by J. L. Wilder
She lingered in the doorway, obviously intimidated, but he took her hand and pulled her over the threshold. “We’re leaving campus,” he said. “We’re going to pack some bags and go right now.”
“Leaving!” She looked stunned. “Where are we going to go?”
“We’ll figure that out later.”
“Are you sure about this?” she asked. “This doesn’t seem like a very well thought out plan.”
He took her by the shoulders and faced her. “Am I your alpha, Cait?” he asked. “You have to decide right now. You have to choose to either submit to me completely or resist me. You’ve questioned me up until now, and it’s gotten us into trouble again and again. If this is going to work—and I believe it will work—you need to put your faith in me. Can you do it?”
She hesitated for only a moment.
“Yes,” she said, meeting his eyes. “I can do it. I’m yours.”
“You’ll follow every order I give without question?”
“I will.”
“And you’ll trust me to take care of us—and our babies—even when you think you might know better?”
“I promise,” she said.
He never would have believed that he would be able to extract such a promise from Cait Sterling. It was almost enough to make him want to abandon the idea of packing, throw her down on the bed, and take her, right then and there.
But there was no time for such indulgences. He would have his way with her later. He would take his time, enjoying every inch of her, luxuriating in the fact that she was his. And he would make it the best time she had ever experienced.
For now, he went to his closet and pulled out a hiking backpack. “Fill that with all the clothes you can find—anything that will fit you,” he said. “I’m afraid you’ll have to live in my things until we have the chance to get you some new clothes of your own.”
“That’s okay.” She went to his dresser, opened one of the drawers, and began sifting through his things. Most of his clothes would be far too big for her, but he saw her plucking out pairs of athletic pants and pajamas that tied with a drawstring. She also added a massive pile of t-shirts to the bag.
Grant filled a second bag with things for himself. Then he folded up his tent into the smallest square possible and stuffed it in on top. He fastened the bag closed and turned to see that Cait was doing the same.
“Do we go now?” she asked.
“We have to try to get off campus without being seen,” he said. “There are those who might try to stop us. Especially if your father or Bart has told anyone what happened.”
“I’m sure they have,” Cait said.
Grant nodded. “I think it might be easier if we left separately and tried to meet up somewhere—but I don’t think I can stand to let you out of my sight,” he said. “If anyone caught up to you, you wouldn’t be able to fight them off.”
“But then how are we going to get out of here?” she asked him. “We’ll be much too conspicuous carrying these giant backpacks.”
He shook his head. “Follow my lead,” he said. “I think we can make it if we’re careful. And if I tell you to run, you run. Understood?”
Cait nodded.
Grant was impressed. So recently, he would have worried that she would question his authority, or that she would try to argue. But she was cooperating fully. He had to admit, he was impressed.
“Out the back door,” he said. “The administration building is about thirty yards from here. We’ll go straight for it. If we can get behind it without being seen, we should have a straight shot to the woods.”
“Understood,” Cait said. He thought she looked a little pale, but she hitched her pack onto her shoulders and moved toward the door.
“You go in front,” he said. “I want to be able to see you. Straight to the building and around the corner.”
He opened the door and peeked out.
“Okay,” he said. “All clear. Walk, don’t run. Running will draw attention.”
Cait strode out the door and walked briskly toward the administration building. Grant took one last look back at his home, knowing he was leaving it behind forever, and then closed the door without bothering to lock it and went after her.
The distance to the administration building felt infinite as they crossed it. Although there was no one in sight, Grant couldn’t shake the feeling that they were being watched. It felt as if there were a sniper somewhere far above them who was about to pick them off. He itched to break into a run or to throw his body protectively over Cait’s. But he couldn’t
What we’re doing now is the smartest strategy, he reminded himself. It might feel completely wrong, but it’s actually the best thing we could be doing.
They reached the administration building, finally, and rounded the corner. They stood behind it, backs pressed to the concrete, neither of them daring to speak.
The woods were perhaps fifty yards farther on. But they would be safer now. The building stood between them and the majority of the campus. They would be difficult to find, difficult to see.
Grant was just starting to allow himself to relax when the rear door of the building swung open and someone stepped out.
He froze.
Jim.
Jim stared. He opened his mouth as if to say something, but Grant held up a hand to stop him. He glanced at the door, waiting for it to swing shut. There could be someone right inside, and if Jim tells them he’s seen us, that’ll be it.
The door closed, painfully slowly, on his pneumatic hinges.
“Jim,” Grant said. “Listen. Let me explain.”
“That’s the omega who caused all the trouble,” Jim said. “I recognize her from the picture in her file. Her father called earlier.” He fixed his gaze on Grant. “Is it true? What he’s accusing you of?”
“I imprinted on her, Jim,” Grant said.
“On a student.”
“I couldn’t help it,” Grant said. “It’s an involuntary impulse. You know that. I don’t get to choose who it happens with.”
“Her father’s about to tear your head off,” Jim said. “It’s definitely going to be a fight.”
