Page 17

We nearly killed one another when we couldn’t find Kienna. I’d always been grounded and level-headed, but I’d lost my mind. She was finally in our pack house only to go missing and no one saw or heard her leave. Even Kane was messed up over it.

To top it off, it was Casimir who found her. The one who wasn’t part of our pack found her in our house. Not me or Kane, or even Maddox, who had punched a hole in the wall with his furious worry.

We brought food, water, blankets, pillows, and a propane heater into the attic and set them up around her like offerings to a goddess. Kienna slept through the night and the morning. She looked like an angel curled up in that chair.

There was another game the next day, and we were due at the arena in the early afternoon. Yet none of us wanted to leave Kienna alone. Over breakfast while she was still sleeping, we put our names into a helmet and picked who would stay with her and bring her to the game later.

The slip of paper Kane pulled had my name on it. I’d never felt so victorious in my life.

Now I was taking Kienna to see Sara.

“So if Sara isn’t a person, is it like a fancy named house?” Kienna nibbled on a donut hole as she gazed out the window. There wasn’t much to see at the moment, but the wide openness of Manitoba was something I loved and I wanted to share all the province’s beauty with her.

I chuckled. “Nope. Not a house.”

“Hmm…” She pursed her lips in an adorable way and then popped the rest of the pastry into her mouth, licking her fingers. Oh fuck, that was way past adorable. She made the simplest things hot. “Is it like a big rock? Please tell me we’re not taking a road trip to see a rock.”

“Not a rock.” I was bursting to tell her what Sara was, but I wanted to see her reaction when we got there. I’d loaded up the SUV with snacks and drinks, and I would have loved to be able to spend the entire day at our destination, but we had to be back for the game.

“Just tell me then.” Kienna poked me and smirked.

“Nope.” I grinned as she stuck her tongue out in response. “Alright, I’ll give you a clue. We’re going to a part of the Spruce Woods Provincial Park.”

“Ooo-kay.” Her brows furrowed. “It better not be a big tree. Even if it’s a really big tree, I don’t see why you’re so excited about it.”

“It’s not a tree, but Spruce Woods is a beautiful place. It has several unique ecosystems. I spent a lot of my childhood out in nature, and other than the rink, it’s my favorite place to be.” I wanted to share my love of the outdoors with her, my love of this land. It was a stab to the heart every time she said she didn’t want to be in Winnipeg and that it was boring to be stuck in the middle of nowhere. Manitoba had so much to offer, and I hoped to open her eyes to those possibilities.

“Hence all the pretty photos you’ve taken.” Kienna popped another donut hole into her mouth and chased it down with some water. Her lips had some sugar on them and my cock twitched, already half hard being in the car with her. Her sweet scent filled my head and made it so I could only think of her.

“The photos don’t do the real sights justice. It’s absolutely gorgeous out here.” I was a small town Canadian boy who loved his home, and I got teased for it, but it never diminished my love for this place. “I’ve been really lucky to be able to play for the Rampage and continue to live in Manitoba. I realize that I might have to move to the city of whichever NHL team recruits the pack, but I want to come back after my hockey career is over. With the vast wilderness in the province, I want to start up an adventure park to help people appreciate what Manitoba has to offer.”

“An adventure park?” Kienna perked up in her seat. “Like an amusement park?”

“No, no.” I laughed. “An adventure park with zip lining, rock climbing, bouldering, four wheeler trails in the summer and snowmobile trails in the winter, hiking and snowshoeing, skiing, fishing, and camping. I like caving too, but there aren’t any in this area.”

“That sounds like a lot of fun. I’d love to do all those things. There’s so many things people won’t let Omegas do because they think we’re too delicate.” She rolled her eyes at that.

“Delicate? They clearly haven’t met the beautiful pink haired powerhouse of an Omega in my car then.” I didn’t think for a second she was fragile, but it still didn’t stop me from wanting to protect her from any danger. These past few hours we had alone together cemented the fact I knew she was meant for our pack, meant for me. Since she had been avoiding any contact with Kane for some reason, it was up to me to change her mind about staying.

I glimpsed at a road sign as we zoomed by and grinned. “Okay. We’re getting close. So you don’t ruin the surprise, I want you to close your eyes until we’re parked. You’re going to love Sara.”

Kienna closed her eyes and cocked her head. “I feel a little jealous for all the fuss you’re making over her. She better be one helluva gal.”

Laughing again, I drove us into the lot and parked. The area in Spruce Woods was beautifully maintained and sat on the edge of Spirit Sands. Some people called it Manitoba’s desert, but there was too much precipitation for the official label. Yet in the spring with all the wildflowers, it was stunning.

“Keep your eyes closed.” I parked the car and turned off the engine. Walking around, I fetched my camera and then opened her door. “Let me help you out.”

