Ransom (The Unchained Omegaverse #1) - Callie Rhodes Page 0,63

halfway there before he heard the sound of a second bird, both of them headed his way.

How the hell had the son of a bitch found them? Gretchen's phone hadn't been touched in days. The jeep and tent were hidden under the cover of the trees. They hadn't ventured from the site once, and Ransom hadn't caught a whiff of any reconnaissance crews.

Fulmer must've stepped up his game and started using thermal imaging satellites, the kind he always talked about using for security back in the Basement.

No matter how Fulmer had done it, Ransom needed to act fast. He burst into the tent. Gretchen was still so deeply asleep that she didn't so much as stir.

Damn it. She was utterly defenseless in this state. As long as she was unconscious, he'd never be able to protect her and attack the incoming betas at the same time. His only choice was to find a safe place to hide her sleeping body while steering the battle far away from her.

Scooping Gretchen up, Ransom rushed out into the trees. His gaze scanned the surroundings, evaluating every possibility in rapid succession. It only took a fraction of a second to decide on the best one.

Gretchen barely stirred in his arms as he sprinted for the hollow in the old, towering tree. Her eyes didn't even twitch as he settled her into the loamy, dark space at its center.

Ransom ripped branches off the tree and mounded them at the base until the hole was completely covered.

"I'll be back for you," he promised before spinning around, ready to bring the fight to the betas.

Ransom quickly covered the quarter mile between the camp and the landing site, arriving before the first one touched down. He stood motionless, watching as the rotors sent up clouds of dust, his head held high and his arms loose at his sides.

Six soldiers leapt from the first helicopter—seven from the other. Thirteen in all.

Ransom stretched out the muscles in his neck.

Thirteen heavily armed, highly trained assassins and a couple of pilots. Not surprisingly, Fulmer was nowhere to be seen.

It figured. The man had never done his own dirty work before; there was no reason he'd pick today to start.

No matter, Ransom thought as he braced for the onslaught. That fight could wait for another day.

Gretchen woke to the scent of wet moss and evergreen needles. She tried to roll over, to get more comfortable, but every muscle in her body felt sluggish and achy. Her brain felt the same way, like the morning after she finished a whole bottle of wine on her own and overslept.

But when she struggled to open her eyes, all she saw was darkness.

That's when the other memories came rushing in—a montage of her and Ransom, naked, doing things she'd never imagined before. Blood rushed to her sore pussy as she tried to make sense of the tumbling images, too many of them to have taken place. To do everything in those shocking images would have taken days.

Days…which was how long an omega's heat was rumored to last.

Gretchen attempted to sit up, frantically trying to sort out what had happened to her. Along with the bone-deep exhaustion and soreness in her body, there was another ache, this one unfamiliar— a soul-deep yearning that was stronger than any she'd ever known.

Ransom—she knew with utter certainty that what she was feeling was his absence. It made no sense, but everything from her focus to her breath felt wrong, and it would continue to until he came back.

Where was he? Gretchen finally managed to sit up, her elbows and knees bumping into spongy walls. A bit of light filtered through what appeared to be dense branches. Slowly, Gretchen realized that she was no longer at the campsite but inside a huge tree.

What the hell?

She reached out to tear the branches away but stopped short. There was only one person who could have put her here and covered her up. Ransom must have had a good reason to hide her, and until she knew what it was, she was better off staying out of sight.

Gretchen did an admirable job of keeping her pulse and heart rate under control…until she heard the first round of gunfire. Then there was no stopping her panic.

Instantly, she knew what was happening out there. They'd been found again.

Just outside the curtain of branches, a twig snapped. Gretchen's terror skyrocketed, and she clamped both her hands over her mouth.

Oh, God. Someone was out there. Someone who definitely was