“All right,” he says as I unbuckle the seatbelt. He tries to help me out, and I growl again. He moves back just the slightest, giving me room to jump down. I do, landing on my feet without a stumble. He shuts the door, nodding for me to follow him.
I don’t want to follow him. I want to run. I want to run away from my inevitable fate.
But I have no choice, not really. I could run, but where would I go? Back to Sneed? Over my dead fucking body.
Sure, I could find somewhere else, but…
What pack would take in a broken alpha-omega hybrid with a price on her head?
The scent of heavy bourbon fills my lungs, and stupidly I whine. I hate that I do. Hate that even now as Gage comes to stand beside me, that just the smell of him makes my thighs clench and my pussy wet.
That feeling of his looming presence beside me makes me want to throw his heavy ass against the nearest tree and sink my teeth into his skin.
He glances at me from his peripheral vision, breathing in the air deeply. His gaze drops to my mouth for only a second. Then he starts walking. He doesn’t wait for me.
I could run right now, but…
That broken, shattered part of me that wants to be near him, wants to soak in his bourbon scent and feel his towering frame over me, wins out against the part of me that wants to forget him and everything he’s done. Everything he’s given me.
God, I am so fucked up. Who falls in love with their captor?
Because, I realize as I race to meet his side, that’s the real problem here.
I love him. I love this pack. I love who I am underneath all of the darkness. Who I am with them.My pack.
But they aren’t my pack. They never were. They werehis.
I was just a guest. A guest who fell for his charms and his scent, for his blue eyes and commanding tone.
“I’ve done this for years,” he says, his voice even. He doesn’t look at me, just walks ahead of me. I fall in line next to him. He smirks at me.
“Taken strange girls to the woods?” I bite. He chuckles, shaking his head.
“Hunt.”
It’s one word, one single word, but the weight of it is undeniable.
“I’ve always been a good hunter. Finding people, rescuing omegas, is what I’m good at.”
I scoff at him. “What, do you want a trophy for kidnapping people?” I glance at him out of the corner of my eye. “Because you call it hunting, but what you do is kidnap people.”
“I rescue people, Auryn.”
“You capture and release,” I say steadily. My heart beats so loud in my chest, I think for sure he must hear it. “I know what it is to be captured. You cannot tell me otherwise, because you don’t.”
The earth beneath my feet is soft, moist. The scent of rain hangs on the horizon, and it makes me think of Olly. My heart aches. Though the prevalent scent of bourbon seems to be getting stronger, I hate how it makes my mouth water.
“You’re right,” Gage says solidly as we come to a clearing. A clearing I remember well.
The cliff stares at me, bathed in the bluish-white light in the darkness, of the overseer moon.
I stare at that cliff, my heart in my throat.
“I don’t know what it’s like to be a prisoner,” he says, stopping at the edge. I don’t move to meet him, because I can’t.
Self-preservation and all.
It would be so easy to push him. He wouldn’t expect it, I know that. Though…maybe he would.
