Protected by Her Alphas

Maybe pouting wasn’t the most mature choice, but Emily could think of no better reaction when faced with her three new—and far too hot to be fair—alpha bodyguards.

Her father had discovered she’d been skipping out on her last protection detail. Not that it had been the first time she’d taken her security less than seriously. Men were easy to manipulate and convince to do whatever she wanted. It hadn’t taken more than a week or two of work for her before a new bodyguard would start turning a blind eye to whatever she wanted. Not to mention, getting her way had never been hard, not with her classical good looks. Long blonde hair, bright blue eyes and a figure she spent plenty of hours of cardio keeping slim meant it didn’t take much to tempt men.

Besides, her father hovered over her as though she were still a child. As an alpha, he couldn’t help it, but that didn’t mean she’d just put up with it. He’d been overprotective all her life, ever since her mother had been murdered when Emily had hardly been old enough to walk. Why should Emily suffer just because her mother had ended up the target of some deranged alpha?

Life as an omega had enough problems without factoring in a father who wouldn’t let her go to the store alone.

“Miss Pitch,” Levi, the head bodyguard, said with that professional, distant politeness she loathed as he gestured toward the waiting limo. He was dressed in one of the all-black suits that seemed obligatory in his line of work. Not that she’d complain with how he filled out that suit. Levi had that no-nonsense attitude, paired with dark green eyes and dark hair. His stern expression was the sort of thing that could melt panties, at least if he hadn’t been such a buzz kill. Still, it made her want to see how far she could press him before she got a reaction.

Emily scowled, lifted her chin and walked ahead with the haughty “I’m better than you” attitude she’d learned at an early age. Arguing any more now wouldn’t do a thing.

She’d argued for hours with her father when he’d told her about the additional security and it hadn’t changed anything. It hadn’t been the first time they’d had this fight, and it wouldn’t be the last. Because she was his only child, her father liked to keep her wrapped up and away from any potential danger, and Emily? She liked pushing her luck.

Maddox moved in front of her to open the door, which put her beside the very large alpha. He’d unnerved her more than the other two from the moment she’d first seen him, when he’d stood, his height having to be six-four at least. Add to that a shaved head, serious eyes and the broadest chest she’d ever seen, and it was no wonder she’d taken an automatic step backward.

The third alpha, Grant, lacked the outwardly vicious edges of the others. Instead, he smiled like a lure, like the prettiest, most tempting trap in the world. Eyes so dark a brown they were nearly black had peered at her, coaxing her to fall into them, and all of it wrapped up in flawless dark skin.

Were all alphas so tempting, or was it just those three? Or, maybe her lack of exposure meant any alpha at all would draw her in.

As an unclaimed omega, Emily had plenty of eyes on her. No shortage of alphas would have loved a shot at her, since the possibility of mating into the Pitch family would tempt even saints. Money, power, prestige—her bloodline could offer them all to the lucky alpha who landed her as a mate. Her father knew that fact well, which meant his protection kept her both safe and away from any alphas.

Emily slid in and to the front of the limo, as far as she could away from them. Levi, Grant and Maddox got in afterward, showing no reaction to her distance. Maddox and Grant had their focus moving from place to place, not darting but a slow perusal. Neither appeared worried, just alert. Meanwhile, Levi had his gaze pinned to his phone, his finger scrolling through whatever he read on his screen.

“I have spin class tonight.” Emily crossed her arms and leaned back in the seat. Being ignored never failed to make her want to act out.

Levi lifted his gaze from his phone, a bored expression across his features. “I think we can miss that. The threat against you is credible, and tomorrow we will take you to the airport. At that point—”

“I’ll be safe again. Right. Since you’re new, I’ll let you in on a secret. I’m never safe. After this, Dad will come up with another reason why I’m in danger, another reason why I need an escort.” She threw the words out there like bait, waiting for one of the alphas to respond.

