He wasn't the only alpha brother to pitch in as Ryder built the simple one-room structure that would see him through the winter. Still, he was the one whose counsel Ryder consistently sought. In return, Gray gradually recognized the makings of a future leader.
All Ryder needed to solidly establish himself in the community was someone to take him under his wing and teach him the ropes. It was no surprise to anyone that person turned out to be Gray.
No matter how much he personally liked the pup, however, Gray could have done without a visit tonight. From his scent alone, when he got out of the truck, Gray could already tell that the kid was full of questions for which Gray wasn't in the mood. Not to mention the fact that he couldn't guarantee Ryder's safety on his property in light of recent events.
"Hey, Gray," Ryder called. "We all thought we'd see you down at the bar tonight."
"Not tonight," Gray answered flatly. "Other things to do."
The pup's nostrils flared as he took in a deep breath. Gray knew Ryder had to have caught Olivia's scent miles ago, but he had the brains not to ask about her right out of the gate.
Yep, that was one smart kid.
However, he was also a brand new alpha in close proximity to an unclaimed omega. The poor guy's blood had to be boiling in his veins right now, but he was doing a decent job of keeping his cool.
"Don't mean to bother you, and I won't stay long," Ryder said, shifting back and forth on his feet. "But I ran into Mitch at the bar, and he said he was concerned about some strange sounds coming from your land earlier. He asked if I would swing by and make sure everything was okay."
Gray suppressed an eye roll. He just bet his neighbor Mitch was concerned. With all the moaning and howling that he and Olivia had done earlier, Gray wouldn't be surprised if everyone this side of the midlands had heard her.
Most of them would have the courtesy to keep their mouths shut. Not Mitch, though.
That wormy bastard still had a bone to pick with Gray over his friend Sloan's death. He probably thought it was funny to send the pup off to Gray's house to embarrass him the day after an omega had shown up. But that wasn't Ryder's fault.
"You're a smart kid," Gray said mildly. "You've probably already sensed what those sounds were about."
Ryder didn't answer directly, blushing and toeing the ground with his boot. "Yeah, I get it. But how—"
He was cut off by the sound of the front door being unlocked from the inside. Both alphas' heads snapped around to stare as the door opened.
What the hell? How had Olivia managed to slip out of bed and walk through Gray's house without him hearing? The woman wasn't just talented when it came to sneaking around, she was a fucking genius at it.
A low rumble filled the air, and Gray didn't have to look at Ryder to know he was the source. He glanced over and found the kid gaping at the omega emerging from the house with his jaw hanging open and his eyes glazed over.
Gray couldn't blame the kid—he couldn't fight his own nature, after all—but his possessive instinct flared into an inferno at the sight of her. The thin blanket Olivia was draped in had slipped down her shoulders, and her dark waves fell across her face. But her scent…that unmistakable, undeniable scent wrapped around him like a lasso, reeling him in.
Every cell in his body longed to bend her over the porch rail and let that blanket slide to the ground. He'd part her legs with his hand and let her slick course down over his fingers.
Gray tore his eyes away before things got out of hand. He had no idea how an alpha as inexperienced as Ryder was managing to hold back. It must have been taking every ounce of discipline that pup could scrape up.
"There you are," Olivia murmured, oblivious to the drama playing out in front of her. "I was scared when I woke up, and you weren't there. That bedroom is so warm. I kicked off the covers, but I was still so hot. Oh! I didn't know you had company."
Of course, she was hot, Gray thought. Right on schedule, her heat was taking over her body, sending all her systems into overdrive. The heat she was feeling didn't have anything to do with the temperature of the room. It was coming from inside her.
And there was only one way to satisfy it.
The pup let out a choked gasp as the scent of Olivia's primal scent grew stronger and stronger. His face had gone white with the effort of holding himself back, and though Gray knew he meant no harm, that wouldn't protect Ryder if his own protective instincts got the best of him. He needed to kid the hell out of here before either of them did something they'd regret.
"Ryder," Gray muttered, but the kid didn't answer. "Ryder."
The pup tore his eyes off Olivia long enough to notice Gray trying to get his attention. "Y-Yeah?"
"It's time for you to leave."
"Of course." Ryder swallowed hard and started backing away toward his truck, unable to stop looking at the ripe and ready omega standing just a few feet away. "Right. Good idea."
"And Ryder," Gray said through gritted teeth, wishing he'd move a little fucking faster. "You don't need to tell Mitch or anybody else what you saw here tonight."
"No way," the kid said as he clambered into his truck with something like relief. "If this ain't my business, then I figure it's no one else's either."
Gray let out the breath he'd been holding as the old engine fired up, and the truck shot back down the road as fast as such an old hunk of junk could move, quickly disappearing between the trees.
Only then did he turn back to Olivia.
She was leaning against one of the wooden porch posts. The blanket had shifted even lower, exposing a sliver of nipple.
Now it was Gray's turn to let out a growl of pure desire.
He sure as hell hoped no one else got curious about the noises coming from his property in the next four days. Because if anyone interrupted what was about to happen, Gray would kill them with his bare hands.
Chapter Twelve
Olivia couldn't get comfortable.
