"Better?" It took a second for Stacy to realize he was talking about the light. "Then get up on the foot of the bed."
Oh, hell no. She shook her head and crouched even lower, giving herself the most possible leverage for what was sure to be a futile strike.
Vonn wasn't amused. "For fuck's sake," he muttered. "I thought you omegas were supposed to be submissive."
"I'm not an omega," Stacy shot back.
And she wasn't, for now, but how long that would be true seemed more dubious than ever. At least the injection would prevent her nature from taking over no matter what transpired now. It had been in the fine print, and Stacy had felt nauseous even reading it: … unimpacted by vigorous exercise, introduction of toxins, stress induced by starvation or dehydration, known viruses, and sexual intercourse.
But what about when the current dose ran out? In two days, unless she gave herself another injection, Stacy would be completely vulnerable.
And alphas could have sex for days. That, too, was in the dossier.
"The hell you're not," Vonn said in a tone that was much too confident—as confident as when he'd told the other alpha, Gray, that she was a soldier. Stacy didn't know how he knew these things. She also didn't doubt that he did.
On the other side of the massive mattress, Vonn crouched down and started rummaging for something under the bed. "Even if I didn't recognize the scent, which I do, I'd still know your true nature. See, you're not the first woman your government has sent our way, not even close. And so far, every last one ended up being an omega."
Could that be true? Stacy didn't want to believe it, but alphas were incapable of lying. Or if not incapable, then possessed a moral code that was more strict than any beta's. It was a possibility that Stacy would have dismissed out of hand even an hour ago. But right now, she felt as though she had lost her moorings, like she couldn't trust her own senses.
But she could trust the facts. "That's wishful thinking, just like your friend Gray said. I've been here for days. I've touched countless alphas—"
"Countless?" Vonn cut her off harshly, his features twisting into a savage expression. Not even when he'd been spitting blood had he looked this angry. "Who exactly did you touch?"
"I don't know. I didn't write down their names," she stammered before retaking command of her voice. "The alphas who came to trade in the camp."
Her response only seemed to anger him further, his hands clenching into fists.
"You, for one," Stacy hurriedly pointed out, anxious to change the subject. "You had your hands on me earlier, and nothing happened."
Vonn stared at her for a moment longer before slowly relaxing, some of the fury draining from his expression. "About that."
He picked something up off the bed, a length of thick hemp rope that she hadn't noticed him placing there. A strange thing to keep under a bed and Stacy's blood chilled at the thought of what he planned to do with it.
"That's a new trick. You're going to tell me how you did it."
Stacy tensed as Vonn came around the bed toward her with the rope in his hand. "You're an idiot if you think that strangling me is a good way to get me to talk."
Vonn gave a bitter laugh, his eyes mocking. "If I wanted to crush your windpipe, all I'd need is this." He held up the thumb and forefinger of his free hand in a semicircle that would easily fit around her neck. "And I wouldn't even break a sweat."
Stacy forced down the knot of fear in her throat. "Then what's the rope for?"
"To tie you to my bed."
Hearing him say it out loud unleashed the panic Stacy had been trying so hard to push down. She tried to ready herself for a fight, but her rhythm was off. Besides, there was no room to move. Her back was literally already against the wall; she was cornered with no hope of getting past him.
Stacy's method of fighting was made for bigger, stronger opponents, but it depended on using their weight and speed against them. She needed them to come at her with speed in order to throw them off balance. They needed to expend their energy while she conserved hers and let gravity do the work.
Vonn's slow, methodic approach left her defenseless.
"I won't let you." It was all Stacy could think of to say, but she sounded more like a petulant child than a seasoned fighter.
"Let me?" She could hear the amusement in his tone. He was too close for her to do anything to him now; she could feel his breath against her shoulder. She stared straight ahead at the threads that secured one of the buttons of his shirt as his torso pressed against her and tried not to think about what was about to happen.
