Ty
The Boundarylands Omegaverse
Callie Rhodes
Contents
TY
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
The Boundarylands Omegaverse Series
About the Author
TY
Book 2 in The Boundarylands Omegaverse Series
She was left for dead, but Mia wasn’t truly lost until her Alpha found her.
No woman willingly travels to the Boundarylands.
It’s where they are—the Alphas.
They keep to themselves in the wilderness, and beta civilization knows to keep its distance. Especially beta women…for fear they may not be a beta after all.
The only way to know your true nature is to feel the touch of an Alpha. Omegas may be rare, but every woman knows their fates are hellish—held captive, broken, mated, knotted, and bred.
Injured and abandoned in the heart of the Boundarylands, Mia knows her chances of making it back to civilization alive are slim. Still, she has to try. But when a massive Alpha captures her first, she can’t stop the desire she feels for him.
Mia has always been a survivor, but not even she can fight the overwhelming hunger surging through her, or the need to be his in every possible way.
Chapter One
"Dustin, this isn't funny."
Panic constricted Mia Baird's throat. Her voice came out so high and shrill, she barely recognized the sound. "You have to stop this. Tell Josh to turn the car around. Now."
Her lanky, blond boyfriend didn't react to her words. No surprise. Dustin's expression and posture hadn't changed in the last forty minutes. No matter how she screamed and pleaded, he stayed silent, his mouth slack, his body loosely draped against the backseat of his best friend's BMW, staring vacantly out the window.
Mia had to find a way to get through to him. This stupid joke had gone way too far. She grabbed on to his shoulders and shook him hard.
"Dustin!"
Thankfully, the violent physical contact broke through Dustin's stupor. His glassy eyes shifted away from the dark landscape blurring past his window and over to her face. Mia's stomach twisted as he let out a breath that reeked of tequila and stale cigarettes.
Dear God, how much did he drink tonight? What other substances had he taken when she wasn't looking?
"Dustin, please," Mia tried again, hoping more than believing that she was getting through to her boyfriend.
Well, her ex-boyfriend now, because you better believe the first thing she was going to do once she was back in safe territory was dump his sorry ass.
Of course, she'd have to live that long first.
"Shut her up, man," a slurred voice shouted from the front seat.
Mia swiveled her head to glare at the driver. The bastard's reflection shot her a cruel smile back in the rear-view mirror.
She didn't need to waste her time with him. He was past redemption. Her only chance at this point lay with Dustin.
And, it looked like she might finally be getting through.
Hope bloomed in Mia's chest as the blurry look in Dustin's eyes started to clear. She prayed that meant he was coming out of his drug-filled haze.
Unfortunately, that hope didn't last long.
Dustin grabbed her arm, his fingernails biting brutally into her skin. "You heard Josh," he snarled, the words tangling together in his mouth. "Shut up."
Mia tried her best to shake free from his grasp, but Dustin held tight. He might have been high as hell, but he was still strong.
"Dustin, you don't have to this," Mia tried again. Maybe now that he was looking into her eyes, he could see reason. "It's crazy. Don't you know what will happen once my father—"
A loud smack resounded through the car. Mia registered the sound before she felt the pain. A second later, a familiar stinging burn spread across her cheek. She clasped her hand over her face to cover the mark she knew Dustin's palm had left behind.
Holy shit.
He'd hit her. She'd been hit plenty of times before, but never by Dustin. They'd only been a couple for five months, but she wanted to believe he was different.
Stupid her.
Mia knew only too well that if he was angry enough to slap her, then he was willing to do a whole lot worse.
New fear swept through Mia, harsh and biting like a winter wind. Deep down, she'd been holding out hope that this was all a big joke. A cruel and terrible one, sure, but she had convinced herself that at some point Dustin and Josh were going to decide they'd proved their point and turn the car around.
Now, Mia knew for certain that wasn't going to happen.
"This is what you get." Josh chuckled gleefully behind the wheel. "You should have thought about the consequences before you started kissing random guys like a little slut."
"Lil' slut," Dustin repeated, his drunken mouth hopelessly slurring the words.
But Mia hadn't kissed anyone. The guy in the concert crowd had grabbed her. He'd kissed her. Assaulted her, really. Mia had squirmed and flailed and tried to get away—but apparently not hard enough to satisfy Dustin.
Not that any of this was Dustin's idea. Her shithead of a boyfriend was far too drug-addled to put together a coherent plan right now.
This was all Josh.
Even now, she could see the anger in his eyes in the rear-view mirror, his burning need for revenge.
Mia closed her eyes. This couldn't be happening. She couldn't be trapped in the backseat of a car while two drunk frat boys drove her deep into the heart of the Boundarylands.
She wasn't even supposed to be here. She should have been back in her dorm, studying for midterms. That was where everyone thought she was—her parents, her professors, her friends.
