Aric: The Boundarylands

by Callie Rhodes

  "Yeah—omega-level trouble," the dark one agreed, his eyes narrowing in her direction. Jocelyn retreated behind the island, a cold shiver traveling up her spine.

  "I should have known," Samson said, his grin growing wider. "So, this is where you ended up."

  "'Where she ended up'?" Aric echoed. "You know about Jo?"

  "Know about her?" Zeke smirked. "Darcy hasn't stopped pestering me about her for the last damn week. She's been desperate to find out where her little fugitive ran off to."

  "Shit, that's right," Aric said. "She did say something about thinking she was at your house that first night."

  "Wait," Jocelyn said, unable to keep out of the conversation any longer, no matter how intimidating Aric's friends were. "Does Darcy have pink hair?"

  "She does," Zeke said, looking her slowly up and down. "When you didn't show up, she got worried. She's been pulling her hair out trying to figure out what happened to you."

  She was worried. She was pulling out her hair. The alpha's tone made it clear that he didn't share his omega's concerns.

  "Where's Darcy now?" Jocelyn asked.

  "Out in my truck," he said.

  "And I've got Cassidy in mine," Samson added. "There was no way in hell we were going to let either of them come any closer to the shit show we pulled up to."

  Just then, two women pushed past the alphas and into the house. One of them was the nice lady with the pink hair from the bar—Darcy—and the other was a slim redhead.

  "Goddamnit, Darcy," Zeke griped. "I told you to stay in the truck."

  "And I did," she said without a hint of apology in her voice. "Right up until the screaming stopped. I figured that was our cue."

  "Then she saw her old car—" Cassidy chimed in.

  "—and I knew she was here. I had to see if she was okay." Darcy's shoulders sagged with relief as her eyes fell on Jocelyn across the room, standing awkwardly in the kitchen. "Oh, thank God. You're all right."

  Jocelyn took an involuntary step backward. "Why were you so worried about me?"

  She knew she was being rude, but she'd only talked to Darcy for a total of a few minutes, too short to create any lasting bonds.

  Although…a single touch between her and Aric had changed her whole damn life.

  "Because…"

  "Because she thinks you're just like her, and she can save you," Cassidy cut in.

  "What?" Darcy rounded on the other omega. "That's ridiculous."

  Cassidy held her ground, hands on hips. "Oh, come on, Darcy."

  Their staring contest quickly ended when Darcy conceded with a smile. "No, you're totally right. That's it exactly."

  "I have learned a couple of things about omega psychology in my time here," Cassidy said.

  "Wait," Jocelyn broke in. "You're…not an omega?"

  "Nope," Cassidy answered with a shake of her red tresses. "I'm a proud beta."

  Behind her, all the alphas except Samson groaned.

  Cassidy laughed, then lowered her voice as she joined Jocelyn in the kitchen. "I'm not really all that proud, I just like to make them do that. Darcy asked me to come along because she thought you might like seeing another beta face after being surrounded by nothing but alphas and omegas…but I'm guessing that's not really a problem anymore, is it?"

  No, Jocelyn guessed it wasn't. But that didn't mean she wasn't confused. "But Samson made it sound like you were his mate."

  Cassidy's eyes crinkled at the corners. "Yes, I am his mate. I also have a doctorate in omega studies."

  "I didn't even know such a thing existed," Jocelyn admitted. Of course, she'd never paid much attention to the Boundarylands before her surprise visit here.

  "That's because it didn't until I came along," Cassidy said proudly.

  But Darcy was done with chit chat. She joined the other women in the kitchen and grabbed Jocelyn's hands. Holding them tightly, the omega looked her in the eye. "Those were the men who you said were after you, weren't they?"

  Jocelyn let out a slow breath before nodding, suddenly unable to speak.

  "So…it's over?" Darcy ventured, sounded far from convinced.

  "I really wish it was, but no," Jocelyn admitted. Trying to ignore the fact that all eyes in the room were on her, she quickly told the whole story—from the moment she learned what her boss really did for a living, to the sinking knowledge John wasn't among the gunmen that these alphas had just taken out.