That was how it worked. Throw out tiny barbs, little complaints, and play up the “poor girl who just needs a little help” card. One of the alphas would tell her it wasn’t so bad, and she’d squeeze out a few tears about how hard it was to be trapped all the time, how she just needed a little freedom, and before she knew it, she’d be off to spin class.

Instead, Levi cocked a dark eyebrow before dismissing her and returning to his phone as if she hadn’t spoken.

The gall… Emily’s mouth dropped open. She was the only daughter of business mogul Samson Pitch. She was a damn legend. She had mating requests from no less than fifty different alphas, and those were just the ones who had passed the first level of rejections. How dare some hired help ignore her like she were a petulant kid?

“This is all just overreacting,” she pressed, wanting him to engage.

Levi placed his phone on his thigh, then set his arm over the back of the seat, finally giving her his full attention. “The threat against you is serious enough for your father to have hired us. You’ve had too many close calls, recently.”

“It’s not the first time someone has threatened me. It wasn’t the first time my house security was tampered with, or the first time someone thought they could make a few quick bucks by planning to abduct me. You know what, though? Nothing has ever actually happened.”

“And it won’t happen this time, either.” Levi leveled her with a steady gaze, and Emily saw that his eyes were green. Not a light green, but an emerald that didn’t seem to fit with his all-work, stick-up-the-ass personality. Eyes like those belonged on writers who recited sweet-but-terrible poetry on the beach. They certainly did not fit on an alpha like Levi.

Worse than those eyes, though? The thing Emily tried her hardest to ignore? The alphas smelled good. No, not just good—they smelled delicious. The scent of all three filled the limo, which suddenly didn’t seem nearly large enough. Emily had spent so little time around alphas, she’d never gotten such a powerful whiff of that heavenly scent. She’d had no idea that the potent, masculine smell would have her body reacting, her pussy growing wet without any help from her at all.

So they smell good. So what? They’re still assholes. Pizza smells divine, but I’m not about to fuck it.

“Come on. You can’t uproot my whole life just because of one little threat.” She tried to ignore the effect the small space was having on her, the way her panties had dampened.

Maddox snorted, his gaze out of the window as though he wasn’t listening. Still, his curled lips said he’d heard every word.

Grant answered. “Don’t tell me that works with the betas?”

“It must, given they did such a terrible job with her protection,” Levi said. “Hard to believe some batted eyelashes could sway someone.”

Batted eyelashes? Emily sat up straight, feeling the need to defend her skills, skills which went far beyond just some fluttering lashes.

“Betas are easier to manipulate,” Levi continued. “They are often looking to prove themselves, and a pretty, bratty omega can get whatever she wants from them.”

“She does seem like a brat, doesn’t she? Saw that a mile away when we got her files,” Grant said.

“Excuse me,” Emily interrupted, “but you don’t have any idea what you’re talking about.”

Levi looked in her direction. “So you haven’t been manipulating your bodyguards? You haven’t been slipping your security details when they can’t be manipulated? You haven’t been sleeping with them?”

The last accusation hit her the hardest, like a punch to the gut.

She hadn’t thought anyone knew about that, at least no one but her father, and he only had suspicions.

I won’t feel guilty about it. I have to spend all my time with these bodyguards. I’m never allowed to meet anyone else. Fuck him for trying to make me feel bad for having sex with the only men I’m around. Even as she told herself all the reasons why she shouldn’t worry…she did.

Men wanted her for what she could give them, for what a future mating with her could do for them. It meant all those alphas her father had approved, the ones who sent expensive gifts, were the enemy at best. Sleeping with her bodyguards was her fuck you to expectations. Even if no one else knew, each was her own little rebellion that made her feel more in control of a life she had no real control over.

“You don’t know anything,” Emily repeated.

