Not unguarded, the emotional part of her protested. Vonn was there.
And he was here now, looking down at her with an unreadable expression, wearing a blue cotton shirt softened by many washings. A shirt that intensified the color of his eyes, making them look like sparkling sapphires in the golden light spilling in from the cabin's main room.
Stacy had been dreaming about him. In the dream, she was trying to fit that giant cock inside her, begging for it, clamoring for him to take her. She had no sense of how long she'd been sleeping, another unforgivable lapse, but judging by the darkness outside, it had been at least several hours.
"What's wrong?" Stacy scrambled out of the bed and onto her feet. Even though she hoped Vonn had missed her blush, she knew he could sense her embarrassment anyway. It wasn't until she looked down that she realized that she was still buck naked.
She grabbed the blanket from the bed, a lightweight coverlet stitched from soft, pale furs, and awkwardly wrapped it around her body. Far from ideal, since it would only impede her if she had to defend herself, but she wasn't about to deal with Vonn while her tender, sensitive bits were on full display.
"Everything's fine." Vonn let his gaze travel down her body, making Stacy wonder if he could see through the blanket. "We're going hunting."
"We are? …why the hell are we doing that?"
To her surprise, Vonn laughed—and Stacy bristled, a response ingrained over years of recruits who thought having a hundred-twenty-pound female trainer was hilarious.
But Vonn's laugh wasn't mocking. His amusement seemed genuine and warm…as if they were in on the joke together.
"I don't know about you, but I like to eat."
"All right," Stacy said, though right now, even the tough pepper steak served at the mess hall on base sounded like a better bet. At least it was a sure thing—every other Tuesday, like clockwork. "But why now, in the middle of the night?"
"It's not the middle of the night. It's almost four o'clock in the morning."
"Seriously?"
Vonn shrugged. "It's the best time to hunt."
Plenty of the officers and a good number of the recruits at Fort Blanchard had hunting experience, but Stacy wasn't one of them. She'd been raised in the city after her father had left the service. Hell, before this mission, the closest she ever got to spending time in nature was an overnight school trip to the aquarium.
But for some reason, Stacy didn't want Vonn to know what a greenhorn she was. "Why do I need to come with you?"
"Because if you're going to live here in the Boundarylands, you need to learn how to survive."
There was nothing about that sentence that Stacy liked, but before she could protest, Vonn stopped her with a question. "Any of your training involve archery?"
Was he kidding?
"Sure," she answered sarcastically. "That came right after we learned how to lay siege to a castle with a catapult."
"You think bowhunting is too primitive?" Vonn grinned.
"Your words, not mine," she said. "Now, if you had a rifle..."
Vonn shook his head derisively. "Guns are a coward's weapon."
"How can you say that? They're basically the same thing. One's just more automated than the other."
A calculated grin lit up his face. "Well, if they're so similar, then you shouldn't have any trouble taking down more game than me."
A chance to one-up Vonn in competition? Now, there was something Stacy liked the sound of—even if she suspected he was playing her. But the competitive spark in her just couldn't refuse.
"Fine. Just give me a minute to get dressed."
Stacy waited, the blanket pulled tightly around her, as Vonn crossed his arms and leaned against the wall.
Uh uh, no way.
Her earlier lapse in both judgment and discipline, one that definitely wasn't happening again, didn't give him the right to expect her to be okay with casual nakedness. "I meant, give me a minute alone."
Vonn looked genuinely puzzled. "Why?"
"Because I asked nicely."
He gave her an exaggerated shrug. "I guess if it's that important to you, I can turn around."
Oh, hell no. Stacy knew what that meant—'if it's that important to you' was code for 'let's humor the little lady before she gets hysterical.' Any hesitation she'd had about the outing vanished as she vowed to win, whatever it took.
Once she was dressed, they set off into the woods. Under the dense, leafy canopy, the darkness was almost complete, something that didn't usually bother Stacy.
