That little state isn’t big enou
gh to run from anybody in,” Emmett said, sitting down next to her. “We needed them to leave the state, to try to come after us. With any luck, they’ll keep moving west and chase us all the way to California, never realizing that we’ve turned around.”
“We turned around?” she asked.
“Not yet,” he said. “When we leave here tonight, we’ll be going back the other way.”
Back home, in other words. Which meant the adventure was ending.
“What’s wrong?” Emmett asked. “You don’t look happy.”
“No, I’m fine.”
“You’re not worried about the Rangers, are you?” he asked. “Because I really don’t think they’re on us anymore. I think they lost the trail.”
“I’m not worried about them,” she said.
“Then what?” he asked. “You do want to go home, don’t you?”
“Well, yes,” she said, and then hesitated. “Kind of.”
“Kind of?”
“I know I belong with my family,” she said. “I know I belong with my alpha. And I do want to do what’s expected of me. They gave me such a good childhood. Such a good life so far. I’ve always had everything I needed. And now, I know, it’s my turn to give back to them. My role is to carry a litter and help the pack continue. That’s what I’m for. I understand that. I want to do that.”
“Then what’s the problem?” he asked.
She couldn’t help noticing how close he was sitting to her. She could hardly think straight. “I’ve never been away from my family before,” she said. “Did you know that?”
“I could have guessed.”
She looked up at him. He wasn’t making fun of her. He was watching her with soft brown eyes. Her heart fluttered.
“It’s just been exciting,” she said quietly. “Seeing how other people live.”
“People like me, you mean.”
“Yes.”
“And what do you think of it?” he asked. “The way I live.”
“You have a lot of fun,” she said. “You have a lot of...well, a lot of freedom. My life with my pack is very safe, and I have all the creature comforts a person could want, but you have freedom.”
