a bitch who'd screwed with her pay.
The thought of revenge was like a blast from a heat gun, restoring her determination and giving her the energy to crawl to the side to try to see what was happening. Given the hostility that had greeted them, Josie doubted Knox would be able to deliver on his promise of help, so she needed to start working on a plan B and fast.
There was only a sliver of moon in the sky, too little for Josie to identify more than the vague outline of a rustic home and a huge alpha coming down the steps. Knox, on the other hand, had no trouble navigating the snowy drive to meet the other alpha halfway.
"What the hell were you thinking bringing her out here?" the stranger roared.
His anger was terrifying, bringing out Josie's primal fight or flight response. How could Knox have thought this alpha would help her? Or that she'd even want help from someone like him? Right now, escape seemed like a smarter option—despite the fact she'd never be able to roll herself out of the truck and into the snow, get back up on her feet, and shuffle away before they caught her. Especially not while exhausted and approaching hypothermia.
Besides, the moment she got back to the Central Road, she would be vulnerable to every other alpha who came across her. And Josie had no reason not to believe Knox when he said none of them would be as accommodating as him.
"I thought you liked playing leader of the uplands, Gray," Knox was saying, in a tone that suggested he wasn't taking the situation anywhere near seriously enough.
Apparently, the other alpha thought so too. "This isn't a joke, Knox. What the fuck are you expecting me to do with her?"
Knox shrugged. For such a powerful, enormous creature, his movements were deceptively loose-limbed and casual. "Just help her out, Gray. You know—like you helped Olivia."
"You want me to touch her, change her, and mate with her?"
Josie gasped, shocked by Gray's response. The only thing that frightened her more than being becoming an omega was the prospect of being forced into an alpha's harem.
"No," Knox snapped with sudden ferocity. "You know damn well that's not what I meant."
"Then say what the hell you do mean before Olivia wakes up and tears that girl apart in a jealous rage."
"Too late, I'm already up," a sleepy feminine voice chimed in from the door. "How could I possibly still be asleep with you two shouting at each other out here?"
"Go back to bed, love," Gray replied with surprising tenderness.
"And miss all this excitement?" Despite not being able to see who was speaking inside the darkened house, Josie didn't miss the woman’s teasing tone. "I don't think so. Now, who is it that I'm supposed to murder in a jealous rage?"
"It's nothing," Gray grumbled. "I'll tell you in the morning…when we're alone."
Knox either didn't hear the cue for him to leave, or he didn't care. Josie was starting to get the feeling it was the latter, that her rescuer didn't get stirred up about much of anything. A laid-back alpha—who would have ever imagined?
"The betas dropped another omega tonight," he said. "Except she's not an omega yet."
"Oh, shit." The woman's sleepy tone instantly vanished, and a slim figure came rushing out of the cabin and through the snow to the truck.
"Olivia!" Gray called after her, but she ignored him to peer over the side of the truck bed. Up close, Josie saw tangled long hair and an unmistakably female figure despite the oversized flannel shirt she'd tossed on over her nightgown.
"Oh my God, you poor thing."
Josie recoiled at her words. You poor thing…she had spent her life fighting back against characterizations like that, demanding respect for women and fighting any suggestion that they were inherently helpless and weak. But she had to admit that right now, the phrase was probably apt. She could only imagine how pathetic she looked—bound by chains, her clothing ripped, her hair tangled around her face.
Besides, there had been no pity in the woman's voice, only empathy and understanding.
Shit. Maybe it wasn't the alpha, Gray, who Knox had brought her to see at all. Could this woman be the one he thought could help her? But how was that even possible?
Her earlier exchange with Knox played back in her mind:
You mean they've done this before? Abandoned dormant omegas in the Boundarylands?
Basically.
Though if this woman had been abandoned here by the government and mated with