My ass was freezing. I rolled closer to the heat pressed against my front and tucked the cover underneath my backside.

"Generator ran out of fuel," Noah muttered, startling me, drawing me further from sleep and reminding me where I was. I scratched at the itch on my stomach, and dried cum flaked off. That was... less than sexy.

Last night, though. Last night had been...

Amazing.

We'd woken several more times in the night, feverish and needy, taking our desire from each other in a fury until we collapsed in bliss and exhaustion once more.

My hand rose to touch my neck and felt my new scar. Noah's fingers covered mine, pressing our joined hands against the mark of our mating.

So that was a thing that had happened.

"So... no heat?" I mumbled, burrowing against him. He wrapped his arms around me. The movement lifted the blanket, letting in a sharp bite of frozen air, but he tucked everything securely back in.

My muscles—not to mention my ass—were starting to protest at having been so thoroughly used and abused last night. I should stretch, but that would mean leaving Noah's warmth and facing the cold again.

"No heat. No electricity. No water. No—" Noah froze, his attention suddenly somewhere else.

I listened. There, a vehicle.

"No time," Noah muttered, releasing me and rolling out of bed. He plastered his back to the wall and peered cautiously out of the window. I heard the vehicle approach, stop, and then doors open and slam shut. Noah's body released its tension all at once. "It's the guys."

"The twins?"

Noah shook his head. "Everyone." He bent down to pick up his pants and began to pull them on.

"Shouldn't we like, clean up or something?" One, I was covered in dried cum, and he couldn't be too much better. Two, shifters could smell everything. Chances were, even if we cleaned up, the whole cabin stank of us. But if we could at least shower, it wouldn't be so screamingly obvious.

"No water, remember?" Noah's voice had lost the tender undertone; back to all business. He buttoned up his pants and then rubbed a hand through his hair. "Look, Preston." It was the first time he had called me by my name. "I'm sorry about this. It was super unprofessional of me."

Any shred of safety and contentment I had gathered around me disappeared with those words. He was sorry? Here I was thinking last night had been incredible, possibly the best night of my life—barring, you know, the whole kidnapping thing before—and he was apologizing? He'd been the one spouting lines about sex needing to "mean" something. That he didn't do "casual hookups." Was it all just a lie?

Oh. Of course. I rolled out of the opposite side of bed and started grabbing my clothes as quickly as possible. Everything had been all fine and dandy when it had been just the two of us, but once his buddies were around? He suddenly realized who he had slept with. The fuck up. The pansy city boy.

He was ashamed of me.

And who could fucking blame him? Right? Not my dad, that's for sure. He already had no problem calling me a slut. Now I'd taken some random ass alpha's mark on my neck. What could be sluttier than that? Dad was going to just love this. Noah was probably worried about his job when Dad found out. Well, good. I hope Dad did get him fired.

He'd probably blame last night on the hormones or whatever the fuck it was. All those sweet things? He was just carried away by the moment. I'd heard it all before.

I'd never thought I'd found my mate before, though. I'd never opened my heart up so completely, so quickly. Shame on me.

I dressed as quickly as possible while Noah went to answer the knock on the door. The big alphas stomped in as I snuck a peak at my hair.

I wished I hadn't. No matter how I messed with it, without water, the only thing I could do was make it look like sex hair or rough sex hair.

Zeke caught my eye with a knowing smile as I exited the bedroom. Noah turned to see me coming, but simply moved over, refusing to acknowledge me otherwise, but blocking Zeke's smile.

I raised my chin and stepped around him, joining the lopsided circle. I wasn't sure whether Zeke's smile was teasing or sympathetic, but I didn't want either emotion. I just wanted to get out of here. Get this over with and forget any of this ever happened.

"So no phone?" Noah was saying.

Levi shook his head. "They took off in that plane that Jonah's buddy tracked here. Must have ridden out on the edge of the storm."

"They got off with the phone while you got off with Preston." Ezra waggled his eyebrows suggestively. I tensed, waiting for the rest of them to jump in and give me shit, but the most Ezra's comment earned was an eye roll from Zeke.

"We holed up in the hangar and called Ezra and Zeke in. Had our choice of beat up Ford pickup or the Jeep. Tried calling you, but it went straight to voicemail."

"Battery died," Noah said.

I snorted. As if either of us would have heard the phone, as scent crazed as we'd been. Maybe his phone actually had died, but I wasn't trusting anything coming out of his mouth right now. Lies, lies, lies.

"So what now?" I asked. My pride might be wounded, but fuck him if he thought I was just going to sit back in the corner and let the big, bad alphas handle everything.

"We eat," Noah said, finally looking at me. Was that a hint of the care and tenderness from last night in his eyes?

No. I wasn't going to start down that road. No wishful thinking. If it was, it was just because his back was to the other guys and they couldn't see him. I had no desire to play anyone's dirty secret. I wouldn't let him reel me back in like that.

"And then we finish the job. We get you to your dad, and then get that phone on lock."