“Of course, Miss Pitch.” Levi maintained the uninterested tone which implied he didn’t care who she had slept with or why, though in the same breath, he managed to call her a liar. “We will go to your residence for the evening. No spin class, no stops. Maddox can pick up food for us should you have nothing to eat at your home. Tomorrow, you will pack, and we will go to the airstrip. Your plane leaves at four tomorrow afternoon. We’ll transfer your protection to the team who will go with you to Europe.”

Her father had already said the move was temporary. She’d spend the summer there while those her father had hired worked to ferret out the danger to her. Her father had promised she could come home by winter, that he’d have everything settled.

“So I only have to put up with you for twenty-four hours?”

Grant released a laugh, sitting back. “So, the stories of your brattiness are pretty much on point.”

Levi shot him a hard look before returning his gaze to Emily. “Yes. In only twenty-four hours, you will be someone else’s problem.”

Emily opened her mouth to say something back, something sharp, and to remind them they were not at all on the same level. Instead, a crash silenced her.

As soon as it happened, Levi was beside her, his large, strong hand grasping the back of her neck and pressing her face down near her knees. The limo swerved, but nothing could shake Levi’s solid grip.

Another sound, so loud it made her ears ring, filled the space along with something raining down on her. It took a moment for her to realize it was glass.

The alphas shouted, but her ears couldn’t make out the words over the ringing in her ears. The limo swerved and shook, like it had gone off the road, and Levi yanked her seatbelt on, managing to hook it before the loud snap of twisting metal filled the limo and everything went black.

* * * *

Emily shoved at the hands that roamed over her body, slapping them away. She hated when men got all cuddly the next morning, usually looking for a quickie before she kicked them out of bed. Not that she minded quickies, but she really hated mornings. The last thing she needed was to be bothered by morning breath or morning wood.

“I don’t care if you have blue balls. Get out of my bed,” she muttered, trying to roll over and go back to blessed sleep.

Except as she rolled, something hard jabbed into her hip—far harder than anything on a man would be, no matter what they claimed—and she was forced to open her eyes.

Grant knelt beside her, his hands moving over her shoulders then her ribs. He lifted them to her cheeks and stared into her eyes. He looked almost sweet, with the way his fingers slipped along her skull and the back of her neck, with his eyes so dark, they were nearly black. “How’s your head, brat?”

All those feelings of almost-fondness disappeared when his words registered. She knocked his hands aside and pushed herself upright. “What the hell happened?”

“We were attacked.” Levi’s voice drew her attention to the left, where he sat on a rock beside a pile of items he was sifting through. He spoke without looking her way. “An ambush was set up on the bridge, a tack strip to force the limo to stop. Once our driver was killed, another vehicle pushed the limo off the road. Neither vehicle was drivable.”

“What happened to the people in the other car?”

Levi lifted an eyebrow as though the question were stupid. I guess it is. If we’re alive, they’re not, right?

“Aren’t you supposed to prevent this exact sort of thing from happening?”

“You’re still alive, aren’t you?” Levi tucked the items he’d separated into the backpack. A small first-aid kit. A knife. Bullets. Rope. More items she couldn’t place. Funny how, even with his disheveled suit, his dark brown hair still seemed perfect, the gel holding it in place.

“Alive? Barely.”

Grant caught her chin, bringing her gaze back to him. “You’re going to need to start listening, because this is serious.”

“So call Dad. He’ll send another team to pick us up.”

“We can’t call your father, not until I’m sure you’re somewhere safe. The people who set this up are probably waiting for the chance to strike again.” Levi pulled his bag over his shoulder. “Let’s go.”

“Go?” Emily gestured to the massive amounts of nothingness around her. “Go where? We are stuck in the middle of nowhere.”

“No. Where we are is far too close to where the limo crashed and where whoever set this up last checked in. Where we need to be is as far away from here as possible.”

“And how are we getting there? Because it doesn’t sound like the limo is going anywhere.”

Grant chuckled and flicked her thigh hard enough that the spot stung. “These legs aren’t just for tempting men, brat. Did you know they can actually be used for getting from place to place?”

