"Guys," a woman's voice broke through. "You're all scaring her."
Emily tried to find the source in the crowd. Up near the northern boundary, she was the only omega for twenty miles. It had been a long time since she'd heard another woman's voice. In other circumstances, she'd be relieved and delighted.
But Emily didn't want to be near these women any more than she wanted to be around Cade or his alpha brothers. These were the real omegas, according to Sloan—the ones who knew how to treat their alphas. Who were supposedly going to teach her how to bond, claim, and breed with a creature that she hated more than the devil himself.
Emily had made her mind up hours ago not to listen to a damn word they said.
She watched as a petite woman with long, wavy dark hair stepped forward from the crowd and slowly walked across the parking lot toward her, palms up to show she meant no harm. Surprisingly, no one raised a hand to stop her. Cade even stepped out of her way as she neared the open door of the truck.
"Hi, I'm Mia," the omega said, her smile not quite hiding the concern in her eyes. She was pretty, with bright, intelligent eyes, high cheekbones, and not a single bruise visible on her face. Maybe Sloan was right, and these women really did know how to pleasure and pacify their alphas. "I'm not going to hurt you, I promise, but I can help you if you come out from there."
Emily shook her head again, her gaze darting between Mia and the others. There was no way in hell she wanted the kind of help this omega was offering, the kind that was designed to force her to grin and bear it the way Sloan wanted, to teach her to please the monster currently laid out on the barroom floor.
In that moment, Emily realized that she would rather die than live another minute as Sloan's omega, no matter how happy she learned to make him.
"I'm not going anywhere with you."
Mia raised her eyebrows, but she didn't appear angry when she turned back to the crowd. "All right. So, she's afraid of me too. Anyone else have any suggestions?"
"Yeah," Cade said, stepping between Mia and the truck. He reached across the seat and grabbed Emily's ankle, gripping it tightly.
Then he pulled her across the seat before wrapping his arms around her waist. She tried to pry his hands off her body, but it was pointless to struggle against his massive hands as he lifted her off the seat and set her on the ground.
"It's time to stop asking," he said to no one in particular, "and just do what needs doing.”
Chapter Three
"What the hell do you think you're doing?"
Cade didn't bother to answer Zeke as he hoisted the omega up and over his shoulder. It was a reasonable question, though—what the hell did he think he was doing, exactly?
Stealing another alpha's woman, obviously, just as he'd told that fuckwit on the floor of the bar that he would. The real question was why.
For someone who liked a good fight, Cade couldn't stand a bully. He'd never taken a shot at anyone who couldn't defend themselves. He'd never hit a beta—man or woman—and he sure as shit had never laid a finger on an omega. In Cade's opinion, any man who would try to prove himself by punching down was no kind of man.
Which explained why he'd knocked the son-of-a-bitch uplander out cold…but it didn't explain why Cade was now carrying the bastard's omega to his own truck.
At least the woman wasn't resisting. An omega could put up a good fight when she wanted to—he'd heard enough stories from his alpha brothers to know you'd be a fool to provoke one without a damn good reason. But not this one. If it wasn't for the tension radiating from her body like a high-power line, he might have thought that she was the one out cold.
Zeke headed Cade off, putting himself between them and Cade's truck.
"This ain't a fucking game, Cade," he growled. "I can't let you do this."
"Step aside, brother," Cade said. Zeke might be a decade older, with a famously short temper, but that didn't make him Cade's boss.
"Make me." Zeke folded his arms and glared.
"Now you want to fight?" Cade was incredulous. For months, he had been jabbing at the older alpha, trying to get the crabby bastard to throw down and blow off some of that frustrated energy. He couldn't believe Zeke had chosen this moment, when Cade had a bleeding omega slung over his shoulder, to finally decide to take him up on the offer.
"You can't just take another alpha's omega." The venom in Zeke's voice made it clear that for some reason, this was personal—though Cade couldn't imagine why.
"She ain't his," his shot back. "That piece of shit had no claiming bite, and neither does she."
Though, even she had, Cade still wouldn't give a shit.
"Zeke, sweetheart." Darcy, Zeke's pink-haired omega, was trying to get her mate's attention from the porch. "Cade's right. This is nothing like what happened between you and Stephanie. You saw the look in that alpha's eyes! When he wakes up, he'll just hurt her again…probably worse."
Zeke squeezed his eyes shut and gave a powerful growl. Slowly, as though it pained him, he let out a long breath, unclenching his fists. Cursing under his breath, he opened his eyes and reluctantly stepped out of Cade's way.
Cade didn't know what was more surprising—that he'd actually seen the infamous Zeke Proctor stand down, or that for the first time, an omega had actually helped him out.
With that out of the way, Cade yanked open his passenger door and deposited the lush woman in his arms inside. She didn't spare him a glance, instead turning away from him and making herself small against the seat. The scent of her fear and resignation was as heavy as before, but at least she wasn't trying to escape.
At this point, Cade would take any wins he could get.
"Don't move," he told her before shutting her inside the safety of his truck.
Then he turned to face half a dozen skeptical, disapproving alphas.
"Where are you taking her?" Ty demanded.
"Where do you think?" It wasn't as if there was a Four Seasons tucked away in the Boundarylands that Cade could put her up in.
"I knew it." Zeke's voice dripped with disgust. "He isn't saving her. He's just taking her home to use her as a fuck toy."
"You're not going to hurt her, are you?" one of the omegas—Faith, Troy's woman—asked from the patio.
Cade growled at the insult. Faith was lucky she was an omega because if an alpha had asked him that, he'd be flat on his back right now with a busted nose.
"Go back inside," he said, addressing the entire fool crowd. "Finish your beers. Play some fucking pool. And when that piece of shit Sloan wakes up, you can give him a message for me—if he's stupid enough to show his face around here again, I won't go so easy on him."
There was nothing more to say, so Cade turned back to his truck, ignoring the muttering as the alphas headed back up the wooden stairs and into the bar.
"Hey, Cade," Zeke called. Of course, that bastard had to have the last word.
Cade groaned. He was ready to pummel the bastard into the ground if he didn't back off. God knew he wanted to.