Kienna giggled as she took my hand and continued to be a good sport about keeping her eyes closed. I led her slowly across the lot to stand near Sara’s shadow. The wind blew Kienna’s pink locks and she reached up to tuck them behind an ear. I snapped a few pictures of her with the sun kissing her skin and that sensual smile on her lips.

“Kienna Birk, I would like to introduce you to the queen of the Spirit Sands, Sara. Open your eyes.”

Bouncing on her toes, Kienna opened her eyes and gasped. Her dark eyes widened, sparkling with light. I snapped another dozen photos. Fuck, I could stare at her forever.

“It’s a camel.” Kienna stepped a few feet forward with her gaze glued to the giant statue.

“Yes, she is.” I chuckled softly and circled around her to get both her and Sara in the frame.

“Sara’s a camel. In the middle of nowhere.” The gravel crunched under her feet as she walked up to the seventeen foot high concrete statue in the center of the small garden park. She reached a hand up to one of the legs and sighed softly as she touched her. “I love her so much.”

Joy infused me with her exclamation, and when she hugged Sara’s leg, I almost get teary eyed. This was a far better reaction than I had hoped for. I’d hoped to bond with her on the ride to and from Spruce Woods, and watching her made me believe she was something ethereal. I was more in awe of her than she was of Sara.

I took some more pictures until she beckoned to me. “Take some photos of the both of us with Sara. I want to share it with my friends. They would never believe Sara exists if they don’t see the pics.”

Jogging up to her, we posed with Sara as I snapped some pictures with my camera and then with her phone. In the last one, she hugged me and I tucked her head under my chin. We fit so perfectly together.

“What makes you like Sara so much?” I never wanted to let her go, and when she slipped from my arms, I felt an ache like a piece of me was missing.

“Sara isn’t supposed to be here.” Kienna grinned at me as I gave her a quizzical look. “She’s a camel in the far north in Canada. This is no place for a camel. If you would have told me were were coming to see a camel statue before we left the house, I would have laughed and said no thanks. Yet here she is saying screw your dull expectations. Look at her! She’s beautiful and magnificent and outrageous. She shouldn’t be here, but she’s the queen and makes everyone realize she does belong here.”

Beautiful, magnificent, and outrageous. It was Kienna. She was my queen.

“Do you want to see her desert?” I offered my hand to her and my heart leapt as she twined her fingers through mine. “I’d love to walk the trails with you, but we don’t have that much time today.”

“Of course I want to see it.” She swung our arms between us as I led her across the lot and the street to the trailhead. We walked up over the small grassy dune, and she gasped. “There’s really a desert here!”

I laughed and drank in the wonder in her face. Spirit Sands was still pretty grassy at this point, but from here, we could see the rolling sand dunes of the desert. It was a one-of-a-kind ecosystem in Manitoba, and it had always fascinated me. It was like stepping into another world. “There’s several trails that go through the area, but my favorite goes down to the Devil’s Punch Bowl.”

“This place is magical,” she breathed out the words in a soft voice. She suddenly let go of my hand and ran halfway down the hill and into the long grass. “Look at all these flowers!” She spun and then fell into the grass smiling up at the clear sky. “Sara’s desert is gorgeous.”

I stood there and stared like a fool. My heart beat hard, and emotions more powerful than my Alpha instincts surged through me. I was lost to her magic. She not only knew about hockey, but she was a flower fairy too. This Omega was made for me.

I was also painfully rock hard.

My finger immediately went to the shutter button. Whether the pictures were clear or not, I had to have the images forever.

“Look at these purple ones. So pretty. Do you know what they are?” She fondled the petals, but didn’t pick the flower. My erection jerked as if she were caressing it instead of the flower.

It took me a second to find my voice. I crouched down beside her and swallowed hard. “That’s a prairie crocus. It’s Manitoba’s provincial flower. The white ones,” I motioned to the bunches of tiny white blooms. “That’s yarrow. The pink ones are cut-leaf anemone. They’ll get much taller and bees love them.”

Kienna stroked each flower as I named them. I adored her all the more that she never reached to pull any out of the ground. “And these red ones?”

“Wild columbine. Some people call them Canadian columbine since they get really red here.”

Her gorgeous eyes turned to gaze at me as she smiled. “Champion goalie and a Green Man.”

“Green Man?” I blinked, barely having heard her words since I’d been so focused on watching her supple lips move.

“Yeah, a protector of nature. A mystical being who could be very gentle or a fierce guardian.”

“I like that. If hockey hadn’t worked out for me, I wanted to be a forest ranger.” That seemed like ages ago. The AHL picked me up as soon as I turned eighteen, and I didn’t get a chance to go to college. They would have let me go if I could work it with their schedule, but I’d put everything into my career, attending camps and workshops during the off-season. “What about you?”