Emily ensured her face said “asshole” in a way her proper upbringing didn’t allow her mouth to.

“Feisty,” he all but purred, as if the more she scowled, the more turned on he got. Not that she couldn’t smell it. Excited alpha was even better than regular old run-of-the-mill alpha, it turned out.

Standing was enough for her to realize, yeah, she had been in a car accident. Her hip ached, her side hurt and her shoulder was not at all into the whole moving thing.

Levi was in front of her before she got the chance to do much, his fingers finding the front of her button-up shirt and pulling it to the side. He offered a soft tsk of his tongue as he stroked a tender spot. “You’ll bruise.”

“Some job you’ve done, then.”

His dark eyebrow cocked again, that subtle shift that said he wouldn’t rise to her insult. “I doubt it’s the first time you’ve gotten bruises from a bodyguard of yours.”

His statement was innocent on the surface, yet the way he said it made her mind tumble right down the rabbit hole. She pictured her time with the other bodyguards. Olin, who had been sweet—her first—and far too gentle. Brandon, the one who only managed quickies because he was always too afraid of getting caught. Others had been less serious, just kissing, some groping, maybe a blow job when she was particularly lonely. Garret, her most recent, stuck with her the most. She’d thought, for a split second, there might have been a future there. He’d been angrier about losing his job than about her, though, and she hadn’t bothered to return his many calls.

“No, they haven’t,” she bit out, trying to hide the nerves and lust the question had brought up.

“Well, that explains why you’ve been such a handful, doesn’t it?” Levi leaned closer to answer, taking a low drag of breath in, as though he were smelling her.

Then again…he probably was. Alphas weren’t betas. Scent and pheromones drove alphas, just like they did her. Beta lovers were one thing, but even in the less-than-an-hour of time she’d spent with Levi, she’d started to fear her father had been right.

Putting omegas and alphas together for any length of time was a bad idea.

“Maybe if one of them had left a few marks, you might not be as troublesome as you are,” Levi pushed.

Emily pulled in a shuddering breath, her heart racing as the images bombarded her. What sorts of marks did he mean? She sure as hell didn’t get the sense he was talking about anything she wouldn’t damn well like, and right then? Her body was on board for whatever he wanted to try.

Still, the part of her that had grown up with anything she wanted, with all the power and no real rules, rebelled against him telling her anything.

So Emily did what she did best. She pulled her shoulders back, hiked her chin up and spoke as though she were addressing someone so far below her station that they hardly warranted her attention. “Or perhaps they were just a lot better at doing their job than you are. Now that you’ve managed to destroy my vehicle and get me stranded, where should we go?”

His gaze narrowed, even as Grant’s laughter from behind them said he had watched it all.

Levi nodded toward where Maddox appeared from the tree line. “This way, Miss Pitch.”

The way he rumbled out her name made her body heat, but she took a step the way he mentioned, unwilling to let him see it.

Fuck him. She sighed. If only.

The fourth stumble Emily took made her officially done. Done with the wild. Done with the great outdoors. Done with the alphas.

Their scent had teased her the whole time, worse now than even in the limo. She’d have figured being in an enclosed space would make it stronger, and it had, but out here? In the trees and nature? The scent made them seem untamed, and it called to a wild part of her she hadn’t known about before.

Emily was a lot of things, but wild had never been one. She tried for wild. She bent rules, she ignored advice, she argued—a lot—but wild was something more. It was what she’d always wanted to be even as she knew, deep down, she only managed to be the rebelling rich girl.

However, around them? With the way each of the alphas moved through the trees, the bushes, she felt some strange primal part of her that had been asleep until then. She wanted to indulge in it, to give in to the instinct so much older than any of them.

Her toes caught a stick, pitching her forward. Her mind had been so focused on Levi’s ass and the mouthwatering scent of the three alphas that she had no chance to catch herself that time.

Instead of the face full of dirt she’d expected, something hard caught her around the waist. She was pulled up against a body, very solid and far too warm.

