When they finally pulled apart, tears streaked Hope's face too. "Oh, Little Bird, I've missed you so much," she said, using the nickname she'd given Faith when they were kids. "I've been so worried."
"I'd thought I'd lost you," Faith confessed, unable to let go of her sister's hands. "Mom and dad told everyone you were dead."
Hope brushed away her tears. "They told you that after I came to the Boundarylands?"
Faith shook her head. "No, right after you left home. They told everyone you were murdered in the city. I've been mourning you for the last five years."
"Oh, Faith, I'm so sorry," Hope said, pulling her in tight again. "I wish I hadn't left you behind."
"But I wouldn't have gone with you back then even if you'd begged." Five years ago, Faith had been caught up completely in the teachings of the church.
"But if you thought I was dead, how did you know to come looking for me here?"
Faith told her sister about the article she'd found in their parent's kitchen, and the clandestine trip she'd made to the library. About stealing their parent's van and driving all the way here in a single day.
The only thing she didn't tell Hope about was Troy.
Hope's face revealed a wealth of emotion as she listened, from shock to horror to amusement. When Faith was finished telling the story, Hope gently wiped away the last of her tears with her thumb.
"I always knew you were hiding a backbone under those stupid long dresses." Her smile faltered. "Though Maddox tells me you said you'd come to take me back home."
"Maddox is the father of your…" Faith trailed off, not sure what term to use. Baby? Pup? "…child?"
"Maddox is my mate," Hope said firmly. "My husband."
"Your sister prefers to call me devil."
Faith followed the sound of the deep, masculine voice to the break in the forest where Hope had been. Sure enough, a familiar, towering alpha came walking out from the trees.
Instantly, Faith was on alert, her joy overtaken by wariness. She might not believe that all alphas were devils anymore, but that didn't mean she trusted this one in particular.
"And your mate threatened to slap a muzzle on me," she shot back.
Hope rolled her eyes, obviously unimpressed. "I had a feeling you two wouldn't get along. It's a bit of a cliché, though, don't you think—husband vs. the in-laws?"
Faith tilted her head in acquiescence. She could learn to deal with Maddox if that's what it took to ensure Hope's happiness.
"I know I was acting a little…erratic when I first arrived here," she began.
"A little?" Maddox said. "You shot the roof off Evander's!"
"I did not," Faith snapped. "It was only two shots, and technically, I was aiming at Troy both times."
After a long moment, Maddox dropped his scowl. "Well, that's understandable," he grunted. "You're forgiven. And, uh…since you're my omega's sister, I guess you can come to our house sometime."
Hope squeezed Faith's hand before she could respond. "I need you to know I'm not leaving the Boundarylands. This is my home now. This is where I belong."
Faith studied her sister's face. Hope looked happy—truly happy, for the first time in her life. She had always had a restless spirit, earning punishment after punishment from their parents for her petty rebellions, but now there was joy and peace in her eyes.
For the first time, Faith realized that her sister hadn't given anything up to be with her alpha. She hadn't compromised her beliefs or forfeited her future. Being here in the Boundarylands—obviously in love, and expecting her first child—had fulfilled her dreams.
Faith threw her arms around her sister. "I know that now. I finally understand."
When Hope released her, there was relief in her eyes—but also concern.
"And now you're with Troy." It was more of a question than a statement. Hope's gaze traveled down, and Faith didn't need to be told what she was looking for—a sign of a claiming bite, proof of a bond between her and Troy. "…Or are you?"
Faith glanced at Maddox. As much as she longed to talk to her sister about this, the last thing she wanted was Mr. Psycho Eyes listening in.
Sensing her reluctance, Hope turned toward her mate. "I'll meet you back at home."
"I don't think that's a good idea," he said menacingly. "I don't trust her around you."
Faith might only be five-foot-four and barely a hundred and ten pounds, but she wasn't about to stand for this. "Stop your bullshit, Maddox. I don't care if you don't like me, but you have to know I would never hurt my sister."
