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IZZY
Robert was as good as his word. Isabel was never alone, not once from the moment she was released from confinement.
It wasn’t all bad. Some of the pack members handled her presence well, quietly letting her trail after them like a younger sibling might. She sat out in the backyard and watched as the young men of the pack practiced wrestling in the dirt. She helped Robert’s wife Lena in the kitchen, learning for the first time how much work went into preparing dinner for a whole pack. Hardly anyone spoke to her for anything more than the most basic and trivial of reasons. Lena might ask her to pass the cheese grater, or one of the men might pause in their fighting to mutter, “excuse me.”
It could have become lonely very easily, but Isabel found she preferred them to keep their distance and leave her alone with her thoughts. Most of her thoughts centered on how to escape.
The best opportunity seemed to come at night. It was the only time she wasn’t watched. Isabel had been assigned to sleep in a large room with all the other single women of the pack, and her bed was all the way against the back wall, so she would have to sneak by all of them to get to the door. But, at least, while they were asleep, they wouldn’t be able to stop her. Maybe she could make it.
One night, she decided to try.
Waiting for everyone to fall asleep, knowing what she was going to do once they had, was agony, but finally Isabel heard the deep sighs and snuffling from all the beds around her that meant it was safe to make her move. She rolled off her mattress and placed her feet carefully on the wood of the floor, shifting her weight slowly, hoping that the floorboards wouldn’t creak.
They didn’t. All remained silent. In the bed beside Isabel’s, Caitin mumbled something and rolled over.
Slowly, carefully, Isabel picked her way along the length of the room. She moved in a stooped, awkward position, as though hunching like a gargoyle would protect her from being seen. I’m going to get a drink of water, she thought to herself, rehearsing the lie she’d come up with in case she was caught. Just getting a drink. I didn’t want to bother anyone.
She would be in trouble for it. She wasn’t supposed to go anywhere alone. But she wouldn’t be in too much trouble, she thought, if she could get them to believe her.
Of course, the ideal scenario would be simply not getting caught.
She could hardly believe it when she made it to the door. She gripped the knob and turned, slowly pulling it open, and slipped out into the hall. Then, agonizingly, inch by inch, she eased the door closed again and let the bolt slip into place. She drew back from it, amazed. She’d accomplished it all without a sound, and no one inside seemed to be stirring.
She was free.
She turned on the spot and ran.
She knew she had only a short window of time to make her escape. The best-case scenario was that no one would realize she was gone until morning, at which point the entire pack would set out after her. She would need to be far away by then, and well hidden. She knew they would be able to follow her scent.
And that was if they didn’t discover her absence until morning. If someone were to wake up and realize she was missing before then, the pursuit would begin even sooner.
She couldn’t hope to outrun them. They’d be on bikes, most likely, or they’d track her as wolves. But Isabel wanted to run as a human. Not only would her omega scent be somewhat muted by her human form, hanging on to her logical side would help her figure out how to get safely away.
So covering a lot of ground wouldn’t be the key. She needed to find someplace to hide.
All this went through her mind as she flew down the stairs, through the kitchen, and out into the yard. She was thinking that perhaps the river would do for a hiding place when she collided with something massive and fell to the ground.
“Where are you going in such a hurry?” an amused voice asked.
Isabel’s stomach dropped. No. She’d been caught. Caught already. Caught in a position she couldn’t explain away. She looked up into the eyes of the man she’d collided with. It was too dark to see who he was.
“You shouldn’t be out here,” he said. “You could get into a lot of trouble.”
Wasn’t she already in a lot of trouble? She waited, not daring to speak.
Then he crouched beside her and took her arm, and she got her first good look at his face. Wyatt. He had never been one of the babysitters assigned to her. Since her release from her prison room, she had gotten only passing glimpses of the man who had once tried to be her friend.
“Are you hurt?” he asked.
She shook her head.
“You were trying to escape.”
She didn’t answer. He didn’t seem to need her to.
“It wouldn’t work,” he said. “It’s not a good idea, Izzy. Gunner is an amazing tracker. Lots of them are. They’d be on your trail as soon as they realized you’d gone. And when they brought you back, they’d be far less accommodating to you than they have been so far.”
She couldn’t help it. She snorted.
Wyatt raised his eyes. “You don’t think they have been?”
“I think that’s ridiculous,” she said. “They’ve locked me up. Barely fed me—”
“But they did feed you,” Wyatt interrupted, and his gaze held hers with a somber magnetism. “They gave you a warm, dry place to stay. No one has lifted a hand to you since you’ve been here. And now you’ve been allowed out, invited to join the family. I know it isn’t what you want, Izzy, but you have to admit it could have been much worse.”