Grant shook his head. “I’m not going to stay and fight him,” he said. “Cait and I are going now. Unless you’re going to try to stop us?”
Jim sighed. “Don’t do this to me, Grant.”
“No one has to know you saw us,” Grant said. “Just go back inside. No one will ever know you could have stopped us.”
“I really should stop you.”
“You work here because you care about omegas as much as I do,” Grant said. “If they take her, they’ll be taking her back to a life of cruelty and domination. She’ll never be happy. The alpha her father promised her to has treated her badly all her life.”
For a moment, he was afraid that Jim was still going to tell him no, that he was going to open the door and call for assistance. It would take a moment to get more of the administrative staff out there, and then Grant would be badly outnumbered.
Instead, Jim turned to Cait.
“Is he telling the truth?” he asked her. “They treated you badly at home?”
“Yes,” she said. “I didn’t realize there was another way until I came to Omega University. Until I met Grant.”
“And you want to go with him now?”
“I do,” she said, moving closer to him.”
Jim nodded. Then he extended a hand to Grant.
Grant shook it. “Thank you,” he said. “You’ve been a great friend.”
“Take care of yourself out there, will you?” Jim said. “I’ll hold them up here as long as I can, but they’re definitely going to come looking for the two of you. You’re going to have to keep moving. Don’t make camp anywhere near here.”
“Understood,” Grant said. “And thank you, Jim. Sincerely.”
“Go,” Jim said. He opened the door and went back inside.
Grant turned to Cait and took her hand. “All right,” he sai
d. “Are you ready for this?”
“Ready as I’ll ever be.”
“Then let’s go.”
Chapter Eighteen
CAIT
Months later, when she looked back on the whole experience, Cait found it hard to believe that she had adapted as well to life in the wild as she had.
Grant, on the other hand, didn’t seem surprised by it at all. “You’re a shifter,” he told her when she commented on it. “You’re made for this sort of thing. If we wanted to, we could probably get rid of the tent altogether and be just fine.”
“Don’t even think about it,” Cait said. Living wild was one thing, but she was still human enough to want a warm place to sleep every night.
Their first month away from the school had been frightening. They had been constantly on the move. After the first day, they had judged it best to shift before traveling to move quickly. That meant carrying their backpacks in their mouths, a task that made Cait’s jaw ache.
They had spent the first week fearful of sleep, staying awake in turns to watch for any sign of pursuit. Finally, after seven days of nothing, Grant had said that he thought it was safe for the two of them to sleep at the same time.
They hadn’t established a permanent campsite until they had been on the run for five weeks, at which point, Grant had said that they were far enough north not to be pursued. “If they’re still after us, odds are good they’ve lost our trail by now,” he’d said. “We’ll stay alert. But I don’t think we need to run anymore.”
Now it was five months since they had left the school, and Cait no longer looked over her shoulder, no longer jumped at the sound of a twig snapping. She hadn’t seen another person, apart from Grant, in all that time.
Finally, she felt safe.
She dangled her feet in the river that ran by their campsite, allowing the current to drag them gently to one side. Beside her, her fishing rod—crudely fashioned from some string and a stick—stood propped between three rocks. Grant was skilled at fishing and could do it in wolf form, dipping his giant head in the water and emerging with a fish between his teeth. But today, Grant was hunting for rabbits, and Cait was in charge of fish. And she had never had any luck hunting as a wolf.
Grant insisted it was a skill she would learn, given time. She supposed that was probably true. But lately, they hadn’t spent much time on training.
She leaned back against the tree that stood behind her and rested her hands on her belly. Though she was only five months pregnant, she had grown substantially. She felt full and ripe, beautiful in a way she never could have anticipated.
It turns out Grant was right, she mused. I would have missed out if I had never accepted my role as an omega. I would never have experienced this.
And if pregnancy was this wonderful, what would motherhood be like? She could only imagine.
The fishing line jerked beside her, and she grabbed the stick and tugged back the way Grant had taught her. She could feel the fish wriggling on the end of the line, so she hauled it up and out of the water.
It was a fat trout, eyeing her balefully, and she felt a surge of pride. Grant wouldn’t really be expecting her to bring anything back from the river, she knew. He was always pleased with her for trying to fish, but he didn’t consider her to be skilled or experienced enough to actually rely on for food.
She hauled herself to her feet—she had to use a tree branch to pull herself upright, thanks to her ungainly pregnant body—and made her way back to camp, determined to get the fish cleaned and on the fire before Grant returned.
Sure enough, when he came into camp with a rabbit slung over his shoulder, he cried out in pleased surprise to see her frying up her fish. “A good dinner tonight, then,” he said, settling down to skin his rabbit. “And you’ve got the fire nice and hot, so I’ll be able to cook this up quickly when you’re finished.”
“I’m getting good at this life,” she said.
“You’re doing very well,” he agreed. “If I’d known you would take to it this easily, I would have suggested leaving Omega University sooner.”
“I can’t help wondering what Bart thinks about it all,” Cait admitted. “He must still be so angry that we disappeared right under his nose like that.”