Emily twisted to find not Grant, as she’d expected, but Maddox. He caught her not just with his strong arms, but with the intensity of his gaze. Dark eyes met hers, his stern features too sharp to be handsome. No, Maddox was all utility. He was the bodyguard she would want to scare off anyone who might wish to attack her. Anyone with half a brain would take one look at the hulking male and reconsider their life choices.

And yet, that tantalizing scent struck her, every inch of her curvy body against the hardness of his. Emily set her hands on his biceps for balance, the hard width of them firm beneath her fingers. Wow.

Her security details before had been fit, since the job required it, but Maddox was a whole different matter. His body was incredible. Beneath the dirty and tattered suit was a physique that Greek gods would have envied. He had broad shoulders, that seemed impossibly wider since he’d removed the jacket of his suit. It left him in a button-up white shirt. His arms were so large they were thicker than her thighs, and she wasn’t tiny by any stretch.

“Careful,” he said, the first time he’d spoken. His voice was rough, dark, like a beast whispering from shadows and trying to draw her in.

And she wanted to be drawn in. She wanted to hear that voice rumble out the filthiest demands, and damn it, she wanted to follow every last one.

Get a hold of yourself. Emily shook her head, taking a step away no matter how difficult it was to do so. She had problems bigger than this guy’s arms, and she sure as hell didn’t need any complications.

I am not a hormone-driven idiot who is stupid enough to be distracted by the people who are supposed to keep me alive.

Maddox’s hands fell away from her as she pulled back. He didn’t hold on to her as she regained her footing and moved out of reach.

“So how is this little outing supposed to go?” Emily stepped over the branch that had tripped her up, trying to ignore the aching in her feet, trying to focus on conversation instead of how the alphas made her body rebel.

“Your file says you work out often. I’m surprised you’re this winded.” Levi slowed, bringing him from the front spot to beside her.

Did these alphas ever tire? What else can they use that stamina for?

She shoved the thought away. “I do spin class and yoga. I don’t hike.” A whimper threatened to leave her lips, but Emily smothered it. This was just like that hour-long Pilates class she’d somehow kept up with no matter how peppy that perky little instructor had acted. It was like those eight-hundred-dollar heels she’d bought and worn, no matter how large and painful the blisters on her feet had gotten.

She’d made it through those things—she could damn well keep up with the never-tiring alphas.

Maddox’s grumbled voice spoke up. “Let’s call it.”

Levi turned back. “We’re only a few miles away from the crash. I wanted to put more distance behind us before stopping.” Something seemed to pass between Maddox and Levi, because he turned his gaze to Emily, his stern lips flattening to a thin line. Finally, he nodded. “Okay, we’ll stop for an hour.”

Fifteen minutes later, they’d settled in. Maddox had pulled over a large log, which, despite the dirt and twigs stuck to it, was better than sitting on the ground.

It wasn’t chilly yet, but the sun had started to drop, casting the forest in a sinister, dark glow.

Levi sat across the small distance, going through one of the packs. Grant sat on the ground, just to her left, his long legs stretched out.

Sitting was almost orgasmic. It took the weight off her feet, which she’d put into kitten heels because they’d been cute, not because they’d been practical for slogging miles through the underbrush.

Emily tried to straighten her legs, pointing her toes to ease the tension in her muscles, burning from overuse.

Fingers wrapped around her ankle, and Emily jerked at the unexpected touch.

“Jumpy?” Grant’s voice held amusement, but he didn’t release her ankle.

“Why are you touching me?”

“Shy all of a sudden?” He asked the question like a dare, as though he knew Emily would never admit to being scared of anything, shy about anything. He didn’t wait for an answer, slipping her shoes off.

“I just don’t let my employees fondle me,” she snapped.

“Well, maybe if you did, you’d be a little nicer.” Grant tugged her foot into his lap, then dug his strong thumbs into her insole.

