The alpha hadn't been trying to harm her after all. But that didn't explain where he'd gone or what he was doing now. Olivia supposed it didn't matter. No matter what, it was out of her hands.
Too much had happened in too short a time. She didn't even know who she was anymore. Everything she thought she understood was in question, everything she'd ever believed in doubt.
She couldn't trust anyone. Not even herself, it seemed.
"Olivia."
Slowly, she lifted her chin, blinking. The alpha had returned, his body blocking the light in the doorway. She was pretty sure some time had passed, but she had no idea how much.
"I need you to know I'll never hurt or scare you like that again," he said, approaching her cautiously before lowering himself down onto the floor in front of her. "I would have warned you what needed to happen, but I couldn't be sure if anyone was still listening through that device."
Olivia nodded, feeling curiously detached. The alpha frowned, but Olivia didn't even try to interpret his expression. In fact, she couldn't remember why it mattered. Everything had gone sort of fuzzy and far away.
But something important had happened…something she needed to figure out. With great effort, she tried to line up her thoughts in order.
"I have to stitch up your arm now," the alpha told her, enunciating each word. "Okay?"
She nodded again, and the alpha watched her a few seconds longer before and standing up with a sigh that seemed almost worried. Olivia heard his heavy footsteps through the house, and by the time he returned with a small kit in hand, she was ready.
"So, is that what you dug out of me, a bug?"
The alpha raised one eyebrow as he began taking supplies out of the kit and lining them up on the floor. It was an awkward position for someone so large, and Olivia knew it would be much easier if she got up and went to the couch, but she simply didn't have the energy.
"It was a monitor of some kind," the alpha said, choosing his words carefully. "It's not something I've ever seen before."
A chill rolled through Olivia, briefly sharpening her attention. A monitor…like the trackers she'd occasionally seen on the animals she photographed, put there by ecologists and scientists working to protect endangered species.
Except Olivia was pretty damn sure that whoever had put this one in her did not have her welfare in mind. The only possible conclusion was that the government suit wasn't taking any chances when it came to her compliance.
"What did you do with it?" she asked.
The alpha's expression darkened. "I thought about destroying it, but then I had a better idea. I put it inside a fresh deer carcass and buried it near the northern border of my land. Okay, get ready for a sting."
He wasn't kidding. If she wasn't so exhausted, Olivia would have yelped when he dabbed an alcohol-soaked pad on her wound. Instead, she concentrated on what he had just told her. "Why would you do that?"
The alpha looked up from his task briefly, his amethyst eyes troubled. "That thing was probably reporting all kinds of data about you—temperature, pulse rate, hormone levels."
"But…if you buried it in a deer carcass, won't they think I'm dead?"
"That's the plan. Along with the way you were screaming bloody murder, I'm hoping I convinced them that I killed you."
That got her attention. Olivia sat up straighter, horrified. "Why would you want them to think that?"
"Because no matter how bad you thought those beta bastards were, that little monitor proves they're a thousand times worse."
"I don't understand," Olivia said thickly, the pain of the astringent forgotten. "How does that make it worse?"
"Well, let me ask you a question, Olivia." The alpha capped the bottle of alcohol and sat back on his haunches to look at her. His expression was serious and not without sympathy. "Did you know that you were an omega before you came to the Boundarylands?"
"Of course not." What a strange question. Everyone knew that a woman's nature was impossible to detect until she was touched by an alpha—and then it was too late to do anything about it. There were no medical tests you could take to see if you were a beta or omega.
"Then how the hell did that government agent know?"
The question ricocheted around Olivia's mind like a bullet, making a mockery of her confusion and brain fog as its implications slowly sunk in. Could it really be true? Could the government have found a way to detect something that beta civilian science could not?
How had he known, indeed?
The alpha didn't seem to expect a response, threading what looked like a medical-grade needle with thin filament. It looked ridiculous in his massive hands, but when he gently moved her hair out of the way to access the wound, his touch was gentle and sure.
The first stitch didn't hurt half as much as the original wound. Olivia almost felt like a bystander in what was going on. Everything seemed strangely flat and dull, and as her horror receded, hazy exhaustion took its place.
The alpha didn't seem surprised. He worked slowly and meticulously, focusing all his attention on his task. Olivia barely felt the needle piercing her skin, but under his touch, a warmth bloomed that spread from her neck down through her entire body.
"I'm sorry," she mumbled, not entirely sure what she was apologizing for.
"Hush now," the alpha said. "I've got you."
Chapter Ten
"This should be looking a lot better by morning," Gray said as he knotted the thread. It had taken seven tiny stitches in all to close the wound, but the omega's body would heal much more quickly than it would have when she was a beta.
Olivia didn't appear to have heard him. Her unblinking gaze was still focused straight ahead.
Maybe she was tougher than she looked.
Then again, maybe not. Gray couldn't shake the feeling that, in this instance, her muted reaction was due to more to shock than stony courage.
Look down at her, Gray had to admit she was still amazingly beautiful for a woman who had been through so much. Like a cupcake left out in the sun, he thought in a rare poetic moment. Her rosy lips and pale skin had relaxed like softened frosting. Her hair was mussed, cascading around her face.
