Page 6 of Monster's Obsession

His growl penetrated the wood, causing my stomach to clench and sweat to break out along my brow, but after a moment it drifted away. As negatively as I was looked upon by the alphas, and even the other omegas, the entire village would rise up against an alpha forcing himself into my home.

When I was sure he wasn’t going to come back and try anyway, I pushed off the door, turning to study my latest gift. As I moved closer to the table where they laid, that cinnamon musk rose to meet me, causing a different kind of clenching, embarrassing moisture seeping out to coat my folds.

Whoever the alpha was leaving the gifts, he’d made a point of marking the fur with his scent. It didn’t match anyone I knew, yet I hadn’t heard of any strangers in the village either, so I had no idea who it could be.

Warmth bloomed in my chest, my cheeks heating again in a way that told me they were bright pink. Lainy may have been familiar with receiving gifts from alphas, but it was new to me, and I wasn’t sure how it made me feel.

And they weren’t useless trinkets like she received. They were actual, useful items, suggesting the alpha had a bit more brains than the ones I knew.

I wished he’d stayed. As good as the offerings made me feel, trepidation lingered over why he would be leaving them for me to find instead of giving them to me himself. Too many scenariosplayed through my head, from disfigurement, to being an alpha from one of the other villages we were at war with.

How was I supposed to know who he was and be sure why he was doing this if he never approached me and made it clear?

Shaking my head and trying to smother the what-ifs, I focused on dealing with the meat so I could get on to my other task. I may be set for food, but I still needed to collect more firewood. I would need what I had to roast a rabbit for dinner, and spring weather was unpredictable. I didn’t want to be caught in a late storm with no wood to keep me warm.

Chapter Five

Mel’cam

Jaw clenched so tight my teeth ached, every second of watching my omega struggle with the log drove me closer to breaking my cover too soon.

She’d spent the morning collecting fallen branches and storing them under treated hides against the side of her home before moving on to larger deadfall. Each trip she made back into the forest had my agitation rising. She should have no need to do such physical labor, and my opinion of the males in her village dropped further.

None of them deserved to call themselves an alpha.

And the one who’d bothered her that morning was luck to still be alive.

It was worse that she was doing it all for nothing. Soon she would be mine, and she’d never return to her home again.

But she didn’t know that.

Attempting to drag a tree twice her height through the forest was proving too much for her, and I worried about the strain so close to her cycle. She should be home, resting in her nest and storing energy, not expending so much.

My claws scraped along the cliff I crouched in front of, stone splinters breaking off to shower my side as I tried to hold back the rage filling me. I could see the way the rope harness she’d rigged dug into her soft shoulders, the way it crossed in the front accentuating her voluptuous breast but doing nothing to distract me from her strain.

Losing control, I’d already slipped from my cover when the omega stopped, tossing the harness off her chest and glaring down at the log lodged against a small rock. I was higher on the slope of the cliff than her, far enough away that I could hear her speaking but wasn’t able to make out the words.

The kick she aimed at the wood showed her frustration. The way she hopped on the other foot and clutched her toes would have been comical if my concern hadn’t overridden everything else.

With the sun sinking toward the horizon, it was quickly growing dark beneath the trees. Looking around, she made the same assessment, and I breathed a sigh of relief when she uncoiled her rope from the downed tree and turned to head toward her village without it.

I had no idea what her plan was, but I doubted she was giving up that easy. I’d seen enough of my omega to know she was a stubborn one, the fire in her one of the things that drew me.

A wilting, weak omega would have no place in the mountains standing by my side as I led my clan. I needed a strong mate, and her perseverance proved she was more than capable. She likely thought to come back the next day, perhaps with tools to make dragging the weight easier for her small size.

She wouldn’t have to worry about that. As foolhardy as it seemed, I’d take care of it for her, if only to stop her from trying to do it herself.

I trailed her back to the village, watching as she entered her home. When I was sure she was secure for the night, I returnedto her fallen tree. Bracing a foot midway down the length of it, I scored it with a few slashes of my claws before taking hold of one half and pulling.

The crack of wood echoed under the canopy, the emerging night creatures falling silent until they deemed it safe to continue on their way. Lifting each half onto a shoulder, they pressed against my horns as I carried them closer to the village before dropping them a safe enough distance to be sure I wouldn’t be disturbed.

My people used our natural strength more than tools, but I preferred not to wear down my claws ripping apart the wood. My omega needed it in manageable pieces, and I’d seen her using an axe to split some of the other pieces she’d brought back during the day.

I crept to her home, pausing near the door to pull in a lungful of her scent. I rolled the air in my mouth, tasting it, searching for the telltale notes of her approaching heat. The scent was growing stronger, but not fast enough for my lack of patience. I wanted nothing more than to take my omega away and lay claim to her, but her scent said I still had to wait.

Swallowing my growl, I found the tool and returned to the forest, setting to work on the wood. When I finished with the log she’d been struggling to pull, I found two more, chopping them into pieces shorter than my forearm. Once it was all cut, I collected as much as I could carry, sneaking back into the village to stack it along the side of her home.

Trip after trip had the pile grow too large for her hides to cover, extending hallway up the wall down the entire length of her house. I made sure none was stacked above waist height for her, shoving longer pieces into the soft earth at the ends to be sure it couldn’t roll and injure her.

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