It was unbearably hot in the bed, even though she'd tossed off the buttery soft blankets and lay naked in the moonlight coming through the bedroom window. The breeze did nothing to cool the inferno that seemed to be coming from inside her body. Every nerve ending was exquisitely sensitive to the point of agonizing distraction.
Not only was every sensation, from the tight-woven cotton of the sheets to the calling of a night bird, magnified until it felt like an assault, but her entire body including her brain was…tingling. Olivia couldn't come up with another word for this strange feeling that had come over her.
It was so distracting that she hadn't even realized what she was doing when she reached across the bed for the alpha. His absence shocked her into awareness, and only then did she realize she had no idea what she would have expected him to do.
The huge alpha had done nothing to comfort her since she'd met him, and she'd be a fool to expect him to ease her suffering now.
Nonetheless, he was the only thing her body craved—him and only him. She was hungry, she realized. Not for food, but for touch. She needed to be sated—filled. That was the only thing that would satisfy her.
Olivia barely registered the sound of voices outside in the drive. They certainly didn't stop her from rising out of bed and gliding to the door. With the blanket still wrapped around her despite the feverish heat, her temperature only increased some more.
What she needed was fresh air.
When she reached the porch, she saw a battered old truck and not one alpha, but two. One was young and handsome, but Olivia barely glanced at him as she held onto the porch post for support. Somewhere deep in her brain, a warning sounded, reminding Olivia she was disheveled and nearly naked and in no condition to meet strangers, but she ignored it, unable to force herself to care.
She wasn't here for him.
She wanted the other one—the one with experienced hands and a body that knew how to please hers—her alpha.
Despite the fact that she couldn't make out his features in the dark, she knew him from
his profile, his stance. She'd learned him, Olivia realized, as her body swooned with longing. It was almost as if her DNA was calling out to his.
The awareness inside her sharpened to an exquisite torment. She swore she could feel every molecule of the cool air in the wind brushing over her skin, hear the rustle of every leaf for a hundred miles.
Then, before she realized it, the visitor was gone, and she was alone with her alpha.
Olivia didn't want to want him this badly. The rational part of her mind recoiled from what was happening, the unstoppable force of her new omega nature that was even now picking up speed and strength.
It felt as though her old identity would soon vanish completely, rendering her nothing but a panting slut begging for her alpha master's cock. The things she valued, her goals, dreams, and accomplishments—gone. The insecurities and struggles and inconveniences of daily life suddenly meaningless. Everything she liked about herself, everything she hated, it was all drifting away, replaced with a hollow chasm of need.
"Something's wrong," she mumbled, more to herself than to him.
The alpha narrowed his eyes and began slowly moving toward her, slipping out of the moonlight into the shadows.
No, not moving—stalking.
Olivia recognized that gait, just as she recognized the bright sheen in his eyes, even in the dark. She'd seen it many times through the lens of her camera. It reminded her of a lion on the hunt on the Serengeti, a prowling tiger in Bandipur, a hungry pack of wolves in the Alexander Archipelago.
All of them behaved precisely the same way right before they pounced.
Olivia couldn't understand why she wasn't more frightened. She'd photographed the bloody carnage that followed this scenario too often not to know what would happen next.
The big, bad wolf was about to swallow her whole.
Olivia's knees trembled at the realization, but not from terror.
"Nothing's wrong," the alpha muttered quietly, the odd rumble in his voice strumming her nerve endings and making her heart beat so much faster. "At least, nothing I can't fix."
Olivia gasped as the heat inside her burst into a raging, blinding bonfire. The floodgates simultaneously opened between her legs, sending a warm rush of liquid heat coursing down her thighs.
The alpha's rumble grew louder as he closed the distance between them, wrapping one hand around the nape of her neck. He drew her to him roughly and captured her mouth.
This kiss was new. It was every bit as hungry and savage as their first, down by the spring, but something had changed between them, something that Olivia knew she could never explain if she lived a thousand years.
Him. Yes. More.
Her thoughts were reduced to staccato demands, and all she knew was that she was exactly right where she was meant to be, with exactly who she was meant to be with.
Olivia's fears and doubts dissipated like smoke on the breeze to be carried into the forest and mountains around them, welcomed by the chorus of insects and creatures hidden out of sight.
She flung her arms around his neck, and the blanket fell to the ground, forgotten. She lost herself in his body's heat, her own flowing out like a receding wave, finally finding balance. This—the touch their bodies yearned for—was all she would ever need.
Olivia kissed him back, exploring the contours of his lips with her tongue, drinking in the magnificent, masculine taste of him. The longer it went on, the more her body seemed to come alive with new energy, blasting away her fatigue and sharpening her thoughts.
Suddenly, the haze was gone; she found her balance. She felt as strong and ready and sure as she had felt confused and desperate only moments before.
The alpha growled his approval and picked her up in his arms, already heading back inside. He kicked the door shut behind him, not even bothering to carry her back to his bed.
Instead, he lowered her down onto the woolen rug in front of the glowing orange embers of the fire. He straddled her and swept his hands up her body while Olivia clawed at his shirt, too clumsy with need to unfasten the buttons.
