After stalling for as long as possible by using the bathroom, brushing her teeth and taking as long as she could to pick out a simple pair of jeans and a blue t-shirt, Georgie finally pulled on a pair of thick wool socks and hiking boots. A new pair since she had no idea where her old pair had gotten to. Someone had supplied the bathroom with moisturizer and all the toiletries a woman could possibly need. All of them in their original packaging and all of them nothing she could have afforded in her real life. She ignored most of it anyway, only opting for the moisturizer that smelled faintly of roses and made her skin feel like a dream. Without a drop of the make-up so generously provided she went to meet her nemesis. One Cooper Hayes, Wolf shapeshifter and presently the man who thought he was in charge of her destiny.
Before she headed out the door she sat down with a whoosh on her big bed and really thought about what she had learned. Luckily no one was around to see that it took her two tries to get her hips high enough to sit on that massive bed. At least now the crazy cult mentality of the town made more sense. Their clan was not just human, but a wolf pack that answered to an Alpha, or as they called him, a First. The question of why everyone she had met, most of which she had liked had kept her here was answered. Their actions, the way the wolves and pups acted. The children that seemed to be on their own with the wolves a good bit of the time. Turned out they did have supervision, in the form of wolves. They weren't brainwashed, just not completely human. Huh.
Now for all my new questions, Georgie thought. Why did he call me Omega? And what if he was right about me being part wolf shifter?
Georgie snorted at the thought. The rest she could believe, because she had seen it with her own eyes, but her being more than human? Not likely. She looked around at the lush but impersonal room she had been moved into. "And why did he move me into his own home?" She said the words out loud and grimaced as she thought about all the possibilities. Did the First get his pick of all the new females? Suddenly 'The First' took on all kinds of negative connotations in her imagination.
She needed to get downstairs and find out what was really happening here before she scared herself into doing something as foolish as her last plan had been.
But, she assured herself as she headed down to talk to her kidnapper. If he thought he was enacting some archaic Alpha wolf sex shenanigans he was in for some serious hurt.
She had almost convinced herself she could handle the man, wolf, whatever, at least until she reached the first floor and saw the open door that she assumed led to the library. Then she chickened out and studied the rest of the house from the stairs where she hovered.
From where she stood on the grand staircase she could see the front of the house and, through the wall of windows, the mountains and forest beyond.
It looked like the town was significantly farther than she had assumed from what the others had let slip the few times they had referred to the big house their First lived in. It was also more elegant and refined than what she had seen of the rest of the town.
She might never have had money of her own, but she had seen enough magazines and home decor shows to know that no expense had been spared here. Unlike the smaller homes she had seen and the simple comfort of Patrice and Phillips house this one was a showplace. A wide brown leather sectional that could seat twelve easy wrapped around the walk-in fireplace that had natural stone going up the high arching ceilings. It was the only part of the wall that wasn't glass. A large dark wood coffee table that looked solid and big enough to be a small dance floor sat between the sectional and the fire. And not one but two big leather recliners sat in the same space. Above that giant fireplace was the first modern appliance she had yet seen in the town. A giant flat screen tv. The wide planked wood floors were stained dark and looked hardly walked on. A sitting area was off to the side of the room and she assumed that the open door led to the library, since from here she could see shelves with books from floor to ceiling and more windows.
She turned and looked over the stairs to see a large open kitchen through an arched wall opening and a hallway that led to more rooms for who knew what on the other side. She had seen enough doors upstairs to know that there were quite a few rooms up there as well and it had her wondering at the silence.
Where was everyone?
"Coming in?" that voice again. She sighed, at least she was becoming accustomed to the reaction he caused in her. Had to be a wolf thing. The thought reassured her in some ways. At least she was not some weird kinky girl who liked a crazy man that kidnapped her and held her hostage, turns out he was not human, so she could excuse her reaction to him. Though thinking about it, she was not so sure being so attracted to a wolf shifter who kidnapped her and kept her hostage was all that better. Especially when he was so very dominating. "Or are you still trying to pretend you don't want to?"