But despite having taken part in countless nighttime drills, this was different enough to put Stacy on edge. She was no longer in the beta world, on the rolling farmland they used for field training ops.
As she fought to find her footing on the spongy soil and navigate the dense undergrowth with only the small headlamp Vonn had dug out of a drawer, she felt like a nervous new recruit.
Vonn kept her in his sights. Sometimes he went ahead, holding back branches for her to walk under or pointing out protruding roots or poison oak, answering Stacy's unspoken question about whether he could see in the dark. At other times he let her go ahead, watching for threats that Stacy could only imagine—Bears? Wolves? Giant anacondas?
After her second stumble, Vonn wordlessly took her hand. She gratefully held on tight and let him lead. After all, that wasn't what they were competing over.
When Stacy judged they'd been walking for half an hour, Vonn stopped and crouched down on the ground. Stacy couldn't see any difference between this spot and any other along the way, but apparently, they had arrived. Vonn handed her the bow.
The first light of dawn was filtering through the trees, and she could just make out the outline of the weapon. It was simpler than the models she'd seen in stores, constructed of sanded wood rather than fiberglass, but it felt good in her hands.
"All right," Vonn whispered. "Show me what you can do."
Stacy notched an arrow into the string, appreciating its fine weight, its wooden nock perfectly spined to the bow, with beautiful black-and-white-patterned natural feather vanes. Beating Vonn with this well-made weapon would be a pleasure.
But as she scanned the forest in front of them, she saw nothing that would serve as a target. "What am I supposed to shoot? There's nothing out there."
Vonn's amusement was her first hint that the match was rigged. "There is—but it won't be for long if you keep making so much noise."
Stacy bit back a retort, certain that she'd whispered more quietly than he had. She looked again, scanning the dark and light spots in the woods. She checked where the sun broke through and where it stayed stubbornly in shadow.
She saw a bird hopping on the forest floor, branches rustling from some creature hidden among the leaves. She wondered if she was supposed to shoot a bird, but an arrow seemed like overkill for a single sparrow.
The only thing Stacy knew was she wasn't about to ask and reveal her ignorance. Instead, she waited for something to move, her muscles tensed for the moment she saw something…but still nothing happened.
Stacy was just about ready to give up, wondering if there had ever been anything out there at all or if this was some kind of dumb snipe hunt.
But just before she turned around and handed him the bow, Vonn whispered, "Be patient. It's not that there's nothing to see; it's that you haven't learned how to see it yet."
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" she asked, irritated.
Instead of answering, Vonn moved silently behind her, positioning himself so that her buttocks pressed against his thighs. She tried not to think about his cock at the small of her back, even as she felt it harden. For his part, Vonn either didn't notice or didn't care, placing one hand at her waist and guiding her hand with the other, adjusting the position of the bow.
"Everything out here survives by becoming a part of the environment," he whispered against her ear, hatching a field of goosebumps along her skin. "They don't just blend in with the background; they
are the background. So if you look for what's out of place, you're sure to miss them."
Stacy tried to ignore the melting feeling caused by his warm breath on her cheek, wondering how he'd gotten the advantage. "Did you really wake me up at the crack of dawn and march me through the forest just to remind me how much better your senses are than mine?"
She could feel Vonn smile, his face lightly touching hers, his body surrounding hers. "This isn't about your senses. It doesn't matter whether you're an alpha or beta or omega. It's all about letting go."
Stacy tried to stifle her frustration. He sounded like one of those nature calendars with sayings printed in fancy fonts below pictures of frogs. "So, what, I'm just supposed to take a guess and shoot?"
"That's not what I mean at all. You need to let go of how you've been taught to see."
This was getting ridiculous. "No one is 'taught' how to see. You either see, or you don't."
"You're wrong," he whispered without a trace of smugness. "Your eyes look, but your mind decides what to see."
"Okay, thanks, Mr. Fortune Cookie."