"It just isn't possible," she muttered, more to herself than him. "There's no way to test for a person's true nature."
"Obviously, your beta suit has found one."
"Or maybe they just got lucky," she tried hopefully.
Gray snorted. "Government agencies don't run on luck. They threw a lot of resources at this technology—and on all this surveillance."
Olivia pulled her knees to her chin and watched him thoughtfully. "But doesn't that just prove what we already knew? The suit picked me because I'm a wildlife photographer. This guy made it clear he considers you to be, well, barely above an animal. And he wanted to protect their investment, so they made sure they could keep track of me while I was keeping track of you."
It was a simple, reasonable argument. But unfortunately, nothing about this episode was turning out to be simple.
"For what purpose?" Gray countered. "What could the beta authorities possibly be working on that requires seven days' worth of photos of an alpha going in and out of his front door? If they were trying to gather evidence against a known criminal, it might make sense—but I guarantee that nothing I've ever done merits this level of surveillance."
Olivia sighed, defeat settling heavily on her shoulders. Gray almost regretted telling her the brutal truth—but she needed to know, for her own safety.
"You were up there for what, two days? Tell me, did you catch me doing anything interesting in all that time?"
"Just when you ripped apart my tent, forced me to take off all my clothes, and…"
Her voice trailed off, which was definitely for the best. It wasn't as if Gray needed any reminders of what had happened next. It was hard enough having to deal with her irresistible scent filling up the room even as she sat there in a dazed stupor.
"Exactly," he said. "The only noteworthy
things that have happened here have centered around you, not me. If it weren't for that damned beeping, I might have never known you were there."
A faint wrinkle creased her brow. "What beeping?"
Of course. She hadn't been able to hear it. "It came from the briefcase, the one they told you held the satellite uplink. It's how I found you. It started emitting a sound just minutes before I reached you. It was too high-pitched for your ears, but not for mine."
Olivia's expression slowly gave way to shock as understanding sunk in. "They…they guided you toward me? Why would they do that?"
"So I'd find you." The truth tasted bitter in Gray's mouth. "So I'd touch you and spark your change. That's what the device under your skin was for. Whoever brought you here knew what you were, Olivia. They used you as bait and forced the interaction between us, and you can bet they've been analyzing every bit of data about your change as it streams in."
Olivia was quiet, but Gray saw the fire flicker and go out of her eyes, leaving them a flat, cool gray like a pond in winter, utterly defeated.
"So you and me… we're just pawns."
Why did she think he was so angry?
"Exactly," Gray muttered, cursing the bastards who'd played him for a fool and upended his whole life.
He was nearly forty years old, goddammit. He'd built his life just the way he liked it, around hard work, an appreciation of nature's bounty, and his place in the community. He had everything he needed right here, and he didn't need any daily companionship, omega or otherwise.
Sure, when he'd first arrived in the Boundarylands long ago, he'd been as curious about omegas as any young pup. He'd heard the stories that grew wilder as nights grew later and the beer flowed freely at the roadhouse. But it didn't take long to separate the bullshit from the basics: omegas usually bonded with the alpha who first touched them and awakened their nature, they went into a four-day heat once a month, and they were the only ones that could initiate the claiming bite.
Simple enough, other than the fact that they seemed to be a royal pain in the ass for any alpha unfortunate enough to get tied down with one.
Gray didn't know many omegas personally—they were too rare, too scattered through the uplands—but he did know they were the source of frequent trouble.
Hell, just a couple of months ago, one of his local brothers had managed to get himself killed over his runaway omega. Not that it had been a tragedy. That bastard Sloan had deserved his fate, and it would be hard to find an alpha brother here in the uplands who grieved his death. Still, there was no doubt that if Sloan hadn't snatched himself an omega, he would still be alive and kicking today.
That sort of story was the reason that Gray had decided years ago to content himself with occasionally hiring a whore, and fulfilling his need for conversation and companionship with twice-weekly trips to the roadhouse. Over the years, as he became a mentor and then a leader, Gray had never craved anything more.
Fate evidently had other ideas, however—and a fucked-up sense of humor. Why else would an omega even now be crumpled up on the floor of his cabin like a used rag? Hell, if he didn't do something, Gray had no doubt she'd spend the night there since she seemed too exhausted to move.
Gray may not have wanted his own omega, but that didn't mean he was about to let her sleep like a dog in front of the fireplace.
He pulled her into his arms and got to his feet.
"What are you doing?" she slurred, barely able to keep her eyes open. Gray could tell she wanted to fight him, but she didn't have the energy.
"I'm taking you to bed."
At that, she tried resisting but ended up lolling in his arms more like wounded prey rather than the tiger that had scratched at him tooth and claw earlier.
"Please, not that," she said. "I don't have the energy right now. I can't—"
"Calm down," he cut her off irritably, masking the feelings stirred by her husky voice. "I'm taking you to my bed so you can get some rest."
"Oh." She snuggled her head against his chest in a move so submissive and tender that Gray was certain she wasn't aware of it. "Then, I guess that's okay."
