by J. L. Wilder
Wyatt turned to face her. “We need to leave,” he said grimly. “It’s our only chance now.”
“You said...” she remembered the night she’d thought to run away. “You said they’d follow. That they’d track my scent and catch me easily.”
“You were on foot when you ran before. I think on a bike we might stand a chance.”
“They’ve got bikes too.”
“Yes. But I’m faster.” His lips were pressed into a thin line. “I can go faster than they can, Izzy. I promise you. Besides, the bike fumes might obscure some of the scent.”
She bit her lip.
“If you don’t want to go, I won’t make you,” he said. “But this is the only way I can see for us.”
She had to stand on her toes to kiss him. But she had to kiss him. The days of watching him, standing close to him but never close enough, had been tearing her apart. It was as if a fire had been lit within her, bright and aching, and Wyatt was the only thing that could quench it. Even through the anguish of watching her dream of a life with him slip away today, her burning desire had tugged at her insistently.
Now they were here, alone in the dark. Together.
Wyatt hesitated only a moment before kissing her back, pulling her close to deepen the kiss, and for a moment they lost themselves in each other. She slid her hands slowly down his sides, feeling the breadth of him, longing to wrap herself around him. She slipped her fingers into his pants—
He stepped back, gasping. “Izzy. They could be coming. We have to go now. Are you coming?”
“Of course.” How could she do anything else?
He helped her onto the motorcycle and climbed on in front of her. “Hold on, he said grimly, starting up the engine.
She wrapped her arms around his waist tightly and pressed her face into his back.
Then they were off, racing down the highway, moving faster than Izzy had ever gone in her life. It was terrifying. The wind slapped at her bare skin on either side, and every time Wyatt adjusted the bike’s position, she was sure they were going to fall. She’d ridden with him before, casual rides around the clearing for fun, but never anything like this.
But she trusted him, and she loved him, and that outweighed everything, so she held on to him as tightly as she could and tried to ignore the asphalt screaming by beneath them.
They rode on for what felt like forever. Izzy thought the terror would never abate, but eventually it did. Eventually the rhythm of the road became soothing instead of frightening. No one is behind us, she thought. Maybe they haven’t figured out which way we went. The pack had certainly noticed their absence by now, but they might be searching the woods, or they might have tried following the highway in the opposite direction.
And as they rode, the hunger in her body deepened.
At first she had felt some relief. Being alone with him, being able to kiss him and touch him at last, was like hearing the resolution of a dissonant melody. This was what she had wanted, wasn’t it? This was what she’d been aching for since the day he’d told her they would need to keep their distance or risk exposure.
But it wasn’t enough.
Sitting behind him on the bike, her arms encircling his waist, her thighs gripping his hips...it just wasn’t enough. She needed more of him. She needed him closer. She tried to think of something else, to distract herself from her need, but it continued to build. Before long it was screaming, raging, so desperate that it was all she could do not to clamber around and mount him right there on the bike.
For an instant she was afraid. She had never felt anything this overpowering before. Even her desire for Wyatt in the past, while strong, had never compared with what she was feeling now. But the need soon crowded out any other feeling she might have had, any fear or confusion. There was only this hunger, this fire.
“Wyatt,” she gasped in his ear, so he would hear her over the sound of the bike. “Pull over.”
She felt the tension in his back, as if his hackles were going up, and knew she had caused him concern, but that didn’t matter now. All that mattered was that he was doing as she’d asked. He pulled onto the shoulder, rode it for a bit, and then eased the bike into the trees as it lost speed. He continued moving until they could no longer see—or be seen from—the road.
When the bike had stopped, he turned to face her. “What is it?” he asked anxiously. “Are you all right?
“It’s the Wolf Moon tonight, isn’t it,” she said. It wasn’t really a question. Of course, tonight was the Wolf Moon. Robert would have planned the games that way. No wonder Gunner was so certain she’d want him tonight.