One of the guys pulled out a couple extra MREs and tossed them at Noah. I wanted to refuse out of principle, but I was suddenly ravenous. I'd expended a lot of energy last night on not much sustenance. I grabbed one out of his hands and ripped it open, not even caring which flavor of mush it was. Tootsie Roll first.

"Jonah said the senator's paid the ransom to keep them from releasing the photos, and they've stopped, but we still have to retrieve the phone and any other copies they may have, or he still runs the risk of them blackmailing him in the future."

"Since when did we become a retrieval service?" Noah complained, opening another of the MREs. "We're a rescue squad. We got the omega. Shouldn't we just hand the rest of it over to the feds?"

"We protect all shifters," Zeke said, looking at his leader with a confused expression. "That means the senator, too. As long as those photos are out there, one of our only voices in government is in danger."

Noah grunted.

I felt sick to my stomach, halfway through the package of spaghetti flavored glop, still starving, but unable to swallow another bite. Was this a thing Noah did? Rescue omegas, seduce them, and then leave them? I felt a little reassured at Zeke's insistence on a larger picture. So maybe not everything Noah said was bullshit. That whole Alphas Love, Protect, Honor, Always? Maybe some of them actually took it seriously. Maybe it wasn't actually just useful for seducing needy omegas.

I pushed the packet away.

"You should finish that," Noah said.

"I'm not hungry," I insisted.

"But—"

"I'm not hungry." I practically shouted the words. "I'm gonna take a piss."

"The toilet won't flush, but we can—"

"For fuck's sake, I'll just go outside, then. Can't a man just take a piss without having a whole debate about it?"

"But you don't have boots—"

I stormed out of the cabin, slamming the door shut behind me on Noah's words, though they still reached me through the broken pain.

"That little shit is going to give himself frostbite," he growled as I stalked away. Someone responded, but I was too far away to hear the words.

The snow did burn my feet, and I shivered in the wind. But fuck it. I was going to pee in peace.

The door opened and shut softly behind me. I tensed, waiting for Noah to continue the argument about where the fuck I was going to pee. If he did, I was just going to pee on him. Pull some real alpha class dominance bullshit on him.

No one approached me, though, and I recognized the scent of one of the other guys. Not Zeke or his twin, but the quieter one.

I zipped up my pants and stomped back to the cabin. The big alpha didn't fuss at me or anything, he simply nodded and held the door open for me. I stuck my hip out and placed my hand on it. "Are you ready? I want to get back to civilization as soon as possible."

The others looked to Noah and he nodded. They moved into action at once, snatching up every bag and piece of garbage we'd left, even folding the blanket and placing it back on the arm of the couch.

Noah stepped close to me and looked pointedly at my red, bare feet. "We need to talk."

"Aren't there more important things right now? Like finishing your mission." Was that too subtle a jibe at his whole differentiation between missions and objections? Judging by his squinted eyes, my anger had hit its mark.

"We will talk. Soon." He lifted my chin with two fingers.

I jerked away. "Whatever you say, Alpha."

"I claim pilot," Zeke—or his twin—said.

"Aw, that means I get to cuddle with Preston?" Ah, no. That was definitely Zeke. It was his twin who spoke before.

"No." Noah's voice was sharp, like a guillotine. "Zeke drives. Levi, you take bitch."

"Doesn't he always?" the twin tossed over his shoulder, opening the back door of the jeep.

"Yeah, we'll see who's taking bitch when I save your ass. Again."

Levi hopped into the back after Noah tossed his bag in, and I was sandwiched between the twin and the big quiet guy who'd watched me take a piss. I didn't blame him for the lack of privacy. I knew the responsibility for that lay at Noah's feet.

It was a good thing I was a smaller guy, because both alphas bulged with muscles and gear, leaving just a sliver of space in the middle for me. Noah took shotgun. I couldn’t figure out if I was relieved or upset. I just needed to make up my fucking mind.

"What is all this stuff you're carrying?" I asked to distract myself, looking at all the strange bulges on their vests. "It can't all be those crappy meals."

The twin shook his head and closed his eyes. "Now you've done it. Boomer doesn't shut up once you get him started."

"The man asked a simple question," the quiet guy, Boomer, I guessed, responded. "No need to be rude, Ezra. Now, these pockets here were for C-4, but I used them all up when we busted you out. This here," he fingered a belt-like thing across his chest with cylindrical lumps. "These are shell grenades. And in these pockets..."

I couldn't help but lean away from the walking armory he was carrying. "If you get shot, are you going to blow up?" I interrupted.

"If he gets shot, it won't be in a vehicle I'm guarding," Levi said from the back. "It'll be because he's being a dumbass. Which is entirely possible."

The others laughed and I made the mistake of looking forward, catching Noah's gaze in the rear view mirror.

For a moment, I'd managed to distract myself. For a moment, I'd forgotten why I was here and how much I'd fucked up last night.

The Jeep jolted forward, breaking our connection.

I just had to keep it together until they got me home. Then I could put this all behind me. I could forget how, for a moment, I thought I'd found someone who actually saw me. Who wanted me for me. Not for power. Not for a piece of ass. Just me.

It was time to put that dream behind me. The world didn't work like that. The sooner I got that through my head, the better off I'd be.