"I'm taking her home." It wasn't a request.
Behind him, Gail sighed.
"I'll put together some supplies," she said, coming inside the room and starting to pack bandages, antiseptic, and tape into a bag. "But you'll need to follow my directions to the letter. The dressing should be changed twice a day. In a day, you can expose her wound to the air. Do you understand?"
"What do you think?" Maddox snapped. He wasn't a pup, and he didn't need to be talked to like one.
Gail was unbothered by his show of temper. Her chilly gaze was steady. "I'm not exaggerating, Maddox. If you handle her too roughly, that wound will reopen. If that happens, and she starts bleeding out again, I don't think I'll be able to save her." She narrowed her eyes. "Do. You. Understand."
Maddox pressed his lips together. Of course he did. It wasn't exactly complicated. If he fucked the omega, she'd die.
But even now, her heat was growing stronger, and Maddox's body was reacting in ways he couldn't control. Making primal demands he didn't know if he could refuse.
Instead of answering Gail, he snatched the bag out of her hands and started for the door.
"Maddox," she called after him.
But Randall understood. He stood aside as Maddox stormed past him in the hall, omega in his arms.
"Let him go," Randall told his mate. "You did everything you could, but there's no stopping this."
Maddox cursed himself as he threw open the front door and strode to his truck. He cursed God, and fate, and nature—all the shit that was making him behave like an irrational madman.
But cursing wouldn't change a goddamn thing. Randall was right. There was no stopping this.
So, he put the omega in the passenger seat and drove off…never looking back.
* * *
If he fucked her, she died.
It was that simple…and that hard.
Maddox dragged a hand through his hair and paced the length of his one-room cabin again. Like a damn rat in a cage, five strides across and five back again. All the while staring at the unconscious omega.
But he hadn't fucked her. Not yet, at least.
Only God knew how, but somehow Maddox had held back. He'd jacked off countless times since laying her down in his bed, but it didn't bring him any relief.
Nothing like this had ever happened to him before. Once or twice a year, when Maddox went to Evander's to trade, he'd hire one of Nikki's girls on a Friday night. Most times, he ended up wondering why he hadn't saved the money and beat off instead.
Now, though, the itch inside of him was unbearable. His hand couldn't scratch it, and even the thought of sinking his cock in a whore made his stomach turn. An omega—his omega—was the only thing that would satisfy.
Fuck.
Maddox gave up and stormed outside to try again. Pulling his cock free, he stared up at the sky. Hours had passed since he'd brought her home. The moon had already arched across the heavens. Soon, the sun would be popping up over the horizon.
And he would be exhausted from another sleepless night. Fucking great. Another wasted day.
Maddox hated wasting time.
He spit into his palm and tensed as he stroked his rigid staff. He'd give anything to hand this burden off on someone else. Someone who actually wanted a twenty-four/seven distraction lounging in his bed all day.
Someone like his neighbor, Troy. That alpha was a horny bastard. Every Saturday morning, Maddox woke up to the scent of spent lust wafting over his border as Troy returned from another night spent with one of Nicky's girls.
No doubt, Troy would be happy to take the omega off his hands.
But even as the thought floated into Maddox's head, he was seized by the sudden urge to storm over to Troy's house and pound him into a bloody pulp.
Maddox closed his eyes and stroked harder.
The image of his oversexed neighbor disappeared and was replaced by the irresistible memory of warm skin and soft golden-brown eyes. His balls tightened as imagined fluttering lashes and soft pink lips stretching over the tip of his cock. Dark gold hair spilled across the white sheets…tangled in his fingers. Pulling and pressing. And diving into a heavenly warmth so deep, so complete that it swallowed him whole.
Maddox sucked in another breath and filled his lungs with her scent—vibrant and intoxicating. She smelled like the little purple flowers that grew wild in the woods. Her body was as warm and brilliant as a sliver of sunlight breaking through the dark canopy.
He stroked harder…faster…until the friction of his hand threatened to catch fire. Still, he didn't come. Not yet.
He wasn't done thinking about her. Imagining what it would be like to fill her. To take her. Own her. He'd already given her back her life with his blood. Now he wanted to possess her completely. To erase any line that stood between them. To make her his in every way.
Maddox's cock exploded at the thought. A spray of come jetted across the patch of clover in front of his door. Then another. And another.
He threw back his head and roared, never pausing the brutal rhythm of his hand on his cock. Because even though his load was huge, it wasn't enough.
It would never be enough, Maddox realized. Not until he loosed it inside her.
Fuck.
He glared at his still erect shaft. His hard-on wasn't going anywhere. Neither was the unquenchable need inside him.
He was losing control.
Becoming just like his brothers…his biological ones. The ones he'd walked away from years ago.
No. Absolutely not. Maddox had sworn long ago that he wouldn't become like them—taking instead of building, destroying instead of protecting.
His family, from his father on down, had always taken the easy way out, preying on the vulnerable, leaving a trail of broken and abandoned victims behind. Maddox would never be like them.
The greatest day of his life was the day his alpha nature had shown itself. When he went from being the runt in
