Chapter 13

Ari

Irefused to be a weak and helpless omega rich kid for a second longer. For too long, I'd let myself get pulled along in other people's wake, and even though I'd resented it and complained about it, I'd never actually done anything to put my foot down and say, "Enough!"

That was the end of that. If I was going to die, and I really felt like there was no way I could live past this insane situation, then I was going to do it on my own terms. And I was going to save Samson, my alpha, the father of my child and the man who had changed my life, even if that change wouldn't last more than a day. Even though I knew he would be furious with me.

So I scooted out from under my car, stood, and stumbled toward Clyve and the three armed thugs with him.

Of course, Bruno noticed me and whipped his scary gun at me the second I emerged from under the car, shouting, "Stop right there!"

Everything depended on me being the best fucking actor in the world. I'd never so much as been in a talent show as a kid, but if Samson was going to live and make it out of here in one piece, I had to be utterly fucking convincing with everything I did next.

"Clyve?" I focused on Clyve, letting my real fear seep through and make me look and sound as terrified and pathetic as I could. "Clyve! Thank God!"

I threw myself at the asshole, pretending with everything I had that I was so relieved to see him I might piss myself. The tears I shed as I slammed into him and threw my arms around him were very real, and I just let them flow, especially since I was still in the height of my post-heat aversion to touch and hugging Clyve made me feel like I was being burned alive with acid.

"Clyve! Oh my God, I am so relieved to see you," I wept against his expensive jacket. I was way too aware of the three rifles pointed at me and the bristling anxiety radiating from all three of the alpha thugs.

"Ari?" Clyve asked, more surprised than anything else. He didn't embrace me in return. He held his arms up like he wanted nothing to do with me, and when I raised my head shakily to pour on the helpless omega act and looked pleadingly at him, his lip was curled in a sneer, like he wasn't happy I'd snotted on his suit.

"Clyve, I'm so scared," I wept on, hoping and praying that Bruno and the other two goons, not to mention the guys who were just arriving on the ATVs, would be distracted by my antics, giving Samson time to think and get away. "I got lost and tried to make a camp. Then I went to collect firewood and my car was stolen. I wandered around in the dark woods for so long, and then the next day. I'm so hungry, and I broke more than one nail, and I don't know where I am, and now all these alphas have guns and I don't know what's going on, and I, and I…." I pretended to hyperventilate, hoping Clyve wouldn't dig too deep into my story.

"You're supposed to be at a meditation retreat," Clyve said in an annoyed voice. At least he relaxed a little, enough to lower his arms around me in a loose, awkward embrace.

My body suddenly lit up with painful prickles. Everywhere he touched me, even though it wasn't skin on skin, I felt like I was being wrapped in razor wire. My body and soul screamed at me to get away from the man who wasn't my alpha and not to let him touch me.

I had to ignore that powerful revulsion, though. My only chance, Samson's only chance, depended on Clyve believing I was alone and that I genuinely needed him. It would have been a bridge too far to convince him I loved him. He would know something was wrong if I pretended to have any affection for him at all.

"What do you want us to do, boss?" Bruno asked, shifting from foot to foot, his hands restless on his rifle. He still had it pointed halfheartedly in my direction. Of course, after the confrontation I'd just heard between him and Clyve, he could very well be pointing it at Clyve and trying to decide if he could get away with shooting him and calling it an accident.

The two ATVs pulled all the way onto the drive at that point, stopping Clyve from answering.

"The forest is clear," one of the drivers said as he cut his engine.

The other driver did the same, all four of those men dismounted, and most of them wandered over with curious looks to see what was going on.

My pulse kicked up—I used it to pretend I was terrified at being approached by four more men, two of them armed to the teeth—and I prayed that somehow Samson would be able to steal one of the ATVs to go for help.

"What's going on here?" one of the ATV guys with guns asked.

"This omega appeared out of nowhere," one of the guys who had arrived with Clyve said. "Vick said he saw on surveillance."

"I told you Vick saw someone," Clyve snapped at Bruno, smirking. Of all the times for Clyve to be smug, he had to do it while surrounded with rough-looking alphas carrying guns.

"I still think Vick is smoking what he's supposed to be protecting," Bruno grumbled.

More importantly, he lowered his gun. Once he did, the others followed.

I wanted to be relieved, but I knew I was far from safe.

"What are you doing here and how did you get here?" Clyve asked, shifting to loop an arm around my waist and usher me toward the path that led to the house.

My brain short-circuited. I needed to get Clyve and the guards, all of the guards, away from the drive so that Samson could get free and go for help. At the same time, the new bond inside me pulled tighter as Clyve swept me away from Samson. It hurt. Almost physically. It strained and screamed within me. I didn't want to be parted from my alpha. I couldn't be parted from Samson. I would die if the two of us were separated.

