The last time she'd faced this decision, it hadn't gone so well. Hope could only pray she was making the right choice this time.
She snatched the key off the hook at the end of the bed and ran back outside before she could second-guess her decision.
The look in Maddox's black eyes made her stumble just a little as she flew down the porch stairs. There was murder in those eyes.
It was the same look she'd seen almost a week ago—fury that someone would dare come on to his property. That they would trespass on his soil. That they would dare to threaten what was his.
His.
Suddenly, Hope understood the fiery glint in Maddox's gaze. The one that always gave her chills. That made her both retreat and heat up at the same time.
Maddox looked at her as though he owned her.
In his eyes, she was his possession. His trinket. His omega.
And Hope had sworn that she would never belong to anyone again.
She paused, her toes just inches from the earthen trench he had paced into the ground.
"Before I do this, you have to promise me something," Hope said, holding the key in front of him, just out of reach.
"I don't have to promise anything," he snarled. "You need to unlock me."
Hope shook her head. "You need to promise that you won't take revenge on me for not doing this sooner."
Maddox bared his teeth. Yesterday, the sight would have sent her running for her life…but that was yesterday.
"Hope." His voice was so deep, so guttural that she would have sworn it shook the ground. "He's coming closer."
She didn't flinch. "Promise."
His jet black gaze narrowed. His lips curled. "Fine. I promise."
Hope let out the breath she'd been holding. That was as good as she was going to get. She only prayed that what she'd heard was true—that alphas didn't lie.
She stepped over Maddox's personal boundary line and moved behind him. She lifted the simple padlock, turned the key, and let the chains slip from his neck.
But Hope didn't retreat.
What would be the point? He was a free alpha now. There was nowhere she go that he couldn't reach her.
Maddox rolled his shoulders and neck, working out the kinks from his self-imposed imprisonment. Then he turned around to face Hope.
This time she couldn't help but flinch at the ever-intensifying look in his eyes. She bit her lip as he slowly lifted his hand toward her shoulder, but stopped just inches away. His hand clenched into a fist as if he were battling some deeper part of himself for control.
Then he backed away, still facing her.
"Not yet," he growled. "Soon."
He spun around, moving so swiftly and stealthily that he disappeared into the shadows of the forest in a heartbeat. In seconds Hope had lost track of him completely. She couldn't even hear his footsteps.
No wonder she'd nearly run straight into him that first day. How could someone so big be so silent? So invisible?
It was only when he was gone did Hope glance down and realize that she was totally naked. She hadn't grabbed her clothes when she'd bolted from the hot spring.
Oh, God.
A fresh wave of shame crashed over her. She dashed back into the cabin and grabbed a shirt from Maddox's closet and pulled it on. Even though the hem fell past her knees, Hope still felt exposed.
And she always would, she realized.
Maddox's gaze would always strip her bare. It would always cause her core to heat and her hips to shift involuntarily. The intensity in his dark eyes would always make the slick start to pool between her thighs.
No matter how hard Hope fought against the idea of Maddox owning her, a part of her had already ceded his claim. It was that part that kept her from running away. That part that kept her in his house, in his clothes, in his bed.
And now it was keeping her hovering anxiously by the window, scanning the trees for his return.
Minutes ticked by, and shadows shifted in the woods, but Hope still didn't see a soul. She hadn't heard anything, either.
No gunshots. No screams. Just the wind and the birds.
Of course, that didn't mean nothing had happened. The beta could have had a suppressor on his gun. He might have come with a crossbow. Hell, he might have gotten in a lucky slash of a blade across Maddox's neck.
And her alpha could be out there sprawled in a shallow grave.
Just like Dave and Sandra.
The knots in Hope's stomach twisted unbearably. Oh God, she was going to be sick.
She stepped away from the door just as it crashed open. She let out a yelp as the massive slab of wood crashed against the wall, but it wasn't a black-masked killer standing in the doorway.
It was Maddox.
She breathed a sigh of relief at the sight of him—bare-chested, dripping wet, and very much alive.
Instantly, Hope's eyes were drawn to the broad, hard expanse of his chest. She wet her lower lip with her tongue. The heat returned to the vee of her legs.
Hope took a step back and tried to shake the image from her head. It wasn't the time.
"What happened?" she asked.
"The same thing that happened to his friend." Maddox dropped his discarded shirt over the back of a chair. Hope's breath hitched at the blood dripping from the edge.
Oh, dear God.
"Don't worry," he continued, already twisting open the button of his jeans. "I washed what was left of him off in the hot spring before I came back. He doesn't get to touch an inch of you. Not even a drop of his blood."
Chapter Eight
"Maddox…" Hope said his name out loud for the first time. "I don't… I'm not…"
The alpha came in through the door, and Hope stepped back, retreating from the coal-black gaze that she now knew that she would never escape.
"You're not what?"
Oh, God. The room wasn't big enough to escape the rumble of his voice.
It had been hard enough to control her desires when
