Nothing else.
No footsteps, no creaking boards, no closing doors. Just silence. She was alone in the house.
Which meant if she was going to make a run for it, it was now or never.
Mia winced as she swung her feet over the side of the mattress. Her knee was still red and swollen, and now stiff from several hours of rest. She hissed in a breath as she tested her weight on it.
Damn, it hurt, but at least she could stand. That meant it wasn't broken. Just bruised to all hell. She would have to have a doctor look at it if she got back to civilization.
When, not if, she corrected herself.
Throwing her dress over her head, Mia limped to the door. Just for good measure, she pressed her ear against the heavy wood slab. She heard nothing but quiet on the other side, so she whispered a little prayer and threw the door open.
The main room was every bit as rustic as the bedroom. The floors were sanded hardwood. The walls were bare and unpainted. The only decorations she saw in the whole place were the finely carved details etched into the simple furniture. There might have been more, but Mia wasn't about to stop and look around.
She was only interested in one thing—the front door.
Running was out of the question, so she hobbled as fast as she could across the main room and breathed a sigh of relief as her hand wrapped around the knob.
Maybe she was going to make it out of here after all.
Her sigh turned to a gasp the moment she opened the door. No, she wasn't going to make it after all.
Standing just outside, filling up every bit of space in the door frame, was the alpha. His hands rested on either side of the opening as if he had been waiting for her the whole time. His dark eyes stared intensely into hers. His expression was hard but not cruel. Mia struggled to read it.
Like a rabbit in a wolf's gaze, she didn't know whether to run or freeze in place. Instead, she stumbled back a step.
The alpha didn't move. His arms stayed braced. His broad chest stayed still. Everything about his body language screamed that she was trapped. There was no escape.
"I-I just wanted to get some air," she said.
His eyes narrowed. It was clear he didn't believe her.
"Is that right?"
Mia swallowed down around the thick lump that was quickly forming in her throat. "I wasn't going to run."
He lifted his chin up a fraction of an inch. "I didn't say you were."
Shit.
After a long, tense silence, his arms fell away from the frame, and he stepped inside the house, closing the door behind him. The click of the latch sliding sounded like the bolt on a prison door. As if to drive the point home, the alpha leaned his back up against it.
There was no way she was getting out now.
"I'm glad you're awake and out of bed," he said, crossing his arms. "I have some questions."
Mia's heart hammered against her breastbone. She wasn't sure she had answers. Not ones she wanted to give, anyway.
"Who are you?" he asked.
She didn't want to tell him her name, even though she didn't think he'd recognize it. The alpha didn't strike her as the kind that followed the news, but she didn't want to take the risk. This was already a goddamn nightmare. The last thing she needed was for this to turn into a hostage situation.
So, she told him what she was instead. "I'm a student at UC Berkeley."
"Were," he said.
Mia blinked. "Excuse me?"
"Were," he repeated. "You were a student there. Not anymore."
A shiver ran up her spine. No. He couldn't be saying what she thought he was.
"But midterms start on Monday, and if I'm not back—"
"You won't be back." His voice was firm, commanding. More confident than Josh's. More powerful than her father's.
Mia retreated back another step. "But why?"
The hardness in his eyes intensified. "I think you already know the answer to that."
Of course she did. No matter how badly she wanted to deny it, she knew. She'd taken enough intro science classes to know about the alpha/omega connection. She knew about heats and ruts, their all-consuming animal drive to mate, and the brutality of their uncivilized union.
Mia just refused to believe it could possibly apply to her.
"I'm not an omega," she whispered.
"Yes, you are." There was no apology in his voice. No softness at all. Just cruel truth.
Mia shook her head violently, hoping that if she tried hard enough, she might shake off reality. "No, I can't be."
A low rumble emanated from his lips. In a single stride, the alpha closed the distance between them. Before Mia could slide away, he cupped his hand around the nape of her neck and pulled her into a kiss.
In an instant, burning desire caught fire in her veins. The sensation expanded into her blood, spreading through her body and setting every part of her ablaze. Every swipe of his tongue stoked the flames higher and higher. Every touch added more fuel.
When he pulled back, his eyes were as hard as granite. "Yes, you are."
New shame, sharper than ever before, cut through Mia like a razor. She raised a hand to her lips, cursing her traitorous body.
But the alpha didn't ease up. Not even for a second. While one hand cupped her head, the other wound around her waist.
"I don't care what your life was before. You're my omega now." He drove the point home by fixing his stare pointedly on the spot between her legs—at the place where Mia felt an embarrassing rush of slick pooling in reaction to his kiss. "And there are things I want to know."
"Like what?"
"Who hurt you?"
Oh God. She pressed her lips together tightly. She couldn't tell him that. Sure, she was pissed off at Dustin and Josh—especially Josh—and she wanted