Those visceral feelings were so intense that I started shaking all over again. Bonds were supposed to be sweet, rare, precious things that made everyone happy and lovey-dovey. All the bonded pairs I knew were okay with being apart from each other, even on different continents when one or the other had a business trip. But I did vaguely remember hearing that new bonds took a while to settle in, and that while they did, it was nearly impossible for the alpha and omega to tolerate being separated.

"Ari?" Clyve paused by the side of one of the shipping containers near the path, looking at me questioningly.

I had to pull it together and fight through the pain and the fear. If Samson had any chance of making it out, I had to tough it out and pretend.

Oh God. If Samson was found and killed, would that kill me, too? Would it damage me forever? Or what about vice versa? If something happened to me, would it affect him.

"I'm just so scared," I told Clyve. And fuck me, but it was the truth.

I wasn't scared enough to give up, though. The important thing was getting all of the armed alphas away from the drive so Samson could escape.

Inspiration struck me.

"I'm so scared, Clyve," I said, gripping his lapels and letting all my emotion pour out. "They stole my car and my wallet. I'm lost, and I kept trying to find my way out, but they're out there in the forest."

I deliberately pointed to the section of forest farthest from the front of the drive.

It worked . Clyve tensed and turned that way. "Maybe that's what Vick saw," he said. "Bruno, Frank. Head out that way and sweep the area."

"We were just out there," Frank said, sounding hesitant to contradict his boss.

"Well, clearly you missed something," Clyve said. "Vick said he saw people through the surveillance cameras."

"He saw your omega," Bruno mumbled.

I bristled at being called Clyve's omega. I was not. I was Samson's omega, dammit, and if anyone had any doubt about that, they just needed to do a DNA test on the baby forming inside me.

"Ari says there's someone out in the forest," Clyve told Bruno with a scowl. "So there's something in the forest."

"Yeah, well, I don't know Ari from shit, so forgive me if I don't take his word for it," Bruno said.

I held my breath, wondering if a deadly fight would break out. A quick sweep of the other alphas hinted to me that about half of them were loyal to Clyve and the other half would have gone with Bruno, if he mutinied.

"Ari is my fiancé," Clyve said, pulling me closer. "Isn't that right, baby?"

It was all an act. Clyve didn't have an affectionate bone in his body. He was playing it up in front of the thugs who worked for him, either to gain their respect or to stop them from turning on him.

I played it up, too, even though it felt like fire was licking across my skin, and huddled closer to him. I could play the submissive omega if I needed to. Hell, that's what I'd been doing with Samson in our fantasy.

The tiniest thought of Samson made fear and longing flare within me. My gaze darted to the SUV before I could stop myself.

A shadow under the SUV told me Samson was still there. I knew what I was looking for and what I was seeing, so I knew it was him, but I doubted any of the others who casually glanced in that direction would pick him out. Better still, all of the armed alphas had moved to the front side of the SUV, like they were interested in the domestic drama unfolding between me and Clyve and Bruno.

"What's your fiancé doing out here hours before Remmington is supposed to arrive?" Bruno questioned, adjusting his hold on his gun.

Remmington. The drug deal. The voting machines I'd seen in the back of Clyve's SUV. I'd completely forgotten all of those important things in my panic about escaping and helping Samson escape. Fuck. I had more on my hands than I knew how to deal with.

"He got lost in the woods," Clyve snapped, tugging me closer.

"Just lost in the woods," Bruno said, narrowing his eyes at me. "He just happened to get lost in the same woods on the same day that the deal is going down."

"I got lost two days ago," I said, no idea if that would help or hurt.

"See?" Clyve said. "My omega got lost two days ago. He's pretty, but dumb. He probably followed his GPS to the wrong address and didn't know what to do about it."

I wanted to punch Clyve in the teeth and spit at him for that one. Except it could really work to my advantage if everyone thought I was a vapid, spoiled, trust fund omega.

"It said Glass Top Mountain," I mumbled, sniffling and adding some pretend embarrassment to my genuine fear. "I typed in Glass Top Mountain. I had no idea the mountain was so big."

"We found his car yesterday morning," one of the other alphas said, like he was reluctant to admit he'd taken it, or that my story checked out.

"See?" Clyve said. "He's an idiot."

I didn't know whether to look hurt or offended. Under any other circumstances, I definitely would have been both. But I couldn't decide if that would help me now.

My moment of confusion worked in my favor.

"Come on, baby," Clyve said, pulling me toward the path again. "Let's get you into the house and cleaned up. You're a fucking mess."

I stumbled as he moved me on. The bond twinged again, both with strain as I was taken farther from Samson, and with anger and alarm, which had to be Samson's emotions.

"Wait!" I stopped Clyve as we started down the path. "What about the other people I saw in the forest? They're out there, I swear! You have to go after them."

It was a huge gamble, and I didn't know if it would pay off.

"Don't you worry about them," Clyve said in a cloying voice. It was totally designed to convince Bruno, I could tell. He looked at Bruno smugly instead of looking at me. "Take care of it," he ordered Bruno.

Bruno huffed out a breath and turned to the others. "You heard him," he said. "One more sweep of the area isn't going to hurt."