She seized the fabric in both fists and ripped.
The alpha laughed. "You're a little hellcat, aren't you?"
Olivia had no answer. Her ability to speak seemed to have been abandoned outside, along with any desire for conversation. All that mattered was the need screaming through her and the yawning emptiness inside her—a void that only he could fill.
She clawed at his pants, and he tore them off to reveal his cock silhouetted in the dying fire's glow—huge, impossibly hard, gorgeous.
Olivia spread her legs as wide as she could, urging him to take her, to pound inside her, and claim her. But the alpha held himself back, gazing down at her body while he towered over her, his hand shoving down his cock as though he was trying to tame it.
"No," he said hoarsely. "You tore yourself up pretty good fighting me this morning. We have to let you heal."
Instead, he delicately swept a single fingertip over her folds, fluttering them like the petals of a rose.
Olivia cried out in equal measures of pleasure and anguish. The need inside her was shocking, burning her from the inside out, and if she didn't get him inside her soon, she was going to die.
She wrapped her hands around his muscular thighs and tried to pull him closer, but she might as well have tried to move the mountain she could see from his porch. He laughed at her again, but his voice was strained. Olivia cried out in frustration, tears gathering in her eyes.
It was her own damn fault. She'd known better than to look to him for comfort—he didn't have any intention of giving her what she needed. This was some cruel payback scheme, torturing her until she went mad from unfulfilled desire.
But then the alpha brushed away her tears gently with the pad of his thumb. "Don't worry, hellcat," he whispered, "I know so many other ways to give you what you need."
Olivia didn't dare trust him.
But her body did. And, oh God, did he make good on his promise.
He knelt between her legs, and his mouth took over where his fingertip had caressed her, hot lips and tongue somehow delving and caressing and teasing everywhere at once. He was undeterred by the slick that gushed from her in embarrassing torrents—in fact, he growled and lapped at it between explorations.
"Fuck," he growled. "You taste so damn good. Good enough to make me realize what I've been missing all this time."
Then he returned to what he'd been doing, working his way slowly, excruciatingly up until he finally found her clit.
Instantly, the world exploded around Olivia, every sense convulsing in almost unbearable waves of pleasure. While she was still coming, he teased the folds of her labia lightly, kicking off the second orgasm before the first was even over.
Olivia lost all track of time, only dimly aware of what he was doing to her, knowing only that she couldn't get enough. She writhed and bucked, abandoning herself to the abyss of pleasure-filled madness.
She had no idea how many times she had come when the alpha eventually shifted so that he could watch her. He kept using his fingers to pleasure her, stroking and flicking and caressing, landing like a butterfly on her clit before teasing the edges of her opening.
It still wasn't enough. As each orgasm subsided, Olivia begged for his cock with her body, pleading with him to enter her. And every time, he refused.
But his determination and enthusiasm never flagged.
The hours turned into days, and the alpha showed Olivia pleasure like she'd never imagined, letting her loose to explore his own body.
She played with his hard shaft, stroking it, tasting it, wrapped her lips around the thick head greedily. She could not get enough of it, and when he came, she drank in as much as she could and rubbed the rest over her skin that was still feverish for him.
Each time an orgasm rocked his body was also torture, though. The unsated need inside her kept pulsating like an exploding star, making her gnash her teeth with frustration. Robbed of language to tell
him what she needed, Olivia moaned and cried out and howled, and the alpha answered by taking her all the way to the gates of heaven.
But never quite through them.
Not until, a few days in, he finally slipped the tip of his finger just inside her opening while she was coming down from yet another shattering orgasm. Olivia's body bucked. A font of fresh energy burst open within her at this slight penetration. She threw her head back, already screaming for more.
"Okay, hellcat," the alpha purred, his lips inches from her ear. "I think you're finally healed enough to take me. There's one condition, though. You have to promise me not to fight my knot this time."
Olivia nodded impatiently. How could he expect an answer from her when she hadn't been able to form anything but the most primitive of sounds for days?
But the alpha seemed satisfied with her non-verbal response. He positioned himself between her legs and guided his cock to her opening, teasing it with the slightest pressure.
"Careful," he warned her—but Olivia had no interest in going slow.
She howled and lifted her hips, forcing him inside her. The alpha let out an answering roar and gripped her hips, unable to hold himself back.
In one savage thrust, he buried himself to the hilt. There was a flash of pain, but Olivia felt it instantly give way to the release she'd craved, her entire body turning to pleasure and sensation and joy.
When finally the consuming waves began to recede, Olivia knew she'd just experienced everything that she'd ever wanted or would ever want again. Nothing else in the world would ever come close to this kind of perfection.
The alpha felt it too. Olivia could feel it in the energy radiating out from his muscles, the heat of his breath, the taste of his kiss.
This time had been different. Her alpha hadn't been trying to force some kind of reaction from her. Instead, he'd given up control. Given in to the same desperation that had been coursing through Olivia for days on end—the need to own and be owned, to be united forever on a primal level to the one person meant to be hers.
Gray: The Boundarylands Omegaverse: M/F Alpha Omega Romance Page 8
