off herself, Darcy had managed. Night after night, she lay awake, her body tingling with awareness, begging for release—and she'd stayed strong. If only there were awards for this kind of sacrifice, Darcy would deserve a badge of honor.
The thing she really didn't want to think about was that after a few days of this torture, her fantasies of Zeke touching her gave way to even more powerful fantasies of Zeke touching her…as an omega.
The thing Darcy dreaded had somehow become her secret desire—to lose control and give in to pleasure that lasted for days, to beg for it over and over. It would be like a kind of permission, since omegas couldn't help themselves, since their very survival depended on getting laid.
But that didn't mean Darcy wanted it in reality. Becoming an omega would mean becoming a slave to her nature, a nightmare from which she could never escape—being tied to Zeke for the rest of her life, unable to flee or make her own decisions or exercise free will ever again.
It would also mean spending hours and hours in his bed, stroking his broad chest. Memorizing every inch of his tawny, unblemished skin, every hair on his head. Gorging herself on a steady diet of his cock, needing to touch it and taste it and ride it, begging to be touched in return, fucked hard and used for his pleasure over and over.
Darcy's omega fantasies were never gentle. They were full of thrusting and ramming and choking on come, of being manhandled and having her ass slapped, of handprints and bite marks that served as reminders, when Zeke went out to work, of what awaited her on his return.
Darcy throbbed with the constant desire to be filled with his come. To take his knot. To have it throb and pulse inside her, stretching her beyond the limits of what she'd thought possible.
Ruining her for any other man.
Darcy gave a little cry and yanked back her hand, which had crept down between her legs of its own volition as a result of that last thought. Her panties were soaking wet, her nipples hard, her clit throbbing, her heart racing.
She really did need that cold bath now.
Darcy had almost arrived at the spring when her fantasies overtook her, and she sank down on a large, flat rock in the sun to let them play out.
It was happening more and more often, Darcy indulging in her forbidden thoughts, only to have to live with the ache of unmet need afterward. Now, she jumped up and ran the rest of the way to the spring, anxious for the icy water to cool her overheated imagination.
She peeled off her shirt and pants, stripping down to just her underwear. She didn't bother easing herself in but plunged into the pool's center, where the water reached all the way to her shoulders.
Darcy gasped as the freezing temperature shocked her system. Goosebumps sprang up all over her arms and legs, and her fingers and toes reflexively clenched.
Damn, it was cold.
Cold enough that, for just a second, she was completely consumed by its sting, leaving no room for her horribly misguided lust for Zeke.
But it didn't take too long for her body to acclimate to the temperature and for her thoughts to come roaring back.
Darcy held her breath, dunked her head under the surface, and stayed down until her lungs screamed for air. When she came back up, she felt a little calmer. She tried to hold onto the feeling by closing her eyes and emptying her mind of everything but the gentle sensation of her body floating in the clear waters.
Suddenly, a sound invaded her serenity—one she hadn't heard in a while. One that was out of place here in the forest.
Surely, she was mistaken. Darcy waded to the edge of the pool and rested her forearms on the smooth rock.
The sound was getting louder. There was no mistaking what it was now: an engine.
Not a car—it wasn't that big or powerful. More likely, it was a motorcycle or an ATV.
It had to be Zeke since the sound was coming from his land, but she wondered why she hadn't heard it before. Maybe he used the vehicle to track bigger game or to reach destinations he wouldn't otherwise be able to. After all, Darcy knew next to nothing about hunting.
She was about to shrug it off and return to her soaking when the engine sound seemed to split in two directions. Darcy froze as she absorbed