And then there was his face.
She couldn’t say he was beautiful. Not even handsome. At least, not traditionally so. His features were far too tough and hard to be described that way, but there was something so vital and animalistic about the cut of his brow, the dark brown beard dusting his jawline, and the depths of his deep-set eyes. A deep longing stirred in Paige’s chest.
Kian Wilcox might not be pretty, but he was damn sexy.
Too bad he was about to kill her.
“Please don’t hurt me,” she begged.
Kian’s brows pulled together hard. “Get behind me,” he growled.
Paige blinked. “What?”
He didn’t repeat himself. Instead, he reached out, grabbed the sleeve of her jacket, and whipped her behind his wide back—all faster than she could react.
Too startled to protest, Paige peeked out from behind Kian’s side. She was surprised to find every other alpha in the bar standing at the ready, their attention focused, their muscles coiled and ready to fight.
So, he wasn’t about to rip her head off. But he was sure as hell ready to kill someone. Every alpha was.
A new wave of fear washed over Paige. “What’s going on?”
“I think that fiancé of yours just arrived,” Kian said.
Oh God.
“How do you know?” she asked.
“Heard the car pull up a minute ago,” he said. “I can smell the bloodlust pouring off him. Sound like your man?”
It did. Paige’s blood turned to ice. Her knees wobbled, and without thinking, she leaned forward into the wide expanse of Kian’s solid back. A shock of awareness shot through her at the contact. A powerful, almost electric charge rushed through her. It was like nothing Paige had ever felt before. The sensation only heightened as she instinctively curled her hands around Kian’s sides.
She leaned her face against him. The taut strength of his hard body flexed beneath his shirt. She felt his warmth. She caught his scent—deep, and warm, and spicy. Everything about Kian wrapped around her, comforting her and driving the worst of her paralyzing fear away. Even her pounding heartbeat slowed.
Everything was going to be okay. She knew it. It had to be, because Kian was there. He would protect her. He would keep her safe. The absolute certainty flowed through her.
Paige tightened her grip around his waist, wishing that she could melt into him. She felt the energy shift inside him. Away went the contempt and mockery. The sheer power of his body came alive under her fingertips, growing and swelling.
Staying firmly in front of her, Kian wrenched his head around far enough to catch her eye. She saw amazement shining bright in their depths. Amazement…and desire.
“Omega.” He said the word softly. Slowly.
The horror of its meaning moved through Paige like an icy ripple, growing as it spread.
Oh God, no.
She wasn’t an omega. She couldn’t be.
She was normal. A nobody. A plain-vanilla beta. There was nothing special about her. There couldn’t be.
Because if she was, then she’d just made a horrible mistake walking into this bar. She’d be better off running out into the parking lot and begging Craig to put her out of her misery right now.
So, why couldn’t she let go of Kian’s body?
Start Reading Kian Now
* * *Ty: Book 2 (Excerpt)
Mia was never going to make it out of the Boundarylands.
The horrible realization settled into her, taking over her mind and body as she limped along the road in the moonlight, trying to ignore the rustling sounds and gleaming eyes in the forest on either side of the road. She'd done her best to deny the truth as long as she could, but as the minutes ticked past, she could no longer pretend she had a chance. The odds were stacked too high against her.
She was at least twenty miles into alpha territory…and that was way too deep.
Maybe if she were a trained long-distance runner she could have made it back to safe territory by morning, but she wasn't. She was just a regular girl in a tight dress and strappy heels with makeup streaked under her eyes and knots in her hair…and a busted knee.
She couldn't forget about the knee.
Not that the pain that shot up the length of her leg with every step would ever allow her. Neither would the slow stream of blood trickling down her calf.
Mia figured her knee cap must have cracked against the pavement when Dustin had tossed her to the side of the road like a bag of trash. She hadn't felt the pain at the time, but she sure as shit felt it now.
For the last hour, she'd gritted her teeth and tried to push past the ache and despair. Even from her first step, she knew that escape was a long shot, but she had to do something. Josh and Dustin weren't coming back for her—not until morning, at least, and probably not even then. And no one else knew where she was.
If Mia made it out of the Boundarylands in one piece, it would be because she dragged herself out.
Emphasis on the word dragged.
Even in the pale moonlight, Mia could see a dark bruise swelling beneath the skin. Walking was agony, and speed was impossible. She guessed she'd only traveled a mile and a half in the last hour.
At this rate, she wouldn't make it halfway to the boundary before dawn.
Still, she had to keep going.
What other choice was there? Crawl into the ditch on the side of the road and wait for some alpha to find her?
And when he did…
Oh, God. She refused to think about it. She only hoped when he found her, he would kill her quickly instead of toying with her.
Mia rounded a corner, and the pale yellowish light of a roadside sign illuminated the stretch of the Central Highway before her.
The sign read EVANDER'S BAR. Behind it, tucked back into the edge of the woods, was a nondescript low-slung wood-sided roadhouse, its windows
