"I already told you that.” Her voice was filled with exasperation. "They wanted pictures."
Though Gray understood the omega's irritation, he was dealing with his own anger, and he'd be willing to bet hers didn't hold a candle to the storm brewing inside him. The mere thought of being spied on by a bunch of fucking betas was bad enough, but if this pile of shredded electronics was what he thought it was, the real story might well be a hell of a lot worse.
"But why?" Gray said, trying a new line of questioning. "Did this mysterious government agent you described ever explain why he wanted you to surveil me specifically, rather than some other alpha?"
Olivia shook her head. "The only thing he said was that you were a subject with a predictable schedule. That meant they could move me in and out without detection."
That was true enough. Knowing the others looked to him as a leader, Gray made it a point to visit the roadhouse every three days to settle whatever issues came up. He'd learned the hard way that if he stayed away too long, troubles tended to snowball, and disputes turned into brawls.
Still, the fact that the beta authorities knew his schedule so well revealed that they'd been tracking him for a while.
"That's what they called me? A ‘subject?'"
"That's the only word they ever used. He never told me your name."
"And, again, you never asked."
Olivia bristled, her eyes flashing a tawny warning. "Easy for you to say. You know not all of us are muscle-bound giants who can intimidate anyone who looks our way, or government agents with armies of snipers at their beck and call. Us regular people sometimes have to choose between speaking up or staying alive."
Gray couldn't remember the last time someone dared to speak to him like that, and his reaction was instant and visceral, adrenaline sparking his urge to lash out.
"Don't you ever compare me to those beta bastards again."
To his surprise, there was no change in her scent, no increase in her fear. She merely stared at him, looking distinctly unimpressed, and then burst into laughter.
At him.
Gray slowly shook his head in disbelief. It seemed nothing about this day was going to make sense. "What's so fucking funny?"
Her laughter ceased as abruptly as it started, leaving her looking wholly defeated. She let go of the back of the chair and came around to collapse into it.
"Who do you think you're kidding? You're exactly just like him. The only difference is your chest measurements and inseam."
Had she lost her mind? Gray couldn't keep shaking off her insults. "Watch your mouth, woman, or I'll—"
"You'll what?" she taunted him, the spark of challenge in her eyes at odds with her sprawling posture. "Kill me and my family? Use me against my will? You know what—I don't ever want to know your name. I don't care. Since you treat me just like that stupid agent did, you might as well stay anonymous too."
That did it. Of all her insults, this one managed to pierce through his frustration and actually land a blow to his pride.
No one—not even his own omega—could talk to him this way.
True, he'd never asked for her, never wanted an omega in the first place. But the woman didn't even have the sense to know when to surrender. She just kept fighting him and fighting him…until she left him no choice but to put her in her place.
He closed the distance between them in a single stride, but she stood her ground, her expression tight and unchanged. Her scent shifted, wariness taking the place of contempt…but something else was going on, too.
No matter how she dared to speak to him, Olivia's body didn't lie. It couldn't.
He could actually feel her heartbeat aligning itself with his, matching his rhythm as desire unfurled like an exotic bloom inside her. Her legs shifted, opening to him slightly, though he'd wager she had no idea. In the background of her scent was the slightest hint of fresh slick, brimming and ready to be coaxed out by a word, a breath, a touch.
Gray couldn't help but lick his lips in anticipation. He might never have wanted an omega, but that didn't mean he could steel himself against her presence.
He inhaled deeply, filling his lungs with the intoxicating scent as he gazed down into her eyes. Already, his cock was stiffening. He tried to remember what they'd been talking about.
"You're telling me you can't think of a single difference between me and this beta shit who dragged you here?" His voice sounded thick even to himself.
Olivia's chest rose and fell with each deepening breath. She grazed her teeth over her lower lip before telling her first real lie. "Not one."
Gray grumbled deep in his chest and crouched down between her knees. She drew in her breath sharply as he slid his hands under the blanket she'd draped around herself and cupped her knees.
"So, you're telling me that you let the agent touch you like this," Gray said softly, kneading the tender flesh behind her knees, letting his fingers trail up, not quite reaching the cleft between her legs. "That your skin heated up the way it's doing right now. That your pussy was just as sopping wet with slick. That you couldn't stop thinking about him touching you…the way you're thinking about me."
Olivia clamped her mouth shut, her face going pale with the effort of not reacting. Her fingers tightened on the leather cushions, and she pressed her legs together as hard as she could, but it did nothing to diminish the flow of her slick.
Gray could have told her that it was no use to fight her urges. That the changes in her body—the rush of hormones, the shift in her nature—were much too powerful to control.
But he didn't bother, for the simple reason that he liked watching her squirm. Liked it almost as much as anticipating what would happen when he moved his hands higher, slid them up to her—
"He used me," Olivia blurted, that last thing Gray expected to hear. Then, almost plaintively, she added, "Just like you're using me now."
"No," Gray corrected her harshly. "No one touches you like I do. No one gets to taste your pleasure but me. Your alpha. And if anyone tries, I'll kill them."
He wasn't trying to frighten her—it was merely the truth.
