Gray (The Boundarylands #10) - Callie Rhodes Page 0,25

supplies out of the kit and lining them up on the floor. It was an awkward position for someone so large, and Olivia knew it would be much easier if she got up and went to the couch, but she simply didn't have the energy.

"It was a monitor of some kind," the alpha said, choosing his words carefully. "It's not something I've ever seen before."

A chill rolled through Olivia, briefly sharpening her attention. A monitor…like the trackers she'd occasionally seen on the animals she photographed, put there by ecologists and scientists working to protect endangered species.

Except Olivia was pretty damn sure that whoever had put this one in her did not have her welfare in mind. The only possible conclusion was that the government suit wasn't taking any chances when it came to her compliance.

"What did you do with it?" she asked.

The alpha's expression darkened. "I thought about destroying it, but then I had a better idea. I put it inside a fresh deer carcass and buried it near the northern border of my land. Okay, get ready for a sting."

He wasn't kidding. If she wasn't so exhausted, Olivia would have yelped when he dabbed an alcohol-soaked pad on her wound. Instead, she concentrated on what he had just told her. "Why would you do that?"

The alpha looked up from his task briefly, his amethyst eyes troubled. "That thing was probably reporting all kinds of data about you—temperature, pulse rate, hormone levels."

"But…if you buried it in a deer carcass, won't they think I'm dead?"

"That's the plan. Along with the way you were screaming bloody murder, I'm hoping I convinced them that I killed you."

That got her attention. Olivia sat up straighter, horrified. "Why would you want them to think that?"

"Because no matter how bad you thought those beta bastards were, that little monitor proves they're a thousand times worse."

"I don't understand," Olivia said thickly, the pain of the astringent forgotten. "How does that make it worse?"

"Well, let me ask you a question, Olivia." The alpha capped the bottle of alcohol and sat back on his haunches to look at her. His expression was serious and not without sympathy. "Did you know that you were an omega before you came to the Boundarylands?"

"Of course not." What a strange question. Everyone knew that a woman's nature was impossible to detect until she was touched by an alpha—and then it was too late to do anything about it. There were no medical tests you could take to see if you were a beta or omega.

"Then how the hell did that government agent know?"

The question ricocheted around Olivia's mind like a bullet, making a mockery of her confusion and brain fog as its implications slowly sunk in. Could it really be true? Could the government have found a way to detect something that beta civilian science could not?

How had he known, indeed?

The alpha didn't seem to expect a response, threading what looked like a medical-grade needle with thin filament. It looked ridiculous in his massive hands, but when he gently moved her hair out of the way to access the wound, his touch was gentle and sure.

The first stitch didn't hurt half as much as the original wound. Olivia almost felt like a bystander in what was going on. Everything seemed strangely flat and dull, and as her horror receded, hazy exhaustion took its place.

The alpha didn't seem surprised. He worked slowly and meticulously, focusing all his attention on his task. Olivia barely felt the needle piercing her skin, but under his touch, a warmth bloomed that spread from her neck down through her entire body.

"I'm sorry," she mumbled, not entirely sure what she was apologizing for.

"Hush now," the alpha said. "I've got you."

Chapter Ten

"This should be looking a lot better by morning," Gray said as he knotted the thread. It had taken seven tiny stitches in all to close the wound, but the omega's body would heal much more quickly than it would have when she was a beta.

Olivia didn't appear to have heard him. Her unblinking gaze was still focused straight ahead.

Maybe she was tougher than she looked.

Then again, maybe not. Gray couldn't shake the feeling that, in this instance, her muted reaction was due to more to shock than stony courage.

Look down at her, Gray had to admit she was still amazingly beautiful for a woman who had been through so much. Like a cupcake left out in the sun, he thought in a rare poetic moment. Her rosy lips and