tore his eyes off Olivia long enough to notice Gray trying to get his attention. "Y-Yeah?"
"It's time for you to leave."
"Of course." Ryder swallowed hard and started backing away toward his truck, unable to stop looking at the ripe and ready omega standing just a few feet away. "Right. Good idea."
"And Ryder," Gray said through gritted teeth, wishing he'd move a little fucking faster. "You don't need to tell Mitch or anybody else what you saw here tonight."
"No way," the kid said as he clambered into his truck with something like relief. "If this ain't my business, then I figure it's no one else's either."
Gray let out the breath he'd been holding as the old engine fired up, and the truck shot back down the road as fast as such an old hunk of junk could move, quickly disappearing between the trees.
Only then did he turn back to Olivia.
She was leaning against one of the wooden porch posts. The blanket had shifted even lower, exposing a sliver of nipple.
Now it was Gray's turn to let out a growl of pure desire.
He sure as hell hoped no one else got curious about the noises coming from his property in the next four days. Because if anyone interrupted what was about to happen, Gray would kill them with his bare hands.
Chapter Twelve
Olivia couldn't get comfortable.
It was unbearably hot in the bed, even though she'd tossed off the buttery soft blankets and lay naked in the moonlight coming through the bedroom window. The breeze did nothing to cool the inferno that seemed to be coming from inside her body. Every nerve ending was exquisitely sensitive to the point of agonizing distraction.
Not only was every sensation, from the tight-woven cotton of the sheets to the calling of a night bird, magnified until it felt like an assault, but her entire body including her brain was…tingling. Olivia couldn't come up with another word for this strange feeling that had come over her.
It was so distracting that she hadn't even realized what she was doing when she reached across the bed for the alpha. His absence shocked her into awareness, and only then did she realize she had no idea what she would have expected him to do.
The huge alpha had done nothing to comfort her since she'd met him, and she'd be a fool to expect him to ease her suffering now.
Nonetheless, he was the only thing her body craved—him and only him. She was hungry, she realized. Not for food, but for touch. She needed to be sated—filled. That was the only thing that would satisfy her.
Olivia barely registered the sound of voices outside in the drive. They certainly didn't stop her from rising out of bed and gliding to the door. With the blanket still wrapped around her despite the feverish heat, her temperature only increased some more.
What she needed was fresh air.
When she reached the porch, she saw a battered old truck and not one alpha, but two. One was young and handsome, but Olivia barely glanced at him as she held onto the porch post for support. Somewhere deep in her brain, a warning sounded, reminding Olivia she was disheveled and nearly naked and in no condition to meet strangers, but she ignored it, unable to force herself to care.
She wasn't here for him.
She wanted the other one—the one with experienced hands and a body that knew how to please hers—her alpha.
Despite the fact that she couldn't make out his features in the dark, she knew him from his profile, his stance. She'd learned him, Olivia realized, as her body swooned with longing. It was almost as if her DNA was calling out to his.
The awareness inside her sharpened to an exquisite torment. She swore she could feel every molecule of the cool air in the wind brushing over her skin, hear the rustle of every leaf for a hundred miles.
Then, before she realized it, the visitor was gone, and she was alone with her alpha.
Olivia didn't want to want him this badly. The rational part of her mind recoiled from what was happening, the unstoppable force of her new omega nature that was even now picking up speed and strength.
It felt as though her old identity would soon vanish completely, rendering her nothing but a panting slut begging for her alpha master's cock. The things she valued, her goals, dreams, and accomplishments—gone. The insecurities and struggles and inconveniences of daily life suddenly meaningless. Everything she liked about herself, everything she