The alpha must have sensed what she was thinking because a mocking smile twisted his lips. He slowly shook his head. "It won't work," he said. "You can't leave."
The hell she couldn't.
Hope turned on her heel and ran as fast as her bare feet could carry her—which admittedly wasn't very fast. At least there was a dirt path leading away from the cabin that was mostly free of rocks and twigs.
She probably should have taken the time to grab shoes, but panicked minds weren't great at planning. And right now, Hope's most pressing concern was getting as far away from the huge, terrifying alpha as possible.
So why the hell was she suddenly slowing down?
Hope barely made it around the corner of the one-room house before her legs started to feel heavy. As though lead weights had been strapped to her ankles, she struggled to pick up her feet. She only made it a few more strides before she stopped cold.
She wasn't tired—well, not exhausted, anyway. Her lungs, her heart, her muscles were all fine. But something inside her flat out refused to move. No matter how hard she tried, Hope couldn't take another step.
Even more frightening was the overwhelming urge she felt to go back. The irresistible need to return to the warmth of the bed she'd woken up in, the security of the simple cabin…the strength of the alpha.
Gritting her teeth, Hope tried with all her might for one more step…just one more. But her traitorous body refused to budge.
An anguished sob tore from her throat.
"I told you," the deep voice mocked her from around the bend.
Fuck him.
Hope spun around, not caring about the tears that were coursing down her cheeks. Given that she was ankle-deep in dirt and dressed in a torn-up castoff dress, she was far past dignity.
Hope walked back in view of the alpha, making sure to stay back from the limits of his chain.
"What the hell is happening to me?"
A smug expression settled in the alpha's coal-black eyes. "You're an omega. My omega."
"No!" The denial burst from Hope's mouth before she had a chance to fully consider his words. "That's ridiculous. It—It's impossible."
The alpha shook his head slowly…almost sadly.
"I wish that were true," he said. "For both our sakes. But your nature started to change the second I picked you up."
Hope took a step back, desperate to escape the terrible thing he was telling her. It couldn't be true. It couldn't.
But how the hell would she know? She'd obviously been unconscious for days. Someone had been looking after her all the time, tending her wounds and making sure she lived. It couldn't have been the alpha—not if he had been locked up the whole time.
Hope was grasping at straws. He had to be lying to her. Trying to convince her she was an omega so that she would…what, volunteer to have sex with him?
But no. If all he wanted was sex, he could have forced her by now. But instead, he'd…
"Why are you out here chained by the neck to a tree?"
"Because you started to go into heat," he said, starting to pace again. "And I was told that if I mated with you while you were still recovering, you wouldn't survive."
Hope blinked. What? It was too crazy to believe.
Not that having sex with him would kill her. That wouldn't surprise her at all.
But the idea that this alpha would be so overwhelmed with lust for her that he'd had to restrain himself to keep from literally fucking her death…
It couldn't possibly be true.
But even now, the alpha was tearing at the chain as if trying to break it, his muscles bulging, the massive tree behind him groaning under the strain.
Hope backed up a few more steps onto the cabin's simple wooden porch and pressed her back against the door.
"You can't run from the truth," the alpha taunted her. He lifted his chin and stared openly at her body. "I can smell the slick starting to run down your thighs. I know you can feel it."
Hope shook her head…but it was true. The wet heat that had trickled between her legs just minutes before was now flowing like a goddamn river. She couldn't seem to tear her eyes away from his broad chest and defined abdominal muscles.
"Give me the key, and I can scratch that itch inside you," the alpha wheedled, his voice seductively low. "I can give you everything you're craving."
The key. Hope glanced down at her clenched fist. Slowly, she opened her palm. The metal caught the light, glinting in the sun.
Maybe…she should give it to him. After all, he'd saved her life, right? And those cravings he was talking about kept growing stronger with every word he said. And…
No!
What the hell had she been thinking?
Hope snapped her fist closed. All this talk about cravings, and slick, and omega natures had muddied her thinking. She couldn't simply hand over the one thing that was standing between her and a deadly alpha, just because she was feeling a little horny.
She needed a minute to think. More than a minute. Hope needed distance from the alpha, from the sight of his powerful, breathtaking body, to calm down and think rationally.
But since apparently distance was the one thing Hope couldn't have anymore, she did the next best thing. She turned around and went back into the cabin, slamming the door behind her.
The alpha's frustrated roar rocked the walls all around her.
Chapter Five
The cabin was small—twelve feet square at most.
Hope knew because she'd been pacing the floor for hours now. Left to right, up and down. Five steps in either direction in the box that had become her cage.
Every time she turned and paced the other way, she thought about how similar she was to the leashed alpha outside the door. The only difference was that she hadn't worn a groove into the floorboards...yet.
Just give it another day, she thought grimly. You'll get there.
But what else was there to do? Hope had already spent the first hour exploring the small space. There wasn't much to find.
On one side was a series of pine cabinets that had been built flush with the walls. Hope rifled through them but only found the basics—toiletries, stacks of clean clothes, underwear, socks, a few well-thumbed books, and tools.
