Page 37 of Forfeit

The thick limb rose enough she could flop onto her side, allowing her to burrow under the heat of spruce and smoke to hide from the cheery sun.

“Not a morning person, eh,” Max asked on a sleep roughened purr, his hand skimming down Devin’s back.

It was enough to shock her into full wakefulness, sending her heartbeat skittering around her chest as she scrambled to get away. Managing to launch herself to the side, she expected the hard, cold metal of the van to greet her. She shrieked in surprise as her motion continued, sending her toppling to an equally cold, hard floor a good distance down. Clutching the back of her head where it struck the polished cement, she scraped her knees as she rushed to the other side of a grouping of leather furniture to huddle in their shadow.

“It’s all right, little one. No one here is going to hurt you.”

“I was in a bed with you!”

“You wouldn’t let go of me.” Max yawned and stretched, showing off his bare chest as he arched his back and stretched his arms high. The blanket shifted a little further down, showing the long line of his hip.

“Are you… Oh, Gods, you are, aren’t you?” Devin covered her face with her hands, torn between the need to scream her rage and cry hysterically. She didn’t feel any different, nothing about her aches and pains signifying Max had taken advantage of her vulnerable position. She, at least, was still clothed, though in a t-shirt a good four sizes too big.

She didn’t remember them leaving the camp site or arriving at this place. Definitely didn’t recall being stripped and dressed in someone else’s shirt. A single sniff proved it was Max’s at least.

“Calm down. I’m not,” Max said, voice still thick and rough with sleep as long legs swung out from under the blankets to reveal he wore boxers snug enough to leave little to the imagination.

“Please, you have to let me go,” Devin sobbed into her cupped hands, heart wrenching as something cold and twisted tore through her chest. “Take me back.”

“I told you I would take care of you.” Max rose, coming to crouch in front of Devin so he could pet at her hair, already learning her quirks and needs as he scrubbed at the long line of her neck. “I can’t claim you just yet, little one, but I will. I promise you that. Just as soon as your baby is here—”

“No! You’re not listening,” Devin snarled, finding the strength to slap his hands away and scoot deeper in the shadows of the long couch. Back pressed against cold leather, she chanced meeting that strange hazel gaze. “You have to take me back.”

“You don’t have to be afraid of him anymore.”

“I wasn’t afraid of him, I… I love him, you see? I’m not afraid and miserable, whatever Ashley told you. In the beginning, it was like that, but I didn’t let Ashley do it to me then, and I sure as hell don’t want it now.”

“What do you mean you didn’t let her do it then?” Max leaned back, a flash of darkness swirling through his gaze as the scent of bitter ash coated her tongue.

“She offered to take his claim, right there in the beginning when I managed to get away. Ash said if I didn’t want her, that… well, I guess that you would do it. She said something about her cousin Max. Anyway, I went back to him. She even took me.”

Max’s jaw worked as he ground his teeth, a low rumble building in his chest. He rose, moving slow despite the way his fists clenched as he towered over her.

“Don’t leave this room, honey,” he managed to get out before yanking on a pair of jeans and leaving. The door’s lock made an audiblesnick.

Devin glanced around and stood, seeing he’d made no precautions against her trying to arm herself. The room was large, containing a man’s life and little else. Clothes hung haphazard over the edges of open drawers, dirty socks dangling from a laundry basket in the corner. The huge bed was covered in sheets and blankets in shades of blues and indigo, sitting in rumpled disarray. There was also a bat in the corner, a gun dangling from a holster on a hook by the door though Devin had little hope it would be loaded. Small items of violence scattered throughout the space. None of it would help her against a man of such power and strength so far from home. She could wound a single unmoving target, but who knew how many others lingered outside of that door?

It wasn’t long before raised voices drifted into the bedroom. Devin could make out Max’s furious shouts, and there was Ashley’s far more feminine bellows. They were fighting, and if Devin had to guess, it was about Ash not mentioning how she’d already tried this once.

Twice, really, if one considered when she’d come to Devin in the ugly fog when she’d tried to rip the bond apart.

Lightheaded and more than a little sick to her stomach, Devin collapsed into the chair behind her and struggled for slow, even breaths. If this was morning sickness, it had come out of nowhere. Except the source of pain wasn’t in her stomach, but in her chest. Rubbing at the space where she always imagined the bond resided, tears sprung to her eyes.

How could she make them understand without telling the truth? She didn’t dare let on that she’d claimed Rey, that he bore her mark as strongly as she did his. If they kept her here long enough, hewouldfind her. Devin didn’t doubt that. Her fear now was Rey running unprepared into an Alpha’s territory and getting himself killed while in a blind rage.

Maybe she should tell Ashley.

Devin wanted to trust her once dear friend, but after all of this… She was hard pressed to say she would ever follow the Alpha without trepidation again. She’d thought Ash so different from other Alphas, but it seemed she was the same in more ways than one. Ash thought she knew what was best for Devin and wouldn’t hear otherwise. Beau had tried to tell her, but Devin hadn’t listened.

Once again, her naiveté was driven home on a point of pain.

Devin had trusted things would always work out, that she could find her way, and now was no different. Refusing to give into the black maelstrom building within her chest that grayed the edges of her vision, she became resolute. She didn’t remember rising or going to the corner to retrieve the bat, but it’s firm weight against her thigh as she took up position against the chair once more was comforting.

So was the cold steel clutched in her hand. She fumbled the practiced motions of checking the clip, breath a shaky gasp as she saw it was full. Blind trust wasn’t only her downfall. Max hadn’t taken any precautions at all, probably thought she couldn’t defend herself. He thought she’d be like every other Omega and just accept what he demanded.

Lip lifting in a silent snarl as the loud voices began to draw nearer, Devin curled her fingers around the butt of the gun and took careful aim at the door. She didn’t want to kill anyone, but she would. There were fifteen chances to get it right. It could be enough to get her out of this place where she could get real help.

Her arms began to tremble with the strain as the doorway remained empty. Max and Ashley didn’t come bursting in, and no one came to check on her. She could still hear them yelling at one another, but it now sounded as if they moved away from where this room was situated.

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