briefly even though he knew she couldn't hear him.
In this state, there was no way to communicate to her that this was for her own safety. All she knew was the one thing she needed had locked her away.
Aric redoubled his resolve as wrath and adrenaline surged through him. He would return and take his omega in his arms again as soon as he ripped the head off this intruder who dared threaten what was his.
Not bothering with clothes, Aric stormed to the door and threw it open wide. Planting his feet and raising his fists high, he roared. The sound set birds rising from the trees in a cloud of black wings and echoed off the granite faces of faraway hills.
Aric waited for an answering shot. But none came.
He tilted his head back and drew in a deep breath, but sensed nothing amiss in the air.
No—that wasn't completely true.
His senses still compromised from countless hours of pleasure, Aric had almost missed the faintest hint of a chemical note in the wind—a scent blocker. He'd first encountered one a few months back while helping an alpha brother run some betas off his land, and committed the smell to memory.
The problem was that the chemical tang was so faint that Aric couldn't pin down where it was coming from. Its chemical signature was elusive enough that had he not experienced it once before, he never would have noticed it at all. All he knew for sure was that it had to coming from a long way off to diffuse almost completely by the time it reached to his nose.
The bastard was still out there somewhere. Aric just didn't know where.
He stayed very still, listening for any sign of the shooter—a broken branch, a rustle of leaves. No human could remain completely quiet for long, and betas could never match an alpha for stealth.
Still, impatience eventually made Aric pace back and forth across his porch like a caged animal, primed and ready but with nothing to strike.
As the moments ticked past, the scent of the chemical blocker stayed constant, neither fading nor growing. So the beta was waiting, apparently believing he could outlast him.
And the bastard just might be right. The longer the standoff continued, the more powerful the rage inside Aric. It got to the point that his body screamed for the release of the battle. He needed to move, needed to strike, needed to lash out, tear his enemy to pieces, and wash the earth with his blood.
Aric was almost ready to dash into the forest and uproot every tree until he found the son of a bitch, when the shooter finally made a mistake.
It wasn't much—just the snap of a twig as he resettled his weight—but it was all that Aric needed. His senses zeroed in on the spot at blinding speed: his foe was waiting nearly a mile to the west, halfway up a hill that would provide excellent visibility.
At first, Aric thought he'd made a mistake, that his senses were playing games with him. After all, no one could make a shot from that distance.
But as Aric bolted to the other side of the patio, he heard a disturbance in the far-off underbrush: the son of a bitch was on the move.
Aric didn't hesitate but headed directly at his target, running as fast as he could while naked and barefoot, the forest blurring in his peripheral vision as each step found its precise mark.
There was no way that the intruder could know that Aric was one of the fastest alphas in the Boundarylands, second only to a lone wolf alpha named Roman. But it didn't matter. The beta knew he was coming and was already making his escape.
Aric listened in agony to the metallic click of the sniper rifle being quickly and efficiently disassembled, followed by the pounding of boots on soft soil and the sound of an ATV roaring to life.
He roared back as the vehicle came tearing into view through the trees, moving faster than any beta should have been able to without slamming into a tree or losing control and flipping. Whoever this shooter was, his reflexes were astonishingly sharp for a beta.
He's every bit as dangerous as Jo warned you he was.
Aric tried to shake off the thought. This son of a bitch might be good, but he was still a beta. And Aric refused to let him get away.
He pushed himself even harder, but he was no match for the powerful engine.