The beta slips through the flap and lets it fall shut behind him, and for a full three seconds he simply stands there. His wide eyes move from me to the woman curled against my chest to the scrubs on the ground to the state of us both, and his mouth opens slightly. Then closes.
Fuck.
I need to explain myself. To say something to make this better, but right now I’ve got nothing.
“Um.” Adam's throat works. His eyes come back to mine, and I watch him process everything. The shock, the confusion, followed by a rapid-fire of a million questions flashing in his eyes. "Cliff," he says my name so quietly, like he's confirming that I'm real, and my guilt grows tenfold.
I open my mouth to say something, but more voices outside make me freeze. I hear boots on packed earth. Two sets, maybe three, moving with purpose. More guards.
My abs tense, and I shove my guilt aside for now. I don’t have time for it.
If those guards see Elowen like this…if anyone in this camp figures out what she is, they'll rip her away from me, dress her up, and drag her onto that stage in front of a hundred alphas who are ready to pay top dollar for omega-pussy.
Over my dead fucking body.
I look at Adam, and he must see the intensity on my face because something shifts behind his eyes. He quickly pulls himself together the way he always does. Packing away whatever he's feeling so he can deal with the problem in front of him.
Fuck, I really do love him.
“Help me get her dressed," I say. "We have to get her out of here.”
Under Cliff
Elowen
For a moment,the world sharpens a teeny bit, allowing me to breathe.
My heat is still crouching at the edges of my mind, patient and heavy, waiting to drag me back under. But right now, in this fragile little window, I can string my thoughts together.
The dim amber light of the tent. The smell of dust and cardboard and sweat. The cold, hard ground pressing against my back. My heartbeat thumps against my ribs in a rhythm I can actually count.
And I can think. Kind of.
There are guards outside.
I just mated an alpha I don't know.
And his knot is inside me.
It's a strange, overwhelming fullness that I wasn't prepared for. A deep, heavy pressure that sits low in my belly and radiates outward, stretching me in a way thathovers on the razor's edge between too much and exactly right.
"Help me get her dressed," Cliff says to someone I can't see. "We have to get her out of here."
Then he shifts his weight, lifting his hips, and I feel the knot pull, still locked in place.
I grunt, curling my hands into fists as Cliff reaches between us and he grips the base of himself, squeezing, trying to compress the swelling enough to ease it out. The pressure changes and a white-hot bolt of pain shoots through my core. My hands fly to his chest, pushing, grabbing, not sure if I'm trying to hold him inside me or brace against the hurt.
"No." The word tears out of me before the command can catch it. "No, don't. Don't take it."
"Easy." His voice is strained, sweat dripping from his temple onto my collarbone. "I have to,” he whispers. “We have to go. Breathe for me."
He squeezes harder and pulls again, slow, and the stretch is obscene. The knot drags against my swollen walls and every nerve ending lights up in a confused scream of pain and loss. Tears blur my vision. My fingers dig into his chest hard enough to leave marks, and a sob builds in my throat so fast I can't swallow it.
“Adam,” Cliff grunts softly. “Help me, baby.”
A figure appears beside us. Blond hair. Wide brown eyes. Shaking hands. He looks familiar but I can't place him. My brain is too thick with fog and fear and the sensation of being emptied out.
The beta kneels between us, his mouth pulling at the corners. His gaze drops to where Cliff and I are still joined, to the knot his alpha is trying to work free from my abused pussy.
