But it still wasn't enough, even as one orgasm followed another, turning Hope into a keening siren. Maddox wanted more. His own pleasure and need built higher and higher. The tension surpassed anything he had ever known.
He had no idea how much time had passed since his first thrust. He only knew that his body had entered a new, dangerous state, surviving on the taste of her slick and the sound of her begging as his need swelled and morphed.
After what might have been an eternity and might have been no time at all, Maddox felt a heaviness at the base of his shaft that was both new and somehow familiar, sensation reaching a peak he hadn't dreamed was possible.
He seized the fabric of the mattress in his fists, tearing it. A roar tore from his chest as he lost himself inside her. His knot swelled, pressing the walls of Hope's pussy to their limit.
Her back arched and her breasts flattened against his chest. She screamed his name as she shuddered around him.
Come flew from his cock, filling her. Again and again, wave after wave, their bodies locked together by the force of his knot.
As he drove home the last thrust, Maddox felt it.
The sharp sting of her teeth against his shoulder. The sublime pain of her claiming bite tearing into his skin.
Maddox's roar of satisfaction tore through the room. It shook the ground under the cabin, sending every creature for miles fleeing in fear.
As Hope released him, gasping for breath, Maddox lowered his head and claimed her back, his teeth in her flesh, her blood mixing with his.
It was done.
Hope was his.
And no one would ever take her away.
Chapter Nine
The room was filled with sunlight when Hope woke up. For the first time in days—in five days to be exact—her wrists and ankles weren't bound by thick rope.
Maddox must have untied her sometime in the night. Just like he'd promised he would.
I spent five days tied up for you. Now you're going to spend five days tied up for me.
He'd called it justice, but Hope didn't have a word for what she'd experienced during a week strapped to an alpha's bed.
Of course, there had been sex. So much mind-blowing sex that Hope could only pray that her legs would still work. But that hadn't been all Maddox had done.
He'd also taken care of her—feeding her, washing her body, seeing to all of her needs. Maybe he'd only done those things because he needed to keep her alive to keep fucking her.
But, no. Hope discarded the thought as soon as it floated into her head. There had been a tenderness in his touch. At moments it had bordered on kindness. Even affection.
But more than all of that, he'd been good to his word. After five intense days of marathon-style screwing, he'd freed her…and disappeared apparently.
Hope rubbed her wrists as she sat up. She scanned the room, but there was no note this time. No clue at all to where he might be.
But Hope instinctually knew he couldn't be far. If, for some reason, he'd climbed in that old truck and driven off, she would have felt it. That same heaviness that had landed in her gut when she'd tried to make a break for it that first day would have returned. Her heart would be speeding, her stomach-churning. She'd be in a panic.
But none of that was happening. She felt fine. So where ever he was, it had to be close.
The funny thing was Hope had almost no idea how Maddox usually spent his days. For all their time together, they'd spent surprisingly little of it talking.
Well, not about anything that mattered anyway.
Hope rolled the stiffness out of her ankles before swinging her legs over the side of the bed. She might as well try getting up. Her knees felt a little weak as she carefully shifted all her weight on to them, but they held her steady.
After five days and nights with an alpha, Hope figured that was nothing short of a miracle.
Not for an omega.
Surprisingly, Hope found herself smiling at the thought.
Like most betas, she'd grown up learning that alphas and omegas were something to be feared and avoided. They were the monsters in her bedtime stories. The danger in the dark woods. The boogeyman.
Of course, her parent's overly strict ideology hadn't helped. The sect they belonged to truly believed that alphas were the descendants of fallen angels. The actual spawn of the devil and his cohorts.
Of course, that made omegas the whores of Babylon. Which, to be honest, wasn't a huge leap from how her parents already felt about her. She had a feeling if her parents ever found out about her true nature, they'd shake their heads slowly and whisper told you she was born bad.
What Hope had been born with was a mind of her own. She'd never accepted anything at face value and loved to ask questions. She liked to roam. To see and experience things for herself. To live her own life. That sort of behavior wasn't exactly encouraged in a hyper-conservative religious cult.
She only prayed that Maddox didn't think the same way.
He obviously had some firm ideas about his role and hers, but if he thought that she was just going to follow in her mother's footsteps and crank out babies all day, he was mistaken.
The sex between them was good. Better than good. It was nothing short of divine. But nothing—absolutely nothing—was worth giving up your soul for.
Hope hobbled her way over to the closet, ready to pull on another one of Maddox's shirt as a makeshift dress, but her hand stilled midway. Much to her surprise, she found some of her own clothes washed and folded inside. Not just the cut up gown she'd woken up in, but the hiking clothes she arrived in too.
Hope was so glad to see the reminders of her old self that she scooped them up and hugged them to her chest. She felt a new sense of confidence as she pulled them on.
Sure, there was a ragged bullet hole in the shoulder of the shirt, but she didn't mind. If anything, Hope was amazed and proud to have survived such a traumatic experience.
Even though her friends had not.
Like a splash of cold water to the face, the image of Dave and Sandra came flooding back. Her blood chilled.