He was right. She didn’t want to say so, but she knew it.
“And it could also be much better,” Wyatt continued. “It’s getting better, isn’t it?” When she still didn’t speak, he released her arm and stepped away. “Don’t run, Izzy. Don’t run right now. It’s not safe. It’s not a good idea. Go back in the house. Go to bed.”
He was letting her go, she realized. “Are you going to tell them I was out here?”
“No.”
“If I try to run—”
“I won’t stop you,” he said, his face twisting with what looked remarkably like pain. “But they will. I’m warning. Believe me.”
If she wanted to leave, he wouldn’t stop her. There was still a chance, then.
But Isabel’s determination had left her. Doubts had crept in. She searched Wyatt’s gaze for a few more moments, wondering what his motivation here might be. Why would he try to save her? Why would he care what happened to her?
Had he always cared? He had tried so many times to win her friendship, after all...
But what reason would he have to care for her? He was a member of this pack, after all, well liked, respected by the alpha and the other members. And she was nothing but an omega.
He could never be friends with someone like me.
So then, why? Why the effort to protect her? Why the refusal to harm her, even to restrain her, when he knew he would be commanded to hunt her down and bring her back the following day? Why would he give her a chance at escape when it would anger every member of his pack?
Isabel crept back up the stairs, moving more confidently on the way in than she had on the way out. What did it matter, after all, if she was caught sneaking in to her bedroom? No one could suspect her of running away.
But no one woke at all. Before she knew it, Isabel was back in her bed with the blanket pulled up to her chin, her heart racing from the stress of her flight and being caught by Wyatt.
It took her a long time to fall asleep. When she finally did, it was with thoughts of Wyatt still in her head.
***
WYATT
She’d tried to run.
Wyatt walked beyond the tree line, gathering fallen wood and trying to process what had happened last night. He’d assured Robert that letting Izzy out was a good idea, and she’d tried to run at the earliest opportunity. He couldn’t have been more wrong about her.
The front door opened. Heather emerged, striding purposefully across the yard, and it took a few moments before Wyatt realized that Izzy was there too, trailing behind her. Izzy looked tired and nervous. Wyatt stepped out of the cover of the trees and met them on the grass.
“She’s with you today,” Heather said without preamble, waving Izzy forward.
“Really?” Wyatt hadn’t been given guard duty over Izzy so far. He’d assumed that Robert had worried he was too invested. It was a valid concern. He was worried about that himself, if he was honest.
Heather shrugged. “I guess Robert trusts that you’re not going to do anything inappropriate.”
“Were the others?”
“Are you kidding? She’s an omega.” Heather rolled her eyes. “They can’t control themselves. If you ask me, we shouldn’t even have one here.”
“You know it’s what’s good for the pack.” Wyatt was mystified. He’d thought everyone was in support of keeping their omega close.
“There’s more than one way to skin a cat,” Heather said obliquely, and then turned and loped off, leaving Izzy behind her.
Wyatt turned to Izzy. “What was that about?”
“She doesn’t like me,” Izzy said. “None of them do.”
“None of whom?”
“The women. They think I’m here to narrow the available pool of men.” She shrugged. “They have a point, I suppose.”
“And the men aren’t treating you well, either?”
“That’s different. They look at me like I’m dinner.”
He regarded her. “You’re afraid of them.”
“You would be, too. They’re twice my size.” Her tone was defiant.
“I wasn’t judging you,” he said. “Has no one ever taught you how to fight?”
“No.”
“An omega should know how to fight.” It seemed like a critical skill, and he was surprised no one in her life had taken the time to teach her before now. She was safe here with the pack. No one would dare touch her until the Omega Games had decided her fate. But when the games were over and someone had won...If it is Gunner, she should know how to fight him off.
Robert wouldn’t like this.
But he was resolved in his mind. She deserved a line of defense. Everyone did. “Meet me out here after supper,” he said. “Everyone will be inside then, and we can get off on our own. Meet me then, and I’ll teach you.”
***
IZZY
Isabel could hardly sit still through supper that night. The cubed steaks Lena had prepared were savory and delicious, swimming in gravy and each served with a piping hot baked potato, but Isabel only picked at the food. She still hadn’t decided whether or not she was going to meet Wyatt that night.