But instead, she'd let Dustin talk her into driving all the way up the California coast with him and Josh to go to Frontier Fest, the biggest off-the-grid concert festival in the west.
Her father would kill her if he found out where she'd gone. The festival was held in the furthest northern reaches of California civilization, only five miles from the Boundarylands border. It was billed as a three-day party where anything could happen, where you could cast off the beta world's worries and expectations for a while.
And for the first day, that's exactly what it was.
Mia'd had a great time dancing and drinking and experiencing a rare sense of freedom, something that had been sorely lacking in her life.
She should have known it couldn't last.
It all ended when a stranger had groped her in the crowd. She had turned to Josh, expecting help—but instead of being sympathetic, Josh had been emboldened to make his own first move. His harsh words came back to her now: he demanded to know why Mia would kiss strangers, but not him. She had tried to make him understand she didn't want any attention, but Josh refused to listen. Even though Dustin stood only a few yards away, he tried coming on to her again. And again.
And again.
Each time, Mia dodged Josh's advances, but that only made him try harder. He kept touching her when Dustin wasn't around, trying to kiss her, to slide his hands up her dress.
Finally, Mia had enough. She'd stopped being polite. She'd slapped his hands away and told him to go to hell.
And now it seemed he was shuttling her there himself.
"I'm sorry," she tried, trying to inject some sincerity int
o her voice. But Josh's icy gaze didn't reveal a shred of pity.
"Not as sorry as you're going to be."
The bastard straightened his arms, bracing himself against the steering wheel as he slammed his foot on the brakes. Tires squealed against the pavement as they locked.
The force of the sudden stop threw both Mia and Dustin forward. They crashed against the back of the seats in front of them. Dustin let out a loud belch, looking green. Mia felt sick herself, though not for the same reason.
"Josh?" Her voice trembled from the fear that was roiling inside her.
She didn't dare ask why he'd stopped. Mia had a terrible feeling that she already knew the answer.
Josh spun around in his seat. Nothing but disdain shone in his cold blue eyes. "Get out."
No.
Mia shook her head violently. There was no way in hell she was stepping outside of this car. Not here, not in the middle of the goddamn Boundarylands. Had he lost his mind?
"Josh, don't be—"
"Get out!" Spittle flew from Josh's lips as he screeched in her face.
"Fuck you," she hurled back.
Josh's face turned bright red, a slow smile curling his lips.
"Don't worry," he said in a parody of concern. "We'll come back for you in the morning. I'm sure by then you'll be happy to see me."
Mia's blood turned to ice. The bastard was going to leave her here knowing full well that she might not live until morning.
"You can't do this, Josh. I'll die out there." She tried to keep the panic from her voice as she spoke what they both knew to be the ugly truth. "If I run into an alpha, he'll kill me."
"Don't be ridiculous," Josh sneered. "You'll just fuck him like a little slut. Knowing how many men you've already had between your legs, you're probably loose enough that he won't even rip you in half."
"You—you asshole!"
"It's your asshole you should be worried about," Josh chuckled, before turning toward Dustin. "Open the door."
"No." Panicking, Mia wrapped both arms around the seat in front of her and held on for dear life.
Josh clawed at her arms, but Mia refused to let go. Eventually, Dustin roused enough to get out of the car and pull her by the legs. After a minute of being both pushed from one side and pulled from another, Mia's strength gave out.
She landed hard on the pavement. Her fingers scrabbled on the jagged ground as she tried to claw her way back to the car, nails tearing, but it was no use. Dustin dragged her toward the side of the road. Rocks and debris cut into her forearms and legs with every step he took.
"Dustin, stop," she begged. "Please."
Mia knew this was her last chance to get through to him. To make him see reason. To make him grow a backbone and stand up to his friend.
Dustin flung her down on the side of the road. Mia flipped over, looking up into his unfocused eyes.
At that moment, her last shred of hope disappeared. He was too far gone. Too drunk. Too high. And something else…too heartless, something she'd never admitted to herself before.
"I warned you Josh had a temper," Dustin smirked. "I told you not to get on his bad side. But you didn't listen, did you, Mia? You never listen."
Josh gunned the engine of his BMW. The tires spun on the side of the road, kicking up pebbles and throwing out smoke. "Come on, man, we've gotta get the fuck out of here!"
Just as always, Dustin did what his best friend told him to do. He was back inside the car before Mia managed to push herself up to her knees. By the time she had staggered to her feet, the BMW had executed a sloppy U-turn and was speeding away…leaving Mia alone in the dark.
Chapter Two
Mia was never going to make it out of the Boundarylands.
The horrible realization settled into her, taking over her mind and body as she limped along the road in the moonlight, trying to ignore the rustling sounds and gleaming eyes in the forest on either side of the road. She'd done her best to deny the truth as long as she could, but as the minutes ticked past, she could no longer pretend she had a chance. The odds were stacked too high against her.
