the residents of the Boundarylands would be forced into lives of frustrated celibacy. Still, every alpha knew that a willing beta was a pale substitute for the pleasures to be found with an omega. They were made for each other, after all—destined to mate, to rut and go into heat, to bond for life. No beta woman could offer that.
And yet here he was, freezing his ass off outside for the second time in twelve hours, whacking it so hard that his cock was raw.
Knox's breath rose up in great plumes as he leaned back against the tree and closed his eyes, focusing on the memory of Josie's face as he described how completely he'd fill her. Her bottle-green eyes had gone wide, and her lips had parted, moistened by her tongue. He'd sensed her heartbeat quickening, and his own sped up to match.
He could almost hear the way he'd make her beg for more. She wouldn't be able to stop herself once her change was activated, compelled by the need for his knot.
"Oh, God."
Knox's head whipped around, instantly alert to the sound of Josie's whispered words drifting across the pristine snowdrifts. But his heightened senses relaxed when the moan was followed by the creak of his bedsprings and the perfume of her slick.
The growl that escaped him threatened to grow into a frustrated roar. Knox knew he couldn't take this much longer, fumbling around in his pants like a horny teenager—not when there was a perfectly warm, pliant, gorgeous woman in his bed who was dripping slick while she imagined touching him.
Knox swallowed an oath and strode through the deep snow back to his door. He'd had enough.
He wasn't going to touch Josie, no matter how bad the fire in his veins demanded it. She might be a magnificent woman with whom he shared a deep connection, but changing her nature would mean blowing up his life. It wasn't in him to stay close to home, protecting and providing for a mate, putting her needs ahead of his own. Knox couldn't imagine giving up fighting or partying at the roadhouse. He may have started stirring up shit long ago just to keep the demons in his head distracted, but after all these years, it had become an integral part of who he was.
Lock him in this house for too long, and the same demons he'd been trying to outrun for so many years would be back with a vengeance—and Knox refused to allow that to happen. Not only would it probably end up killing him, but Josie deserved a hell of a lot better.
But that didn't mean that they had to deny this attraction that had him in its vice-like grip. There were ways to get off that didn't involve touching…or standing knee-deep in snow, for that matter.
Josie was so close to orgasm, her eyes squeezed shut and her breath coming fast as she rubbed herself faster and faster to the memory of Knox's big hand on his even bigger cock, when the bedroom door flew open and slammed into the wall.
She instantly pulled her hand away, yanked up her pants, and pulled the covers over her body while her heart pounded.
Shit. Josie had known it was risky to masturbate on Knox's bed—but what else could she do? She had never been as turned on as she was when she beat a hasty retreat to the bedroom, too wound up by his words to form a cogent thought. She had no idea if Knox believed her when she said she was going to try on the things Olivia sent, but she had made an attempt—giving up when her fingers shook too hard to fasten the buttons of the first garment she pulled from the sack. Besides, she needed to do something about her panties, which were soaked all the way through.
But in the state she was in, her nerve endings were so damn sensitive that even the act of peeling off the sodden fabric made her pussy ache and her clit throb for attention. All Josie could think about was giving herself a little relief, so she dropped the sack of clothes on the floor and jammed her hand down the front of her pants.
Tentatively, she slid one fingertip through the slippery folds—and that one little touch had nearly knocked her to her knees. She grabbed the edge of the bed to stop herself from collapsing, then gingerly lay down. She didn't have to do this, she reminded herself—it