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  “Oh my God,” he breathed, thrusting up from the ground to meet her. “Oh, God, Izzy.”

  Take me, claim me, she bit her lip to keep from begging him. Make me yours, Wyatt. Yours always.

  They came together, exhausted and clinging to each other, shuddering in each other’s arms for what felt like an eternity.

  THEY HAD BEEN LYING still for some time when Wyatt spoke. “I can’t let anyone else have you,” he said. “Not unless you tell me it’s what you want.”

  “Of course, it isn’t.”

  “I’ll never be able to watch anybody else claim you,” he said. “I just won’t be able to do it.”

  They were lying side by side on the blanket. Izzy’s head rested on Wyatt’s shoulder. Despite the risk of being caught, neither of them had yet moved to put their clothes back on. She liked being naked with him, liked his warm body pressed up against hers in the afterglow.

  “You’ll have to win the competition,” she said. “That’s all there is to it.”

  “I don’t know if I can.” He rolled onto his side and faced her. “Izzy, you see me. I’m not young anymore.”

  “You’re the strongest person I’ve ever met.”

  “No, I’m not. Not physically. Plenty of people in this pack are stronger than I am. Probably faster, too. I don’t know what the Omega Games will require, but you’ve got to see I don’t have the best chance of winning. Not compared to...to some of the others.”

  “You mean Gunner.” She remembered the ominous leer on his face as he’d moved toward her, his threatening demeanor. She knew he planned to claim her if he could.

  Wyatt closed his eyes. “If he wins, I don’t know what I might do.”

  She felt afraid suddenly—not for herself, but for him. “You can’t do anything stupid,” she said. “If he wins, you have to let it lie. You can’t...I don’t know...challenge him. Try to fight him. He’d kill you.”

  Wyatt nodded. “That’s the whole problem. He’d kill me. On any battlefield, with any weapon. In any competition. Gunner can beat me. Even if I could get past the rest of the pack, which would be no easy feat, Gunner will always win in the end.” He shook his head. “I’ve been lying to myself, haven’t I? Telling myself we have a chance.”

  “Wyatt, no, don’t say that. Of course, we do.”

  “We don’t. How could we?” He laughed bitterly. “You know the rules. The laws of the pack. Omegas are barely more than property. The fact that I see you differently just sets me apart. It makes the others think I’ve lost it.”

  “It matters to me,” Izzy whispered. “You know how much it matters to me.” She sat up and turned so she was facing him. She could see his eyes shining, even in the darkness of the library, the irises caught and lit up by the moon coming through the window. “You’ve changed my whole world, Wyatt. You’ve made life good again.”

  He sat up too, taking her in his arms and pulling her close. “It matters to me too,” he murmured. “You’ve changed my life too. Maybe not as dramatically, but I never even realized I wasn’t happy until I met you. I was always alone. I always thought I wanted to be alone.”

  “And now?”

  “Now the only thing I want is to see you smile.” He rested his thumb against her lower lip. “Knowing I’ve made your life better makes me want to get out of bed in the morning. It makes life worth living.”

  Izzy pressed her cheek to his. “We should tell them,” she said. “We should tell them we’ve fallen in love.”

  Immediately, he pushed her back, holding her at arm’s length as though she’d burned him. “Are you serious?”

  “Robert seems like a rational person,” Izzy said. “He wants me to be mated. What’s the harm in you being my mate? I want it. You know I do.” She tilted her head away, baring her neck. “I want you to claim me, Wyatt.”

  “Don’t do that.” He pulled away roughly, leaving her huddled on the floor, grabbing his jeans and stepping into them.

  “Wyatt—”

  “We can’t tell,” he said roughly. “We can’t tell anyone.”

  “Why not? Because they might not let you compete in the Omega Games?” Izzy shook her head. “Wyatt, you said it yourself. The odds aren’t in your favor. I love you, and I believe you can do it, but wouldn’t my way be more of a guarantee?”

  “No,” Wyatt bit out. “Absolutely not.”

  “But why? What are you afraid they’ll do to you?”

