AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“A few hours ago. It popped up just after Max left, but I didn’t want to bother him while on the supply run,” Nick said.
I hadn’t given Nick a chance to ask questions after that. I’d just put in the received code at our end, to stop it flashing, checked the feeds inside the apartment, then left abruptly. Cursing myself.
I continued to curse myself as I’d dashed to my storage facility, grabbed what I needed, then ran the entire way back to the treehouse. I’d stopped carrying my phone with me the last few days. It had seemed like a waste of electricity to keep charging it when no-one was calling me. I hadn’t thought about Max not manning the security office, though, and no-one else knowing what the innocuous code on the screen meant.
I usually staked the safe house out discreetly before I entered, but the world had changed and time was not on either of our sides. I had seen a woman curled up on the bed on the feed. She was wearing a giant hoodie and I couldn’t see her face. It looked like she was sleeping, but she may have been crying. She was in the fetal position and had likely been there for hours, terrified and alone.
I increased my pace through the last of the forest, wanting to get into town as quickly as possible. It was full dark now, but my eyes had adjusted and the moon was lighting a silvery path for me through the short, grassy fire break at the rear of the town. I had no cover from this angle, but the main road was an even worse bet.
I forced myself to walk at a sedate pace through the open fire break. I’d learnt a long time ago that crouching and running looked way more suspicious than sauntering in as if you owned the place. The eye picked out movements that were out of the ordinary, but often glossed over something that fit into a normal pattern of behavior.
When I reached the dilapidated buildings at the rear of town, the moonlight became a patchwork quilt, leaving half the world in shadows. I’d long since made my peace with them, though. Shadows were my old friends. I stuck to them closely now, while keeping my eye on the light. I wore head to toe black clothes, with a dark hoodie firmly settled over my bright hair.
My safe house was in an old sandstone building that someone had converted into stylish apartments. It was next to a historic pub that I had expected to be empty, but appeared to be full of people, with lights blazing. I could hear a gas-powered generator running out the back and smell the noxious fumes. I hadn’t realized how quickly I had adjusted to natural scents taking back over our landscape.
Shit. My options, from where I stood in a shadowy junction, had become limited. I peeked around the corner, but the breeze here had turned into a wind tunnel that blew my loose hoodie off my head. I yanked my head back, desperately hoping my bright hair in the moonlight hadn’t drawn attention.
I debated my path, and was just about to make my move, when a hand clamped over my mouth and pulled me further back into the shadows. I instantly felt like I was being electrified as a tingling current zipped over my skin.
A dark, masculine voice whispered, “Don’t fight me.”
Like hell I wouldn’t fight. Balls were about to be kicked.
I got myself into position to twist away but froze when the hand over my face softened into a caress that ran down to my throat, as an earthy scent of sage hit my senses and lips touched my ear in the lightest of caresses.
One tortured, whispered word teased my ear as white light shimmered through me.
“Mine.”
twenty-two
SincethefirstmomentI’d spotted this woman, I’d had one thought drowning out everything else. Claim her. Yet I’d needed to complete my mission to keep her safe.
I’d been sure she was an omega. My body had known it, even though the world believed she wasn’t. That I hadn’t scented her the first time I had seen her was the only reason I’d been able to leave her behind.
Her scent saturating my senses right now had every cell in my body alight. It drenched me with need and a dark possessiveness that took any thought not completely centered on her and cast it adrift. The word, ‘Mine,’ was pounding a heavy beat through my soul as the word slipped out on a groan, needing to be given life.
My beast was raging to spin her around, push her up against this dark wall and claim her so fiercely there would never be a question about who she belonged to. Her body had gone limp in my arms and her fresh passion fruit scent had deepened into a syrupy meringue that had my blood heating in my veins.
She had been readying to fight. I’d felt her tense and begin to twist in my arms in a practiced move I knew would break my hold. Until my scent, sweetened with cinnamon from the feel of her lush curves pressed up against me, surrounded her just as possessively as my hand on her throat.
Her instant submission had my beast roaring in my head. But the beast also sensed danger near and the threat had the world sharpening into focus again.
Our combined scents were spilling into the air, saturating my senses. If anyone caught a whiff on the breeze, we would be in real trouble. There was a pub full of alphas barely a hundred meters away.
“We have to move,” I breathed quietly into her ear. “You’re not safe here.”
I had to force my fingers to release her throat, but I kept my other arm in place around her waist until it felt like she was standing steadier.
She spun in my arms and I fought for control as her gaze landed on me for the first time, branding me to my core. Her eyes widened, and in the darkness I couldn’t make out the color clearly. Yet I could see every other feature of her heart-shaped face in the shimmery moonlight. She had me completely captivated.
Her skin was pale and silvery as my eyes caressed every curve of her cheekbones, before they dropped to her perfect bow-shaped lips as they parted slightly on a breath. The urge to kiss her was like a wild frenzy inside me, but I knew if I did we’d both be lost to a battering of sensation that would leave us vulnerable.
I forced my attention to covering her hair, but that was hardly better. The bright pink strands glowed in the moonlight. I pulled her hood back over her head and tucked a stray strand behind her ear. It felt like silk on my fingertips.
I jerked my head over my shoulder to tell her we needed to move, not trusting any more sound right now. But she shook her head and opened her mouth to speak. I quickly slid the hand that was still clinging to the nape of her neck, back over her mouth.
I held up two fingers in front of her, then bent them and pointed them over her shoulder, indicating two hidden guards around the corner. I felt sick at the thought of what would have happened if she’d stepped out.
