“Fuck me hard, Alpha.”
“I need your knot, Alpha. Please give it to me, please.”
“Fill my mouth with your Alpha cock, I want to taste you deep in my throat.”
Aware of a tightening in his pants, he glanced at his yawning and sex-messy mate. Hell, maybe he wasn’t ready for her Heat to end after all.
But nagging survival concerns intruded on his amorous musings. Once he got this fire started, he’d cook up the last portion of porridge. The bread was long gone, and his dried stores depleted. Sure, he could hunt and fish to feed them, but even salt, which made a basic diet palatable, dwindled. Plus, Della needed things like fresh vegetables and fruit to reset her system after a Heat.
No question. They’d have to move on. And soon. He scrutinized her a bit closer: her coloring normalized back to pale pink, and no beads of sweat dotted her hairline. If her Heat had passed, they could make preparations to vacate the cave and plot a course east. Rubbing crust from her eyes, she reached for the hastily discarded pile of clothes on the floor. Shaking them out, she took a quick sniff and wrinkled her nose. “Ugh. Maybe I wish my smellhadn’tcome back. These clothes need a bath.” Face adorably screwed up, she delicately sniffed herself. “And I do, too.”
Cal grinned. “We could take care of that today if you’re up for it.”
The hot springs weren’t far, but they had yet to pay a visit. He’d held off mentioning it to her, but between her Heat episodes, he’d patrolled the area aggressively and regularly. A few times, he’d sensed Alphas on the periphery of his detection, but no one had come as far as the hot springs or beyond.
Despite his worries, the woods remained eerily quiet, which was both a relief and a disappointment. Honestly, he expected a better effort from the Morris Hill Alphas. If not for concern for Della, he’d figured they would at least pursue him to save face since he’d stolen something of “theirs.” Perhaps Simon concocted some story that drew their attention elsewhere. In the chaos of that night, Cal could’ve ridden in any direction, and it would be impossible for them to search all possible routes away from the settlement. They would’ve had to make hard choices about where to search and easily could’ve made the wrong ones.
Raking fingers through her long hair, Della separated sections for plaiting. “Does it smell like rain? All I can scent is myself and, well”—she blushed—“you.”
Warmth billowed in his chest. “I’m not complaining, but I’ll go check. If it’s all clear, we can go.” He pointed a finger at her nose. “Afteryou eat something. You need to get your strength back up.”
Quirking her lips, she gave him a jaunty salute. “Yes, sir.”
With a quick, playful tug of her hair, he jumped to his feet and strode to the cave entrance. Midday sunshine poured in, prompting all sorts of images to form in his mind of Della,naked, luxuriating in the hot springs.
Today could be a very good day indeed.
Ducking outside, he looked up into a cloudless blue sky and sucked the clean forest air into his lungs. Immediately a whiff of something out of place throttled his good mood. Sweet and delicate, Omega scent drifted to his nose on the breeze. Apprehension coursed through him, and all the blood flow diverted to prime his frozen muscles. He leaned further out the opening, and another gust shot up his nose. Not one scent, but there were two. Straining his ears, he picked up the tinny notes of two chattering voices drifting through the forest. His stomach solidified to a stony brick. What in the fresh hell? Whythe fuckwere Omegas wandering through this area?
He breathed deeply again, sifting through the forest smells for any accompanying Alpha odor. Nostrils flaring, he tried again, picking up a weak Alpha tang, not strong in any one direction, but definitely here somewhere.
Alphas! Near his Della!Omegas forgotten, black fright ripped through him, and he slipped back into the cave.
“What is it?” Della asked at full volume.
“Hush,” he hissed, with enough alarm that she was on her feet and at his elbow within a second. If there were other Omegas here, might Della call out and betray their position, perhaps in an attempt to save herself? Surely not now, after everything they’d been through? Yet she still didn’t wear his mark. That fact poked uncomfortably between his ribs.
Refusing to risk it, Cal moved before she could sense the intruders, securing her shoulders with one arm and covering her mouth with the other. Her body stiffened, and he brushed a reassuring kiss along her temple. “Someone’s out there,” he whispered directly in her ear. “I don’t know friend or foe, so I need you to stay quiet. Can you do that for me?”
She nodded as much as she could move within the tight confines of his arms. Her back braced to his front, he edged them closer to the entrance, craning his neck to look down without sticking his full head out in the open.
“... this is too far.” An Omega’s voice floated into the cave, directly below the cave entrance. “Riddick said anywhere past the hot springs is off our territory.”
“And you think he’s keeping her captive on our territory? How much sense would that make?” the second Omega retorted before opening her mouth to bellow. “Della! Della, are you out here?”
All his worst fears confirmed, Cal’s grip seized tight around his Omega, and she whimpered, trying to crane her neck outside to look at the search party. “Hush,” he hissed, more aggressive this time.
The entire situation revealed itself to him in a rush of confusing and contradictory facts. Two unmated Omegas were wandering through the woods on the edge of the Morris Hill Pack’s territory, looking for Della. Heart thudding, he sniffed the air again, tasting their pure Omega scents as well as another hint of Alpha musk. Was someone with these Omegas? A guard or chaperone? They ought to have one this far from home. What the hellwas going on? He pivoted his nose this way and that, trying to locate the Alpha, but the scent registered too faint to be accompanying the Omegas.
“Della! Della! Where are you?” the first Omega joined in, half-heartedly calling out before addressing her companion with an exasperated sigh. “Rue, this is stupid. It’s been a week already, they’re long gone. We need to go back.”
“Hang on a minute. Don’t you scent Alpha on the breeze? Someone’s here or has been here.” The defiant Omega, a slight young woman with a stubbled head, cupped her hands around her mouth and tried again. “Della! Della!”
One thing was clear to him and probably Della as well: no Alpha accompanied these two on their excursion. Given the second Omega’s discomfort, Cal concluded they had set out on this highly dubious venture without telling any Morris Hill Alpha what they were doing. Whichmeant the Alpha tang he’d detected had nothing to do with these two and likely originated from some other foreign presence in the area; one that posed a threat to both the Omegas and to Della.
Stupid, naïve, irresponsible Omegas!
Della’s nails sliced into his arm, her body trembling. Brows pinched together, skin pulled taut with strain, the tears welling on her lower lids made him feel like a total piece of shit. Here were two Omegas worried enough to endanger themselves to come look for her, and he stood in the way of their reunion.