Vonn: The Boundarylands Omegaverse: M/F Alpha Omega Romance by Callie Rhodes (ready to read books TXT) 📕

What was left of her professional self—a self honed and sharpened by all those years of brutal, unrelenting work—rationalized that she was still in shock, that she didn't know what she was doing.

But that was a lie. Stacy didn't struggle because she didn't want to.

And as if drawn by a magnet buried deep inside her, Vonn saw her yearning and crushed his mouth against hers.

Chapter Thirteen

She kissed him like a woman dying of thirst, and for a few brief glorious seconds, Vonn found himself exactly where his restless journey had been meant to bring him. Since the first time he caught the scent of an awakening omega earlier that spring, an event that had changed the entire purpose of his life, he felt not just peace but pure, shimmering joy.

It didn't last.

Stacy pulled away so abruptly that she left him gasping and breathless. She looked stunned, as though she'd not just seen a ghost but been briefly inhabited by it, her body and will taken over by an unseen force.

But nothing they'd done had been against their will. Vonn knew it to the marrow of his bones. In fact, the look she was giving him now—fear mixed with horror—was the true lie, the weight of years of indoctrination from a government that cared so little about her that it was willing to sacrifice her without so much as a backward glance.

Vonn wanted to roar with frustration but didn't want to cause her any more distress than she was already feeling. The two of them had just shared the greatest kiss either had ever known.

That wasn't fantasy or wishful thinking, either. He had been ready to rip a door off its hinges and fight a brother to claim another omega for whom he'd felt only a fraction of what he felt for Stacy.

They were meant to be together. And the only thing standing in the way was the wall she had built up around her as a result of the beta government's campaign of brainwashing.

Still, something had changed about her resistance. She was back to pushing him away, but this time, there was no passion behind her efforts.

Stacy was a highly-trained soldier, a warrior who had brought Vonn to his knees more than once, something no other human had ever come close to doing. He knew the bottomless well of resolve housed in her deceptively slender body. Saw the workings of her sharp, intelligent mind. If Stacy wanted to escape, she would have done it already; Vonn wasn't holding her back.

But she hadn't. Unlike last time, she neither struggled nor lashed out. Vonn didn't even bother to protect his nuts, somehow confident she wouldn't try that move again.

He breathed in her scent, holding her gaze as he did so, wanting her to know exactly what he was doing. This time, her fear existed only as a faint background note, overshadowed almost completely by a provocative mix of frustration, shame, desire…and curiosity.

It was the latter that struck a new realization in Vonn. While his attraction to the other omega was purely instinctual, his desire for Stacy went beyond that. Her curiosity could remain at the fore even in a situation that tested her beyond anything she'd experienced or trained for—that was proof of mind lively enough to keep Vonn interested forever.

There was something about Stacy that kept him guessing in a way that let him know that there would always be something new to discover about her. And he was going to do everything in his power to make sure he had that chance.

And so, if he had to play the long game now while suffering from blue balls, it was a small price to pay. He took a deep breath and considered his omega's reaction in a new light, imagining what someone with her history would need to change her mind.

All he knew was that it wouldn't happen suddenly. There would be no big revelation, no moment of clarity, for Stacy.

After all, she hadn't developed her hatred of alpha civilization overnight. No, it had taken years of biased education followed by intensive indoctrination in the service to wear down a mind as intelligent as hers, to convince her to accept as fact things she had never experienced for herself.

To convince her of what was real—to make her recognize and accept her true nature—Vonn was going to have to do more than hold up a mirror, hoping she could see the change in herself. He was going to have to undo the insidious lies little by little, chipping away at them shard by shard, until eventually, all that was left was a pile of dust.

While he was thinking all of this through, Stacy had been trying half-heartedly to extract herself from Vonn's arms. Now he abruptly released her, and she stumbled backward and might have fallen if Vonn didn't take her hand.

The look in Stacy's eyes suggested that nothing made sense to her anymore. But Vonn was ready for that.

"The only thing you've ever been taught is how to fight, isn't it?" he said softly.

The fire in her eyes surged, the way a pile of burning tinder briefly blazed when he blew on it. But then her resistance gave way to uncertainty. If Stacy wasn't aware of how much she wanted him, then she was the most accomplished practitioner of denial he had ever met.

"I chose to learn how to fight," she said in a firm voice. "No one made me. It's the only thing I've ever wanted to do."

Point taken. Before he could concede it, however, the scent of her slick rose up to his nose, and Vonn had to swallow down a growl of need.

Arguing wasn't the same thing as fighting…but even this verbal conflict turned her on. Vonn suppressed a wolfish smile, knowing he had to proceed cautiously. If he sent her into true panic again, he risked giving up all the ground he'd gained.

He watched Stacy move unconsciously closer to him, drawn by the same invisible force