Wade loosens his hold, but it's not as if I can run anywhere. All I can feel is the heat radiating off of the three of them as they box me in.
Beckett lifts a strand of my hair and threads it around his finger before tugging lightly. When I sway toward him, he grins.
“Okay, Bunny, you have five minutes to run. But when we catch you next time, you're ours for the whole night.”
A shiver works down my spine, and pheromones spike between us, eliciting a soft growl from Ozwald at Beckett's words.
“Agree to the terms, little one,” Beckett commands, tugging a little firmer on my hair.
Tingles explode on my scalp as my imagination conjures images of him standing above me, his large hand tangling in my hair, commanding me to do other things with my mouth.
“Only if we keep the masks,” I reply, my voice stronger than it ever is while at the office.
It earns me a wide grin from Wade and a rumbling purr from Beckett that almost forces me to my knees right this second.
“Protection for the innocent?” Ozwald quips, and I know he doesn't think any of us are innocent. He trails a finger over my shoulder and down to the back of my hand to the tip of my nail. “Just mark me up with these while I'm deep inside of you,Bunny, and you can keep the mask. I like a bit of pain with pleasure.”
I curl my fingers into my palms, and he chuckles, stepping away and clearing a path to freedom. Temporary freedom, but the urge to run before they catch me again has the muscles in my legs twitching, ready to flee.
Wade lets out a caw, and my feet pound the ground in time with my racing heart. Excitement floods my system, and I know I’m perfuming like crazy. Anticipation is like a drug as every sound is amplified. The crickets chirping beneath the dead stalks, the giggles and growls of omegas and alphas, even the sound of silence as it falls around me is louder.
I slow my pace and turn to face the way I came, while walking backward peering into the darkness. The moon’s a little higher in the clear night sky, and it casts long dark shadows over the already dark corn maze. None of them are behind me. They did say five minutes, and it has probably been less than three.
“Gotchya,” a gruff voice says as thick arms come around me from behind.
I scream and struggle in their hold. The musk that washes over me is weak and muted. Whoever’s restraining me is not one of the alphas who just had me. I would guess that this guy’s a beta, pretending to be an alpha.
“You smell like the cinnamon rolls that little bakery sells,” he says, his southern twang coming out strong.
When his nose runs up the side of my neck, I let out another scream and kick out behind me, attempting to hit his leg. “Let me go!”
“A little roll play? I can do role play,” he says.
An unpleasant shiver runs down my spine, and I double my efforts to get away. Dropping all of my body weight to my feet and going limp makes him loosen his hold, and I twist away from him on the ground, getting my first look at him.
He wears an open flannel, which exposes a hairy chest all the way down to his jeans. His mask looks like a zombie cat, showing off his white teeth beneath it as he grins down at me. I scramble away on my hands and feet. He slowly follows like someone out of a horror movie.
This can’t be happening. Why didn’t I think of the possibility of someone else catching me?
“I’ve been caught already,” I say weakly. I can talk my way out of this.
“You don’t look like you’ve been caught,” he says, tilting his head to the side and studying me. “And I might be a beta, but you don’t smell like it either.”
Of course I don’t.
“Do you have a problem with betas?” he asks. There’s a dangerous undercurrent to his question, and I quickly shake my head. He’s playing alpha tonight for a reason. And there’s usually only one reason for a beta to play an alpha…it’s because they have alpha envy. This is probably the perfect night for this guy. He probably even has a prosthetic knot ready to go.
I scoot back another foot as he gets closer. “No. But my alphas will be here soon, and they already caught me, and rules are rules. Right?” I hold my breath, waiting for his response.
He looks behind me down the dark path, and I don’t bother to hazard a glance. I need to keep my eyes on the threat in front of me.
“Alphas? More than one?”
I lick my lips and swallow. “Beckett, Ozwald, and Wade,” I say, hoping the names mean something to him.
He stumbles back a step as if my words are a weapon and I’ve threatened his life with them.
“It’s a game. They gave me five minutes, but they already caught me.” The words tumble out of my mouth pressing my advantage, and each one makes him take another step back.“They aren’t far behind me.” A wolf howl punctuates my statement, and he turns on his heel and runs away.
