"You're not an idiot, Darcy. Haven't you figured out why I won't let you touch me? Why the scent of your arousal makes me tear shit up?"
Darcy ran harder, trying to block him out. But there was no outrunning an alpha.
It didn't matter. She'd run forever if she had to.
At least, she would have, if he hadn't played his ace.
"You're an omega, Darcy.”
Chapter Eight
That got her attention.
Zeke paused in the dry creek bed he'd been following, paralleling Darcy's mad scramble through his wooded land. He'd bet she had no idea she'd only gone a few hundred yards before losing her direction and starting to circle back the other way. It was for the best, anyway—there were so many emotions pouring out of her that she probably wouldn't sense a threat until it was right on top of her.
Then again, right now, her emotions—doubt, fear, anger, more doubt—were the threat. They clouded her thinking, made her act irrationally, recklessly.
That sort of thinking would get her killed if those dirty beta cops came back and found her alone on the road.
She turned around to face him with a scornful glare. Her gaze was hard, as if she could simply reject her omega nature by sheer will.
Underneath that brave face was another matter. Zeke had noticed the slight tremor in her hands and the sharp sting of worry that had crept into her scent.
It wasn't that she didn't believe him; it was that she didn't want to.
"You're lying," she accused, tension evident in every muscle in her body, the taut expression on her face.
Zeke fought to keep his expression neutral. It was clear she wanted to fight her way out of this problem the same way she fought the man whose blood she'd scrubbed off in the lake. The same way she'd fought off death at the hands of the betas who'd chased her here.
But there was no fighting this truth.
"I'm not lying," he assured her. He didn't lie—ever.
And Darcy knew it. He watched her expression slowly change as she evaluated her situation. No—not her situation, but him.
It was obvious that his very existence scared the shit out of her, and he'd done nothing to put her at ease. He'd shown his temper, but not the reason for it; he'd offered no explanation for how he'd treated her, tossing her in the damned woodshed and demanding she keep her distance.
Still, Zeke couldn't have made it any clearer that he didn't want her around, so why would he lie to keep her from walking away?
Darcy seemed to come to a decision—one that didn't make her any happier. She glanced over her shoulder before speaking.
"Even if I really was an…if I was special," she said in a low tone, as if afraid someone could overhear. "There's no possible way you or anybody else could know."
Zeke bit back a snort of derision. That's what everybody thought.
But everybody was wrong.
"There is," he said. "And I can."
"How?"
"You aren't the first unawakened omega I've met, Darcy." Hell, she wasn't even the second. He'd detected another just a few months ago at the local bar. He hadn't been certain then and had waited too long to warn Troy, but he was one hundred percent sure now.
Darcy narrowed her gaze. She didn't like what she was hearing, but Zeke knew his words were chiseling away at her doubts.
"If that's true, and I am what you say I am, then why haven't you dragged me to your bed and made me your sex slave?"
It was becoming harder and harder for Zeke to reign himself in. Darcy didn't realize the danger in talking that way, didn't recognize the fire that rose up in Zeke's blood at her words.
He wondered if that was what she'd been fantasizing about when she touched herself—him holding her down, forcing her legs open, taking her hard and without mercy, again and again until she finally cried out his name.
Fuck.
Zeke balled his hands into fists at his side. He had to get himself under control. Somehow, he had to find a way to banish thoughts like that for as long as Darcy was anywhere near him.
Because any other option threatened disaster.
"The last thing I want is to awaken another omega," Zeke said forcefully. "But trust me when I tell you this—I'm the only alpha who feels that way. If you leave the safety of my property, another alpha will find you, and he will touch you. And once he touches you, you'll be panting through your first heat before