Lots and lots of tools. Knives and hooks and awls. Apparently, the alpha was really into hunting and fishing. Which made sense, considering that those weren't hobbies out here in the Boundarylands—they were survival skills.
On the other side of the room, next to the tiny wood-burning stove, were shelves holding a few mismatched dishes and cups, and a large built-in pantry filled with canned and dry essentials.
And, other than the few pieces of furniture, that was it.
Hope was far from wealthy. Working an hourly job at a sporting goods store meant she was barely scraping by. The inside of her first apartment had been as spartan as could be, but even it seemed luxurious compared to this cramped cabin.
No, not a cabin. This was a prison, but in a cruel twist, her jailor was the one chained up.
Hope winced at the reminder. She looked over at the foot of the bed where she'd placed the key.
She had been hoping that solitude would help her come up with a solution…or at least dry the slick that coated her legs. No such luck on either front. Hours of pacing had only twisted the knot of desire in her belly even tighter and left her more confused.
And angry. So angry.
Hope didn't want to be an omega. She hadn't fought so hard for her independence just to have it snatched away with a single touch from an alpha.
Although that wasn't entirely fair, she chided herself. The alpha wasn't to blame for what was going on inside her. The narcos were. The men who had killed her friends and driven her into the Boundarylands. Who had shot her.
If the alpha out there was telling the truth, he was the only reason Hope was still alive. It was hard to believe when she remembered the blood lust burning in his eyes when she'd almost ran into him.
Obviously, the only reason he'd taken care of her was that her true nature had shifted. The fact that she really was an omega had become impossible to deny.
But Hope owed her life to that shift. If she had remained a beta, she would have been dead now. There wasn't a doubt in Hope's mind.
Of course, she wasn't sure yet which outcome would've been preferable.
All she knew was that she owed the alpha at least a little gratitude for her life. Not enough to toss him the key—that intense predatory stare of his was enough to keep her from making that mistake.
But a simple gesture of basic human decency wouldn't hurt.
Hope's stomach had been grumbling. She wondered if the old stove even worked or if it would just fill the cabin with smoke. With all the nonperishable food in the pantry, she could throw together a simple meal for both of them.
She rifled through the pantry and picked out a few ingredients—beans, some hard cheese and smoked sausage, a jar of tomatoes. She sliced and grated and threw everything into a pot, lit the fire, and after a few minutes of simmering, served up a couple bowls of enticing, fragrant mush.
The sun had just started to set when she made her way out the door. The few rays of sunlight that broke through the canopy were soft and muted, casting long, finger-like shadows among the trees.
The alpha was sitting on the ground, throwing pinecones against a shed in the distance. The ground in front of the building was littered with them.
"Unchain me," he said, turning toward her as she made her way down the steps.
Hope ignored the demand. "I made you dinner," she said, setting the bowl down just beyond his pacing line, then pushing it forward with a stick.
The alpha glanced at the bowl, then back up to her. "What the fuck is that?"
"Think of it as a peace offering," Hope suggested, retreating to the split log near the porch, where she sat down with her own dinner. "My way of saying thank you for saving my life."
The alpha frowned before leaning forward and snatching the bowl. "No, I mean, what the hell did you make?"
Oh.
"I call them Pizza Beans," she said, slightly embarrassed.
"This is something you've made before?" he asked dubiously, poking at the mush with the spoon. "On purpose?"
Hope shrugged. Sometimes she forgot that not everyone grew up trying to throw together meals from whatever was on the shelves.
"I'm the oldest of six siblings," she told him. "My parents didn't believe in supermarkets, and I was in charge of cooking. So, I learned to be…resourceful."
Supermarkets weren't the only modern convenience her parents had eschewed. Malls and clothing stores, movie theaters, and restaurants were all off-limits. The fundamentalist church considered them centers of greed and gluttony. Palaces of sin, the preacher often called them. Put on earth by the devil himself to lead the righteous astray.
Hope had been so disappointed when she'd visited her first big box store after leaving the compound. It turned out that Satan didn't meet her at the door—just some grey-haired guy named Greg in a blue vest.
The alpha cast her one more baleful glance before shoving a spoonful into his mouth and chewing. "It's actually not that bad."
"Thank you," Hope said. "You do realize that I found all this food in your pantry, don't you?"
The alpha finished the bowl in another couple of bites and tossed it on the ground. "Never thought to put these particular ingredients together, though."
"You didn't seem to have any trouble scarfing it down," she said, taking a bite.
"You can't be picky when your stomach's been empty for days."
Days? Hope looked up from her bowl, appalled. "How long have you been out here?"
"Four days."
"What?"
Holy crap. Hope shot up from the log, setting down her bowl. No wonder the alpha looked so rough and wild. The poor man had been out in the elements, chained up like a dog, for the better part of a week. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"If you care how so much about my welfare, go get the key and unlock me," he shot back.
Hope wasn't convinced. Four days was a long time to be sleeping outside in the elements, but that didn't mean she was about to let this creature loose and share her bed.