  "He's a sniper, an assassin," she explained. "He's smart and methodical. He's not the kind to spray a place with bullets, but he'd hire other men to do it while he waits hundreds of yards away with a scope trained at the door, waiting for us to run out and show ourselves."

  "You think he's still out there?" Darcy asked, suddenly sounding a little afraid herself.

  "I would bet every one of those two million dollars on it," she said.

  All the alphas tilted back their heads and drew in long breaths.

  "She's right," Zeke said. "There's someone out there. Far away and covered in scent blockers, damned good ones—but he's there."

  "So why didn't he take us all out?" Cassidy asked. "After all, we were easy targets."

  "Because we're all underestimating him," Aric suddenly broke in, his voice tight with fury. "He wants Jocelyn dead. Probably me too—but this beta is smart. The last thing he wants is an all-out alpha war. He knows that's the one scenario he can't win."

  Samson looked from one brother to the other. "Then you know that's what we have to give him, right, brothers?"

  Zeke groaned in response. "Life was a hell of a lot simpler before all you damn omegas started showing up. No gunfights. No talk of war."

  Samson laughed, the sound echoing through the destroyed house. "I'll remember you said that next time you give me shit about mating with a beta.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  Aric threw together a simple dinner while Samson dragged the bodies away to serve as snacks for carrion feeders, and Zeke cleaned up the worst of the mess. The women took their plates and retreated to the bedroom, talking a mile a minute. The alphas ate leaning against the walls since the table and chairs lay in shards.

  The shadows were just getting long by the time they finished eating. Aric served up glasses of his treasured reserve moonshine, but he barely tasted it, brooding while Zeke and Samson shot the shit. Finally, he couldn't stand it anymore.

  "I didn't sense him. Not either time—not until it was too late."

  Aric had kept this shameful truth from his brothers, and it had been pressing down on him more and more with each passing second. Admitting to his brothers that he'd failed was bad enough—but admitting to himself that he'd failed Jo was much worse. What good was pledging his life to protect her, if he couldn't even sense a threat when it appeared?

  He had to tell someone, and his alpha brothers were the only ones who would understand.

  There was another reason he had to confide in them. While the two other alphas had no trouble pinpointing the beta sniper's location by the slight chemical trace of his blockers, Aric could not—which meant that he would be a liability.

  He could not help track the beta, who was still sitting patiently up in the hills above his cabin, nor could he defend against an attack when he didn't know which direction it would come from. And since they planned to head out when it was fully dark, time was running out to admit the truth.

  Aric had agreed to wait until nightfall despite the fact that the thought of letting an intruder keep breathing on his land—especially one with murderous intentions toward his omega—had been almost unbearable. But he knew this beta was patient, so he had to be patient as well. The longer the alphas waited, the more tired the sniper would become. And tired prey was easier to catch.

  Samson and Zeke shared a glance. The evening was silent except for the buzzing of insects and the hum of the women's conversations through the wall. Though Aric didn't focus on their words, wanting to give Jo her privacy, from the sound of it, she was getting along famously with th
e other mates. While Aric had never really spent much time thinking about the women in the settlement, now he was grateful for their presence.

  Jo had questions. The other women had answers—answers that Aric was in no mood to give, being far too preoccupied with his own shame and rage.

  Unfortunately, neither of his alpha brothers seemed to know what to make of his problem as they continued to quietly sip their moonshine. But Aric's guilt wouldn't let him drop the subject.

  "There were three of them this time," he snarled, angrier at himself than he had ever been at any intruder. "Three. And I didn't hear them until they were a second away from firing. What the hell is wrong with me?"

  "I don't know," Zeke said heavily. "That's some scary shit. An alpha without his senses is…"

  He trailed off before saying the one word Aric feared most.

  Nothing.

  Without his senses, an alpha was nothing. Unable to protect his property, himself, his omega. No better than a beta.