"You hunt like someone who's only practiced on targets," Vonn continued, ignoring the comment. "It's hard to miss a bullseye propped up on a haybale in a field. But that's not how things are in the Boundarylands."
Stacy should have known he'd see right through her, but she couldn't seem to muster any real irritation. Maybe it was the comforting weight of his hand on hers, gently guiding the bow. Even his hand at her waist felt protective rather than suggestive. Either she was the most gullible sucker in the territory, or Vonn genuinely wanted to see her get this right.
"But if what I'm looking for doesn't stand out, how do I find it?"
"Let's say you're hunting for deer. You probably think to look for a patch of brown hide or its ears or antlers sticking up."
"Mmm." That was precisely what she'd been searching for, actually.
"But if those details are your only focus, you'll get tripped up by anything that resembles those things—piles of decaying leaves, bare branches, even shadows. Instead, look for the animal's entire presence."
"I don't know what you're talking about," Stacy said crossly, mainly because his cock seemed to have a mind of its own and was pressing gently against her ass, distracting her. Definitely not fair.
"Let go of expectations." His whisper changed to a low rumble, his stubble igniting little fires of sensation.
Stacy ought to push him away so she could focus, but instead, she inclined her head slightly to give him access to her neck.
"Don't look for what you're hoping to find," he said, obligingly brushing his lips against that sensitive spot. "Accept what's there instead."
Total and utter bullshit, in other words.
A young buck suddenly came into her view. It was half-hidden in the trees, camouflaged by the patterned bark of a huge redwood trunk, only the quivering tips of its ears and the stubs of its horns visible. Stacy wasn't sure why she'd been able to make it out when before her eyes had passed right over it. Maybe it had taken a step and disturbed the foliage. Maybe the sun had shifted, landing on the pale brown fur of its throat.
Or maybe she'd allowed herself to relax and accept what was in front of her…just like Vonn had said.
"That's right," Vonn murmured. Damn him and his superpowers for being able to read her mind like that.
And maybe he'd read that too because he silently released her and moved back, giving her the space to take her shot unhindered.
Stacy wasn't about to miss her chance. She summoned all of her training and concentration, stretched the bowstring back to her anchor point near her face, sighted down the arrow to the patch of brown…and released.
Chapter Fifteen
The woman wasn't used to losing. Especially not to a creature that, in Vonn's estimation, was twice as dumb as a housecat—though a lot tastier.
Never mind that, before today, she'd never picked up a bow. From Stacy's body language as she stalked through the woods back toward the cabin, it was obvious that she considered missing the buck by a matter of inches a profound failure.
"You know, if you hadn't tensed up at the last second, you would have made the shot," Vonn told her.
All that got him was a dirty look tossed over her shoulder. If anyone else had looked at him like that, they would have paid for it with a mouthful of knuckles.
But somehow, when Stacy shot him her fiercest glare, all Vonn wanted to do was chuckle. He didn't, though, remembering something his dad used to say about his mom—though only to his friends, and never when she was in earshot: "Happy wife, happy life."
And his parents had been very happy together, though from what Vonn could see, his mom did just as much overlooking of flaws as his dad.
But apparently, he wasn't quite as wise as his father because he couldn't resist one last jab.
"Don't feel bad," he tried again. "Rabbit stew is every bit as good as venison."
This time Stacy stopped in her tracks so she could give him the full effect of her scowl. "Don't patronize me."
"I'm just saying, I've got a nice one in the smokehouse. We can throw it in a pot with some parsnips and carrots and let it simmer all day."
"If I'd had a rifle, I would have hit the damn deer," Stacy insisted. "Who the hell hunts with a bow and arrow anyway? It's so…crude."
Vonn was more amused than put off by her defensiveness, but he wasn't about to let that show. "People who dislike guns, that's who."
Basically, the entire Boundarylands.
Stacy crossed her arms and jutted out her chin. Clearly, she wasn't about to let this drop. "Why don't you like guns? It's not like you've got anything against violence."