"You're the one that wanted to play captor and captive," he said in a dangerously soft voice. "You're the one who was begging for me to treat you as a prisoner."
"I didn't beg you for anything," Stacy spat. She couldn't control her fury. Uncontrolled anger was dangerous—how many times had she said that to recruits? "If I'm not a prisoner, then let me go."
Vonn cupped her chin, his touch like the kiss of a lighter's flame on a careless hand, shocking and electric. "Let you go where? An omega's place is at her alpha's side."
"I am not an omega." Stacy shouted the words, not caring if he wrapped the rope around her neck and did her in right then. Better to die a dignified beta than live as a cowering omega.
But his reaction, after a quick flash of anger, was…disappointment. Or at least that's what it looked like, though in seconds, both emotions gave way to an inscrutable expression.
"Then I suppose I've got no choice. You get your wish, Sergeant Clarke." He grabbed both her wrists roughly in one big hand and started wrapping the rope around them. "You're my prisoner."
He'd said her name. That was Stacy's first reaction as the rope tightened around her hands, and he began tying a constrictor knot, one that was next to impossible to untie once tightened.
She didn't fight or struggle as he finished tying her, knowing that not only would it be a futile waste of energy, it could easily provoke him to add more restraints.
Finally, her training kicked in again. The disciplined thing to do was to accept this new development and wait. Wait for a moment when the conditions shifted back in her favor, when she had a chance to regain the upper hand. The fact that such a moment seemed so unlikely as to be impossible didn't matter. She would keep fighting until…until she couldn't.
Vonn led her by the rope as if she was a calf headed for slaughter, then ran it through the footboard in a series of half hitches before tying it to the post out of her reach. Then he left the room.
Immediately, Stacy tested the knots—too tight for any maneuvering, as she expected. There was just enough slack in the rope to move a few feet in either direction of the footboard, giving her the choice of curling up on the corner of the mattress or sitting on the floor directly below. Or standing up all night, though as the adrenaline drained from her system, it left exhaustion in its wake.
Stacy sank down until she was sitting cross-legged on the wood floor with her bound arms suspended above her head. It wasn't the most comfortable position, but it beat lying on an alpha's bed.
It would be impossible to stay in this position all night, the blood draining from her hands, her arms aching from the position. For now, Stacy breathed through the pain.
She had known the alpha would return, but he was back in mere moments, carrying her pack by the leather loop. Stacy hid her relief as he dropped it on the floor, just out of her reach.
Inside that pack were solutions to her problems, though some, like the cyanide tablet, were more final than others.
Vonn stood looking down at her, and Stacy's mind raced through all kinds of terrible scenarios until he finally sighed and crouched down next to the pack. He unzipped and upended it, scattering the contents on the floor.
Stacy tried to keep up her feigned indifference as he picked up each item and examining it with more interest than seemed warranted. Had he really never seen a tampon before? And was there something especially interesting about her Nalgene wate
r bottle that she hadn't noticed?
Slowly, it dawned on Stacy that what Vonn was actually studying was her. Of course. For a primitive brute, he had managed to outwit her once again. He had known when she was lying. He could read her emotional state through her scent, and now he was reading her like an open book, cataloging her every reaction as he went through her things. In moments he'd reach the lip balm that served as camouflage for the cyanide tablet secreted inside, and then—
But no. Assuming that the geniuses at the Alpha Control Division were good enough at their jobs to fool an alpha with their little gizmos—the preloaded injections hidden inside pens, the radio transmitter screwed into the bottom of her metal water bottle—all she had to do was…not look.
Stacy let her eyes drift shut and focused on her breathing, doing her best to ignore the faint sounds of his exploration of her things. If he forced her to watch, it was all over. But he either didn't think of that, or chose not to push it for his own reasons, and in a few minutes, she heard him shoveling everything back inside the pack.
