Prologue
Her fate was already sealed—an omega trapped forever with a brutal alpha who made her life a living hell…until he came along.
Welcome to the Boundarylands. A place where the only way to know your true nature is to feel the touch of an Alpha. Omegas may be rare, but every woman knows their fates are hellish—held captive, broken, mated, knotted, and bred.
Emily believed every word of that warning. She gave up on happiness months ago when a silly game turned into a life sentence as a violent alpha’s mate. Now the best she can hope for is a quick end to her suffering.
But then a chance encounter changes everything.
Suddenly, there’s an alpha who is willing to fight for her—Cade.
He says he wants her just the way she is. That he’s willing to battle all her demons—real and imagined—if it means he can claim the title of her alpha.
But, deep down, Emily can’t help but wonder if she’s just trading one nightmare for another, even though the fire that Cade’s touch ignites makes her feel more alive than ever before.
Chapter One
Cade knew what would happen if he went to Evander's Bar. He would start drinking, keep drinking, and then—probably around the time the sun went down—he'd get into a fight.
It wouldn't be a bad one, probably no more than a few blows exchanged in the parking lot. He'd knock a brother across the jaw, take a couple to the chin himself, and they'd both walk away with bruised knuckles, busted lips, and the primal fire in their bellies back under control.
And that was exactly what Cade needed right about now—a damned good fight, a chance to work out all the excess testosterone pumping through his veins.
He flexed his long, thick fingers before wrapping them back around his steering wheel.
Spring was slowly turning to summer. Nightfall came later, and mornings brought the scent of sun-warmed clover and the promise of long afternoons spent doing the work he loved, the work he missed during the winter months. Fishing was never better, and he had already bagged an elk that would provide meat for months to come. And he was catching up on the improvements to his cabin that he'd put off too long.
Summer days meant waking up with purpose and falling into bed spent, but content.
But today was different. Something was eating at him, something he couldn't quite put his finger on, a strange kind of discontent that made him itchy and restless.
Cade knew that his combative nature hadn't made him the most popular alpha in the Boundarylands, but who fucking cared?
Unlike some of his brothers who had settled into domestic life with omega mates over the last year, Cade still knew what he was—a predatory animal at the top of the chain in every way that mattered.
It was his opinion that alphas ought to get their aggression out before it led to something worse. Hell, Cade believed down to his bones that a few good fistfights a week kept morale high and tensions low. Confining them to neutral territory ensured that no one risked the much more serious threat of trespassing on another alpha's land.
Evander's Bar was the only gathering place for this part of the Pacific Northwest Boundarylands, so it ended up serving all the community's needs. It was where the local alphas picked up supplies and traded with the beta world. It was where they drank, played pool, and shot the shit.
On Friday nights, it was where they could pick up a whore to help them pass the time for a few hours, and every other night of the week, it was where you could knock your best friend on his ass and then buy him a beer with no hard feelings.
Cade cursed under his breath as he pulled into the bar's parking lot. Judging by the trucks already lined up in front of the door, he wasn't going to get what he was after.
The trucks belonged to Troy, Aric, Zeke, and Ty—all alphas who never strayed far from their omega mates. Pussy-whipped, Cade thought uncharitably.
He didn't have anything against omegas. What alpha could? A woman who worshipped you, who'd wrap her legs around you every night, who'd bear your pups—everything an alpha could want, right?
For an alpha who was ready to be mated, sure.
But a solitary alpha with a hot head and itchy fists was a different story.
To Cade, the omegas inside the bar were nothing more than a damn annoyance, a barrier to the good night of scrapping he'd been counting on.
Because while omegas might be nice for warming alphas’ beds, they tended not to stay there. They insisted on coming to places like Evander's where they drank, played pool, shot the shit...and stopped their mates from having any fun.
Anyone who thought an alpha called all the shots hadn't dealt with one of these omegas.
Cade could get away with not caring what the omegas thought, but he couldn't be so blasé about their alphas. And while he was relatively sure he could handle one or two of his henpecked brothers, he knew he couldn't take on all four at once.
He'd come looking for a fight, after all, not a damn bloodbath.
For a moment, Cade considered throwing the truck into reverse and dragging his sorry ass right back home, but he quickly abandoned the idea.
After all, omegas didn't like to be away from their homes for too long. Cade checked the sun's altitude and judged that it was only about an hour from sunset. Couples generally didn't stick around the bar too much longer after that.
He'd parked and was headed for the entrance when he picked an unfamiliar scent.
No—make that two of them, one alpha and one omega.
Visitors were rare around here—especially visitors from other parts of the Boundarylands. Alphas tended to keep to their communities and had no reason to go to other settlements, where their presence was likely to be met with more suspicion than hospitality. After all, an alpha's instinct for territorialism was second only to his devotion to his mate.
Cade glanced around the lot and spotted an unfamiliar truck parked in a corner furthest from the entrance. To his surprise, someone was sitting inside the cab—the omega, by her scent.
What the hell was she doing out here alone? Why wasn't she inside the bar by her alpha's side?
Cade forgot his sense of urgency and, spurred by a powerful curiosity, headed for the truck's passenger side.
Sure enough, a woman was sitting on the leather seat. She gazed straight ahead at nothing, her baby-blue eyes unfocused. She might as well have been a statue, her fine blonde hair falling past her shoulders in a shiny sheet, her long-sleeved shirt buttoned to the wrist and neck despite the heat of the day, her hands gripping each other tightly. Even when Cade was standing right outside her rolled-down window, she seemed not to be aware of his presence.
The hair on the back of Cade's neck stood up. Something was wrong—very wrong.
"Hey," he said cautiously, keeping his voice low so as not to spook her.
The omega blinked once, but it wasn't until her chest rose and fell with a deep breath that she slowly turned her head toward him. Her expression betrayed nothing, the look in her eyes devoid of emotion.
Only then did he spot the angry gash that cut across the field of freckles covering her pretty heart-shaped face. The blood was still fresh.