Hope's eyes went wide. "Did you just swear, Little Bird?"
Faith blushed. "Maybe a little."
"Oh my God, Troy really is rubbing off on you."
"That's one way to put it," Faith said with a wink.
"Okay, enough," Maddox said, holding his hands up. "I really don't want to hear where this is going."
Hope laughed as her mate retreated across the clearing. The women watched him go, waiting until he had disappeared into the forest before resuming their conversation.
"So…how is it going with Troy?" Hope asked delicately. "I know this can be a hard transition, especially for people with an upbringing like ours."
"I don't know," Faith said honestly. "One minute, I want to kill him, and the next, I want to kiss him. I go from wanting to run away, to wanting to build a family with him—sometimes in the space of seconds. Honestly, it's like I'm being torn in two different directions."
Hope nodded sympathetically. "Yeah, it's like that at first."
Faith blinked. "It is? You mean…you felt this way too?"
"Every omega I've ever met has some version of the same story."
Faith was taken aback—there were others like them here?
"How many omegas do you know?"
"Four others in this settlement," Hope said. "Five now that you're here. They're all wonderful. I'll have to introduce you soon. As long as you promise not to yell at them like you yell at Maddox."
Faith allowed herself a hopeful little smile. Imagine—other women who'd gone through the same thing, who could answer her questions, who could share their experiences and advice. Suddenly, it felt as though a huge weight had been lifted from her shoulders.
"I promise—and I'll even stop yelling at your mate, as long as he treats you well."
Hope laughed and slipped her arm through Faith's. "Oh, he does. Just wait until you see the bathroom he built for me. Come on—let's walk a little more, and we can fill each other in on the last five years, and you can tell me all about Troy." Hope wrapped her arm around Faith's shoulder as they started into the trees.
"Wow, that's a lot to cover," Faith said.
"That's one of the nicest things about living here in the Boundarylands," Hope said. "We have all the time we need.”
Chapter Thirteen
Troy wasn't surprised to see Hope walking by his omega's side when she finally made her way back home.
He'd been listening to the soft hum of their conversation for hours, resisting the urge to focus on the words, giving Faith the privacy she was entitled to.
He might not get every aspect of her complicated relationship with her family and her past, but it was pretty obvious that she needed this time with her sister right now.
Not just because Hope could help her understand her new life and the changes that her omega transition had brought, but because women just seemed to need to work out their problems by talking, in a way that he and his alpha brothers would never understand.
Troy had been briefly worried when he'd caught wind of Hope and Maddox crossing over onto his property. The last thing he needed was another dust-up between the surly alpha and his own omega—especially when he wasn't around to make sure it didn't escalate.
He had been ready to drop his tools and rush off to find Faith, but as it turned out, he didn't need to. Hope had the situation completely under control.
It struck Troy as pretty funny that everyone in the Boundarylands, even
the most aggressive and powerful alphas, instinctively steered clear of Maddox and his legendary temper…but not Faith. She was the only person Troy had ever met who was willing to challenge his unpredictable neighbor. She might be half his size, but she wasn't afraid to tell him off.
Maybe Faith thought that God of hers would protect her. Or maybe she was counting on the fact that they were now technically family.
Or maybe she just didn't give a shit. After all, this was the woman who had crashed into Evander's armed with a list of demands, and then fired off a couple of shots when no one took her seriously. Faith might like to think of herself as some sort of pious Sunday school teacher, but deep down, she was a badass.
The thought made Troy smile.
He went outside to wait for the two women, wiping his hands on a shop rag as they came into view. The sun had delivered an unexpectedly warm afternoon. He breathed in the scents of melting snow and the roots of dormant foliage stirring under the earth, enjoying the contentment that radiated from his omega.
Faith had come here looking for her sister, and though the outcome wasn't anything like what she had planned, the two were now reunited. That was a start.
"Hey, Hope," Troy said, stuffing the rag in the pocket of his overalls. There wasn't any point to pretending that he hadn't been waiting for them—Hope had to be aware that he'd been tracking their movements all afternoon. "Good to see you."