Dominating and arrogant, she added to her own thoughts with a narrowing of her eyes when he stepped into the doorway and blocked her line of sight to the rest of the room. Did I mention arrogant?
She chose once again to ignore the way her blood seemed to heat at the first sound of that voice, and the way just the sight of him had her body readying for mating. She had to ignore it, for her own piece of mind. "Are you actually going to answer all my questions this time?"
He motioned to his big body in jeans, hiking boots and blue flannel. "Fully clothed as per your request."
She wasn't sure what looked more inviting hugging that big hard body, the jeans or the soft flannel, but she was determined to ignore all of it. "Then lead the way," she said going for self-assured to match his arrogance and ignoring how dry her mouth was, or how wet other places were at the reminder of his previous naked state. "After what you have already told me, I cannot wait for the rest of it." I am so full of shit, she thought keeping her shaking hands out of sight at her back.
He arched a high-handed brow at her tone but turned and led the way back into the library. Georgie did her best not to notice how well he filled out the soft denim of his jeans.
She blew out a breath as quietly as she could manage and followed him into the library. Then had to catch her breath again as the windows of the great room continued into this one. Only she would bet money by the way they kind of shimmered in the sun that these ones were treated. Which made sense in a library where the books would need the protection.
Besides the one wall of windows, the other three walls were floor to ceiling books, including the one she walked through, with book shelves all around the large door opening. Another sectional and multiple comfy looking leather chairs adorned the space and another fire place graced the center of the wall of windows with the same stone from floor to arched ceiling. Only this one was smaller and had a glass window that looked like fire but gave off the steady heat of a gas flame out of a protected vent. Very nice. She could imagine sitting in several places in this room reading in the lap of cozy luxury.
"You like to read?" she asked having a hard time knowing where to look next. More than one antique looking rug covered the wood floor that flowed throughout the house and she wondered if he ever lay on that rug before the fire and read.
"When I have the time," he answered as quietly as she had asked. "You?"
"Love it." She smiled at the man and walked over to the first shelf as if drawn by a magnet. "The library was my place of refuge when I was a child. No matter what town or home I ended up in there was always one to lose myself in."
"You needed a refuge a lot as a child?" The new harder tone of his voice drew her eyes back to him and she stopped short of pulling a book off the shelf, knowing that now was not the time. She licked her dry lips at the anger she could feel hiding behind his usual cold mask. She did not even stop to wonder how she knew what he was feeling.
"Doesn't every child," she said downplaying her past as best she could.
He didn't go for it. "Someone hurt you?" How he managed to bring heat and ice to the same statement she had no idea, but it made her heart, already beating hard at his presence, escalate.
She decided to tell him the truth before his anger on her behalf gave her a heart attack. "Foster care is never a fun place to be. Even when people have the best intentions." She shrugged. "And I was never really with anyone long enough to form familiar attachments for one reason or another." She thought about her best friend David and what he had gone through. "Plenty of kids had it way worse than I did." She met his eyes. "To answer your question, no. I was one of the lucky ones. No one hurt me."
He had moved closer while she spoke, and he was suddenly within touching distance, his finger running down one cheek. "Then why did you need a sanctuary?"
"Books showed me what kind of person I wanted to be." She turned her head escaping the hand that had fallen to the mark on her shoulder and rested there, almost as if he was establishing his claim.
"And what kind of person was that?" he asked. His eyes hooded as he watched her pull away from him.
"Someone who made her own choices and didn't have to live by anyone else's dictates or expectations."
He said nothing to that, just studied her as she moved away toward the fireplace. Georgie took a breath knowing she needed to end the awkward talk they had fallen into. "Are you going to tell me all of it?"
When he did not answer she turned to find he had followed her and was closer than she expected. She swallowed hard and moved around the couch so she could take the single chair to the right of the fireplace, forcing him to take another seat, she hoped. He did, but he made her stew first, studying her for a long moment before he sat down on the couch across from her and smiled.
