Maddox (The Boundarylands Omegaverse Book 4) Read online

  Maddox

  The Boundaryland Omegaverse

  Callie Rhodes

  Contents

  Maddox

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Also by Callie Rhodes

  About the Author

  Maddox

  Book 4 in The Boundarylands Omegaverse Series

  Hunted and broken, her only hope for survival lays in the arms of a feral Alpha that knows no mercy.

  No woman willingly travels to the Boundarylands.

  It’s where they are—the Alphas.

  They keep to themselves in the wilderness, and beta civilization knows to keep its distance. Especially beta women…for fear they may not be a beta after all.

  The only way to know your true nature is to feel the touch of an Alpha. Omegas may be rare, but every woman knows their fates are hellish—held captive, broken, mated, knotted, and bred.

  After a hiking trip goes horribly wrong, Darcy is on the run, tracked by men who want to ensure she doesn’t live to tell her story. She doesn’t realize that she’s crossed over into the Boundarylands until she collapses before the one creature she fears more than the murderers on her tail.

  Now her only hope for salvation lays with an Alpha so dangerous even other Alphas know to keep their distance.

  Chapter One

  Hope Johansen's lungs were burning.

  She'd been running for hours, forcing her feet to keep moving, her arms to keep pumping. Even when gulping for breath became agony and her legs threatened to give out. She pushed past the pain and kept going.

  She had to. What other choice was there? To lie down and die right here in the middle of the forest? Give herself up to the men who were chasing her?

  "Hell, no."

  Hope muttered the words out loud despite the breath they cost her. She might not make it out of this alive, but she would keep running—keep fighting—to the very end.

  The brown and deep green of the forest blurred in her peripheral vision as she ran. Every tree, every hill and valley looked exactly the same as every other. Hope hadn't been able to make out a single distinct landmark for miles now. And with the thick forest canopy blocking the sun, she had no idea which direction she was headed.

  For all she knew, she might have been running in circles this whole time. Might crest the next hill and run right into the men who were hunting her.

  The men who had killed Sandra and Dave.

  Hope's breath hitched at the memory, and she stumbled, costing herself priceless seconds. She did her best to force the horrible scene from her mind, but it replayed relentlessly—the shouts, the screams, the blood.

  Dear God, all that blood.

  But Hope couldn't focus on that now. She needed to direct all of her energy into putting as much distance as she could between herself and the killers.

  It was what she had been doing for the last three days. Resting only for a few precious hours each night, ever since the gunshots had broken the stillness of the forest, and her friends had crumpled to the ground.

  It seemed like a lifetime ago. But only seventy-two hours had passed since Hope, Sandra, and Dave had set up camp.

  The spot had been beautiful, just steps from the rocky shore of a small, crystal blue lake tucked into the Klamath Mountains barely a quarter-mile off the Continental Trail. They couldn't believe their luck at finding such a perfect spot, with fresh water for drinking and a swim before dinner.

  A swim they had never gotten to take.

  Another hitch in her breath. Another overwhelming wave of guilt.

  It had been Hope's idea to hike this section of the Continental Trail over Labor Day weekend when she and Dave had both managed to get the time off from the sporting goods store where they worked. Just as it had been her idea to try the faint path leading off the trail late in the afternoon of their first day out.

  Hope dreamed of hiking the Continental Trail all the way from Mexico to Canada someday. But until she saved the money to take that much time off, she was content to hike sections of it every chance she got. It had been easy enough to talk Dave into coming with her, since he loved the outdoors almost as much as Hope. But his wife Sandra had been less enthusiastic.

  Like most betas, Sandra was uncomfortable with the idea of spending time in the wilderness, especially when there were such good walking paths around the city of Sacramento.

  And of course, Sandra was leery of hiking a trail so close to the Boundarylands.

  But they wouldn't be that close, Hope had assured her over beers one recent Friday after work. The Continental Trail was nearly thirty miles away from the closest boundary line. The only things they'd have to worry about were mosquito bites and raccoons stealing their food while they slept.

  And Hope had been right. On the first day out, they'd experienced perfect trail conditions, sunny, but cool weather, and wild blackberries to snack on. They hadn't even seen another beta on the trail. By the time they decided to make camp for the night, they'd built up a healthy appetite even for the freeze-dried beef stroganoff in their packs.

  Hope was gathering firewood, and Sandra was filtering water from the lake when two men walked into their camp. One of tread his heavy boots over the fire Dave had just lit.

  These weren't hikers. Hikers didn't wear heavy gold chains and knockoff designer jeans, or bandannas over their faces under their mirrored sunglasses.

  Hikers didn't pull guns from the holsters on their belts.

  Hope knew exactly who these men were—and how much trouble she and her friends were in—from reading first-person accounts by the few people who'd survived stumbling into an illegal grow.

