Page 158 of Ruled By The Alpha

He paused for a solid beat as she tried to throttle the dizzying muddle in her head.Everythingabout him disturbed her, from his luminous eyes to the inherent strength in his face, to the confident set of his shoulderseven while strapped to a bed. More and more, she couldn’t look at him without feeling the ground shift under her feet. And now,again,without any hesitation, he spoke openly about her body and his knowledge of the whirling, emotional insanity she grappled with every moment she spent in his presence.

“Sooner or later,” he continued, “that need for me will…overflow,and you’re going to want things… maybe things you’ve never wanted before. But here’s the important part: When that happens, whatever you want or need from me, you only have to reach out and take it. It’s already yours.”

“How do—”

“Shh-shh, don’t argue; this isn’t a debate. This is for you toknow.” His heated gaze bore into her. “When the ache is toomuch, and need is all-consuming, and the slick flows like a river down your legs, you come to me, and I’ll make it better.”

Rosemary hugged her knees to her chest. “And how will you do that?”

A smile cracked across his handsome face. “You’ll have to wait and see.”

Chapter 6

Rosemary

Rosemary lifted the spoon to Samson’s lips, giving him a bite before asking softly, “Why were you in the woods?”

After their very confusing interlude, she’d known it would be prudent to head back outdoors and curtail any further interaction, yet every second she spent near Samson shoved logic and reason farther into the dusty corners of her mind. She still questioned the Alpha/Omega/Beta story, but she couldn’t deny some unseen force endeavoured to force them together. Most concerningly, her confidence in her ability to withstand it was waning.

He swallowed the lump of porridge, regarding her with an open, easy look. “I’m searching for the ancient tribe.”

Rosemary’s spine stiffened. She knew the tribe; she traded with them once or twice a year, as she’d done with Papa when he was alive. They were a quiet, dignified people, suspicious of outsiders, but kind to a widowed father and his young daughter. Papa had explained it had taken him a long time to earn their trust, and it was important she never,everbetray it to anyone.

Samson’s relaxed expression turned keen. “You know them.”

To cover her discomfort, Rosemary ladled another huge bite into his mouth. “What business have you with them?”

He choked it down, his throat working as he shot her a rueful look. “None at all. My sister, she has these…visionsof thingsto come. She told me that I should seek the ancient tribe, that I would find what I need.”

This roused Rosemary’s natural curiosity. “But what do you need?”

Samson frowned, a wistful cloud passing over his handsome face. “I didn’t know when I set out.” He studied her with an intense, but secret expression. “But now I think I do.”

The tingling low in her belly reasserted itself. She ignored it, pondering his predicament. “But if you didn’t need anything, then why leave your Pack?”

His expression darkened. “My Pack has a sickness.” Rosemary recoiled, as if they hadn’t just spent the last four days in close contact. With a wry smile, Samson shook his head. “Not that kind of sickness, but we were infected all the same. Some time ago, some new Alphas arrived, wanting to join our Pack. They seemed… odd… reserved… but over time, they insinuated themselves. Then my father, who was the Alpha of Alphas, died. He fell from his horse, snapped his neck in the process.”

Sympathy and horror battled for primacy in her emotions, but the horror won out as Rosemary’s hand flew to her mouth. “My God!” She recalled, all too clearly, the pain of losing Papa, but unlike Samson, she’d had long months of sickness to prepare for herself for his passing. Samson’s father had been ripped away in an instant.

Samson’s eyes narrowed at the memory. “It never sat right with me. I’ve seen Alphas fall from horses, land on their heads, and get back up again. My father’s death didn’t make sense, but I could never prove anything.” He heaved a surprisingly weary-sounding sigh. “Back then, I was still growing into my Alpha body and not yet ready to claim the top spot. An elder Alpha—one of my father’s friends—assumed the title, and no one challenged him. He was physically strong, but a weak leader,easily manipulated, and the bad ones— they used him to work their own agenda.”

Apprehension stirred the hair on the back of her neck. “Which was what?”

Samson’s cheeks constricted in a wince, something like pity staining his eyes. “Rosemary… don’t ask me to put this kind of darkness on you. You’re so…”

She bristled. He didn’t say the words, but his meaning was plain: She was so sheltered. Naïve.Unmolested. Papa’s protection, his insistence she keep to herself, had always been a good thing, a barrier between safety and danger, between a peaceful life and one of suffering. If that barrier sometimes caused heart-searing loneliness and mind-numbing boredom, it was a small price to pay.

But here in front of her was another consequence of her reclusiveness: a barrier between Samson’s ability to share his story and her own fervent desire to hear it.

“I’m not a fragile flower,” she argued calmly. “I’ve read Papa’s history books, and he told me stories from when his world ended. That’s why he came here—to beawayfrom all of that, not to pretend it didn’t happen.”

Samson lifted his head from the pillow, spearing her with a menacing stare. Intensity steamed off him like a burnt cut of meat. “You’vereadabout depravity. It’s not the same as living it.”

Chastened, Rosemary studied the cold, sludgy porridge, rebuked by the pain in his voice. It was true; she hadn’t witnessed the horrors of the world outside her own.Hehad.

Not knowing what to say next, she waited, startled as an odd, tinkling voice sprouted deep in her mind.

Alpha is in pain. Comfort him. He needs you.

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