But that thought fled as Stacy realized she'd lost awareness of the alpha's position, something that had never happened during any exercise. The first frisson of real fear raised the hair on the back of her neck. She forced herself to slow her breathing to better listen for any sound that might give him away—an exhalation, a footstep, an accidental brush against an object.
But there was nothing.
Either Vonn had the capacity to remain inhumanly still, or he had been training in stealth with even more dedication than her. The latter seemed out of the question, so…it had to be his alpha nature. Given that alphas relied on hunting for nearly all their food, it made sense that they would have evolved such skills.
But that didn't mean that Stacy had to wait like a frightened rabbit. Lowering her body into a defensive crouch, she slowly backed up until her ass made contact with a wall. Nothing about this situation favored her odds, but at least from this position she wouldn't have to defend her rear.
She waited, barely breathing, until her tensed thighs and calves began to ache—long enough for her to question whether Vonn was even present in the room. Had she somehow missed him slipping out when he closed the door? She was just about to relax her guard when his deep voice shattered the silence.
"Go to the end of the bed."
Stacy's body surged back to high alert, ready to defend her head and neck from an attack. But his words suggested a different kind of assault, one Stacy had deliberately avoided thinking about.
Alphas had sex with their omegas. This alpha was convinced she was his omega. He very well might be about to have sex with her.
Several times in her military career, Stacy had come close to being assaulted by male officers. It happened so often that most of her friends had been victims.
But Stacy had always managed to defend herself. She had never been sexually brutalized, and there was at least one captain whose balls probably had required medical attention when after she defended herself.
But there was no way she could defend herself against an alpha. Not indefinitely.
"Don't make me tell you again."
The switch inside Stacy, hardwired through years of practice, flipped again. Her terror took a backseat to her training. Vonn had spoken directly to where she was standing, which suggested that his superior senses included some pretty damn impressive night vision. That was a distinct advantage in low light conditions, one he apparently had forgotten she didn't have.
"I don't know where the bed is," she said flatly. "I can't see in the dark."
She heard him move to the other end of the room and knew that she was only able to because he wasn't bothering to mask it. A wheel struck on flint, and a tiny flame was followed by an orange flare as he lit the wick of an oil lamp. In an instant, the room was bathed in a soft glow.
The space was bigger than she'd imagined, with a huge bed in the center and little else. A door, presumably to a closet, was cracked a few inches, but Stacy couldn't see inside. The bed was neatly made. Dark curtains were pulled tight across the window. A dresser held a stoneware pitcher and, at complete odds with her expectations, a thick hardback book with a feather protruding from its pages.
The bed had been right beside her all along. She'd backed up parallel to it and reached the corner across from Vonn, but any sense of security at the massive bed between them was a false one. He could scramble across it in two seconds. Hell, for all Stacy knew, he could jump across it.
"Better?" It took a second for Stacy to realize he was talking about the light. "Then get up on the foot of the bed."
Oh, hell no. She shook her head and crouched even lower, giving herself the most possible leverage for what was sure to be a futile strike.
Vonn wasn't amused. "For fuck's sake," he muttered. "I thought you omegas were supposed to be submissive."
"I'm not an omega," Stacy shot back.
And she wasn't, for now, but how long that would be true seemed more dubious than ever. At least the injection would prevent her nature from taking over no matter what transpired now. It had been in the fine print, and Stacy had felt nauseous even reading it: … unimpacted by vigorous exercise, introduction of toxins, stress induced by starvation or dehydration, known viruses, and sexual intercourse.
But what about when the current dose ran out? In two days, unless she gave herself another injection, Stacy would be completely vulnerable.
And alphas could have sex for days. That, too, was in the dossier.
"The hell you're not," Vonn said in a tone that was much too confident—as confident as when he'd told the other alpha, Gray, that she was a soldier. Stacy didn't know how he knew these things. She also didn't doubt that he did.
On the other side of the massive mattress, Vonn crouched down and started rummaging for something under the bed. "Even if I didn't recognize the scent, which I do, I'd still know your true nature. See, you're not the first woman your government has sent our way, not even close. And so far, every last one ended up being an omega."
Could that be true? Stacy didn't want to believe it, but alphas were incapable of lying. Or if not incapable, then possessed a moral code that was more strict than any beta's. It was a possibility that Stacy would have dismissed out of hand even an hour ago. But right now, she felt as though she had lost her moorings, like she couldn't trust her own senses.
But she could trust the facts. "That's wishful thinking, just like your friend Gray said. I've been here for days. I've touched countless alphas—"
"Countless?" Vonn cut her off
