an alpha, she wasn't dormant anymore. Hell, she wasn't even herself anymore. Cold prickles ran down Josie's spine as she realized this would be her fate if she couldn't escape.
Following that thought was the realization that she should be the one expressing concern and sympathy, not the other way around. But before she could say anything, the woman turned back to the alphas with her hands on her hips.
"You left her out here alone in the cold?" she demanded. "What the hell were you thinking?"
"It's the safest place for her," Knox said defensively.
"Sure," the woman shot back sarcastically. "Give her another five minutes, and she'll be the world's safest beta popsicle. Gray, go grab some blankets."
"Olivia, we shouldn't get involved." Shockingly, the powerful alpha sounded imploring. "After what happened last time—"
"Fine. I'll do it myself." The omega stormed past the men back into the house, reappearing only moments later with her arms full of blankets.
"Olivia," Gray said again, the warning in his voice unmistakable.
But the omega didn't so much as flinch. "Unless your next words are to tell me that you're putting the kettle on to make this woman a hot cup of coffee, I don't want to hear them."
Okay…so maybe Josie didn't know everything about omegas. At least not this one. Maybe Olivia was an outlier, but she didn't seem particularly subservient or weak, especially when she scrambled nimbly into the back of Knox's truck and knelt before Josie.
"Oh, my God, they chained you?" Olivia seemed shocked as she draped one of the thick blankets over Josie's shoulders.
"It's because I was a prisoner," Josie explained.
"You gotta be kidding me—a damn prisoner, Knox?" Gray stormed closer for a look, and now Josie could see that he was older than Knox, though every bit as massive. Both of them were strikingly fine-looking, but Gray lacked Knox's spark of…humor? Mischief? Josie couldn't quite put her finger on what quality Knox possessed that made him seem inherently less threatening.
"Maybe you could wait until she thaws out to pass judgment," Knox he suggested.
"Not when they've thrown us another one of their goddamn criminals."
Josie forced herself to meet his gaze with her own, despite his hostility. She hadn't fought so hard for so long to put up with crap like that, even from an alpha. "I said I was their prisoner, not that I was a criminal."
Knox surprised her by laughing, a rumbling, almost comforting sound. "She's right, Gray. There can be a difference between those two things."
"Oh, for God's sake, are you two going to stand there and bicker all night?" Olivia raised her voice above theirs, evidently having heard enough. "Or could one of you possibly make yourself useful and get me the damned bolt cutters?"
Chapter Four
Olivia closed her eyes and gritted her teeth as she put her full weight into the bolt cutters' grips. She grunted and groaned, but still, nothing happened. "I don't think I'm even scratching the surface of these things."
Knox had to give Gray's mate credit. Whatever the chains were forged from, it was no ordinary metal. Stood to reason that if the beta scientists had figured out how to block their scent, they could come up with some metallurgic compound that was too strong for even an omega to cut through. Hell, knowing that omegas' strength exceeded that of most beta men was probably all the incentive they needed, given their fragile egos.
Knox had no idea what this woman—for some reason, he found it easier to keep thinking of her as 'this woman' despite the fact that he knew her name now— had done to get herself trussed up like this. Whatever it was, the betas had gone to considerable trouble to make sure she couldn't break out of her bonds, even with help.
At least not with the help of betas or even omegas. Suddenly their intentions became crystal clear, and Knox didn't like them one bit.
The bastards had made certain that only an alpha could free her. He bit back a snarl at the thought of those little pricks huddled together in some government bunker, cooking up their latest sadistic scheme in their war against alphas. It probably gave them all a huge boner to imagine someone like him turning into a rutting animal and forcing himself on the poor woman the moment she was free.
We'll leave her there in chains that only an alpha has the strength to break.
And when he touches her…
The only thing Knox couldn't figure out was why the hell they wanted to