Still, Faith had to try. She had to fight. Because if she did, there was a chance that God would come through and deliver a miracle.
So Faith did the only thing she could.
She spun around and ran like hell.
Behind her, she heard the alpha laugh.
"Good choice," he called after her.
Chapter Five
The poor girl had no idea what was happening to her.
At first, Troy had thought she might just be skittish. Most omegas were at first.
After all, transitions could be overwhelming, filled with unfamiliar feelings and urges that were often at odds with everything the beta world taught. After a lifetime of having their heads filled with shit about how evil and dangerous alphas were, it was hard to blame omegas for being afraid.
But what Faith was going through right before Troy’s eyes was on an entirely different level.
The conflicting emotions that she was experiencing went far deeper than a struggle to come to terms with her new nature. This was a woman who didn't have the most basic understanding of sexual desire.
It was because she'd never felt it before, Troy realized. She'd probably never witnessed anyone else experiencing it, either, given her sheltered existence.
Lust, for Faith, was an abstract concept. Something that she'd been warned against all her life. Something sinful and evil. Something that the devil used to tempt innocents.
Faith couldn't ask for what she didn't understand. She couldn't beg for what she didn't recognize.
She could only run away from it.
But Troy could chase her.
He could give her what she needed by overcoming her resistance, taking away the will that kept her from accepting her true nature.
It wasn’t just Faith’s omega identity that was causing her so much anguish. Just below the surface, Troy could sense all the desires and feelings she'd had to repress for so long. The needs that had gone unmet. The decisions she’d never had the freedom to make.
It was clear that Faith had been made to see her own body as a shameful thing to cover up, an instrument only of procreation, never pleasure.
But Troy could show her everything her body was capable of. Everything that she'd been missing. He could help her overcome the bullshit lies she'd been told, and unlock the infinite pleasures that were her due.
He wouldn't get there by asking permission, or by being kind and considerate. He'd never convince her with words.
A lifetime of lies wasn't going to vanish because of a gentle suggestion.
Troy had felt the way Faith's body came to life when her protests met his aggression.
He didn't care if he was confirming everything she'd ever heard about alphas being the devil's soldiers—for the moment, it was a role he didn't mind playing.
Not when overpowering her had unleashed a rush of slick that soaked her thighs and turned her voice into a guttural moan.
Troy's cock somehow grew even harder as he watched her run through the snow. Faith was a petite woman with short legs, and even on her best day, she could never outrun him. Slowed by those ridiculous ugly shoes and the deep snow, she didn't stand a chance.
He watched her slipping on the ice buried beneath the fresh snowfall, her long skirts tangling her legs and hobbling her pace. At this rate, Troy could give her an hour's head start and still catch up to her in no time flat.
But he didn't have the patience.
His little innocent wasn't the only one fueled by unfulfilled need right now. Troy had been on fire for her ever since he'd first touched her. If he hadn't exhausted his pent-up lust just a few nights ago with one of Nicky's girls, he had a feeling he wouldn't have made it home without taking her.
But he'd forced himself to wait.
The frightened rabbit trying to scurry away from him wasn't an experienced, well-trained prostitute. Faith was an omega—soon to be his omega—and she deserved a better introduction to her new life than a sloppy fuck in the back of his truck. She deserved a first time she'd never forget.
And he was ready to give it to her.
Troy didn't have to run to catch up with Faith. A few brisk strides were all it took to cover the distance between them.
He didn't take her down, though—not right away. He didn't have to. Besides, his instincts told him to draw out the chase a little, to play with her like a cat who'd cornered a mouse.
"You'll need to run faster if you really want to get away," he said mildly.
Faith glanced at him, breathing raggedly, and her emotions shifted.
The terror he'd sensed earlier had receded, replaced by…alarm. That, along with overwhelming internal conflict, created a heady bouquet of emotions that held far more excitement than fear.
A fresh wave of slick poured from her, dampening her skirts all the way to the knees. The intoxicating scent teased Troy, and his cock surged in response, pressing painfully against the zipper of his pants.
Fuck, she smelled sweet.
Troy clenched his hands into fists to prevent himself from taking her down right then and there.
He could wait just a little longer.
He wanted her wound up and desperate for him when he finally gave her what she needed. He wanted her body screaming for him, so there was no way she could deny the fire that burned between them.
"Run, little rabbit," he said. "Or the wolf's going to catch you."
Faith blanched at his harsh tone, but she made no effort to speed up…and it wasn't because she couldn't. Troy knew betas were capable of intense bursts of strength and speed when they thought their lives depended on it.
"You don't want to run faster, do you?" he said in a low, seductive voice, knowing it would get under her skin. The same way her sultry scent drove him wild. "Because you don't really want to get away. You want me to catch you."
"Shut up, devil," she hissed.
Troy slowly smiled. His little provocateur had some fire to her, that was for sure.
"That's not a no," he observed. Far from it.