"You too, Troy." Hope's smile seemed genuine. "Thanks for letting me catch up with my sister, and I'm sorry I didn't let you know I was coming first."
"It's fine. You know you and Maddox have an open invitation to come here any time you like."
"He and I appreciate that very much," she said. Though just about all of the residents of the Boundarylands were welcome on Troy's property, a formal invitation still carried a great deal of significance.
Hope turned to her sister. "I should probably get back home. Maddox gets a little weird when I'm gone too long."
Troy didn't bother to tell her that he'd already sensed the protective alpha waiting silently for his mate a couple hundred feet into the woods. He repressed a grin at the thought of the guy who'd wiped the floor with anyone who pissed him off in the past, standing around waiting like a beta holding his wife's purse while she was in a dressing room.
"Do you really have to go?" Faith asked, taking Hope's hand. "We've barely caught up."
"Don't worry, Little Bird, I'll come back and see you in a few days. Trust me, we're going to see each other all the time."
"Especially when the baby comes," Faith said excitedly. "I'll babysit any time you want. I can't believe I'm going to be an auntie!"
The joy in his omega's voice struck a chord of happiness in Troy—even if he didn't relish the thought of sharing his omega with a squalling pup in another alpha's house. Though with any luck, they'd soon have one of their own.
Hope gave her sister a long hug before turning to him. "And Troy, I had better not hear anything about you showing up at Evander's on Friday nights."
"You know that's not going to happen." Troy tried not to be offended. How could anyone imagine he could ever return to the pale comforts that Nicky's girls offered when he could be bringing down the house all night long with his beautiful, sexy mate?
"Good," Hope said. "Cause my sister isn't the only one in the family who knows how to handle a gun."
Troy laughed. Any alpha foolish enough to stray from his omega deserved a bullet in the back—but he respected Hope for making it clear anyway. He decided that he was glad that his omega had her sister nearby, even if it meant putting up with that irascible son-of-a-bitch mate of hers.
As Faith watched her sister walk into the woods toward her mate, Troy caught the scent of worry and unease taking root in her again. Apparently, the comfort and reassurance she'd found in the visit with Hope wasn't permanent.
"It seemed like you felt better after spending time with Hope," he said, choosing his words carefully.
"I do," Faith answered, her eyes on the forest where Hope had vanished into the trees. "I did."
Troy went to her, wrapping his arms around her from behind. He only meant to offer comfort—but still, touching her ignited the ferocious need that was always simmering just below the surface.
This was going to happen every time he touched her until the day he died. Faith was everything to him now, the only woman who would ever make him burn with desire.
And yet she still wasn't his--not completely, anyway. Not the way he craved. This need, too, was always there, always lurking in the back of his mind, no matter what he was doing.
Troy forced his thoughts back to the moment.
"I know this isn't what you had planned when you came here," he said. "But at least you can see that Hope isn't a prisoner. She's here because she wants to be."
"I've never seen her so happy," Faith admitted, relaxing into his arms slightly.
But the silence that followed said what she wouldn't.
"But you're not," Troy finally said, voicing his greatest fear. "You still want to leave."
Faith turned to face him, resting her hands on his shoulders. Her eyes were brimming with tears.
"No, it's not that. I know that even if I wanted to go home, I couldn't. Everything has changed. I've changed. There's no going back to the way things used to be. But…"
She ducked her head, tears spilling onto the ground. Troy sensed them melting the snow, seeping into the earth, becoming a part of his land.
"I…I just don't know," she finally said, looking up into his gaze.
It was the first time she'd spoken to him with such raw honesty, letting him see her unvarnished uncertainty and fear. She was finally allowing him past all of her defenses.
Troy ran his hands along her arms. Even through the thick wool of his coat, he could still feel her warmth underneath, the steady beat of her heart.
"It's okay," he said. "You can tell me."