Vonn let that comment pass. He was all for indulging her taste in foreplay, but that was completely different from encouraging a petulant spat.
"No alpha likes guns. They're a beta thing, a crutch to make up for their lack of physical power." Before she could object, he added, "I mean, look at you. You fight with your body, with strategy. That gives you an advantage over every son of a bitch who thinks he can take you down."
"Which wouldn't be much good to me if one of them shot me."
Vonn stiffened at the thought. "No. I'd rip the head off any bastard that tried before he'd even managed to get you in his sights."
Stacy stared at him, her face unreadable but her scent clearly reacting to his protective instincts. After a long moment, she silently turned and started trudging through the woods again.
The truth was that Vonn didn't really have a problem with betas' love of firearms. After all, they had to hunt too, and those who lived on the edges of their society needed to protect themselves against the wilderness outside their doors—a wildness they were not equipped to face unarmed.
The problem was that most were too dumb to leave it at that. Put a gun in a beta's hand, and he fell into some John Wayne fantasy in which he wasn't content with his natural place in the world but believed himself superior to every other living creature.
The soldiers who'd come to the Boundarylands might have been pretending to serve their constitution, but every damn one of them saw their weapons as free passes to do whatever the hell they wanted, even if it meant breaking all manner of laws—beta law, their treaties with the alphas, even the laws of nature.
But that didn't describe Stacy. Vonn had no doubt she was more than competent with a gun, but he doubted she missed having one.
"So you don't like bow and arrows," he said lightly. "That's fine. Next time, I'll teach you how to hunt with your bare hands."
"You don't have to teach me what I already know," Stacy retorted without slowing her pace. "Or have you already forgotten where underestimating me got you?"
Was it Vonn's imagination, or was there a faint tinge of humor in her voice? It wouldn't surprise him if giving him shit served as an apology. Which was fine with him—alphas generally followed the same playbook.
"No, I remember," he said. "It landed me on my
ass. Twice. But I doubt your technique would work on, say, a charging wild boar."
"You're probably right, but only because that feral pig has a higher IQ than you."
Vonn laughed as he watched some of the tension drain out of Stacy's shoulders. He was glad she was ready to stop beating herself up over the missed shot. Even more pleased that she'd found enough ease with him to relax.
He knew she'd come here pumped full of the government's lies, but calling him dumb pretty much proved she'd given that one up. A couple days ago, he would have torn the limbs off of anyone—especially a beta—who dared talk that kind of shit to him. Now it felt like…
Foreplay, if his cock stirring to life had anything to say about it. But it wasn't just that. Underneath her faint omega nature, her fierce pride and unstinting determination, there was a fresh, almost playful note in her scent.
She was warming to him, Vonn realized. And not just because she was hot for him. She might not even realize it, but she had come to view him as a fellow human, not the threatening, alien beast she'd come here expecting. One who deserved more than the cold silences and unapologetic insults she'd hurled earlier. Who deserved to be treated as an equal.
Vonn decided to press his luck and see if he could keep her talking.
"You might be right about the pigs," he said. "There's a big old boar been digging up my garden for a while now, keeps getting the better of me. But there's plenty I don't understand about humans, too. Like why a woman like you would ever want to join the beta army."
Stacy groaned. "Not you too."
"Not me what?"
They had come to the swell of the last hill before the cabin, and Stacy stopped to take in the view of the valley, his cabin tucked into the rock face on the other side of the dense green bottomland. Vonn offered her his canteen, and she took a long drink before wiping the mouth on her shirt and handing it back.
"Do you have any idea how many times I've been asked that question?" she sighed. "'But Stacy, you don't have to do this.' 'They already have plenty of male recruits.' And then there's my favorite— 'Do you know how hard it's going to be to find someone to marry you once you get out?'"
Vonn: The Boundarylands Omegaverse: M/F Alpha Omega Romance Page 12
