"No," Paige said. "Because you'll be a thousand times happier once you do."
Wait. What?
"You want me to believe that I'll be happier once I give my autonomy away?"
Paige looked at her in bemusement, the faintest hint of a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth.
"Who said anything about giving away your autonomy? What exactly do you think claiming is, Mia?"
"Allowing Ty to be my alpha. My master. My ruler." Everyone knew this. Mia had learned it in her beta elementary school, for God's sake. It was Alpha/Omega 101.
"That's only one part of it," the other omega said. "There are other aspects you may not have considered. Things that the beta world doesn't want us to know about."
"And how do I know those aren't just as bad?" Mia asked.
Paige smiled gently. "You'll just have to trust me."
Mia shook her head. She was way past trusting anyone on their word alone.
At least Paige seemed to understand that without being told. She considered her words before trying again.
"Think about it this way—is Ty acting like an asshole?" she said. "Yes. Obviously. But there is a reason, a powerful one. An alpha's entire life is devoted to protecting his beta. It's what every instinct in his body and mind is telling him to do. It's more important to him than his own life, and he'll do anything to ensure that you're safe. Always."
"But what good is physical safety, if I'm just exchanging one miserable situation for another?"
Paige's reassuring smile slipped. "You're miserable here?"
"Not exactly," Mia admitted. Her thoughts and emotions were far too muddled, too complicated, to sum up in a single word. And they changed from moment to moment, ebbing and flowing without warning. It was far easier to say what she wasn't than what she was. "But I'm not happy."
Paige gave her a knowing look. "That will change."
"After I claim him, you mean?"
"And after he claims you," Paige said decisively. "Everything changes after that. It's as though all the changes in your body chemistry suddenly settle down. You start to think straight again. Start to realize that you're in the right place. You're with the right alpha."
Mia hunched her shoulders as she continued walking. She wanted to believe Paige's words, but she wasn't so sure. She couldn't imagine anything that would make her feel that way. But in the back of her mind, a thought nagged at her.
Mia had been fighting her body's instincts during every step of this process. It had never occurred to her not to resist. Back home, in the life she'd left behind, surrender meant giving into misery and pain. Settling for the shit too many people had dished out and, eventually, coming to believe that it was all she was worth.
But here…with Ty…was it possible that surrender could mean something else? That it could be a good thing for her? That she could find happiness—real happiness—in surrendering to something bigger than herself?
It was hard for her to believe.
But it was also so tempting.
That was the truly strange thing. For the first time, Mia really wanted to believe that something like what Paige had described could be real. That happiness really was an option for her. That all she had to do was reach out and grab it.
Mia was so lost in these thoughts that, after a few more minutes of walking, she suddenly realized they were deep in the forest. Too deep. She couldn't see the road leading to the cabin anymore. She couldn't spot the curl of smoke from the fireplace rising in the sky.
All around her, there was nothing but the dense forest, the sound of birdsong, the slight breeze rustling through the fern groves.
A thread of worry made the hair on her arms stand up.
She'd been so intent on the conversation with Paige that she hadn't paid attention to how far they'd walked. Over one gently sloping hill? Or was it two?
All she knew was, based on the dread settling into her body, she had wandered too far away from Ty.
She squeezed Paige's hand. "I think we should go back."
At first Mia thought the other omega hadn't heard her. Paige's eyes were scanning the tree line at their left side—almost as if she was looking for something.
Some small sound she'd heard out there.
Something out of place.
Mia's dread grew stronger.
Paige spun on her heel and tugged Mia back up the path the way they'd come. "Yeah, I think you might be right."
They didn't get far.
Mia had only gone a few steps when she heard the unmistakable sound of a branch cracking under a foot. Her heart thundered in her chest as she turned around to see a man completely dressed in camouflage step out on to the path.
Mia froze in terror.
Her father's soldiers had found her.
Chapter Ten
"You should have found some other way. One that didn't involve death threats."
Ty bristled at his friend's not-so-constructive criticism. He hadn't gone to the trouble of rehashing the last week of his life in painstaking detail to hear Kian tell him what a shitty job he'd done. He didn't need any help figuring that one out.
"Easy for you to say," Ty growled. "All you had to do to coax Paige into claiming you was take her to a hot spring."
Kian shot him a look that was far from amused. "It was a little more complicated than that."
Ty raised an eyebrow. "Really? How?"
Kian shrugged but didn't meet Ty's gaze.
"I've been at this for a week," Ty continued. "A whole fucking week. I seem to remember you thought you'd go crazy after having to wait a few minutes."
Kian raised his hand in surrender. "You're right. I'm not trying to give you shit. I'm just saying you can't be surprised that you landed in a pile of it when you threatened to kill her friends."
Ty shot up from his seat, his anger getting the best of him. "These little shits aren't her friends! They're the bastards that dragged her