The way she was feeling now, she wasn’t completely sure she’d have told him no.
“Oh,” Wyatt breathed, looking at her. What must he be seeing? Flushed cheeks, dilated pupils? She felt as if her skin were on fire.
“I can’t wait anymore.” Her hands were already on him, pulling impatiently at his clothes. “I need you, Wyatt. I need you right now.”
“There’s a motel forty miles from here—”
“I can’t. I can’t. Please.”
“They could be coming for us right now, Izzy. They could be behind us. And if they’re paying attention, they’ll see tire tracks where I pulled off the road. We won’t be hard to find here. It isn’t safe.”
She pressed her body to his. “I’m going to die, Wyatt. It’s killing me. It hurts. Please.”
“Quickly then,” he growled, hard desire breaking over his own face, and she understood as she looked at him that he wanted her just as badly as she wanted him in that moment, that he felt something agonizing and irresistible to. Having an omega in heat on the back of your bike might be more difficult than she’d realized.
Somehow, clothes were removed and piled on the ground. Izzy lost track of what was happening. All that mattered was Wyatt. Wyatt’s hands, strong and confident, Wyatt’s big fingers, exploring her, Wyatt’s tongue, rough and eager, moving over her, Wyatt’s thick cock pressing into her and finally, finally, easing that ache a bit.
She sobbed with relief and pleasure as he held her and fucked her. His teeth found her neck and bit gently, carefully, marking, claiming, and she cried out in shock and joy. She had forgotten the terms of Robert’s order. No one was to claim her before the games, but he had never specified that she must be claimed by the winner.
I belong to him, she thought joyously as her orgasm crashed over her. I belong to Wyatt. I’m his. I’m his forever.
Forty miles later, in the motel Wyatt had mentioned, they made love again. They moved slowly this time, leaving the lights on so they could explore each other with their eyes as they never had before. Izzy learned the planes of his chest, the places where his muscles were still firm and well defined despite his age. She looked him in the eyes as she rode him, drinking his pleasure as if it were a sweet wine.
When they were both exhausted, they lay in each other’s arms and Wyatt spread a blanket over them. His hand moved to her stomach. “It’s been so hard to be apart from you,” he said quietly.
“I know what you mean.” She rested her head on his shoulder.
“Has everything been all right so far? With the babies, I mean?”
“Some morning sickness. Nothing dramatic. It’s been a little difficult to keep it from the others, but nobody suspects anything. At least, they haven’t let on if they do.”
He stroked her skin gently with his thumb. “When we get where we’re going,” he said, “you’ll never have to hide again. I’ll take care of you. I’ll hold your hair back when you’re sick.”
“You don’t have to do that—”
“I want to. And I’ll make you anything you want to eat, at any time of the day, but I’m also going to make sure you’re getting all the vitamins you need. And I’ll take long walks with you, and we’ll get books and read about pregnancy—”
“Aren’t all those books going to be about human pregnancies?”
“I’m sure they’ll have some usef
ul information.” He gave her a little squeeze. “Whatever I can do for you, I will. Taking care of you and those babies is my number one job.”
She leaned in to kiss him again. “You’re so wonderful,” she murmured. “How did I get so lucky?”
He laughed. “You were kidnapped by a motorcycle club and used as a prize in an antiquated contest for mating rights. If you want to call that luck.”
“If it led me here, it was worth it.”
He smiled and kissed her, and then their hands were on each other’s bodies again, finding the places that had given pleasure before and searching for new ones. It was a long night, a night both Izzy and Wyatt had dreamed of for a long time, and as the Wolf Moon hung bright in the sky, shining down on them, they made all of one another’s fantasies come true.
WYATT
The sun shone through the cheap blinds on the motel window when Wyatt opened his eyes. The light was still low and pale, and he knew it was very early in the morning. By some stroke of luck, the pack hadn’t caught up with them last night.
Maybe they were going to get away with this, after all.