  “They’re not going to do anything to me.”

  She understood. “Oh.”

  “Izzy, if you’re going to tell then we can’t do this anymore. I mean it. I will not put you at risk, I just won’t.”

  She rose and came to him, burrowing into his arms. “I won’t. I won’t tell. I’m sorry.”

  “I don’t know what they’d do,” he whispered. “But they don’t value you, do you understand? And if they knew you’d betrayed them, made a mockery of their Games and their rules...”

  She nodded. “I understand.”

  “I’ll win the Games,” he said. “I will.”

  She believed he could. Looking at him in that moment, she felt she had never seen anyone stronger or more prepared for what might be thrown at him. Gunner might have the muscle mass, she thought, but Wyatt had wisdom on his side. He would be able to cope with anything. No matter what challenges were placed before him in the Omega Games, he would figure out a way to win.

  “I trust you,” she said.

  Chapter Twelve

  WYATT

  Wyatt threw himself into preparations for the Omega Games.

  He dragged himself out of bed every morning at dawn, while the others were still snoring, and went down to the yard to run laps around the house. By the time he’d finished, he could hear breakfast being prepared and smell bacon crackling on the stove. He typically went into the house and ate quietly, without speaking to anyone.

  Today, however, his thoughts were interrupted by Caitlin.

  She was the youngest member of the Hell’s Wolves, only sixteen, a runaway who had escaped the foster system and found her way to the pack a few years ago. Every time Wyatt saw her, he was reminded that these people could be kind. They had taken in a girl who had no home and made her one of the family. It was the same thing they had done for him, of course, except that he had saved Robert’s life before being invited back to the pack. Seeing Caitlin made him think that he would have been asked to join them even if he hadn’t done what he had.

  Maybe. There was the fact that Robert had provoked that fight to test him. Wyatt couldn’t quite forget that.

  Caitlin took the seat beside him at breakfast. That was unusual—she usually sat down at the end of the table with the single women. But rank mattered less at breakfast, where not all members of the pack came to the table at the same time.

  “Hi,” he said.

  She was sitting on her hands, rocking back and forth, looking nervous. He watched her for a moment, wondering whether she was going to speak, then turned back to his toast.

  “Be careful,” she said under her breath.

  He turned to look at her. Her eyes widened and then dropped to her plate. She pretended to busy herself by breaking her bacon into bite sized pieces.

  Wyatt followed her lead, turning his attention to his own plate and spreading jam on his toast. “What do you mean?” he asked quietly out of the side of his mouth.

  “He’s watching you. Gunner.”

  The feeling of wanting to look up was so powerful that it felt as if Wyatt physically might not be able to resist it. Somehow, he managed. “Where?”

  “Not now. Just sometimes. He watches out the window when you run in the yard. He peeks into rooms when he knows you’re in there. He keeps track of you. Where you are. What you’re doing.”

  Wyatt’s heart sank. “Why would he do that?”

  “I don’t know,” Caitlin said. “But I saw him. And I know what you did for that omega girl. She didn’t deserve to be treated bad. I’d rather have you as our
pack beta than him.”

  “You think he’s going to try something?”

  “He fought Lionel,” Caitlin said. “This was fight before you arrived. Fought him for no good reason. He just didn’t like the way Lionel was looking at him.”

  Wyatt filed that away. “I’ll be careful.”

  “Don’t be alone with him,” Caitlin said. “He doesn’t fight fair.” She got up from the table and slipped away before he could ask her to clarify further.

  Wyatt finished his breakfast in silence and went up to the weight room. Several of the other men were gathered here lifting free weights and swinging kettlebells. The impending Omega Games had everyone anxious to hone their strength.

  Wyatt tried to ignore them. He went over to the bench press and adjusted the weights. It was a discouraging fact that he always ended up taking weight off the bar rather than adding it on. It didn’t seem to matter who had used it last—they were always stronger than he was.

  I’m not pushing myself hard enough, he thought. I need to make more gains if I’m going to be strong enough to win the Omega Games.