She wanted to argue, she really did, but she melted into a content little puddle when he did that, when his unyielding hands massaged her aching feet.

He let out a rough chuckle, dark and wholly amused. “Look at that, she can be nice.”

Emily offered a glare that was not even half-hearted before giving in to the touch of his talented hands.

Levi tossed a small foil-wrapped granola bar into her lap. “You should have said something if you were in this much pain.”

“Like you would have listened.”

His emerald eyes narrowed. “I would have. Your safety is what matters.”

“Aching feet aren’t a safety matter.”

Maddox spoke up this time, so silent as usual that she’d nearly forgotten his presence to her right. “No alpha worth the title would let you suffer if they could do something about it.” Damn…that voice. It was so deep and full of gravel, even better because he so rarely used it and it surprised her each time he did.

Still, his words sank in. Emily tore the foil as she shrugged. “I wouldn’t know. I’m never around alphas.”

“Is that why you light up every time you get a whiff of one of us?” Grant paired the personal question with a smirk, as though he didn’t already know the answer and just wanted to see her squirm.

“I do not.”

“Yeah, you do, brat. You think I can’t smell it? Bet if your feet ache the way they do after that walk, your cunt can’t feel any better, as wet as it’s been since the limo ride.”

Indignation swamped Emily. How dare he speak to me like that! Doesn’t he know who I am? Even as she wanted to deny his words, though, it was their truth that really made them embarrassing. She couldn’t even say he lied, not as a subtle shift on the log made her all too aware of the drenched state of her panties.

Then again, could they blame her? She was twenty-two and had spent so little time around alphas. She had no idea how to control her reaction to them, hadn’t learned to contain it.

Before she needed to come up with a response, Levi interrupted. Saved by the asshole. “That’s not why we’re here, Grant.”

“So? Are you going to really tell me you aren’t tempted?”

“She’s a client, and she’s in danger. What part of that makes you believe this is appropriate or smart?”

Grant released an unhappy huff. It said that while Levi might be right, Grant wasn’t going to totally give in. Just a token protest.

The only sounds for a long while were the chewing of the granola bars Levi had and the occasional moans from Emily when Grant hit an especially tender area of her foot.

Once even that couldn’t buy them any more time, Levi packed again. “We should get going. I’d like to put another few miles between us and the limo before we stop for the night.”

“Are we walking toward anything in particular, or just enjoying the scenery?”

Not even a twitch of his lips, the stoic bastard. “There is a small town with an airstrip another eight miles that way. When we get closer, I will contact my boss, who will ensure a trusted plane can meet us there. Once you are safely off the ground, I will call your father and update him.”

“Why the secrecy?”

“Because someone knew when you were leaving. Someone knew the route we took. There was no other way they could have set such an ambush. It means someone is betraying you, Miss Pitch, and it means I can’t trust your father’s people.”

She pulled her foot back, her features pinching into a frown. Those people were the closest thing to family she had. She couldn’t believe one of them could be involved. He had to be wrong.

“Miss Pitch—” Levi’s voice dropped, almost as if he were sorry he’d had to tell her that.

I don’t need his pity. She cut him off. “I need to use the restroom.”

He lifted his eyebrow. Right. No restroom out here.

“You know what I mean,” she muttered.

Levi’s lips blanched again. Nothing made that male happy, did it?

Maddox stepped forward. “I’ll take her.”

As much as Emily wanted to argue that she didn’t need an escort to go pee, she didn’t feel particularly up to the task, and from Levi’s set jaw, she wouldn’t win.

A few minutes later, when they’d moved far enough away from the makeshift camp that she could no longer hear Grant and Levi, Emily allowed her shoulders to slump. She ran her fingers through her hair to push it back, wincing when she found knots in it. And a leaf? Wonderful.

“I can handle this alone,” she snapped when Maddox wouldn’t give her more than a few steps of space.

She waited for him to say something, the way Levi would, the way Grant would. Instead, he only stopped, reached into the pack he had and handed over a tissue.