She opened her eyes in time to see Vonn slide the bag into the corner, even further out of reach. Then he stood and moved to the other side of the bed and began undressing as if she wasn't even there. She turned her head away just in time for his shirt and his jeans to go sailing through the air, landing in a pile just in front of her. Then he got into bed.
But he didn't reach for her.
Stacy let out the breath she'd been holding, her relief tempered by a strange sense of imbalance. Inside her, there was still a lingering sense of an unmet need that she couldn't put her finger on.
But for now, she was safe.
"If you're smart, you'll climb up here and get some sleep," Vonn said before extinguishing the lamp. Once again, the room was pitch dark.
He was right—the smart thing would be to get as much rest as possible before having to face whatever tomorrow would bring. But there was no way that Stacy was about to willingly crawl into bed next to an alpha.
So she stayed on the floor and, despite knowing there was absolutely no evidence for telekinesis, tried to will her pack closer with her mind.
Chapter Eight
As Vonn lay in the darkness listening to his captive sigh and shift, obviously finding it difficult to sleep with her arms bound above her head, he turned over her name in his mind.
Stacy.
Detached from the longer version, and free from the robotic monotone in which she kept repeating "Sergeant Stacy Clarke," Vonn decided that the name suited her. It wasn't frilly or flowery; a woman who could outmatch an alpha even for a few seconds could never be an Annabelle or a Clarissa.
It could even be a man's name, like Stacy Keach, the actor who'd played Mike Hammer in Vonn's favorite TV show when he was a kid, about a tough private eye who didn't think twice about taking out the worst criminals. Vonn had gotten a kick out that at the time, a guy with a girly name playing a badass like Hammer, and it was kind of the same thing in reverse with the Stacy wiggling around on his bedroom floor. She was a tough girl with a gender-neutral name, a no-nonsense style, a no-makeup jeans-and-T-shirt fighter who nonetheless was all omega underneath.
Yeah, he'd bet the house on it. Vonn's alpha brothers generally didn't pay much attention to the women smugglers who passed through. It took a formidable combination of guts and street smarts to do what they did, and that tended to harden them to the attention of men, at least while they were on the job. Besides, now that the prostitutes were back in business, there wasn't any reason to waste time on pointless pursuits like seducing a disinterested beta.
But his first look at the medical supplies dealer had stirred something in Vonn—okay, had stirred his cock to attention.
She might not realize it, but she was the kind of gorgeous that makeup would almost detract from, with her long, brown hair with glints of red, sculpted cheekbones and a strong jaw, full lips the color of fired clay, and eyes like pools of molten amber.
Where the fuck that poetic thought came from, Vonn had no idea.
There was something about her fierceness that he found sexy. Also, her nose had been broken, more than once from the look of it, and even that was hot.
Hell, her arms had to be aching, and all she had to do was get up on the edge of the mattress to get some relief—but she didn't. Which made him wonder if she secretly enjoyed the sensation. Not the pain, though Vonn didn't judge anyone for their kink, but the battle. Facing off against a worthy foe, the fight making it all the sweeter when…
Fuck, his cock was throbbing now, so hard he could probably use it to pound nails. He'd been with a few prostitutes who liked it rough, and he'd been all too happy to indulge them. Vonn knew his own strength, and despite his easy-going reputation, was always in control of it. He'd never actually harm Stacy, but the thought of winding her up into a savage little tornado had his blood simmering.
Now that he thought about it, her scent had deepened every time she'd challenged him. Almost as if a part of her was trying to provoke more than a fight.
It wasn't conscious, and Vonn figured she would do her best to ignore it, just as she was trying to ignore her omega nature. Whatever the fucking beta government had developed this time, no one was ever going to convince Vonn that an omega's true nature could be restrained for long. It was just too powerful.
Right now, Vonn could feel her frustration advancing and ebbing as she battled with herself. She was easily one of the most disciplined people, man or woman, alpha or beta or omega, that he'd ever encountered. So far, whenever she'd felt anger, fear, or aggression, she mentally forced the emotions down far enough that she could react out of reason instead of instinct.