She was at least twenty miles into alpha territory…and that was way too deep.
Maybe if she were a trained long-distance runner she could have made it back to safe territory by morning, but she wasn't. She was just a regular girl in a tight dress and strappy heels with makeup streaked under her eyes and knots in her hair…and a busted knee.
She couldn't forget about the knee.
Not that the pain that shot up the length of her leg with every step would ever allow her. Neither would the slow stream of blood trickling down her calf.
Mia figured her knee cap must have cracked against the pavement when Dustin had tossed her to the side of the road like a bag of trash. She hadn't felt the pain at the time, but she sure as shit felt it now.
For the last hour, she'd gritted her teeth and tried to push past the ache and despair. Even from her first step, she knew that escape was a long shot, but she had to do something. Josh and Dustin weren't coming back for her—not until morning, at least, and probably not even then. And no one else knew where she was.
If Mia made it out of the Boundarylands in one piece, it would be because she dragged herself out.
Emphasis on the word dragged.
Even in the pale moonlight, Mia could see a dark bruise swelling beneath the skin. Walking was agony, and speed was impossible. She guessed she'd only traveled a mile and a half in the last hour.
At this rate, she wouldn't make it halfway to the boundary before dawn.
Still, she had to keep going.
What other choice was there? Crawl into the ditch on the side of the road and wait for some alpha to find her?
And when he did…
Oh, God. She refused to think about it. She only hoped when he found her, he would kill her quickly instead of toying with her.
Mia rounded a corner, and the pale yellowish light of a roadside sign illuminated the stretch of the Central Highway before her.
The sign read EVANDER'S BAR. Behind it, tucked back into the edge of the woods, was a nondescript low-slung wood-sided roadhouse, its windows dark. Only one old truck was parked in the corner of the dirt lot.
Mia didn't remember passing the place on the way in. Then again, she'd been focused on other things.
She stayed very still, terrified that there were alphas inside. It was late—past two in the morning—but could Boundaryland bars really be expected to follow beta curfew laws?
Somehow, Mia doubted it.
She inched forward, letting out a ragged breath. The place looked empty, but just to be safe, she crossed to the opposite side of the road as she hobbled by.
She had just limped past the corner of the lot when the sound of creaking hinges stopped her mid-step. The slam of a heavy door followed.
Mia froze. Afraid to breathe, she tucked her arms in tight, making herself as small as possible.
Maybe she'd be okay. She was out of the light, just past the line of sight from the front door. As long as she stayed still and quiet, she might go unnoticed.
She closed her eyes at the sound of heavy footsteps. Wood planks groaned as someone walked down the bar's front steps.
Mia had never seen an alpha before—not a live one, anyway. Very few people had. There was a part of her that wanted to see for herself just how massive the creature behind her actually was, but she didn't dare turn around to sneak a peek.
Curiosity wasn't the same thing as stupidity.
The night was almost unnaturally still, and Mia's heart thudded in time with the crunch of boots on loose gravel. She silently willed him to walk the other way, to get in the truck, to go back inside. Anything except come closer.
"Bad news, lady," a deep voice growled. "You've been left behind."
Mia jumped at the sound and took a few staggering strides as her knee surged with fresh pain. Somehow, she swallowed the cry that threatened to spill out of her lips.
Maybe he
wasn't talking to her. Maybe there was someone else in the parking lot. Maybe—
"You must be new. Though you're not going to make it in this profession if you spook that easy."
She was as good as dead.
Mia opened her mouth to beg for her life, but fear had stolen her voice. She could barely breathe.
"Relax." His footsteps grew louder. He was coming closer. "Worrying won't do any good. There's nowhere to go until morning."
Mia didn't know if she could run. Then again, she didn't have much of a choice. If she was lucky, a surge of adrenaline would kick in and numb the pain.
"Next time, make sure you leave a little earlier." The alpha kept talking, his voice devoid of emotion. "Nicky likes to make sure all the girls are out of here by two."
Nicky? The girls? What the hell was he talking about? Mia finally glanced over her shoulder in consternation, and the sight caused her breath to lodge in her throat.
The alpha was huge. So much bigger than she'd imagined. He had to be over seven feet tall, and as wide as Josh and Dustin put together.
But that wasn't the most shocking thin…he was gorgeous. Not pretty. Not movie-star chiseled. But sexy, and virile, and overwhelmingly masculine. The sight of him was both terrifying and intriguing at the same time. Mia couldn't look away.
Unfortunately, he seemed just as interested in her. She could feel his gaze intensify as he cocked his head to the side.
"I don't remember seeing you before," he said, almost conversationally. "What's your name?"
Mia opened her mouth, but nothing came out.
He stepped closer. Too close. Out of the parking lot and onto the edge of the road.
Ty (The Boundarylands Omegaverse Book 2) Page 1