Gray (The Boundarylands #10) - Callie Rhodes Page 0,28

for him to identify the engine of the old truck from its characteristic complaining.

Gray didn't bother getting up from his chair. Even if he didn't know exactly who was driving up his road, he'd still be confident it wasn't being driven by a beta. The cowardly bastards from whom he was protecting his land weren't bold enough to make themselves known. They preferred to hide in the shadows, believing they were protected by their high-tech gear and chemicals and network of communication devices.

Of course, that also meant that strangers could be crouching in the forest or up on the ridge, watching him even now.

That didn't make Gray afraid of them, however. Beta scientists might have figured out how to evade his sense of smell, but that was just one tool in an alpha's arsenal. All that ridiculous gear might enable a beta to sneak onto Gray's land undetected, but that didn't mean they would stay hidden for long.

Eventually, the beta would make a mistake—step on a twig, brush against a bough, even exhale too hard—and Gray would hear him. It would be a cold day in hell before any beta stood a chance against him on his own property.

But the same wasn't true for Olivia.

Gray's gut constricted at the thought. Yes, she'd managed to hide out on his property, just over a damned half-mile from his front door, for three whole days.

But she was different, and not only because she'd had a great deal of practice. He knew that as a wildlife photographer, Olivia would have to be both stealthy and exceptionally well trained not to frighten animals away. Gray ought to know—it had taken him years to develop the stealth to move among the creatures on his own land undetected. But her talents ran deeper than that.

He’d never met a beta who could have accomplished what she had. After all, those highly trained soldiers who'd had the gall to invade property in the lowlands had all been picked off one by one.

All that fancy government equipment might have been instrumental in sneaking her onto Gray's land, but it was her own skills that had kept her hidden for days.

Of course, there was also the fact that she wasn't actually a beta, Gray reminded himself. Now that her true omega nature had been awakened, he could only imagine what other talents would reveal themselves.

He tried not to let his imagination run wild as he waited for the sputtering truck to pull up to the house.

No alpha would dare come on to another's property without a standing invitation, and as leader, Gray had issued plenty of them. Fortunately, most alphas preferred to do their socializing down at the roadhouse. But the owner of the truck was an exception.

Ryder Krow was a newcomer to the uplands, arriving only seven or eight months ago. Though he was a late bloomer as far as alphas were concerned, coming into his true nature when he was at the almost-unheard-of age of twenty, he was still basically a pup.

The poor kid hadn't even known better than to buy the pile of scrap metal he was currently driving up to Gray's door from the oldest alpha in the uplands. Gray could barely believe the decrepit thing still ran.

But youth and inexperience didn't mean the kid was the pain in the ass most of the brothers expected him to be. In the short time he'd lived here, Ryder had proven to be whip-smart and eager to learn.

He'd stayed in the background when he visited the roadhouse the first few times, keeping to himself and observing the others. That alone made him smarter than most of the young bucks, in Gray's view. But when Ryder approached him one evening to ask his advice on how to orient the house he was building on his land, he proved to be thoughtful and ambitious, and Gray surprised himself by offering to help pour the foundation.

He wasn't the only alpha brother to pitch in as Ryder built the simple one-room structure that would see him through the winter. Still, he was the one whose counsel Ryder consistently sought. In return, Gray gradually recognized the makings of a future leader.

All Ryder needed to solidly establish himself in the community was someone to take him under his wing and teach him the ropes. It was no surprise to anyone that person turned out to be Gray.

No matter how much he personally liked the pup, however, Gray could have done without a visit tonight. From