Vonn generally wasn't a fan of people like that, uptight guys like Gray who you practically had to force to cut loose and have a little fun. But Stacy was different. Stacy was—
He stopped his pointless musing and focused on her movements. She was doing something new, moving so cautiously that Vonn had almost missed it. She must have mistaken his stillness for sleep and decided now was the time to act.
He listened as she carefully slid her feet along the floor in the direction of her pack, twisting her body to its maximum length…and coming up a couple inches short.
Vonn grinned to himself in the dark. Did she really think he would have left her pack within reach? That was the thing about betas; even when the evidence to the contrary was right in front of them, they believed that all alphas were dull-witted brutes. Nothing could change their minds.
Not that Vonn had ever given a damn about changing anyone's mind before. But this was his omega. They owed each other respect.
Well, that would come in time. It was clear Stacy had been trained to hate alphas, not just in the military but while growing up as well.
Before Vonn's own transition, the myth that alphas were soulless killing machines had been repeated so many times by teachers, coaches, scout leaders, and pastors that he'd believed it too.
That kind of propaganda did an excellent job stoking anger, but it also gave betas a dangerous sense of superiority. As long as they believed the lie, they were even more vulnerable.
Take his little warrior. It was almost disappointing how easily he was able to fool her into thinking he was asleep. Once she'd fallen for his steady, even breathing, she was back to being the bold creature who had dared against all odds to fight him.
After giving up on reaching the pack with her feet, she started feeling around under his bed, presumably for some kind of tool to help her gain access to it. He wondered why.
Vonn hadn't found any obvious weapons in it, but he also had given the contents only a cursory look. Given the ingenuity the beta scientists had shown with their hormone and scent blockers, Vonn figured they could conceal all kinds of shit in the military-grade pack.
Too bad she wouldn't find anything under the bed other than a dust bunny or two. Hell, the only reason the rope was there was that Vonn had been using it to single-handedly do a two-
man job, tying one end of a heavy hammered-iron light fixture to a stud while he wired it, and forgotten to put it away. She probably thought he used it to tie women up or something, which amused Vonn plenty.
The longer he went without "waking up", the bolder Stacy became, grunting and thrashing while using both her hands and feet to search the room in every direction. When he eventually got bored with her efforts, Vonn simply turned over in bed.
As he expected, she froze.
For a moment, she didn't even breathe. Vonn had wondered if she might give up at that point, but it turned out that she wasn't the only one who'd underestimated the enemy.
Once she was convinced he was still asleep, she started working at the knots binding her wrists, even though she had to know she didn't stand a chance. Even if by some miracle she managed to free herself, she wouldn't make it to the door before he took her down and…restrained her, maybe showing her another kind of knot that was impossible to escape.
Vonn tried to ignore his aching cock as he filed this new insight away in case it might come in handy later. Stacy was smart and well-trained, but she also had an endless well of determination. Given only impossible odds, she'd still keep fighting until the end, even when it made no sense.
As Vonn lay still in the dark, every action Stacy took became a window into her mind, and he had no intention of wasting any of it. If he could learn what made her tick, it could help him break through the bullshit that had built up around her. Only then would he be able to get the information he needed—what she was doing here and how she was keeping her omega nature under control.
After ten minutes, she moved on from trying to untie the knots to dragging them back and forth along the steel runners of the bed frame, trying to saw her way through. She kept at it far longer than he would have predicted, even when the rope abraded her skin badly enough to draw blood, the scent of it sharp and metallic in the air.
Instantly, Vonn's own nature surged, his instinct for protection overwhelming him. The idea of her injuring herself was too much, and he gritted his teeth against the urge to stop her. He was near his breaking point when she finally gave up.
Vonn: The Boundarylands Omegaverse: M/F Alpha Omega Romance Page 6