If he was really planning on teaching her to fight, it would be foolish not to go. The way some of the men here looked at her made her feel like she had centipedes crawling on her flesh, and she would do anything to fight them off. But on the other hand, this could just be a clever ploy to get her alone. They would be together in the dark, and no one else in the pack would know where she had gone. It might be the stupidest thing she could possibly do.
There was no way of knowing. She would just have to go with her instinct.
After the meal was over, she carried her plate to the sink and then slipped out the back door. Nobody tried to stop her. A few of the men of the pack were gathered on the porch smoking and talking in low voices. Wyatt saw her step out and gave her a slight nod.
She sat down on the steps to wait.
One by one, the rest of the pack drifted inside. Finally, she was left alone with Wyatt. He wasn’t looking at her, hadn’t looked at her since she’d first come out, but now he flicked his cigarette into the dirt and beckoned her over.
“You came,” he said. “I wasn’t sure you would.”
“I wasn’t sure either,” she admitted.
“I’m glad you did.”
Isabel didn’t answer. She wasn’t yet sure whether she was glad or not.
“Come on,” he said, leading her down the steps and across the yard. “There’s a clearing in the woods, not too far back. We can work there.”
The clearing turned out to be manmade, an area where the undergrowth had obviously been hacked away and pushed back until it had given up trying to grow in. “The pack made this space to train young fighters,” Wyatt said. “I wasn’t here when it was created, of course. But Robert told me about it. It’s been here a long time. He learned to fight here.” He turned to face her. “This is the first pack tradition you’ll be a part of.”
Isabel swallowed. She didn’t like the idea of adopting their traditions at all. But if she could use them to protect herself in the long run...
“The first thing you want to do is to lower your center of gravity.” Wyatt showed her. “A low center of gravity is an advantage women have over men in a fight. It makes you more stable, more balanced. If someone is going to fall over, better him than you.”
Isabel squatted low and felt the solid support of the earth under her body.
“Relax your arms,” Wyatt said. “You want the element of surprise. You don’t want a potential threat thinking he’s got to neutralize you, or his defenses will go up. Let him think you’re not going to be any trouble. Then, when he gets close, you hit him.”
“How do I hit him?”
Wyatt approached her. She sank deeper into her crouch.
“Go for the soft parts of his body,” he said. “And use the hard parts of yours. Elbows. Knuckles.”
She nodded.
“I’m going to come at you now,” he said. “You stay low and see if you can keep your feet.”
She eyed him doubtfully. He was a lot bigger than her. “What if I can’t?”
“I won’t hurt you,” he said. “Don’t worry.”
This was the moment, she knew. Either he was good for his word or he wasn’t. Either she was allowing him to walk right up to her and harm her, or else his intentions were good. Either she could trust him, or she couldn’t.
Decide.
She swallowed hard and nodded. “Okay,” she said. “Do it.”
***
“ARE YOU SURE YOU’RE ready to do this?” Wyatt asked.
It was their third time meeting in the clearing. Each time had gotten a little easier, and Isabel had to admit that she looked forward now to the times she could sneak off with him. It was a complicated friendship they had, and that was putting it mildly—Wyatt was a member of the Hell’s Wolves, and she knew he had signed up to compete in the upcoming Omega Games in which the men of the pack would compete for the right to mate with her. It was hard to spend time around him, knowing all that. By order of the alpha, she couldn’t be touched right now. She knew that much. But when the contest was over and someone had won her, he’d be free to do as he liked.
She tried to put that out of her head. There was no reason to let today be ruined. She had never been on a motorcycle before.
“Remember how to go?”
She touched the clutch and the throttle.
“And the brakes?”
She indicated them.
“Okay,” Wyatt said. “Keep it slow. Just a nice wide circle around the clearing.”
“What if someone hears?”
“We’re not breaking any rules,” he said.
“They’ll think I’m trying to escape.”
“No. You’re with me. Worst-case scenario is I’ll get in trouble for letting you try my bike.”
“I don’t want you to get into trouble,” she said, realizing as the words left her mouth that it was true. She wasn’t sure how much she could trust Wyatt yet, but she did trust him—and like him—more than any of the other members of the Hell’s Wolves. The men who were always leering at her, the women who treated her as if her captivity was her own fault...Lena was kind, but in a quiet, detached sort of way. There was something very active about the way Wyatt seemed to care about her.
“I won’t get into any trouble,” Wyatt assured her. “Go ahead. Let her rip.”
She engaged the bike’s engine, letting it roll forward slowly. As the bike began to glide around the clearing, she felt filled with a buoyant joy she hadn’t felt in as long as she could remember, and as she picked up speed, she heard Wyatt whoop happily.