She didn't respond, but the scent of her slick intensified, and Troy licked his lips in anticipation.
He'd had enough. He couldn't wait any longer.
"You're about to find out what the devil can do," Troy growled, taking her in his arms and then to the ground, letting the snow break his fall as she landed on top of him.
Faith kicked and thrashed in a half-hearted attempt to get free. It would have made him laugh if he wasn't on fire with darker thoughts. He'd seen and scented her true desperation back at Evander's earlier, and this paled in comparison.
Faith was fighting against the inevitable—but it wasn't the assault of a stranger that she feared most. The thing that Faith was battling so hard was herself, her own needs and desires. Her true nature.
Troy rolled her onto her back, pried open her knees, and positioned himself in between. He could feel her dampness through his jeans, and it took every ounce of his control not to tear them off and plunge inside her.
"Get off me," she yelled.
"I could do that," Troy said, adopting a bored tone as he propped himself up on his elbow. "Or I could stay and show you all those dirty things they warned you about. The ones you were too afraid to ask about. The ones that kept you up at night."
Faith's eyes widened, her hips involuntarily rocking against him. As hard as she'd fought him before, as desperate as she'd initially been to escape him, it was a distant memory now. Her body was taking over her conscious mind, its demands meeting less and less resistance from her virtue.
"You…really are the devil's spawn," she stammered.
He shook his head. "My name is Troy. Say it."
Faith shook her head, her long blonde hair splayed against the snow. Her eyes rolled back as she fought a battle inside herself.
"I won't," she whispered.
Troy slid his hand up her skirt, her silken skin at odds with the heavy, scratchy fabric of her dress. He caressed her thigh, dipping between her legs.
"Say it," he repeated.
* * *
Faith would never say his name.
It didn't matter how hard she had to clench her jaw. She would bite her tongue clean off if she had to.
The alpha was a devil, and that's all he would ever be to her. Nothing would change that.
Not even the huge, strong hand stroking her thigh, its very rhythm an obscenity.
Faith trembled at the sensation of his fingertips caressing her naked flesh, coming dangerously closer with each stroke to…that place.
No one had ever touched her like this. No one had ever touched her there. Not Peter—not anyone.
It wasn't something decent people did. It wasn't right.
But if that was the case, why wasn't she resisting? Why wasn't she kicking and screaming? Why wasn't she trying to force this beast off her so she could save herself?
The alpha might be twice her size, but he was on his knees straddling her, not holding her down. There was nothing preventing Faith from wriggling out and running away again.
Nothing but the strange, wicked sensations that kept building inside her, inflamed by his unholy ministrations, threatening to boil over at any second.
And if that happened…
Faith gasped as a new torrent of slick splashed from within. He slid his hand through it, rubbing it between his fingers, exulting in it. She added yet another sin to the list—it had to be idolatry, the pleasure he took from her shameful wetness—but then he slipped a finger lightly over her hard nub, and she gasped.
He hadn't been lying. He'd meant what he'd said about touching her there.
And if he hadn't been bluffing about using his fingers, maybe he hadn't been lying about his lips either.
As if reading her mind, he lifted his hand and made a show of letting her slick drip down onto his tongue. His eyes drifted closed, and he let out a growl—deeper and lower than any sound he'd made yet—that shook the air around them. A sharp shiver, part pleasure and part ache, ran through Faith at the sound.
Suddenly, she understood the real danger she was in. It wasn't from the alpha in front of her, but from the building sensations in her own body.
This had to be what her parents had warned her about, the reason they'd never wanted to leave her alone with boys—even Peter.
Not that Faith had ever felt this way about poor scrawny Peter. Not even close.
But now it was her own emotions that couldn't be trusted. To be so easily seduced—she might as well have never set eyes on a Bible. One touch, one growl, and she was drenching her clothes with the proof of her sinful thoughts.
Panic and disgust with herself combined to make Faith try to push the alpha away for him for real, but as she writhed underneath him, her hips rocked up against his huge thigh.
A bright, almost sharp sensation zinged through Faith, starting low in her belly and rocketing outward. She cried out, digging her fingers into the arms she'd been trying to escape only a second earlier.
What was that?
Faith had no idea. All she knew was that some deep, primal part of her wanted—needed—to experience it again.
Her hips moved against him again, almost as if on their own. Her arms stretched out across the ground for leverage as she bucked.
She tried to convince herself that she was only trying to free herself, but it was a lie. Even the alpha seemed to know better.
He seized her hips in his hands and forced her to stillness. Faith's lips trembled as frustration spread through her body. She clenched her teeth in a desperate effort to contain her moans.
The alpha gazed at her with humorless intensity. His mouth set in a hard line; his eyes narrowed dangerously. "Say my name, and I'll give you what you want."
Faith bit her lip and shook her head. She wouldn't do it. She'd sooner die.
Except…the unmet yearning inside her felt like a kind of death, evidence of the numbness that had taken over her life until she had crossed the border into this land and encountered this alpha.
