"You just made a big fucking mistake, little girl," Troy growled. He ripped the gun from her hands and brought the barrel down on his thigh, bending it nearly in half. He tossed the useless weapon to the ground. "And now you're going to pay for it."
"Troy!"
His anger was so intense he barely heard Zeke calling out his name in warning.
"Think about what you're doing," Zeke shouted. "That's Hope's sister."
As if that mattered now. This woman was an outsider. A goddamned beta invader who'd crashed into Evander's, armed with an elephant gun and a list of demands. He didn't give a shit whose sister she was.
"Stand down, goddamnit," Zeke yelled, starting toward him. "She could be—"
Troy wrapped his fingers around Faith's arm and squeezed, making her cry out in pain as he pulled her toward him, preparing to punish her for her crimes.
A sudden fiery bolt of sensation shot through every nerve in his body. His blood raged. His skin tingled. His fingertips sizzled where they touched her skin.
Troy's eyes narrowed as he realized what Zeke had been about to say.
She could be an omega.
Just like her sister.
Chapter Three
The devil had her in his clutches.
Faith stared in horror at the massive hand wrapped around her upper arm. The alpha's fingers were so long they fully encircled her, so wide they stretched from her bicep to the bend of her elbow.
Her first instinct was to pull away. To wrench herself free and run for her life.
But the urge didn't last long.
It only took a second for the heat of the devil's touch to sink through the fabric of her dress to her skin, for the knowledge that she was helpless in his hands to penetrate all the way down through her flesh to her very bones…and then everything changed.
The fear and panic that had threatened to paralyze her and stolen her voice from her throat—it simply faded away.
In its place, a warm, comforting wave washed over her.
It made no sense, but for a blissful moment, the wave drenched her mind with its blanketing calm, and Faith truly believed that she'd made the right decision by stealing the family van just before daybreak and driving straight through until she reached the Boundarylands. That coming here had been the perfect solution to a problem whose outlines were suddenly as vague as they were vexing.
All the trouble, the fear, the sense of betrayal were worth it because this was where she was meant to be—right here in this parking lot, being touched by this alpha, and feeling this change take root inside her.
This change.
The thought exploded into Faith's brain just as hard as she'd skidded into the trash cans, smashing the lovely bliss into smithereens. She shook her head, trying to banish the remnants, reminding herself of the very real danger she faced and the urgency of her errand. She was here to rescue Faith, and instead, she'd almost fallen under this devil's thrall only seconds after arriving.
She fought against the alpha's wicked magic, determined to repel the feelings and sensations that were his weapons.
The last thing this agent of darkness should make her feel was comfort. He had crushed her pastor's rifle—the one she'd stolen from the church's arsenal the night before, adding another unforgivable sin to the growing list of her misdeeds—into a twisted, useless hunk of metal. He'd come at her with rage, his fearsome strength rippling through every muscle in his body. Even now, blood lust blazed in his demon eyes.
Except…it didn't. Not anymore.
The raw anger reflected in his eyes only seconds earlier was gone. Now the need shimmering in those ice blue depths was of another kind altogether.
The kind that made an unfamiliar heat catch fire between her legs.
Instinctively, Faith clamped her knees together and tried once more to pull away.
"Let go," she demanded.
The alpha didn't acknowledge her words. Instead, he cocked his head slightly and narrowed his eyes, his gaze intensifying. He pulled her closer until her chest was crushed against his. A new wave of his heat radiated through her. Faith tried to struggle, but it was useless. He was just too big.
"You're Hope's sister." He spoke the words as if they were a revelation, his voice deepening even as it dropped down to a whisper. "You're just like her."
Faith struggled to meet the devil's gaze. Not because she was afraid, but because she wasn't. It was as if someone had taken an unholy ax and chopped her straight down the middle. One part of her wanted to fight like hell, to let the spirit move through her and banish him back to the pit.
And the other part…
Well, it wanted to do things that made Faith burn with shame. That wicked part compelled her to lift her chin and gaze into those eyes until everything she'd ever learned about right and wrong was burned to ash. All that was left was their bodies, twined together.
"I'm nothing like my sister," Faith said. She knew it was a lie, but if someone had asked her to explain just now, she would be at a loss.
Again the alpha acted as if she hadn't said a word. His gaze sharpened, his mouth curved into a canny smirk. "You're an omega, just like her."
What?
No.
The devil was lying to her. He had to be--because that's what the devil did.
Though Faith loved her sister dearly, she knew that Hope had invited God's wrath. She had sinned by turning her back on her family and her faith. God had judged her and turned her into an omega as her punishment, consigning her to hell on earth.
But Faith had done nothing wrong. She'd lived a good life. A pure one.
She'd obeyed