But the thing was, it wasn't really her bed. She was the invader here, not him. God knew, she would leave if she could…but she couldn't.
"You must be starving," she said. "Give me your bowl, and I'll refill it."
A dangerous glint shone in his dark eyes. "Come get it yourself."
No way in hell. Hope turned on her heel and went back inside. Grabbing a fresh bowl, she filled it to the brim before going back out into the chilly evening. Once again, she pushed the food forward with a stick like she was feeding a dangerous animal.
A fact that wasn't lost on the alpha.
"You know you're going to have set me free eventually," he said. "You're only going to make it harder on yourself the longer you wait."
Hope sat back down and picked up her bowl. "What's that supposed to mean?"
The alpha watched her, barely blinking as he ate. His eyes never left hers, not even for a second. A powerful heat stirred inside of Hope and only grew hotter, the longer his eyes stayed on her.
"You want what only I can give you," he murmured, his voice dark and low. Hope felt the walls of her pussy contract at the promise in his words. "You've been through your first heat, but it wasn't consummated. You have to know you need it. Soon you'll be climbing the walls, desperate for my cock in your pussy, your mouth, your ass —"
Hope bolted up so fast her bowl toppled from her lap, spilling cheesy beans onto the ground. "Whoa. I don't know who you think I am, but I promise you that I will never beg for you to do anything to my ass."
Hope didn't consider herself a prude, but there's was no escaping the effect growing up in a fundamentalist sect had on her sex life. She no longer believed that sex was only for reproduction or to service a husband's carnal needs, but that didn't mean she was ready to make the jump to butt stuff.
"We'll see…" The alpha's voice trailed off.
"I'm not here just to have sex with you," she snapped.
"I didn't say you were," he said calmly, setting the empty bowl aside. "You can cook…sort of. There must be a few other things you're decent at. Once we've fucked enough to calm down, we'll divide up the work around here."
"I'm not your maid either," Hope said, reddening at his casual tone, as if having sex was akin to scratching an annoying itch.
"No," he agreed, a dangerous note creeping into his tone. "You're my omega. Do you even have any idea what that means?"
Hope slid a little further away on the log.
She didn't, really. She didn't know much about alphas or omegas at all. Just what she'd been taught by her mother and the preacher. Chances were, they were just as wrong about that as they had been about everything else.
Not that she was going to admit it.
"Of course," she said brightly.
The alpha gave a dark laugh as he stood up. It was clear he didn't believe her. "Let me show you, little one."
At first, her gaze rested on his bare chest—the pectoral muscles that looked like they were carved from stone, the biceps as huge and hard as the tree trunk behind him.
Then his hands slid down to his pants, and Hope's eyes followed, going wide with astonishment at the size of the bulge straining against the fabric.
Her fingertips twitched. Her mouth watered. The sensations that had been building since the moment she woke up were now becoming unbearable.
"Let me show you what you want," the alpha growled. "What you're craving."
Hope knew she should turn away. Deep down, she knew what would happen next, but somehow she couldn't look anywhere else. Especially once the alpha began to rub himself.
A second later, he tore open the fly of his pants, and his cock sprung free.
Hope's face flushed with heat.
Goddamn, he was big.
Huge. Nothing like any guy Hope had ever been with.
Not that she'd been with that many. She hadn't had the chance.
But the alpha's cock was nothing short of majestic. Just the sight of it was enough to fuel her flames. Even more slick pooled between her legs, drenching the folds of her dress.
A slight twinge of shame shivered through Hope at her reaction--but it was nothing in comparison to the desire that immediately eclipsed it.
The alpha sniffed greedily at the air. His eyes closed and he began to stroke his length, his fingers brushing the tip with every swipe.
Oh God, she should really not be watching this. But there was no way she could look away. The way his cock strained for release, velvety and beautifully veined, called to her.
She'd never seen anything so amazing. So perfect. She wanted it. She needed it.
That's when Hope realized that her mouth had fallen open, and her hand had drifted to her nipple.
Oh shit.
Shame won the round his time, filling her with dismay at what she was doing. Who she was becoming.
Horrified, Hope let out a cry and spun around, escaping back to the safety of the cabin again.
The sound of Maddox's roar followed her inside.
* * *
The orgasm didn't bring any release.
Maddox hadn't expected that it would. He'd ejaculated countless times over the past four days, and each time had been less satisfying than the last.
There wouldn't be any satisfaction for him until the omega unlocked these chains and he was able to lose himself inside her.
But it didn't look that would be happening tonight.
He hadn't been trying to scare her, just show her what she was missing. And at first, he'd thought he'd had her.
Maddox had caught the scent of her slick in the air, thick and rich like honey. He'd wanted nothing more than to rip these chains clean in half and bury himself inside her warmth, but he'd had to settle for the rough feel of dry palm again.
And she had run for cover like a frightened rabbit.
Maybe he should have been a little nicer.
Maddox rolled his eyes, disgusted with himself. Nice wasn't in his nature. But maybe he could have resisted rubbing another one off until she was inside the cabin.
Maddox (The Boundarylands Omegaverse Book 4) Page 4