Her gaze drifted back to the sky and got a little hazy. Her smile faltered and she gave a little shrug. “Omegas only have so many options.” She attempted to blink away the sudden sadness that seemed to take her. “Do you think Sara might retire any time soon? Or take on an apprentice?”

I caressed her cheek, desperate for that gorgeous smile to return. “I don’t know if Sara is going anywhere any time soon, but as a Green Man, I do require a forest nymph. We can run wild through the woods and howl at the moon with the wolves.”

“Wild and free… I want nothing more.”

My heart lurched and I gathered her to me. Sadness and depression could not have her. I refused to let them steal her brightness. “You can do anything you want to do, Kienna. If you told me you were going to rule the world, I’d believe it, and I’d be the first to bow down to you, eager to give you anything you want.”

She wound her arms slowly around me as she seemed to search my face for any dishonesty. There wasn’t any to be found. I truly meant every word.

Our faces drifted closer. Her breath brushed against my skin and a few stray pink hairs tickled my cheek. The intoxicating scent of her was far stronger than the fresh flowers and the arid earthy odor of the dunes. She was as musky sweet and wild as the land around us.

“Tiergan.” She said my name with a wee whimper, and I crumbled, needing to take her, claim her, make her mine.

The first kiss was light, but the second engulfed me with fiery desire. I set my camera to the side and pressed her back into the grass. I kissed her with everything that I was and then some. My hips ground against hers and she wrapped one leg around my waist.

My dick roared to be freed, to drive into her tight cunt and knot her. I kissed her until I could hardly breathe and kneaded her breast through her shirt. I wanted her naked and screaming under me.

I was undoing her pants when a truck drove by on the road. They couldn’t see us on this side of the dune, but it shook me out of my narrow focus with the realization anyone could come upon us. “Let me move you to the car. The backseat is big.”

“No.” She raked her fingers up under my shirt and drew them up my sides. “I need you now.”

A growl rumbled in my chest. “Anyone could see us.”

“I don’t care.” She moaned, and with another roll of her hips, she had me forget about the rest of the world too. “Make me come, Green Man.”

My small amount of experience with Beta females in the past didn’t prepare me for the intensity of this. Walking that fine line of control and instinct made me a great goalie, and it was all I could do right now not to rut and breed her right here.

I kissed down along her neck as I opened her jeans. “My little nymph, such an exhibitionist. That’s so hot.”

Her zipper came down and I pressed my hand into her soaked panties. Her slick coated my fingers as I slid them down over her mound. The heat of her was like a burning coal, but her pussy was so ripe and juicy.

Kienna popped open my jeans and tugged my erection free. I sucked in a hissing breath as her fingers played over my throbbing shaft.

Sand shifted under us, making us slide a few inches down the hill. I pushed a finger into her and reveled in her small cry. Fucking her with that single digit, I kissed all over her face before mashing my mouth back on hers. Our teeth clicked with the force and her groans vibrated my lips.

Pumping into her pussy with one hand, I lifted her shirt with the other. The creaminess of her skin was flushed with her heat. She rocked her hips against my hand, and I thrust another finger into her.

Faster and harder.

Kienna stroked my cock with a firm grip and bumped the head of it against her abdomen. Pre-cum smeared on her and it pleased the animalistic side of me to mark her with my scent.

“Yes,” she mewed near my ear and nipped the lobe. She trembled as her pussy tightened. “Fuck, yes.”

I kissed down to her chest and sucked one nipple through the thin material of her bra. Using my teeth, I peeled it back and attacked it anew. I covered the rosy nub with my whole mouth and teased it with teeth and tongue.

There was no way I could hold on much longer. I was going to explode.

She arched her back and writhed, screaming as her orgasm took her. Her pussy clenched my fingers so hard that I could barely move them. Imagine my cock in her. Deep in, balls slapping against her, and swelling with a knot.

My climax hit me with the force of a bison. I muffled my cries against her breasts as my jizz covered her, the grass, and the flowers. So much.

I rolled onto my side and pulled her against me. She offered no resistance as I spooned her, surrounding her body with mine.

“Kienna, my sweet nymph.” I kissed behind her ear. She moaned softly, still breathing heavily from her climax.

In the shadow of a giant camel, I had found the Omega I wanted to be my mate. I wanted her to be the one before, but now there could be no other. Was she convinced to stay with the pack? I would do everything in my power to make it happen.

I bent the stem of a tall piece of grass and gave her nose a tickle. Kienna giggled quietly and snuggled more into me.

The bigger question would be, if she didn’t want to stay here, would I follow her wherever she went? Manitoba had always been my beloved home. It had never been my intention to leave it.

But for Kienna…

I didn’t think it was a question any longer.