And reminding her of that fact felt good. It felt right in a way he'd never felt around any woman before. Even if she didn't need to hear it, Gray needed to say it—and his rock-hard cock was proof.
Now it was time to make sure she'd learned the lesson.
"Don't bother pretending that anything we've done has been against your will," he muttered, leaning in so that his lips were a fraction of an inch from her neck, knowing the effect his hot breath would have. "You were the one clawing at my back and begging me to fuck you harder. Now tell me who I am."
She didn't answer the question. Instead, she lifted her head and looked him in the eye. Somewhere within her, defiance flared. He could sense the shift, the retreat of her new identity in the face of her brazen contempt.
"Fuck you."
Gray wanted to roar his frustration, but he gritted his teeth and held back. She thought she was being strong. She had no idea.
What the hell was it going to take to break this woman?
He removed his hands from her thighs and took grim satisfaction when her face fell, her defiance revealed for the bluff it was.
That's right, he wanted to tell her—you're about to find out just how bad you need me.
Instead, he took hold of her shoulders, firmly but gently. "Stop making this so hard, Olivia. It's time you..."
His words trailed off as his fingertips brushed against something beneath her skin. It wasn't an object so much as a sort of faint electric hum, so subtle he never would have detected it unless his hand was pressing directly down on it.
"What are you—"
"Quiet," Gray snapped, concentrating on teasing out exactly what he was feeling.
A hum? A pulse? A signal?
That was it—a signal.
Embedded deep beneath Olivia's skin was a tiny beacon like the ones he'd destroyed in his attack on her camp. Even now, the d
amn thing was sending back information to the men who had sent her here.
Not about him, however.
Suddenly, everything was breathtakingly clear. This mission had never been about Gray at all.
"Olivia," he breathed, releasing her arms and backing away as the rest of the pieces fell into place.
Chapter Nine
The alpha looked even angrier than when he'd torn apart her blind only a few hours earlier—and for the life of her, Olivia could not fathom why.
After all, she was the only one who had any right to be angry. Sure, maybe she'd gone a little too far when she compared him to the government suit—but the alpha still had to own the fact that he'd threatened her life too. His touch had been the thing that had turned her. He couldn't honestly believe that relentlessly hammering her with questions and accusations was going to make her warm up to him.
No, but maybe he thought the actual hammering would. Though Olivia had to admit, she'd gone along with that.
In fact, the only thing worse than the alpha touching her was him not touching her, which made his sudden abrupt change of tone even more frustrating.
Olivia had gone from cursing her body's traitorous reaction to the alpha's mere presence to pure dismay when he suddenly pulled away. The sense of devastation didn't even make sense, but neither did the crazy sex they'd had—and that she wanted to have again.
But given the look of disgust on his face, there was little chance of that happening now.
Something was wrong…terribly wrong.
Shame filled Olivia. The heat started in her cheeks and quickly traveled all through her body. No other lover had ever looked at her that way before—like he regretted every moment he'd spent with her. Like sex with her was too horrible to contemplate.
Like she was lower than the dirt on the sole of his boot.
It had to be these wretched hormones over which she had no control. They were swirling around in her veins like a damned tornado, ruining everything they came across and turning Olivia's life into an unrecognizable mess.
She really ought to be happy as hell that the alpha didn't want to touch her, that he wanted nothing to do with her. This was what she wanted, wasn't it? He'd let her go—if she was lucky, he'd drive her to the border himself just to get rid of her faster—and Olivia could carry out her plan to disappear.
After the call to her mother, she would never contact anyone she knew. She'd go so far away that no one would ever find her. She'd never have to feel this confusing rush of chaotic emotions again.
So what was this leaden feeling in the pit of her stomach at the thought that the alpha might toss her out? Why was she shaking in anticipation of unbearable loneliness because an alpha she'd only just met would never touch her again?
"What's wrong with me?" Olivia wailed, more to herself than the alpha. But he only turned away and disappeared into the kitchen.
She waited for him to return, but as the moments ticked by, she grew afraid that he really had left her all alone, aching with lust, transformed irrevocably into someone she didn't recognize, with nowhere to go and no way to get there.
Soon, though, she heard drawers and cabinets being opened and the clang of metal pans.
O…kay.
This seemed like a weird time to be cooking, but maybe that was just what he did when he was pissed off and—
Suddenly the alpha strode back into the room with a huge knife in his hand. Olivia let out a scream of terror, already on her feet and bolting toward the door. She might be transformed and confused on the inside, but at least her survival instinct was still intact.
Had she really misjudged the alpha so completely? Olivia had been so sure that he'd gotten over his plans to punish her, but there was no denying now that she was in trouble. The look on his face, combined with the sharp blade in his hand, could only mean one thing:
He'd run out of patience and was about to slit her throat and put an end to her bitching once and for all.
Olivia made it farther than she had any right to expect. By the time the alpha wrapped his arm around her waist and hoisted her up against his chest, she'd managed to open the door and set one foot outside.
But that didn't change the fact that he'd caught her. Olivia flopped and flailed like a fish on a hook, and once again, it didn't do a damned bit of good. The alpha absorbed every kick and blow like her desperate efforts were nothing.