It had seemed impossible at first. He had been sure it was madness. But how could he help but succumb to madness after seeing Izzy spend an evening at Gunner’s side, knowing what awaited her when the party was over? Anger and grief had boiled into a stew in his brain, driving him insane, and when he’d seen her duck into that bathroom he’d immediately gone outside and climbed the wall to the window. Even if it was crazy, they were going to try to get away.
He hadn’t begun to feel safe until after their stop in the woods. Izzy had been so frantic for him there that it had ignited something within Wyatt, something he couldn’t deny despite the risk and the need to keep moving. He had to have her, had to take her then and there, and in the moment, he simply forgot his fear and worry. As they were boarding the bike again, he grew anxious, thinking that the pack might have caught up with them, and he rode several miles behind the tree line before daring to emerge onto the road.
It had been empty.
Now, lying in bed with Izzy by his side, he thought they just might be all right.
She opened her eyes and caught him watching her. “Morning.”
“How are you feeling?”
“Mmm, perfect.” She yawned and stretched. “I mean, really tired, but in a good way, you know? Like after a great workout, but all over. I wonder if it’ll always be like this after the Wolf Moon.”
He kissed her. “Last night was amazing.”
“Yeah?” She sat up and shook out her hair. “It was great for me, of course.”
“For me, too. Best I’ve ever had.”
She smiled. Her fingers went to the mark on her neck. He could already see the scar starting to form. Anyone who looked at her from now on would know she belonged to somebody. “You claimed me,” she said.
“I should have asked you first.”
“I would have said yes. You already know I would have, Wyatt. I’ve been wanting you to do it for ages.” She wrapped her arms around him. “Are we really free?”
“I think we might be,” he said, daring to say it out loud for the first time. “I haven’t seen any sign that they’re behind us. I think they must have assumed we went the other way.”
“Maybe they decided to let us go,” Izzy said. “No, really. It’s a possibility, isn’t it? Gunner wouldn’t have liked it, and neither would Robert, really, but I know there were some people in that pack who felt like there was something wrong with the way the Omega Games went.”
“Gunner really did cheat,” Wyatt said. “He admitted it to me in the garage. I don’t know what he did with my tire cap, but he took it.”
“I don’t care,” Izzy said. “It doesn’t matter to me if he won or lost those games. You’re the only one I ever wanted, Wyatt. Even if you’d finished last, even if you’d been eliminated in the very first round, I’d never have wanted anyone but you. You know that. It’s been you all along.”
He tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and bent to kiss the mark his bite had left on her neck. “I know,” he said softly. “I feel the same way.”
“What do we do now?” she asked. “We can’t stay here, can we? We have to keep moving.”
“Yes,” Wyatt agreed.
“Do you know where?”
Somewhat ashamed, he shook his head. “I didn’t have a long-term plan,” he admitted. “I just knew we had to get out of there as quickly as possible. Maybe we could go south for a while or something. No one would think to look for wolves down south.”
“Would we have to stay there? I don’t love the idea of heat.”
“It’s better than Gunner though, right?”
She laughed. “What isn’t?”
“We’ll have to ditch the bike, I think. It’s too easily recognized.”
“We can’t leave your bike behind,” she protested. “You built that by hand, Wyatt, it’s your most prized possession.”
“Some things are more important than possessions.”
Izzy seemed to weigh his words, then nodded. “What’s the plan, then?”
“There’s a small town about twenty miles down the highway. I’ll sell the bike there, and we can catch a train to Florida. We’ll stay there until you give birth. When things feel safe again, we’ll start moving north, but we’ll head for a different part of the country, far away from the Hell’s Wolves,” Wyatt said. “The more time goes by, the more likely they are to move on from us. They’ll give up on trying to get us back eventually.”
“Maybe they already have,” Izzy offered again.
Wyatt smiled. It seemed too good to hope for, but he admired her optimism. Through all her ordeals, everything the pack had made her suffer, it seemed that Izzy hadn’t lost hope. “You’re right. Maybe they have.”