Here she was mooning over five days of earth-shatteringly good sex while her friends still rested in an unmarked grave, and their murderers walked free.
Guilt washed over her, and before she could waste another second, Hope was heading out the door to find Maddox.
But she didn't see him. He wasn't in the small clearing in front of the cabin. There was no sign of him near the hot spring or in the thick grove of trees beyond.
Shit. He wasn't anywhere.
Maybe he had gone farther away than she realized. Maybe miles away. Hell, maybe hundreds of miles away.
It wasn't like she had any real idea of how this bond between alphas and omegas worked. Maybe now that they were bonded and claimed everything calmed down. Maybe she wasn't tied as tightly to his side anymore.
Maybe she could leave.
Her stomach twisted at the thought. Bile rose up, burning her throat.
Oh, for fuck's sake.
She could do this. She knew she could. Sure, she knew that people said omegas never left their alphas, but people used to say that about the church too. Hope had spent her whole life proving people wrong.
Now she just had to prove it to every instinct that pulsed in her blood.
Okay. Maybe not leave, exactly. But take a nice walk…all the way to a phone where she could call the authorities and let them know what had happened to Sandra and Dave. Then she'd come marching right back. She swore it.
Hope arched a brow and waited for her body to rebel again. This time though, her stomach stayed nice and steady.
So, it was all in the phrasing. Hmmm. Good to know.
Hope spun on her heel and started walking down the same path as before. It was a little easier this time, and not just because she had pants and shoes. She even made it past the point where her feet had turned to concrete blocks before.
About fifty feet ahead of there, she stopped. Not because
her heels started to drag in the dirt this time, but because someone cleared his throat just behind her.
"Goddamn it," she muttered under her breath. She didn't turn around to face the booming voice behind her. She didn't have to. She could feel him in her blood.
"Where the hell do you think you're going?"
"I'm going for a walk," she answered.
"The hell you are." The voice closed in on her quickly. "I thought you already learned the lesson that you can't run away. Or were you hoping this would make me tie you to the bed again?"
Hope's face flushed. Her body reacted to the promise in his voice.
Promise. Not threat.
"I'm not running anywhere." Hope turned around to face him. The burning in her cheeks only grew when she saw his face. Damn, she'd just spent the last five days screwing non-stop. She would have thought she'd gotten all the girlish blushes out of her system. Apparently, not. "I looked everywhere for you, but you weren't around."
His thick brows flattened. "You looked in three places," he said, holding up his fingers to punctuate the words.
"Wait," she said. "You knew I was out here looking for you, but you didn't say anything?"
"I was trying to hunt, but you made so much noise that it scared off all the animals."
"Then I don't see why you're so upset that I was leaving," she shot back. "In just a couple of minutes, you'll have all the peace and quiet you could hope for."
Maddox crossed his arms in front of his massive chest. It was clear he wasn't budging. "You never answered my question," he said. "Where do you think you're going?"
Hope let out a sigh. "I need to find a phone."
His eyes narrowed. "Why?"
"Because I need to tell the police about the men who shot me," she said.
The tension in Maddox's shoulders quickly relaxed. It was obvious that he'd feared she was going to say something else. Maybe that she wanted to tell her family where she was. Or that she wanted someone to come and get her.
"You don't need to worry about them," he said dismissively. "If more come, I'll kill them. Just like I did with the others. There's no reason to involve the beta authorities."
Hope bit into her lip. "Actually, there is," she said.
"Why?"
She didn't tell him that she was hoping that the police would arrest the narcos before Maddox turned them into bloody heaps on the ground. Somehow, she instinctually knew that her version of justice and his would always be a world apart.
"Because before they shot me, those men killed two of my friends," she said. "Dave and Sandra. Their bodies are still by the lake where we camped, and I want them to have proper burials."
Maddox stood still for a long moment before letting out a slow breath.
"I understand," he said, though it was clear from his annoyed tone he found the idea of talking with the beta world irritating. "Though the closest phone is over fifteen miles away at Evander's Bar. You can't walk there and back. I'll have to drive you."
Hope let out a sigh of relief. Some of the weight slid from her shoulders. "Thank you," she said.
Without thinking, she rushed forward and wrapped her arms around his waist…at least, she tried to. He was far too wide for her to clasp her hands on the other side, but she did her best.
A sense of serenity flowed through her veins at the feel of him. Sure, Maddox might be a little rough and heavy-handed, but deep down, he was a decent man. This proved it.
Pulling back, she lifted herself up on tiptoes and pressed a kiss to his cheek. Then she started back the way she came.
"Where are you going now?" he asked.
"To that old truck that's in front of the house," she answered. It was old and rusted through in a couple places, but she hadn't seen any other vehicles on the property. If he was driving here anywhere, Hope figured it was in that.
"I didn't say I was taking you to Evander's today," he said. "I meant that I'd drive you there next time I needed to go."
Hope froze. Her face fell as she spun around to face him. "And when would that be?"
Maddox shrugged. "Probably at the end of next month.
Next month? Was he kidding? Of course, he wasn't. Alphas never joked around. It wasn't in their nature.