This alpha could probably get into a bare-knuckle brawl with a grizzly and come out the winner. Though Olivia hammered at him as hard as she could with his fists, it probably felt like the beat of butterfly wings to him.
But rolling over and giving up was not an option. Accepting defeat had never been in her nature when she was a beta—and it sure as hell wasn't now. Defiance like she'd never experienced before surged in her and kept the blows coming. If this prick really wanted her dead, then by God, he was going to have to work for it.
"Get your hands off me!" she screamed at the top of her lungs, though she knew there wasn't a soul around who could help her. "Let me go, you sick son of a bitch!"
The alpha didn't respond, even as she went through every curse and epithet she could think of. If these were her last words, so be it—though there might not be enough room on her tombstone for "Let me go, you bastard, or I'll chop off your dick and feed it to a mountain lion."
Eventually, the alpha lost patience and flipped her around so she faced him. Before Olivia registered what was happening, he had pinned her arms and legs to the floor. She glared up at him, expecting rage on his countenance—and finding none. There was only a look of intense focus in his strange purple eyes.
He was staring at her like she was a lab specimen, with no warmth at all. She obviously was still nothing to him but a threat, all that time he'd spent with his cock inside her already forgotten. Without warning, Olivia's eyes flooded with tears that spilled down her cheeks and into her ears.
Goddammit, this wasn't how she wanted to die. She always hoped to live to be old and grey, and when the time came, she'd die in her own bed, surrounded by her children and grandchildren. Maybe even her great-grandchildren if she were lucky. All of them would sob as Olivia slipped gently away in her sleep.
Instead, it looked like she was going out in a pool of blood on the floor of an alpha's cabin.
She had one gambit left. "If you kill me right now, I swear I will haunt you," she shouted up at him. "I'll destroy everything in your house and rattle those kinky-ass chains of yours all night long. You'll never sleep again. I'll—"
The alpha's colossal hand clamped down over her mouth, instantly silencing her.
Trust me, he mouthed slowly and clearly, never taking his eyes off her.
Trust him? Was that some kind of sick joke?
Olivia didn't have long to figure out the answer because a second later, the alpha pressed the tip of the knife into her upper arm, just below the shoulder.
The puncture was more shocking than painful, especially as he'd only stabbed a few millimeters deep, but Olivia howled anyway. Or rather, she tried but managed only a muffled moan as the alpha carefully cut deeper into her flesh, every muscle in his jawline visibly tensing.
A thin stream of blood trickled from the wound, down her arm to her elbow. She tried to fight, but the alpha just held her tighter, completely immobilizing her. Remarkably, the only emotion on his face was determination.
What the hell was he doing? If he was going to stab her to death, why didn't he get on with it? If he was trying to torture her, he wasn't very good at it—while the cut stung, it didn't come close to agony.
Olivia tried to scream again anyway, but the alpha merely shook his head and kept his hand in place. With no other way to defend herself, Olivia bit down as hard as she possibly could.
The alpha flinched, and a growl of irritation escaped him as she tasted his blood. At least she'd given him something to remember her by, Olivia thought grimly.
The alpha adjusted his grip on her and went back to work
, slowly pushing the knife's tip a fraction of an inch deeper. Suddenly he wrenched the blade upward, ripping through layers of skin and tissue. Something shiny flew past her face.
Blessedly, the alpha loosened his grip on her, and Olivia wrenched her arm free.
Then she waited for a blow that didn't come. Instead, the alpha released her, got down on the floor, and plucked a tiny object off the floor. Holding it up to the light, he squinted at the thing between his finger and thumb.
Curiosity bested Olivia's fear. What was he doing? Blood dripped from his fingers, but the object he held wasn't a chunk of flesh but a…a tiny metallic cylinder with a wire poking out of it.
The sight of it was enough to make Olivia forget all about the fact that, only that seconds earlier, she'd thought he was trying to kill her. Now she had a whole new set of worries.
What the hell was that thing? Had it really been embedded in her arm? And how did the alpha know it was there?
But before she could ask any of these questions, the alpha put his finger to his lips.
A tendril of cold dread unfurled inside Olivia, somehow worse than being stabbed. Was he really trying to tell her that someone was listening to them…through that thing?
The implications hurtled through her brain in a sickening flood. Oh, God…if that was true, then whoever was on the other end of that thing had been able to hear every word Olivia had said since…well, since God only knew when. The one thing she was certain about was who had done it.
The same assholes who had access to all that technology they'd sworn would keep her safe.
Olivia went limp at the realization, all the fight draining out of her. The alpha nodded, took his hand from her mouth, and got up. To her astonishment, he walked straight out the door, leaving her bleeding on the floor.
Olivia managed to get as far as the kitchen sink, where she wet a rag and dabbed the blood away before sinking to the floor. She hadn't been injured badly enough to be in shock—the wound had stopped bleeding and didn't even hurt—but the implications of what had just happened kept her stunned and immobile for what seemed like a very long time.
Gray: The Boundarylands Omegaverse: M/F Alpha Omega Romance Page 6