What’s this— Heat crept up her cheeks. Right. She was in the middle of nowhere, peeing in the woods. She took the tissue and ignored the embarrassment, thankful when he gave her privacy as she ducked behind a rock.

After relieving herself and cleaning up, Emily wandered around the other side of the rock, needing a moment to herself. She wasn’t a stupid woman who would skip her protection when she was actually in danger, but a few feet of space couldn’t hurt. She couldn’t think when the alphas watched her, and they never seemed to not be watching her.

Had she been betrayed? By who? All the people who worked for her father had worked there for years. Yes, the threat this last time had seemed more forceful than others, but to think that someone she’d trusted had sold her out…

Maybe she wasn’t as nice as she could be all the time, but those in the household, those who had the information needed, had been in her life for years. She treated them like friends, like family.

She leaned against one of the trees, closing her eyes and wishing she were back at her father’s house. She wanted to be somewhere familiar, with people she knew and trusted. Instead, she was out in the middle of nowhere with three alphas she didn’t know. Sure, they were in charge of her security, but she wanted more, wanted people who cared about her for more than the paycheck she earned them.

“Em?” The nickname on Maddox’s lips was far too personal.

No one gave her nicknames, and yet already she’d been labeled brat by Grant and Em by Maddox.

Levi called her Miss Pitch, which many did, but he said it with a tone that was anything but professional.

She opened her eyes to find the hulking alpha just in front of her. How could a man that large move so silently? His shaved head made him look even more dangerous, as if his size hadn’t done enough. He stared down at her with his oak-colored eyes, as close as he’d been before, so near that his warm breath heated her forehead.

And his scent? Yeah, she gave up on pretending it didn’t affect her. She tried to inhale, a small sniff that he wouldn’t notice, just enough to enjoy the way it caused sweet chaos in her already tuned-in body.

His cheek twitched before he set one massive hand on the nape of her neck and pulled her in. She had to go on her toes, and he had to crouch slightly, but he pressed her face to his hot throat.

Emily drew him in. His scent was like an awakening, as though something carnal that had slumbered was rising. It crawled into her lungs, then spread through her body, filling spaces inside her that had atrophied due to lack of use.

She tilted her head up and nuzzled his heated skin, burying her face against him.

A soft sound rumbled from his chest.

A growl? No. It took a moment for it to register that it was too soft for that. A purr?

Alphas could purr, but few did. That whole macho thing they liked to play kept them from it, and yet the sound eased her. The soft vibration went along with his scent and made everything a little more bearable.

Well, everything except the ache between her thighs. Everything except the way more slick gathered in her cunt. It hadn’t even been that long since she’d had sex. Her last bodyguard hadn’t been a great lay, but she hadn’t minded finishing herself off afterward. She’d gone to bed satisfied, and that had only been a few weeks before.

“You smell good,” Maddox rumbled in that deep, sandpaper voice of his.

It was then Emily realized he was rubbing his thumb against her pulse, a sweet stroking as if to temper her racing heart.

“I don’t understand this,” she whispered.

He pulled back to meet her gaze. “You really don’t know much about alphas, do you?”

She shook her head. She’d have never remained so passive for Levi or Grant, but somehow, Maddox didn’t make her want to argue. Maybe it was that he didn’t seem to judge her, to laugh at her, to want to fight. He let her relax, giving her nothing to push against.

He moved his hand so he dragged his fingertips over her jaw then to the fullness of her bottom lip. “There’s a reason your father wanted you to stay away from alphas. We’re drawn to one another. Everything inside me took one look at you, one sniff, and I knew.”

“Knew what?”

His lip curled into a smile so slight it would have been easy to miss. “Your instinct says it, too. You’ll figure it out.”

Emily’s hands were resting on his broad chest for balance. When did I put them there? It let her feel his heart, the steady, rhythmic beat.