"No," she said, shaking her head. "I meant it—I really don't know."
"I don't understand."
Faith sighed and looked off into the woods, letting her gaze travel along the dark silhouette of the evergreens high on the ridge, down to the dormant fruit trees he had planted in the rich soil of the valley floor, to the house that he had built with his own hands.
"I don't know what it means to be happy. I don't know what it means to have a life. All I've ever done is follow someone else's rules. I did what my parents and my pastor told me to do and thought what they taught me to think. There was only right and wrong. Happiness never entered into it."
Troy gently tucked a stray lock of hair behind Faith's ear, trying to ignore the painful tightness in his chest that came whenever he witnessed her sadness. "I understand."
"You do?"
"Yeah," he said. "I didn't grow up in a cult, but—"
"It's not a cult," Faith cut him off reflexively.
"Yeah, sweetness, it is," Troy insisted gently, knowing that this conversation required complete honesty from both of them. "Like I said, I didn't grow up like you did, but we still have some things in common. I didn't fit in when I was growing up either. Nothing ever felt right until my nature showed and I came to the Boundarylands. It took leaving behind everything I'd ever known and making a life here to realize who I was and what I wanted."
Faith still seemed unconvinced. "And what you wanted was to fix cars and have sex with prostitutes?"
"Up until a few days ago, yeah," Troy said honestly. "Life was pretty good, for the most part."
"And now?"
"Now, I want to fix cars and have sex with you." Troy pulled her closer and kissed the top of her head, inhaling her scent and molding her body against his. He could feel her smile against his chest.
"That's all it takes to make you happy?"
"What can I say? I'm a simple man." Troy rubbed her back, trying to ignore his cock, which was obviously tired of talking. "Now we just have to figure out what makes you happy."
&nb
sp; She sighed, wrapping her arms around him. "Like I said, that's the problem. I don't know."
"Sure you do," Troy insisted. "You just haven't had a lot of practice yet listening to your own body. Your own needs. I promise you, it's simple—just think about what makes you feel good."
He felt her tense, but kept up the gentle pressure on her back, stroking her from the nape of her neck down to the curve of her ass. It was killing him to hold back when what he really wanted was to throw her over his shoulder and carry her into the house.
"Tell me," he commanded, his voice roughening.
"I—I can't."
"I'm not asking," he growled, lifting chin so she had to look at him. "Tell me."
Faith bit her lip, her eyelashes trembling. "Touching you," she whispered.
"That's a start." Troy let go of her just long enough to rip off his shirt and throw it onto the porch. He took her hands and splayed them against his chest. "So touch me."
"Troy, it's too cold out here," Faith protested, but she didn't pull her hands away. "You'll freeze to death."
"Then we'll go inside, and you can touch me there." He picked her up, only to have her let out a yelp and try to wriggle free.
"My bad," he said, setting her down. He backed away a step, then another, putting some distance between them. "I almost forgot how much you liked being chased. Tell me, how much of a head start should I give you?"
Faith gaped at him, her mouth open. For a second, Troy wondered if he'd gone too far, if he'd tamed the whirlwind out of his omega.
Then he saw the shift in her expression, the spark catch fire in her eyes. Her entire body tensed—and then she turned and ran for the trees.
His cock grew rock hard, and a white-hot buzz filled his head as he watched her. Just before she reached the tree line, she glanced over her shoulder, her honey-blond hair tangling in the wind—and it wasn't fear that lit up her eyes, but desire that raged as hot as his own.
He gave Faith another twenty seconds' lead time. No sense making this too easy.
Then he went after her.
It didn't take long at all—but it took long enough. By the time Troy caught up with her, lifting her into his arms as she raced toward the rock formation to the east, her cheeks were pink and her body warm from exertion. She fought him, pummeling him with her small fists and kicking her legs uselessly in the air, but the minute he backed her up against the smooth granite and moved between her legs, letting her see just how hard he was, she stopped fighting him.
Troy (The Boundarylands Omegaverse Book 5) Page 10