She already felt as though she would die from the overwhelming need that was tearing her apart from the inside out.
"You're the devil," she tried, but her voice sounded unfamiliar and weak to her own ears.
The alpha raised an eyebrow and moved his hand back between her legs, so close to her panties that his fingertips brushed against the sodden fabric.
"A devil, maybe," he conceded. "But that's not what I want to hear."
Faith's back arched as he slowly traced the pads of his thumbs back and forth against her cleft, pushing the fabric of her panties ever so slightly inside her, then glancing lightly—achingly lightly—against her nub. She'd never given that part of her anatomy much thought, but now it seemed to be the source of the heat that threatened to turn into a firestorm and consume everything in its path.
She wanted more…so much more.
The problem was that Faith didn't know what would satisfy her craving.
But the alpha did.
He knew, and he'd promised to give it to her…and all she had to do was say his name.
Abruptly, he withdrew his hand. "You want me to touch you there again, don't you? You want to know what it would feel like if I drew little circles on it with my thumb?"
God, yes. That's exactly what she wanted. She wanted to feel that.
She needed to feel that.
But she couldn't. It wasn't right. And it only proved this alpha was evil for deliberately tempting her this way.
Faith drew in a deep breath, forced her body to rigid stillness, and prayed for resolve.
The alpha countered by slipping his thumb under the elastic of her panties, teasing the lips of her privates. The touch was soft—a whisper, a promise of all that she could have if she would only turn her back on her upbringing and say his name.
Faith bit the inside of her cheek so hard she tasted blood. God wasn't answering her prayers. He wasn't delivering her from this temptation, and she could feel herself being dragged under by the alpha's promise of pleasure.
Sexual pleasure.
That's what Faith had felt when she'd bucked against him. It wasn't something she had ever experienced before. The church taught that its very existence was sinful.
And given her current state—spread-eagled on the ground, writhing beneath a creature twice her size for another taste—it was hard to disagree with them.
He leaned in close, his breath hot against her ear. "Say it, Faith."
She couldn't.
She wouldn't.
"Say it."
The alpha flicked his thumb. The breath left Faith's lungs in a rush.
"Troy."
Chapter Six
The alpha reacted instantly.
He seized the top elastic band of Faith's plain white cotton panties with both hands and ripped them in half before tearing them from her body. Faith shivered as the icy air rushed in, cooling her heated skin.
If she could feel the wind against her, then she was exposed. Troy could see her nakedness, something no man had ever witnessed before.
She tried to push the hem of her dress down, driven by instinct to regain some modicum of modesty, but Troy wouldn't allow it. He hiked the skirt all the way up over her hips to her belly, baring every inch of her legs…and what was between them.
"It's too late to hide," he said, his voice half whisper, half growl.
Faith wished the sound of his voice didn't affect her so deeply. There was something about the deep timbre that seemed to reach all the way inside her, making her want to believe every word he said, to put her trust in him.
Of course it did, the last shred of reason shouted in her head, trying to wrench her attention away from the sensations assaulting her. That was the sound of seduction, just another one of the devil's tools for making betas believe his lies.
Except…Troy had said she wasn't a beta anymore. He had said she was one of the fallen.
An omega.
Before Faith could feel the sting o
f shame, Troy pushed her knees even farther apart and made good on his promise.
The pad of his thumb touched that spot again, the one that made her feel like she was drowning in a sea of liquid heat.
He didn't have to fumble or search, seeming to know exactly where to find it.
And exactly what to do once he got there.
Because he’s deliberately tempting you to evil, that warning voice in her head screamed, pleading for her attention.
This time Faith surprised herself by being the one to silence it.
She'd listened to that little voice her whole life. It had been present from her earliest memories, criticizing and shaming her. Sometimes the voice sounded like her mother, sometimes like her father--but it was always there, telling her what to think, what to do, and how to feel until her own will slowly faded away.
It had been a long time since Faith had even thought to desire something just for herself.
But this sensation? She'd never experienced anything like it before. It wasn't just that she wanted to pay attention to it—she had to. Every touch, every caress, every glance from this alpha bade her body to react, sending electric urges along her nerves and forcing her to submit.
And Faith couldn't help but obey.
But these feelings were too new…and too much. They threatened to rob her of her control.
Faith wasn't sure if she could handle that. Fear made her pull back, searching wildly for some defense, something to hold onto. Her fingers scrabbled in the snow, aching with cold, desperate for an anchor.
There was none to be had.
So instead, she lifted her hands to Troy's shoulders. Instantly, the heat of his skin radiated through her, bringing life back into her stiff fingers. She ran her hands along his hard muscle and hung on tight.
That was much better. Faith sighed and relaxed into the feeling of his body. Everything about Troy was strong and certain, allowing her enough calm to push the fear away and simply experience what she was feeling.
Troy (The Boundarylands Omegaverse Book 5) Page 4