defiance revealed for the bluff it was.
That's right, he wanted to tell her—you're about to find out just how bad you need me.
Instead, he took hold of her shoulders, firmly but gently. "Stop making this so hard, Olivia. It's time you..."
His words trailed off as his fingertips brushed against something beneath her skin. It wasn't an object so much as a sort of faint electric hum, so subtle he never would have detected it unless his hand was pressing directly down on it.
"What are you—"
"Quiet," Gray snapped, concentrating on teasing out exactly what he was feeling.
A hum? A pulse? A signal?
That was it—a signal.
Embedded deep beneath Olivia's skin was a tiny beacon like the ones he'd destroyed in his attack on her camp. Even now, the damn thing was sending back information to the men who had sent her here.
Not about him, however.
Suddenly, everything was breathtakingly clear. This mission had never been about Gray at all.
"Olivia," he breathed, releasing her arms and backing away as the rest of the pieces fell into place.
Chapter Nine
The alpha looked even angrier than when he'd torn apart her blind only a few hours earlier—and for the life of her, Olivia could not fathom why.
After all, she was the only one who had any right to be angry. Sure, maybe she'd gone a little too far when she compared him to the government suit—but the alpha still had to own the fact that he'd threatened her life too. His touch had been the thing that had turned her. He couldn't honestly believe that relentlessly hammering her with questions and accusations was going to make her warm up to him.
No, but maybe he thought the actual hammering would. Though Olivia had to admit, she'd gone along with that.
In fact, the only thing worse than the alpha touching her was him not touching her, which made his sudden abrupt change of tone even more frustrating.
Olivia had gone from cursing her body's traitorous reaction to the alpha's mere presence to pure dismay when he suddenly pulled away. The sense of devastation didn't even make sense, but neither did the crazy sex they'd had—and that she wanted to have again.
But given the look of disgust on his face, there was little chance of that happening now.
Something was wrong…terribly wrong.
Shame filled Olivia. The heat started in her cheeks and quickly traveled all through her body. No other lover had ever looked at her that way before—like he regretted every moment he'd spent with her. Like sex with her was too horrible to contemplate.
Like she was lower than the dirt on the sole of his boot.
It had to be these wretched hormones over which she had no control. They were swirling around in her veins like a damned tornado, ruining everything they came across and turning Olivia's life into an unrecognizable mess.
She really ought to be happy as hell that the alpha didn't want to touch her, that he wanted nothing to do with her. This was what she wanted, wasn't it? He'd let her go—if she was lucky, he'd drive her to the border himself just to get rid of her faster—and Olivia could carry out her plan to disappear.
After the call to her mother, she would never contact anyone she knew. She'd go so far away that no one would ever find her. She'd never have to feel this confusing rush of chaotic emotions again.
So what was this leaden feeling in the pit of her stomach at the thought that the alpha might toss her out? Why was she shaking in anticipation of unbearable loneliness because an alpha she'd only just met would never touch her again?
"What's wrong with me?" Olivia wailed, more to herself than the alpha. But he only turned away and disappeared into the kitchen.
She waited for him to return, but as the moments ticked by, she grew afraid that he really had left her all alone, aching with lust, transformed irrevocably into someone she didn't recognize, with nowhere to go and no way to get there.
Soon, though, she heard drawers and cabinets being opened and the clang of metal pans.
O…kay.
This seemed like a weird time to be cooking, but maybe that was just what he did when he was pissed off and—
Suddenly the alpha strode back into the room with a huge knife in his hand. Olivia let out a scream of terror, already on her feet and bolting toward the door. She might be transformed and confused on the inside, but at least her