I didn't calm down or feel any sense of relief at all. Sweeping the area could mean that they'd all scatter into the forest again, which may or may not have been great for Samson, or it could mean they'd go straight to the SUV and check under it.

I didn't hear any gunfire as Clyve pushed me along the path to the house, so I guessed they didn't immediately find Samson. The ATVs fired up again, so maybe that would reduce the number of thugs stopping Samson from escaping. I felt myself getting farther away from Samson, but that was me moving, not him.

As soon as we were out of sight of Bruno and the gang, Clyve let go of me and pushed me ahead of him. We emerged from the path into a cleared area with a house that looked new. There was no grass around it, no yard, just dirt. The only drive up to the house was also gravel. Another car, just an ordinary sedan, was parked there.

"How fucking dense do you have to be to get lost in the woods for two days?" Clyve muttered as he steered me toward a set of new but muddy stairs and up onto a porch that wrapped around half of the house.

I chose to ignore the jab. I didn't know how much time I had, and in addition to Samson getting away and going for help, I wanted to learn as much as I could about what was going on. If I thought ahead, assumed I would make it out of this situation alive and that the police would need my testimony to lock Clyve and Mr. Ingraham up for the rest of their lives, then I had to know more.

"I didn't know you had a house in the woods," I said, looking around as Clyve let me inside. Playing dumb would really help, if I did it right. "Is this some sort of wedding present for me?"

Clyve snorted a laugh. "Yeah, sure," he said, like he was humoring me. "I bought you an unregistered house in the middle of the woods as a sweet little getaway."

I pretended awe as I paused in the main hallway, turning a circle as I looked around and got my bearings. The house was furnished, but not decorated. There was a kitchen off to one side with a few prepackaged food items out on the counter, like someone had been making a meal and abandoned it. On the other side of the hall was a living room with a couple of leather couches and chairs and a big screen TV mounted on the wall. The TV was on and tuned to a sports channel.

Stairs ahead of me led up to the second floor, and an open door off to one side led down to what I guessed was a furnished basement. There was more light and activity coming from the basement than from the upstairs rooms.

"You need a decorator," I said, trying to sound like my mom would sound if she could see the place.

"The place isn't for show," Clyve said. "Come on."

He put his hand on the small of my back, nearly making me hiss and flinch, and pushed me toward the stairs leading up.

"Not for show?" I asked innocently. "What is it for, then?"

My pulse raced. If I could get him to admit he was involved in drug dealings, if I could get him to tell me about the cocaine in the shipping containers, or the voting machines in his SUV, because if that didn't scream of election-fixing, then I didn't know what did, then maybe I would know enough to testify in court. Maybe I could find something in the house that would incriminate everyone involved.

"Never you mind what it's for," Clyve grumbled as we made it to the top of the stairs. "It's none of your business anyhow. Just know that what I'm doing here is going to make you very rich for a very long time."

I debated making some sort of comment about already being rich, or maybe asking to get involved, but I was too busy looking around and trying to figure out if there was a way to escape the house without Clyve catching me to say anything.

The second floor consisted of four bedrooms that I could see. Two were unfurnished. The one at the end of the upstairs hall was filled with boxes. The master bedroom was the only one with any semblance of decoration, but it didn't really have much of that either.

Clyve steered me into that room, and as soon as I saw the king-size bed with rumpled sheets, like someone had been sleeping there the night before, visceral panic flooded through me.

"Yeah, it's a nice, cozy bed," Clyve said, inching closer to me. "I was going to call in for a little celebratory company later, after the deal is done, but you're getting close to your heat, aren't you?"

Revulsion and panic tore through me. "Yeah?" I said in a shaky voice.

Clyve hummed and rubbed my back. He moved close enough to whisper in my ear, "I've got some Heat Lightning pills around here somewhere. Why don't you take a shower and get out of these dirty things. I'm sure I can find something more comfortable for you to wear. And after Remmington comes and gets his stuff, we'll celebrate with a sexy little party. How about that?"

My skin crawled, and for way more reasons than just my bond with Samson. It wasn't just that I thoroughly belonged to another alpha, the idea of Clyve touching me made me want to be sick.

I had to make certain he and his father were brought to justice, because there was no way I would be able to make it through any sort of marriage with him.

"I could use a shower," I said, hoping my voice sounded eager instead of terrified.

"Good," Clyve said, then smacked my ass. "We've got the hot water hooked up at last and everything. You clean yourself and that sweet ass of yours up and I'll just deal with a few things."

"Okay," I said, hurrying toward the bathroom. I hoped he thought I was eager to clean up and not just eager to get away from him.

I probably didn't matter. As I glanced back to him from the bathroom door right before shutting it, Clyve had pulled out his cell phone and was dialing someone. He didn't actually care about me.

I shut the door, then sagged against it, closing my eyes and giving myself a moment to breathe. I felt for the bond, so relieved it was still there. Samson had to get away. He had to get free and call the police. Both our lives and so much more depended on him saving the day.