“I imagine your father found another mate for him,” Grant said, carefully dicing up the rabbit meat and skewering it onto two spits. “Did your pack have another omega?”
“No,” she said. “I was the only one.”
“Then he’s probably still at Shifter University,” Grant said. “Probably hoping to meet and mate with one of the Omega U girls.”
“I hope he treats her well, whoever she is,” Cait said. She felt a pang of guilt at the thought that she might have condemned one of her classmates to a life of brutality with her disappearance.
“It will be easier for a full-grown omega to resist submitting to him than it was for you, as a child,” Grant said. “And there will be no father figure telling any of the girls that they have to acquiesce to his demands. My guess is that Bart will learn the lesson all alphas are taught at Shifter University—that they have to treat omegas well, or they risk losing them. If anything will drive that home for him, it’ll be the fact that he lost you.”
Cait removed the pan with the fish in it from the fire, allowing Grant to hold his two skewers over the flame. He rotated them slowly, cooking the meat evenly as Cait divided the fish into two equal portions.
“You should take more than me,” Grant said, watching her.
“No, I shouldn’t.” She pushed his share toward him.
He pushed some of it back. “You’re eating for God only knows how many,” he said. “I want to make sure they get the nutrients they need.”
She couldn’t argue with that. She accepted a little of the fish back. “But I don’t want you going to bed hungry,” she said.
“Not a chance,” he assured her. “Rabbit and fish? That’s more than enough to feed everyone. Don’t worry about it.”
They ate their food in relative silence as the sun began to sink low on the horizon. Cait had come to relish this part of the day, when the air was cool and the animals around them called out to each other. She had never realized just how human her life was when she’d lived in a dormitory. Now, feeling the give of the earth under her feet, smelling the trees around her, she felt she was truly where she belonged.
The night was clear, so Cait and Grant dragged their sleeping rolls out of the tent and into their little clearing to sleep under the stars. “It’s so beautiful here,” Cait said, snuggling up beside him under the blanket they shared, taking warmth from the heat of his body. “It’s strange to think that this was always here. Even when I was living with my father. Even when Bart was tormenting me. These woods were always here. Waiting for me.”
“Waiting for us.” Grant ran his hand over the swell of her stomach. “You’re getting big.”
“You don’t have to tell me,” she said, laughing. “I feel like I’m carrying a fifty-pound beach ball around with me.”
“Mmm.” He slipped his hands beneath her shirt, his fingers tracing up the skin of her torso until his hands came to rest on her breasts. “I like you this way.”
“Ballooned up?”
“You’re my omega,” he said. “You’re perfect like this.”
Cait slept in nothing but one of Grant’s oversized t-shirts these days, a habit she had taken up happily on his orders. So when he rolled her to her side and positioned himself behind her, he was able to enter her easily, with no awkward repositioning of clothes. It was as natural as everything else in their lives was now that they lived in the wild.
Cait sighed with relief and pleasure as he began to fuck her. Lately, she was hungry for this all the time, her body craving him the way it craved food. She managed to mute the craving in her mind most of the time, but as soon as they lay down together at night, it was all she could do to keep from straddling his hips and grinding down on him until she got the pleasure s
he longed for.
He dragged two fingers down over her belly, stopping between her legs, letting her rock into his hand for friction but not moving, not yet. She didn’t protest, didn’t beg for more, even though she wanted it more than anything. This was Grant, her alpha. He would take care of her. All she had to do was show a little patience.
Grant loved patience.
Grant loved knowing that he was in control, that Cait trusted him, that she would wait for him and let him decide when she got what she needed.
And, Cait had come to realize, she loved it too.
She trusted him so fully. She knew he wouldn’t leave her wanting. He would ensure that she was cared for.
He fucked her slowly, just the way she liked it, humming pleasurably in her ear as he did so. “You’re going to come so hard,” he said softly. “You’re going to be out of your mind with it, Cait. Because you’re so good, and so patient, and it’s what you deserve.”
She shivered with pleasure, her hips hitching involuntarily.
Grant applied just a little pressure with his hand.
It was enough. The hormones surging through her body did the rest, and she came with a cry, body arching, limbs trembling, eyes squeezed shut tight. Nothing in the world felt as good as Grant did. He knew her body better than she knew it herself, and he knew exactly what to do to make it sing with pleasure.
When she had recovered her breathing, he turned her, lifting her onto her hands and knees, and began to fuck her hard. This, she knew, was the way he liked it best, but he would never take care of his own needs until he knew she had come at least once.
My alpha.
She wanted to make it good for him, as good as he had made it for her. She ached to please him. She dug her hands into the ground and pushed back against his thrusts, increasing the depth and the tempo, fucking herself hard on him until he came with a shout and collapsed against her back, one arm on the ground bracing him and keeping the bulk of his weight off of her.
With a low groan, he rolled away onto his back. Cait lay down and snuggled into his shoulder.
“That was something,” she said quietly as his arm came to settle around her.