She breathed slowly in and out and tried for patience and calm, neither of which she seemed capable of at the moment. "Why did you bring me here? I know you think I'm a half wolf in disguise but even if that is true, why yank me off the street? And how was it for my own good?" She looked around at the opulence surrounding them. She was not ready yet to ask her final question. Why his home and why was he acting like he was claiming her for more than just a place in his pack?
"If you had been found by the First of the San Francisco region, you would have been at his mercy. I needed you in my territory to assure your safety." His eyes went hard. "Raoul is not someone I would trust with my fiercest wolf, let alone a rare Omega."
She tilted her head and studied him right back. "What's an Omega? Is that your name for half breeds? And what," she went on, “makes you think I am one? Also, if I am one, will I be able to shift at some point, hypothetically speaking?"
"I am a First. Most wolves might have missed it, but I would not, nor would another First. And as rare and sought after as your kind is, many of my kind would not have been half as gentle as I was in the handling of you." He paused his eyes heating noticeably. "There was also the fact that you reacted as a compatible mate would. Either reason would have assured you caught my attention. Both?" he said, and she was sure he could see the blush that crimsoned her cheeks at that. "There was not a chance in hell I was leaving you vulnerable and alone for another male to find. And no," he said finally. "You would have shifted with puberty if you had that gift, but our children will have the ability."
The word mate she figured she needed no translation on, but when she got over the oomph that word triggered in her stomach followed by the shock of his talk of "our" children she decided to ignore it for now. It was a little like she was placing both hands over her ears and screaming 'la, la, la' at the top of her voice to avoid his words, but she was going to go with it for now. Electing instead to keep on with her questions.
She could not deny that she had reacted to him strangely from the first, but she bit down on her embarrassment and tried to think logically. "So, you are saying my reaction was what triggered yours?" She grimaced. "I find it hard to believe that woman don't react that way to you on a regular basis. You might be an arrogant kidnapping ass, but even I can't deny that you are an attractive one." Attractive, hah. Talk about an understatement. "Besides,” she went on before he could do more than raise a brow and smirk at her. "I’ve seen the rest of the wolves in your pack. They’re all beautiful. I'm assuming it’s a wolf thing, but it’s hard to believe that a half breed would be more sought after than a full wolf female."
He stood up slowly and walked over to her chair, resting his hands on the arms so that he had her trapped between him and the seat back forcing her to crane her neck back to keep meeting his eyes. Barely an inch separated his mouth from hers. A separation she was not sure she even wanted when she saw his eyes heat and turn to steel. Then he spoke and like he had managed again and again since their first meeting his words forced the breath from her lungs and her nerves to spark with raw desire. "Suffice it to say little Omega that I saw what I wanted and took it." She sucked in a breath at his words and breathed in wildness and night. "As is my right."
Georgie had no idea how long they stared at each other like that, him so close that she could have leaned forward to feel that mouth on hers, but finally he backed up with a little growl. "I have decided to give you a little time to come to me," he finally said as if her capitulation was a foregone conclusion. "You are right in that this is all new to you. But my patience is not eternal," he finished topping off his arrogance with a warning that made her want to toss more hot coffee at his head. Among other things. "Don't force the issue by continuing to hide from what we both want. We will be mated, and you will take your rightful place in this pack."
He was out the door before she could form any number of replies to his high-handed orders. What an arrogant ass.
It was just too bad that seemed to do it for her, because now she wanted nothing more than to cut that arrogance down a notch. Unfortunately, she could already feel his departure like a missing limb, even as he walked away. Desire whirled and spun through every part of her insides making her energized, wet and achy. She had to fight the need to call him back so they could keep fighting, or so that she could rip off all of his clothes and mount him. Even she was not sure which she wanted more, so she let him go. And tried to re-shore her faltering defenses. Once again.