This omega was an odd one. Gray could never be sure what would come out of her mouth or what her next move might be. There would never be a dull moment with her, that was for sure.
Gray laid Olivia gently on his bed, and she immediately rolled onto her side, curling up into a ball. Her breathing was sure and steady. His omega was already asleep.
Gray went to the closet for another blanket to wrap around her. He gently tucked it against her slim outline and was turning toward the door when she stirred.
"Where are you going?" she asked sleepily.
Gray paused to consider the question. If this was an ordinary night, he'd already be headed down to the roadhouse. A few of his brothers were probably already lined up at the bar, waiting to talk to him about one problem or another. Soon the place would be filled with conversation and music from the jukebox.
But the thought of climbing into his truck and driving away from Olivia raised the hairs on the back of his neck.
He didn't want to leave her.
Gray tried to reason away his reaction. Surely he wasn't already growing attached to her. There had to be something else going on. Like…worrying about the betas who had studied his schedule and were no doubt expecting him to leave.
If they came, whether planning to salvage their equipment or dig up a dead body, they'd find Olivia sleeping in his bed instead…very much alive and unguarded.
Gray's mouth went dry as he considered what they might do then. Implant another chip in her arm? Take her back with them to perform experiments on her?
No fucking way.
The roadhouse and his brothers could damn well do without him for one night. Gray had property to protect.
"I'm not going anywhere," he told Olivia. "Just out to the porch to keep watch. You can relax and sleep tight. I'll make sure you stay safe."
Chapter Eleven
Satisfied that Olivia was sound asleep again, Gray settled into one of the twin wooden chairs on his porch to wait out the night. Hour after hour ticked by with no strange sounds or signs of life coming from the surrounding forest.
On the rare occasions that Gray found himself up this late, he would be looking forward to watching the sun rise over the peaks in the distance. But tonight he was too distracted and tense. All he wanted was for the night to be over.
Dawn was still an hour or two away when Gray heard the tires spinning up gravel as it turned onto the private road that led to his house. It didn't take long for him to identify the engine of the old truck from its characteristic complaining.
Gray didn't bother getting up from his chair. Even if he didn't know exactly who was driving up his road, he'd still be confident it wasn't being driven by a beta. The cowardly bastards from whom he was protecting his land weren't bold enough to make themselves known. They preferred to hide in the shadows, believing they were protected by their high-tech gear and chemicals and network of communication devices.
Of course, that also meant that strangers could be crouching in the forest or up on the ridge, watching him even now.
That didn't make Gray afraid of them, however. Beta scientists might have figured out how to evade his sense of smell, but that was just one tool in an alpha's arsenal. All that ridiculous gear might enable a beta to sneak onto Gray's land undetected, but that didn't mean they would stay hidden for long.
Eventually, the beta would make a mistake—step on a twig, brush against a bough, even exhale too hard—and Gray would hear him. It would be a cold day in hell before any beta stood a chance against him on his own property.
But the same wasn't true for Olivia.
Gray's gut constricted at the thought. Yes, she'd managed to hide out on his property, just over a damned half-mile from his front door, for three whole days.
But she was different, and not only because she'd had a great deal of practice. He knew that as a wildli
fe photographer, Olivia would have to be both stealthy and exceptionally well trained not to frighten animals away. Gray ought to know—it had taken him years to develop the stealth to move among the creatures on his own land undetected. But her talents ran deeper than that.
He’d never met a beta who could have accomplished what she had. After all, those highly trained soldiers who'd had the gall to invade property in the lowlands had all been picked off one by one.
All that fancy government equipment might have been instrumental in sneaking her onto Gray's land, but it was her own skills that had kept her hidden for days.
Of course, there was also the fact that she wasn't actually a beta, Gray reminded himself. Now that her true omega nature had been awakened, he could only imagine what other talents would reveal themselves.
He tried not to let his imagination run wild as he waited for the sputtering truck to pull up to the house.
No alpha would dare come on to another's property without a standing invitation, and as leader, Gray had issued plenty of them. Fortunately, most alphas preferred to do their socializing down at the roadhouse. But the owner of the truck was an exception.
Ryder Krow was a newcomer to the uplands, arriving only seven or eight months ago. Though he was a late bloomer as far as alphas were concerned, coming into his true nature when he was at the almost-unheard-of age of twenty, he was still basically a pup.
The poor kid hadn't even known better than to buy the pile of scrap metal he was currently driving up to Gray's door from the oldest alpha in the uplands. Gray could barely believe the decrepit thing still ran.
But youth and inexperience didn't mean the kid was the pain in the ass most of the brothers expected him to be. In the short time he'd lived here, Ryder had proven to be whip-smart and eager to learn.
He'd stayed in the background when he visited the roadhouse the first few times, keeping to himself and observing the others. That alone made him smarter than most of the young bucks, in Gray's view. But when Ryder approached him one evening to ask his advice on how to orient the house he was building on his land, he proved to be thoughtful and ambitious, and Gray surprised himself by offering to help pour the foundation.
Gray: The Boundarylands Omegaverse: M/F Alpha Omega Romance Page 7