Dizziness swamped her. Confused by everything that had happened, out of her element, and feeling more alone than she had before, even as close to his warm, sinful body as she was.

Someone she trusted had sold her out. She had no one to lean on, didn’t even have her father to call.

So Emily did the only thing she could think of, the only thing her scattered mind and chaotic body kept returning to. She rose higher on her toes, slid her hands up Maddox’s chest to the back of his thick neck and pulled him down for a kiss.

And while Maddox might not talk much, he proved his lips were good for other things. He met her kiss, his lips firm against her soft ones. He moved his large hands to her back, again reminding her how much smaller she was than him. He kissed with her a strength that said while everything else in her life was falling apart, he wouldn’t.

Which was stupid. She didn’t know him. Then again, if someone had betrayed her, did she know anyone really? It all seemed like a crapshoot right then, so why not take a gamble on something she wanted, at least?

So she kissed him to wipe away the uncertainty, or at least distract herself from it. And, damn, did it work. She moved one hand to where his white shirt was tucked into his slacks, and she yanked at the fabric. Once she had freed it, she ran her hand up his hard stomach, feeling the broadness of even his waist, wrapped in hard muscle. Each dip made her mouth and her cunt water.

When she found the button of his slacks, however, he stopped her. He placed his large hands over hers, stilling her progress.

Emily met his gaze, confused. What sort of man turns down an easy fuck?

He pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Come on, Em.”

“Why?” And why did she sound like a pouting child, yet again? Like the brat Grant called her?

Maddox retucked his shirt, despite the fact that it seemed pointless, given the general disarray they all were in after the crash. “Things are more complicated than that.”

“What, because we’re on the run?”

He shrugged, and it brought attention to his shoulders again, to where she wanted to hang on for dear life as he pounded into her.

What would his knot feel like? While she’d never been with an alpha, she had taken basic omega sex-ed. She’d sat in the classroom with all the other female students, since they had no idea who would grow to be a beta or an omega, and listened to how sex worked. For most combinations, it was the same. Alpha-beta, beta-beta, beta-omega. It was all plug-and-play.

However, that wasn’t the case when alphas and omegas decided to have sex. The pheromones that were released, the hormones in the wetness of an omega’s pussy would cause an alpha’s knot to expand. It meant the base of his cock would grow when he came, locking him inside the omega. It was a strange hold-over, a way for an alpha to increase his odds of breeding a female omega.

So despite all the times Emily had had sex—and she hadn’t been a prude—she’d never experienced the way an alpha’s knot would stretch her tight body, or the way she’d react to it.

She used to say she didn’t miss it. She didn’t need an alpha. However, in the darkness of her room, when a need she couldn’t ignore or sate consumed her, she’d used her fingers to press shallowly into her, to try to replicate the stretching sensation that would happen. It was never enough, but right then?

Right then she wanted the real thing. She wanted to feel Maddox deep inside her, to feel the base of his dick swell, to be trapped by biology and him and milk his length as he filled her.

His gaze darkened, and damn if his scent didn’t increase until she drowned in it. She expected him to move forward, to forget whatever complications he had spoken about and just fuck her.

They both wanted it.

Maddox didn’t seem an easily swayed man, however. He shook his head, hard, then backed up another step. “No. There are other complications, but now isn’t the time to discuss them. We should get back.”

Emily’s gaze dropped, and the way his slacks showed exactly how much Maddox wanted her made it better and worse. At least she didn’t have to worry that he didn’t find her attractive, right? Some useless win. It also made her realize that he was quite proportional in other areas, and as experienced as she might have been, it gave her delicious pause.

A growl so deep and wild that she sucked in a breath left him before he silenced it. He held a hand toward where the small clearing had been, waiting.

Emily forced her legs to move even though all she wanted was to drop to all fours and feel him over her, behind her, inside her, everywhere.

Since that wasn’t seeming likely to happen, she followed his directions and tried to pretend she didn’t want it so badly.