  "What the fuck am I going to do?" Aric said, mostly to himself.

  "Not sure, brother," Zeke said sympathetically. "I've never heard of anything like it."

  Samson abruptly got up from the stump he was sitting on, one of several he and Zeke had carried up to serve as temporary seating. "I might know someone who can help."

  In moments, he returned with his beta mate.

  "Hey," Cassidy said in her eternally cheery voice, souring Aric's mood further. "What's up?"

  "I don't need her help," Aric grumbled, glaring across the room.

  "Yes, you do," Samson assured him.

  "She's a damned beta," Aric snapped, his temper getting the best of him. "If none of us can come up with an answer, what the hell is she going to know?"

  The expression on Samson's face darkened. "She's my damned mate, so watch your mouth. She's compiled more research on life in the Boundarylands than anyone else. If you want answers, Aric, then you want her."

  Fuck. Samson was right.

  As much as Aric hated to admit it—and as much as he hated the thought of sharing his problems with a beta woman, of all people—Cassidy was the only scholar who had ever spent any real time with the alphas and omegas of the Boundarylands. She didn't just know everyone; she knew their histories, their stories, their backgrounds.

  "What's going on?" she asked, staying close to Samson's side.

  Aric listened miserably, embarrassed by both his rudeness and the awful revelation as Samson quickly explained the situation. Cassidy listened carefully, frowning with concentration.

  "Well, I've never heard of another alpha losing his senses like that," she said when Samson finished, "but honestly, I'm not totally surprised it happened."

  "Why?" Aric demanded, grateful that her tone betrayed no pity. Aric didn't think he could take that from anyone, least of all a beta.

  "Jocelyn mentioned that you chased this John guy off halfway through her heat, but then stayed out of bed for the last two days."

  "I couldn't go back with her while he was out there," Aric said defensively. "I needed to be alert. If he'd come back while I was rutting, I might have missed the signs again."

  "Exactly," Cassidy said. "Some of your senses were dulled because of your body's natural focus on your omega. Now, her heat cycle takes four days, rain or shine. But your rut is different. It runs off of hormone levels. During a normal heat, you would deplete your hormone stores on the last day of her cycle. But if you stopped halfway through—"

  "He'd still have half a rut's worth of hormones left in his system," Zeke finished the thought, sounding impressed with her conclusion.

  "And my guess is they're blocking out a lot of other sensory input," she said.

  "So, what can he do to fix it?" Samson asked.

  Cassidy's gaze fell to the floor, a pink blush creeping over her cheeks. Aric was reminded that she wasn't just some doctor despite her clinical tone—she was a woman, and an alpha's mate. "Um…do I really have to say it?"

  Samson laughed and threw his arm around his mate as if to physically shield her from her embarrassment. "What you're saying is that the only way for Aric to get better is to go back to screwing his omega for two straight days."

  "Yeah," Cassidy said. "That's my best guess, anyway."

  "Well," Zeke said with a rare smile of amusement, "it could be a lot worse."

  That was certainly true. Aric gave Cassidy a nod of respect. He might be on edge, but he still felt like an ass for how he'd treated her. The woman knew her stuff.

  "Thank you," he said gruffly.

  "My pleasure," Cassidy replied. "And I promise that we'll get out of your hair just as soon as you all take care of your little pest problem."

  They couldn't leave soon enough, Aric thought. Because even if Cassidy had reached the wrong conclusion, the idea of working out all his frustration in bed with his mate for two days straight sounded too damn good to resist.

  "So, you're saying this happens all the time?" Jocelyn asked with a shudder.

  "Okay, maybe not all the time," Darcy conceded. "But more often than you'd think. Definitely more than back in the beta world. For some reason, trouble seems to find its way here."

  Jocelyn pressed her lips together, eyes on the bullet-ridden front door. All three alphas had left moments before to take down a trained killer, a man who had ended the lives of countless souls.

  And for some baffling reason, the women in her living room were acting like this was no big deal, like it was just another Wednesday night.