But apparently, being a stone-cold bastard was.
"This is important," she said, trying to reason with him. "It can't wait until next month."
Maddox shook his head. His dark hair rustled in the wind. "You said your friends were dead. That means they're not going anywhere."
Hope strode right back to his side. This time instead of wrapping her arms around him, she pulled back her fist and hit him in the arm. She hissed in pain as her hand skidded off his rock hard muscle. Somehow she'd hurt herself punching him.
"Just so you know, the last person who hit me lost their hand," he said.
Hope raised her chin, knowing that if she had half a brain, she'd be trembling in fear right now and begging for her life, but for some reason, she couldn't even muster up the slightest tremble.
Something inside her had changed. Something big.
She knew that Maddox wasn't going to hurt her.
Hold her down? Yes. Tie her up? Sure. Fuck her senseless? You bet.
But hurt her? Kill her? Never. Maybe back when she'd been a beta, but not now.
Now they were linked together by unbreakable bonds. Killing her would mean killing himself. They might not understand each other. Hell, right now, they didn't even seem to like each other. But they would never harm the other.
"And the last people who gave two shits about me are in a shallow grave in the middle of nowhere," she spat at him. "They deserve better than that. Their families deserve closure. They deserve to grieve with dignity and in peace."
His cola-black eyes narrowed. "They weren't the last people to care about you," he growled possessively. "You have me now."
A dark laugh erupted out of Hope's throat. "Oh, give me a break," she said. "You don't care about me."
Maddox's lips flattened, his mouth turning into a hard line that held back a world of restrained emotion. "I've killed for you. I've risked my life for you."
True. But the way he acted, Hope couldn't help but think those were just regular parts of his day.
"Yes, but what do you know about me? Really know?" she said. "In the five days you had me tied up, you never once asked me anything about my life. Not once."
His glower intensified as he stared down at her. Hope could feel the heat pouring out of him. "And you never once mentioned your friends."
Guilt reared up and gave her another sucker punch to the gut. "That's not fair."
"Maybe not," Maddox said before turning away from her and heading toward the trees again. "But not many things are."
Hope threw up her hands. Was he really just going to walk away from this? "Where are you going?" she demanded.
"You want dinner? That means I need to hunt," he answered. "So go back to the house. And stay inside and stay quiet until I get back."
Chapter Ten
Maddox drew in a slow, even breath as he drew the arrow back in his bow. The fletching feathers brushed against his chin as the string pulled taut. The muscles in his back and arms stayed coiled and ready while his stance remained relaxed.
Then he waited.
It didn't take long for the deer's pale brown flank to appear from behind the towering redwood. When it did, Maddox was ready. He slipped his finger back from the string, and the arrow flew, burying itself deep into the animal's heart.
The deer fell dead instantly and painlessly. Now Maddox had another week's worth of meat.
He slung the creature's lifeless body over his shoulders and started on the long walk back home.
Usually, Maddox didn't travel out this far on his land to hunt, but today he'd had no choice. Hope had made enough noise tromping around to spook every pheasant, rabbit, and deer for miles.
Okay, maybe that wasn't exactly true. Her clumsy footfalls had only sent a
handful of creatures running, but Maddox still figured it was safest to put some distance between them.
Safer for the hunt. Safer for her.
Safer for him.
Maddox would never admit that he'd run away from Hope. He'd never run from anything in his life. But he needed a little space and time to himself to think.
So far, it hadn't helped a damn bit.
Just like five days straight of knotting hadn't cooled his blood.
And it never would, Maddox realized. There was no distance great enough, no amount of come he could spill inside her, no number of days that could pass that would change how much he needed her.
And it was driving him crazy. Rage had ignited inside him the instant he'd seen her sneaking down the path. The thought that she could leave him, even for just an afternoon, sent him spiraling.
As if his life hadn't been thrown off-kilter enough already, now Hope wanted him to drive her all the way to Evander's just so she could tell the cops about some dead betas. Fine. But he'd do it on his schedule. Not hers.
He was already behind on so many tasks because she'd stolen ten days from him. Ten days he couldn't spare before the autumn gave way to winter. There was game to hunt and to dress, fish to smoke, traps to prepare. There was wood to chop and leather to tan.
Now Maddox was working twice as hard just to catch up, all the while tamping down the urge to rush back to the house and wrap his arms around Hope. Lift her against the wall. Sink deep into the sweet heat of her body.
Fuck.
Maddox stopped for a moment to adjust the deer's carcass before continuing to trudge through the forest.
Just like every other alpha, he'd been better off on his own. No amount of knotting was worth this kind of distraction.
Nothing drove the point home more than coming through the tree line in front of his cabin and seeing boxes of stuff—his stuff—sitting out on the porch.
Maddox muttered a curse and let the carcass fall to the ground before storming through the open door. He found Hope kneeling on the floor with her back to him. Her hair was tied back with a strip of ripped cloth, and her hands moved over even more piles of stuff—clothes, tools, kitchen utensils.
Maddox (The Boundarylands Omegaverse Book 4) Page 7