  He positioned himself on the bench and was about to begin lifting when he heard a voice from behind him. “You should really have a spotter, you know.”

  Wyatt turned. Gunner was standing there, the faint suggestion of a smile on his lips. “I’m all right,” he said.

  “It isn’t safe. Go on. I’ll spot you.”

  Wyatt hesitated. He certainly didn’t trust Gunner. But on the other hand, having an untrustworthy spotter wasn’t any worse than having no spotter at all. And there were a lot of people around, a lot of people who would see if Gunner tried to hurt him. He lay back and lifted the bar, pressing it high above his chest.

  “Preparing for the Games?” Gunner said. “I guess we all are.”

  Wyatt only grunted, lowering the bar until it hovered just above his chest.

  “This might be a waste of your time, of course,” Gunner said. “We don’t know what the games are going to consist of, do we? I heard Robert tell Lena he’s doing it that way on purpose, so we won’t be able to prepare. He doesn’t want us to enhance ourselves or our abilities. He wants us raw.”

  Wyatt said nothing.

  “And still, everyone runs around making preparations,” Gunner mused, seemingly to himself. “Everyone wants to run faster, be stronger. Be ready. Everyone thinks it will make a difference.” He chuckled and shook his head. “It won’t make any difference.”

  A stab of anger pulsed through Wyatt. “That certain you’ll win?” he said. Immediately he could have bitten his tongue. He had been determined not to speak, not to rise to Gunner’s bait. So much for that.

  Gunner just chuckled again. “Look around you. Everyone is doing the same things to get ready! Everyone is getting stronger. What difference will that make? When we compete, we’ll all be a little stronger. So, you’ll be stronger than you were a week ago...and so will I.” He grinned, showing his teeth. “You see how that doesn’t make any difference, right?”

  “So, you’re suggesting what? That I don’t even bother to try?”

  “You don’t want her anyway, right?” Gunner asked. “You told me in the clearing that nothing had happened between the two of you. Was that a lie?” He leaned closer, and Wyatt had the uncomfortable feeling that Gunner was scenting him, that he might be able to smell deception.

  “It wasn’t a lie,” he said. It wasn’t a lie at the time. Nothing had happened then. Nothing happened until about five minutes later. Inwardly, he prayed Gunner wouldn’t ask him that question. Nothing in the world would compel him to tell the truth, of course—he would never put Izzy at risk like that—but he wasn’t sure how competent a liar he was, or how skilled Gunner was at picking up on falsehoods.

  In the end he decided to tell Gunner what he had told Robert. “I’m going to be the beta of this pack,” he said. “I should participate. It’s only right.”

  “You’re not beta yet,” Gunner said. The last time he’d made that statement, on the verge of attacking Wyatt in the woods, he’d been half animal, snarling, the wolf straining at the surface. Now he was calm. It was as if he was telling a joke. Does he know something I don’t?

  Wyatt eased the weight bar back down into its cradle, sat up, and turned to face his rival. “What do you want, Gunner?”

  “Just hate to see you waste your time, is all,” Gunner said. “Especially when you don’t really even want her. Right?” His smile grew wider. “It’s only going to weaken you in the eyes of the pack. You don’t want that. Not if you’re going to be their beta. They’ll never respect you enough for you to keep the rank.”

  “Robert decides on the beta,” Wyatt reminded him. “The pack doesn’t vote on it.”

  “But Robert will be watching too,” Gunner said. “What will he think if his new favorite beta gets clobbered in the Games? He’ll know he made a bad choice. He won’t be able to help questioning it. Questioning you.” Gunner shook his head. “I know he likes you. For some reason, he’d decided you’re what the Hell’s Wolves need. I don’t get it, but he’s an old man, and there’s no accounting for them sometimes.”

  Wyatt bristled at the disrespect. “He’s your alpha.”

  “But it won’t matter how much he likes you once he’s seen you defeated,” Gunner went on as if Wyatt hadn’t spoken. “You’ll just look weak to him, and he’ll know you’ll never work out as beta of our pack.”