He fished in his duffel bag and pulled out a couple of granola bars for himself and Izzy. They ate in silence, each lost in thought. Once we’ve gotten away, he thought, I’ll make her four course breakfasts every morning. Fruit and eggs and ham...she’ll never have to hide in a dirty room eating packaged food again.
They gathered their things—it didn’t take long, since they hadn’t bothered to unpack anything but their toothbrushes last night, exchanged one last lingering kiss, and stepped out the door of their motel room.
And froze.
The parking lot was a sea of motorcycles. And there in the middle, leaning up against his own bike and with his characteristic smirk on his face, was Gunner.
Chapter Eighteen
IZZY
She looked from one face to the next. No one was looking at her. All eyes were on Wyatt.
He didn’t move a muscle. Izzy didn’t know what to think. Would they be dragged back to the Hell’s Wolves’ house? Or would it be worse than that? Would the pack exile Wyatt for trying to help her? If so, they would be apart forever. She saw now that she’d never be able to run away from them, and certainly not without his help. No matter how many times she ran, they would track her down.
Gunner stepped forward slowly. The smile never left his face, but it didn’t reach his eyes, and there was something horrifying about it. “Have a nice night?” he asked quietly.
“Gunner,” Robert said. “There’s no need for that.”
“He has a lot to answer for.”
“Yes, he does. And he will. We don’t need to make a show of it.” He turned to Wyatt and Izzy. “Come here, please.”
It was respectfully phrased, but it was still a command, and Wyatt immediately began to walk forward. He released Izzy’s hand, and she recognized that he was giving her a choice—she wasn’t subject to Robert’s commands, he wasn’t her alpha—
Or was he? She tried to hang back but felt herself compelled to move. It was a feeling like nothing she’d ever experienced before, almost as if the physics of the world had changed and some gravity-like force was acting on her. I’m subject to his orders now, she realized, and fear of the implications fill
ed her. She had lived in his presence for so long that he had gained power over her without her realizing it.
Robert regarded Wyatt. “I want you to tell me why you did this,” he said.
“I don’t think I need to,” Wyatt said. “I think you know why already.”
“Tell us why you did this.” Now it was an order.
Wyatt took a breath. “I did it for every reason,” he said. “I did it because the Omega Games were cruel and unfair. She’s a person. She isn’t yours to give away.”
“The Omega Games are a tradition,” Robert said.
“Yeah, a messed-up tradition. We’re better than that. We can be better than that, Robert. We can treat our omegas like human beings, not just breeding machines.”
Robert sighed. “You’ve read the same books I have, Wyatt. I know you have. You understand as well as I do how rare omegas are, and how important it is that they’re managed appropriately.”
“Books?” Izzy was confused. “What books are you talking about?”
“There’s a collection in the library, a history of pack dynamics over the past two centuries,” Wyatt said. He looked at Robert. “But how did you know I had read it?”
“Lena saw you.” He glanced over his shoulder at his wife. “Everyone notices where I am and what I’m doing. It’s much easier for her to move around the house without drawing any attention. But she pays attention. She sees everything.”
Did she? Izzy wondered. Was it possible Lena knew about her illicit affair with Wyatt? If she did, she clearly hadn’t told. Suddenly Izzy wondered if she had an ally in that house after all.
“What’s in the books?” she asked Wyatt. “What do they say?”
It was Robert who answered. “A hundred years ago, there was a big shifter population,” he said. “This country was full of shifters. But we’ve been dying out. Some of us were killed by humans, and others died in inter-pack wars and rivalries, and now we’re dying out. Our only hope is to breed quickly, to be prolific, and omegas are our best way of doing that.” He took a step forward and rested a hand on Izzy’s shoulder. “I understand that it isn’t fair to you,” he said quietly. “I know that. And I wish it could be different. But I have to think about what’s best for the pack, and I have to think about what’s best for us as a species.”