Pine and woodsmoke and bitter winter cold.
My Omega keened at the contact, flooding my system with warmth and want and shameful, desperate need. I felt myself going soft against him, my body trying to melt into his embrace, my head trying to tip back against his shoulder in submission.
I bit the inside of my cheek hard enough to taste blood and kept fighting.
"Let me go," I snarled, kicking backward at his shins. "Let me go, you fucking psychopath, I'll kill you, I'll?—"
"Shh." His arms tightened, not hurting but immovable, and his lips brushed against my ear. "You're okay. You're safe. Stop fighting."
"I'm not safe! I'm?—"
"You'reours." The word rumbled through his chest and into my spine, sending shivers cascading down my body. "And we protect what's ours. Even from herself."
The other SUV had pulled up now, its headlights washing over us in blinding white. Doors opened and closed. Footsteps crunched on asphalt. And then they were there—all of them—surrounding me in a circle of Alpha presence that made my knees want to buckle.
Mason approached first, his golden features tight with an emotion I couldn't name. Concern, maybe. Or anger. Or some complicated mixture of both that didn't have a word.
"Are you hurt?" he asked, his eyes scanning me for injuries, for blood, for any sign of damage.
I laughed. The sound came out wild, hysterical, edged with something that might have been tears. "Am Ihurt? You chased me off a cliff, you?—"
"You chased yourself off a cliff." That was Ethan, circling around to stand at Mason's shoulder. His voice was calm, clinical, completely devoid of the panic I could see in his eyes. "We had contingencies in place to stop you safely. You were never in any real danger."
"Contingencies." I spat the word like a curse. "You mean the fake construction site? The truck you parked in the middle of the road? The—what, did you have someone waiting at every possible exit?"
"Yes." He said it simply, without shame, like it was the most reasonable thing in the world. "We've been planning this for three years, Ava. Did you really think we'd leave anything to chance?"
The fight went out of me.
Not all at once, but in a slow, horrible drain, like water swirling down a bathtub. Three years. They'd been planning this for three years. Every road I could have taken, every direction I could have run, every possible escape route, they'd thought of all of it. Prepared for all of it. Built a trap so elaborate and so complete that I'd never had a chance at all.
I sagged in Caleb's arms, my legs giving out beneath me. He caught me easily, shifting his grip to support my weight, and I hated how good it felt. Hated how right. Hated the way my body relaxed into his hold like it had been waiting for this moment my entire life.
"I won't." My voice came out small. Broken. Nothing like the fierce defiance I'd been projecting moments ago. "Whatever you're planning. I won't cooperate. I won't just?—"
"Won't just what?" Leo stepped forward, moving into my line of sight for the first time. His gray eyes were soft in the headlights, his usual smirk replaced by something gentler. Something that almost looked like sympathy. "Won't surrender? Won't submit? Won't beg us to?—"
"Leo." Mason's voice cut through like a blade, sharp with warning. "Not now."
Leo's mouth snapped shut, but his eyes stayed on me. Hungry and patient and absolutely certain.
"Take her back to the cabin," Mason continued, his gaze shifting to Caleb. "I'll deal with the car and the truck. We need to be gone before anyone comes looking."
"No one's coming," Ethan said. "The road's been closed since yesterday. No traffic for miles."
"I don't care. I want this cleaned up. No evidence. No trace." Mason's jaw tightened, and for just a moment, I saw something crack in his controlled facade. Something raw and desperate and terrifying. "She's not getting another chance to run."
I opened my mouth to argue—to scream, to curse, to dosomething—but before I could make a sound, I felt a sharp pinch in my upper arm. I looked down. Ethan stood beside me, a syringe in his hand, his thumb pressing down on the plunger with clinical precision.
"No—" I thrashed in Caleb's grip, suddenly wild with panic. "No, don't, please, I'll be good, I won't run again, just don't?—"
"Shh." Caleb's arms tightened around me, holding me still despite my struggles. His lips pressed against my temple, gentle and terrible all at once. "It's okay, little fox. It's just something to help you relax. You'll feel better when you wake up."
"Please." I was crying now, I realized. Tears streaming down my cheeks, my voice cracking and breaking on every word. All my rage, all my defiance, dissolved into raw, naked terror. "Please, Caleb, don't do this. Just let me go. I'll disappear. You'll never see me again. I promise, Ipromise?—"
"I know you'd disappear." Mason appeared in front of me, his golden features swimming in my tear-blurred vision. His hand came up to cup my cheek, his thumb brushing away my tears with devastating gentleness. "That's why I can't let you go, Red. That's why I'll never let you go."
The sedative was already working. I could feel it spreading through my veins like warm honey, turning my muscles to liquid, clouding my thoughts with cotton wool. My struggles weakened. My words slurred. The world went soft and fuzzy at the edges.