  “I never wanted to be beta of this pack,” Wyatt said. “It’s not my fault he chose me instead of you.”

  “But do you want to keep it?” Gunner asked. “Because if you do, you should pull out of the Games. Don’t display your weakness in front of the entire pack.” He grabbed a towel, slung it over his shoulder, and headed out the door. “It’s better this way, Wyatt. The pack needs strong leaders. Powerful leaders. Not losers.”

  Whistling, he strode out the door.

  IZZY

  She caught him as he was passing the stairs to the third floor. By the way his breathing stilled for a moment, she knew she had taken him by surprise, but he had trained his body well not to react. He said nothing as she pulled him into the stairwell and pressed him against the wall.

  “I want you,” she breathed into his ear. “Now, I want you now.”

  He didn’t speak. His hands were already on her, finding skin wherever they could, moving aside the hemlines of her clothing. She let out a gasp as he gripped her breasts, thumbs moving over rock hard nipples.

  “I’m going insane,” she breathed in his ear. “You don’t know how much I need you.” She’d been feeling it all week. Her desire for him was powerful, but she’d never had trouble controlling it before. But things had changed. When she saw him in the yard now, her whole body seemed to light up with need.

  “It’s because of the Wolf Moon,” he said. “Your time is coming.”

  “I can’t wait.” She nuzzled his neck. “You said you’d take care of me, Wyatt. You said always. It hurts. I need you so bad it hurts.”

  She had known this would sway him, and it did. He lifted her into his arms. She was naked under her skirt, wet and waiting, and a moment later they were joined and she was in orgasm.

  She buried her face in his shoulder and gripped him with every muscle in her body, riding the waves of pleasure that coursed through her, unable to think. It seemed impossible that she had waited so long to be with him, impossible that she had lived so many years without him. It felt like an infinite loop of pleasure, peaking again every time she thought it was about to die down.

  “Izzy.”

  She clutched at him with her thighs, gripping, gasping.

  “Izzy, baby.”

  She couldn’t stop. Wouldn’t ever stop.

  “Izzy, breathe. Shh. Look at me.”

  His hand was warm and broad on her cheek. She tilted her head so she could see him. He was holding her up with both arms now, and she felt exhausted and satisfied.

  “Are you all right?” he a
sked.

  “I’m amazing,” she murmured. “Don’t go yet.”

  He nodded, and she felt his hips shift against hers. He moved for the first time, thrusting slowly, finding a steady rhythm, holding her perfectly still against him.

  She shuddered, feeling how massive he was, feeling small and safe and cared for.

  Wyatt came silently, and with a kiss, and he sank to his knees with Izzy still wrapped around him. She rolled off carefully, lying back on the stairs, staring up into the blackness.

  “Something’s happening,” she whispered.

  “What do you mean?”

  “I’ve been...I don’t know. Needing you more and more. Every time I see you. It’s escalating, Wyatt. Even now, I feel like I could go again. I feel like could take you forever and never stop.” She reached out a hand for him in the dark. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”

  “Nothing is wrong with you,” Wyatt said. “The Wolf Moon is getting close.”

  “I don’t know what that means.”

  “It’s the reason the Omega Games are being held now,” he said. “You’ll go into heat soon. Your body’s getting ready for it.”

  “Go into heat? Like an animal?”

  “Has it never happened to you before?”

  “I don’t know,” she admitted, feeling ashamed.

  “It’s an omega thing. It doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with you. Once a year, during the Wolf Moon—which is always in January—omega wolves go into heat. It’s the time you’re most fertile, so of course that’s when Robert wants to breed you. What you’re feeling is your body’s natural response to your own fertility.”

  “You mean my body is going to be trying to get me pregnant.”

  “In so many words,” he chuckled.

  “So, everyone who’s been walking around here talking about how omegas are mindless nymphomaniacs who just want to get laid all the time—”

  “They’re idiots. First of all, it’s once a year, not all the time. That’s just facts. Secondly, you don’t lose your mind during the Wolf Moon. Your body goes into a period of hyperarousal, but you’re still capable of making decisions.”