  "And…you're not worried?" she asked for the third time.

  "Not really," Cassidy shrugged. "Our alphas know what they're doing."

  Jocelyn had no idea how the other women could be so calm. Aric wasn't even officially her mate, but she was still terrified for him. The fact that she barely knew him did nothing to diminish her worry, especially because it would all be her fault if something happened to him.

  In fact, the more she thought about it, the more she realized just how devastated she would be if any harm came to Aric. Her heart started racing, making her feel dizzy.

  "Holy shit, girl," Darcy said, rushing to her side. "Are you all right? Sit down—you look like you're about to pass out."

  They'd been standing in the kitchen, where Jocelyn had made coffee using supplies she'd found in one of the few cupboards that hadn't been shot up. Darcy led her to the couch, which was mostly fine other than a few holes in the cushions.

  "I'm all right," Jocelyn lied, but she sat down anyway. "I'm just..."

  She had no idea how to end the sentence. She was just…what? Desperately worried about a man who she'd claimed to hate? Certain that if he died, her life would have no meaning? Out of her mind at the thought of him even being grazed by a bullet?

  "I get it," Darcy said, sitting down next to her and patting her hand. "You're in love."

  "It's not that," Jocelyn exclaimed, aghast. She might not know what the hell was going on inside her, but she knew it wasn't…love.

  She didn't even like Aric.

  All right, so he was good in bed. Better than good. In fact, Darcy was pretty sure that no beta alive could pleasure her the way Aric did.

  And he was undoubtedly brave, going out there to hunt a hardened killer. Few men would be as willing to put their lives on the line for her.

  But he was also impossible. Blunt to the point of having no filters. Definitely arrogant. And obviously used to having his way, given how pushy he could be. In other words, hardly boyfriend material.

  Although…maybe it wasn't such a bad thing to be pushed outside her comfort zone now and then. Aric had a way of bringing out elements of her personality that Jocelyn usually tried to keep hidden, the parts that made it difficult to navigate the beta world.

  When she was around him, she felt brave, confident, like she could speak her mind. It didn't matter if Aric liked what she had to say, she felt free to say it.

  Besides, she wasn't in the beta world anymore, she reminded herself—and
she couldn't go back. Here in the Boundarylands, the traits that she'd leaned into before--keeping her head down and her mouth shut, staying in the shadows where no one would bother her—would not help her at all.

  In the past, fear made her careful. Here, fear made her vulnerable and, worse, useless.

  Her new friends hadn't created lives for themselves here by being timid. And no matter how hard she tried to hide, Aric had proved that he still saw her. Really saw her.

  And he wanted what he saw.

  That, too, he had proved again and again—even thinking about it stoked Jocelyn's desire and unleashed her slick. Fighting it did no good. She wanted him, and not just on a physical level.

  She couldn't pretend she was just a victim of her hormones. Jocelyn's emotions were completely entwined with her desire. Aric had somehow become the backdrop of all of her waking thoughts, and—if she ever managed to sleep again—her dreams as well.

  The simple truth was Jocelyn dreaded the thought of Aric putting himself in danger. She wanted him safe at home with her. It didn't matter that she didn't understand her feelings; she couldn't deny them.

  She wasn't willing to call it love just yet, but the words she chose didn't matter. The important part was that Jocelyn needed Aric. Like she needed water or air.

  He was a part of her. And she was a part of him.

  And no matter what the other women said, there was no way in hell she was going to be able to relax until he came back to her.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Jo had been right to fear her old boss: the son of a bitch did not go down easy.

  The alphas had spread out upon setting out from the house, Samson and Zeke flanking Aric on either side. They'd sprinted only a few yards into the woods when the first bullet came whizzing past Aric's ear. The bastard was aiming for the head…and if Aric had been a beta, he would've been a goner.

  But the sniper had made one crucial mistake: he was accustomed to gauging his shots to a beta's movements. And a beta in motion was a hell of a lot different from an alpha on the move, especially an alpha in a hurry.