  But she could tell that Sandra and Dave didn't realize what they were dealing with. They didn't know that not far away, there would be hidden fields of marijuana or poppies that these men would harvest and sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars. Fields whose locations were a deadly secret.

  Dave was still holding up a hand in greeting when one of the men shot him in the face. Sandra didn't have a chance to scream before he turned and shot her too. Just like that—it was over in seconds. No thought, no mercy, only blood and death.

  And Hope would be lying right beside her friends in their shallow grave if she hadn't been hidden by the trees. She'd made it back to the clearing just in time to see her friends be executed.

  Hope had tried to stay quiet—she really had—but it just wasn't possible in the midst of such horror. She'd dropped the wood and covered her mouth, but the scream leaked out.

  Both of the strangers spun around and scanned the tree line, looking for the source of the sound, guns raised.

  So Hope had done the only thing she could. She ran.

  And she'd been running ever since.

  For three whole days and two nearly sleepless nights.

  Hope had known she couldn't go back to the trail. She'd be an open target. So she'd run headlong into the trees, but without her pack and supplies, and no stars to guide her in an overcast night sky, she had no idea where she was going. She had no gear to make shelter. No food to eat.

  Somehow, Hope had made it this far, surviving on spring water and foraged berries, sleeping under the cover of fern fronds. Hiding when the bastards came too close, and running like hell when the coast was clear.

  At times Hope tho
ught she'd lost them for good—but then she'd catch their voices in the distance and know that the narcotraficantes had spotted a footprint or broken branch that betrayed her location.

  They were excellent trackers, and they were relentless.

  And her luck had finally run out.

  They'd finally found her. Surprising her as she stole a moment to rest, her legs tucked in close to her body, her back propped against the surprisingly soft trunk of a redwood, her eyes drifting closed.

  The only reason Hope was still alive was that one of her tormentors had been too eager to finish her off. He'd fired his gun from too far away, and the shot had missed—burying itself in the tree's bark an inch above her head and propelling her back on her feet and running for her life.

  Now Hope felt the last of her energy draining from her body, the days of exertion taking their toll. She wouldn't make it another quarter mile. She might not survive long enough to take the next breath.

  Gasping for air, near collapse, she reached the top of the hill and started down the other side. But the slope was steep and covered with thick brush. She didn't have the energy left to be nimble, each footstep falling heavily on the ground.

  If she fell now—if she stumbled on a root or tripped over a stone—she wouldn't be able to get up. She would be as good as dead. So Hope kept her eyes focused on her feet, fighting a battle with gravity that sent her flying faster and faster.

  That was why she didn't see him until it was almost too late.

  Suddenly, a beam of sunlight cut through a gap in the tree line, and a massive shadow fell across Hope's face, startling her. She faltered, swayed, and instinctively threw out her hands in a frantic attempt to keep her balance. She blinked against the sun, trying to make sense of the hulking presence of the man standing in her path.

  Dear God above, the man was huge—over seven feet tall, with limbs like tree trunks and shoulders as wide as a small car, his bulging muscles taut with pure rage.

  An alpha.

  Hope's mind reeled at this new threat. She'd been so concerned with escaping the men who were hunting her down that she'd forgotten how close she was to the Boundarylands. At some point in the last few days, she must have accidentally crossed the invisible line that separated the beta world from alpha territory.

  And now she was going to pay the price.

  She would've rather have taken a bullet miles ago than face an alpha on his land.

  Hope didn't know a great deal about alphas. She'd been homeschooled, her education heavy on religion and short on actual facts. She had only recently gotten a television and had access to the news. But everyone knew that alphas were wild. Quick to anger and fiercely territorial, with a penchant for killing betas.

  Seeing the terrifying expression on the face of the one in front of her, Hope knew it was all true.

  Deadly energy poured off him, his body tense and ready to strike. His muscles and veins stood out as though he'd been carved from stone by a vengeful god. The anger in his eyes—dark, hooded eyes the color of coal—burned with an intensity that shook Hope to her core.

  Even though she knew the gesture was futile, she raised her shaking hands and pleaded for her life. She had only just begun to truly live—she couldn't bear to think that all of her dreams would end now.

  "I'm sorry," she stammered. "I didn't know where I was. I didn't have a choice. I—"

  Red hot pain ripped through Hope's shoulder before she could get the next word out.

  A quarter-second later, the crack of the gunshot echoed in her ears.

  So, this is how I die, she thought. Shot in the back instead of ripped to pieces by an angry alpha.

  Maybe it was a mercy.

  That was Hope's last thought before she fell face first onto the soft forest floor.

