"Just like every other word that's come out of your mouth, that's a lie," he said softly, staring into her wide, soft brown eyes. He might not be able to read her scent, but he knew that look, the need that was bursting to be freed. "And I can prove it."
She started thrashing again, but before she could do any harm to either of them, Vonn kissed her.
The change was instant. She didn't go limp in his arms—instant submission would never be her way. Instead, she let out a little whimper, grabbed him around the neck, and kissed back, hard and hungry. If Vonn had felt desire before, it was a mere trickle compared to the geyser that shot through him now.
He'd never experienced such need in a kiss—both his own and hers. It was searing, melting, bruising all at once, both the most delicious and the most dangerous intimacy he'd ever known. The poison in her veins might be muffling her true nature, but it hadn't snuffed it out completely.
As her desire surged, so did his own, until it was almost as overwhelming as it had been that night a few months back.
Almost…but not quite.
That would come, though, as soon as the poison left her system. Vonn knew it down to his bones.
Which was why he didn't worry too much when Stacy seemed to recover her wits, pulling away from him and starting up the thrashing again. Now, as she snarled and punched and kicked with none of her usual control, he couldn't help laughing.
His little warrior hadn't been lying when she'd said that there was no surrender in her. There was no other way to explain how she'd been able to break free of what had to be the hottest kiss either of them had ever experienced.
And Vonn knew she would keep fighting as long as she was physically able. Which made the solution simple—make that impossible.
Vonn knelt in the wild grass and laid Stacy down in front of him, ignoring her attempts to free herself from his grip. He might have a few bruises the next day, but it didn't take much to pin all four of her limbs once he put his mind to it. He held both her wrists in one hand and took in the view of his omega with her hair spilling around her beautiful face.
Even defeated, Stacy bucked and writhed, her breasts bouncing enticingly. Her grunts and gasps sounded a lot like Vonn's fantasies. When he finally got her into bed, she was going to be a goddamn wildcat.
And they seemed to be heading there fast. Even when they'd kissed, her scent remained as flat as any beta's. Still, underneath it, a growing storm roiled, and along with it, the spicy, unmistakable note of lust was fast emerging.
Vonn couldn't hold back his roar of victory when the fragrance of her slick first hit his nose. It echoed back into the valley, birds rising from the branches.
It had been inevitable all along, their sparring and fighting testing the threads holding her nature inside until they finally started to fray. She could pump her body full of whatever chemicals she wanted, but she would never be able to snuff out her passions completely.
Especially when faced with the alpha who was fated to satisfy them.
Vonn released her wrists, but she didn't even try to strike him now. Instead, she bucked against him with more focus, rubbing the V of her legs against his now rock-hard length, making it clear that she had forgotten all about trying to escape.
"That's right," he purred as a fresh wave of that gorgeous scent enveloped him. "You like to fight back, don't you?"
Her eyes flashed anger. "You lying son of a—"
His hand between her legs silenced her instantly. She stopped fighting as Vonn slid a fingertip up her inner thigh, his chest rumbling and his cock aching as he hit a patch of soaking wet denim. He pulled back his hand and held his fingers near her face so she could breathe in the evidence too. "Once again, I'm not the one who's lying."
Stacy's eyes widened in disbelief, and then her shock turned to horror. She shot out her hand, but instead of hitting him, she simply opened her fist, revealing the tube of lip balm that had been in her pack. She must have grabbed it earlier when she'd taken the pens.
All the emotion—fury, lust, even uncertainty—drained from her eyes as she flipped off the top and shook something into her mouth. "You should have believed me. I told you I would never give you what you wanted. I'd rather die."
By the time Vonn realized what was happening, Stacy had already bitten down on the tablet.
Chapter Eleven
So this was it—the end.
In the decade since Stacy had enlisted, she'd spent more time than the average person contemplating her own death. Of course, she hoped her final hours would be on a distant, tranquil night surrounded by family in her old age. But after three combat tours and almost a dozen funerals for lost comrades, she had accepted that death could come any day.
And she was prepared for it. Stacy refused to let her own mortality prevent her from living life on her own terms. If she was taken early, she'd do her damnedest to go out in an honorable blaze of glory.
Instead, she had bitten down on a suicide capsule while pinned by an alpha with a raging hard on.
It was a death no one would consider valiant, and the only mercy was that no one would ever know—save a few top officers in a government agency no one knew existed.
Still, an inglorious death was better than what would have come next if she lived. She didn't wrestle with the decision;