  Chapter Two

  Maddox crouched in the cover of a huge hemlock tree, so still and silent that the creatures of the forest took no notice of him. He'd been waiting here, only a handful of yards from the eastern border of his property, for nearly fifteen minutes before the first intruder came crashing through the trees.

  There were three of them in the group—two men who reeked of greed and bloodlust, and a woman whose fear was as pungent as a rotting corpse.

  All of them were betas, of course. No alpha would be stupid enough to cross onto another's property without an invitation. Especially not Maddox's.

  Beta trespassers were rare, but they did show up now and then. And recently they'd been more frequent than ever before. Strange things had been happening in the Boundarylands over the past year.

  Maddox and his neighbor Kian had recently had to kill a gang of low-life criminals who'd been stupid enough to come after Kian's omega. And within months of that skirmish, another beta—a senator, no less—had brought armed reinforcements to face off against other alphas.

  That fight had been over a woman too.

  And now it looked like there was about to be another bloodbath with a woman at its center.

  Not that Maddox gave a rat's ass about the motivation behind this invasion of his property. These betas were bound to be like all the others—foolishly believing that a few weapons made them tough enough to take their chances in the Boundarylands.

  They were wrong, of course. They always were—the criminals, the senator, and now these idiots.

  At least Maddox had caught the outsiders' scents long before they neared his property line. Now he was ready and waiting for them.

  Maddox tensed as the first figure came into view—the woman, cresting the hill and barreling down the slope. Even if he hadn't caught her scent, Maddox still would have known she was scared out of her mind from the way she ran blindly toward him, seeing only the ground in front of her.

  Maddox didn't care what the woman had done to put herself in this position. All he was interested in was the law. Alpha law.

  He'd kill the men who had pursued her here, and then he would punish her.

  But he didn't get the chance. At the last moment, the woman spotted him, nearly falling on her ass as she stumbled to a sudden stop. A beam of sunlight landed on her face, and Maddox caught a view of golden eyes, golden skin, dark golden hair. She was beautiful…but Maddox had no use for beauty.

  So why did he hesitate? It had to be the raw emotion pouring from her wounded body. The terror pulsing through her ticked even higher as she begged for her life.

  I didn't know where I was. I didn't have a choice.

  It was the truth. Maddox could sense her honesty—a surprising quality in a beta.

  She was tired, weak, and scared. Maddox had no idea how long she'd been running before she'd been pushed on to his land. He shouldn't have cared.

  One moment, she'd been pleading with her hands in the air. The next, she was teetering on her feet, a bright red hole blooming on her chest.

  The bullet had passed through her body directly below her shoulder and lodged itself in the spongy wood of a fallen log. From the looks of the blood pouring out, the shot had nicked a vein or artery, and she wouldn't last much longer.

  At least she wasn't Maddox's problem anymore. But the two men who'd shot her still were.

  Maddox stayed in the shadows as they came into view, loping down the hill, their faces red from exertion. Sunlight glinted off the rifles they clutched in their hands. When they saw the woman lying face down on the forest floor, they slowed to a walk, laughing.

  Maddox's vision went dark. These men thought they could get away with murder on his land. They thought they could savor the death of an innocent without consequence.

  Rage took over his entire being, obliterating reason and roiling his blood until he had to act.

  There was no reason to bother with stealth now. A roar started deep in Maddox's chest and cleaved the open air. The men froze, their expressions turning from gloating to horrified in a single satisfying second. He flexed the muscles in his shoulders and arms as he stepped into view.

  The cowards turned and ran, scrambling to get b
ack up the hill.

  Maddox couldn't help the dark smile that crept over his face. He liked a good chase more than most. Of course, these betas couldn't give him much of a challenge. He knew he'd catch up to them in mere seconds.

  And he did.

  It took him only a few strides to cover the same ground as the betas. One turned just before Maddox reached him. His murky brown eyes flooded with the same terror the woman's had…except in his, there was no trace of innocence. The sour stench of cowardice filed the air as the beta threw out his arm and pushed his friend directly into Maddox's path, sacrificing him in a desperate bid to escape.

  The second beta fell, crashing to the ground and landing like an offering at Maddox's feet. His fury turned to disgust as the worm sobbed and pleaded for his life.

  Maddox leaned down and plucked him up by the ankle, letting him dangle upside down in his grasp.

  "Why did you come here?" he growled.

  The beta babbled, a stream of nonsense words pouring from his mouth. Maddox didn't have time for this shit. He gave the bastard a hard shake. His limbs and spine rippled like clothes on the line.

  The man pissed himself in either fear or pain—Maddox didn't care which. The stream made its way down onto his face and dripped off his chin.

  "Why?" Maddox repeated. "And why did you kill that woman?"

  Since when did he care about why's or explanations? No matter what the beta told him, it wouldn't matter. All that mattered was justice.

  The beta broke the law. The beta paid the price.