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Screw my dad, his stupid hockey obsession, and this whole damn trip.

I stormed out of the arena into the parking lot, meaning to wait in the car, but instead, I got behind the wheel and turned on the engine. In a blink of an eye, my fury had me on the road and heading out of Winnipeg. I wasn’t staying here a minute longer.

My dad had promised me Ireland. Ancient castles, cozy pubs, and time to reconnect. He’d been away overseas for nearly a year, and after the nightmare that happened with my uncle Julian and cousin Callista where he kidnapped her and tried to kill her to advance a sleazy senator’s career, we both agreed we needed some father-daughter time. I was his only child, and he was my only parent. I missed the days when I was little and we were so close.

But nope. He bought a hockey team. In the most boring place on the planet.

I slammed on the brakes, barely stopping in time for a red light. Fuck my life. Slapping my hands against the wheel, I threw back my head and screamed.

The elderly couple in the car beside me glanced warily my way.

“Yup, that’s me, the crazy girl stealing her dad’s rental and… What?” I pursed my lips and then sighed. And now what?

The light turned green, and I eased off the brake. I hadn’t really thought about what I was going to do when I left the arena. I only knew I was furious and I wanted not to be there. It wasn’t the hockey itself. Dad and I went to games all the time before I went off to St. Anne’s School for Girls. We even played in the driveway, and he let me pelt him with balls as he stood in the net.

No, it was the fact we were supposed to have time together. But here, he had to work out all the business shit and meet with the team. I wasn’t allowed to go to any of those things. Dad had me waiting in the hotel room for three days while he did whatever, because I couldn’t go anywhere without a chaperon. On top of it, he wanted to stay until the end of the season, which could be like a month. A whole freaking month.

Then there was a little hope, a light in my dark sentence. We were going to go out to have dinner together. But the team returned from Illinois, and he suddenly wanted to meet them.

“Wait in the office, Kienna. Be a good girl, and you can order room service later.” I growled my bad imitation of his voice. “What-the-fuck-ever.”

I wasn’t going to be the docile little Omega waiting for my father to introduce me to some full-of-himself Alpha and spend my life breeding for him. No thanks. I wanted adventure, excitement, and… Not the life that everyone deemed proper for me.

Maybe I wasn’t exactly clear on the life I wanted, but I knew what I didn’t want. I didn’t want to be here.

Pulling into the next gas station I spotted, I parked in front of the little convenience store and took out my cell. The first thing I looked up was if there were any flights out of the city tonight. None. Of course not. The airport wasn’t even open twenty-four hours, because who would want to come to Winnipeg?

I could drive. Surely I wasn’t that far from the border. The internet told me I was only four hours away from Fargo, North Dakota. I could make it there on a full tank of gas, and my dad wouldn’t even notice I was gone until I was far over the border. “Bingo!”

Yet even as I made certain I had the directions on my phone, my stomach quivered with anxiety. I’d done a lot of crazy stuff before, but drive off by myself and cross a border? That was big. My friends had always been by my side when I snuck out to go to parties at school or they came with me on weekend adventures.

I swallowed hard. Damn, I missed them.

Without another thought, I dialed my three best friends for a group chat.

Aubrielle was the first to answer. “Hi Kienna!”

“Hi, girl!” Did I sound too enthusiastic? Manic? I tried to tone my voice down. “How are you?”

“Bored. Trying to find a job that I can actually work.”

“Still nothing?” I raised my brows. Aubrielle was smart and sweet, and any employer would be so lucky to have her, but the problem was she was an unclaimed Omega. She had yet to meet an Alpha who was compatible with her and wanted to take her as his mate, but I was pretty sure her dad didn’t let her meet any at all. The world sucked for us. “I share your pain, sister.”

Nicolette hopped onto the line. “Hi! What’s up?”

Callista was the last to join. “Hey, girls! Are we having an unscheduled wedding chat?”

With her wedding coming up in June, it was the only thing on my cousin’s mind these days. It was annoying, but who could blame her? She was tying the knot with three absolutely gorgeous Alphas who would move the world for her.

“I did want to talk to you about the flowers.” Aubrielle was helping Callista plan, and she was equally as bad about talking too much about it. “The blue roses—”

“No wedding stuff.” I put a stopper in that conversation. “Let’s just talk like we did in the old days.”

“Like about when we caught Headmistress Liddelle waxing her mustache?” Nicolette giggled, and the rest of us laughed with her. Those days seemed like so long ago and my heart was empty without my friends always around.

“Well, if we’re not going to talk about the wedding, I need to go. We were just about to sit down for dinner.” Callista used to stay up all night with me. Now I was lucky if we talked for ten minutes once a week.

“Yeah, me too. The guys will be home any minute,” Nicolette added. She had her Alphas as well, and they consumed her life. She was so far away in Alaska, and Aubrielle and Callista were on the west coast. I was stuck in the middle of nowhere, and I was becoming more desperate to get out.

“Oh, that’s too bad. I guess I’ll just go back to my stolen car and race over the border to try to hide out for a while.”

“What?” Aubrielle gasped.

“What the hell, Kienna?” Nicolette shouted over Callista’s groan.

“Please tell me you didn’t really steal a car.” My cousin was due any day now, and she sounded like a nagging mom already. We were more like sisters than cousins, and she’d make an awesome mother, but I didn’t need one at the moment. I needed my friends.

“I borrowed my dad’s rental. It’s not like he’ll notice for a while. He’s busy doing hockey stuff. I’ve been so incredibly bored stuck in the hotel room, that I can’t stay here another night. So I’m making a break for it.”

“You can’t go anywhere yourself. You don’t have a chaperon.” Aubrielle sounded terrified, but she was the one out of us that was the most cautious. She rarely left her house since she finished school. She needed to steal a car and have an adventure as much as I did.

“Chaperon smaperon. Who cares,” I sighed. Back in the day, they’d cheer me on. Maybe it wasn’t a good idea to call them. I felt even more alone now. “It’s not like I’ll run into any Alphas in the Great Dull North.”

“It can’t be that bad,” Nicolette said. “I thought Alaska would be incredibly boring, but it’s wonderful here. There’s so much to do.”

“Like your hunky lumberjacks?” I interjected with a suggestive tone and got a giggle from her.

“Kienna, listen to me.” Callista had her I’m-being-so-patient-with-you voice on. “Go back to the hotel, order room service, and watch a movie. Talk to your dad when he gets back about wanting to leave. Uncle Marcos is very reasonable.”

“Not about hockey,” I grumbled. And that’s all I’d been hearing from him lately. Maybe if we came there for one game, but no, he had to buy a team and get super involved. Totally ignoring his daughter. Again. Hurt and bitterness made my throat tighten. “I’ve already made up my mind. I’m heading south.”

“Please don’t cause any trouble. I’m calling your dad.” Callista hung up, and I gritted my teeth. It didn’t matter. She’d only get his voicemail. But still, I knew they joked about me being a troublemaker in school, but was that how they still saw me?

“Be careful, Kienna.” Aubrielle’s soft voice trembled. “This… I can’t. I’m sorry. Bye.”

Then there was one.

“Are you going to lecture me too, Nic?”

“Nah, I know what it’s like to feel lonely and bored.” Thank God for Nicolette. She’d always been the most sympathetic to me. “Maybe when you get to Fargo, you can hop a flight and come here. The snow’s melting and we can go out on the boat. Just chill and have some girl time before Calli’s wedding, since we’re not doing a bachelorette party because she’s having the baby.”

“Hey, I offered to hire a stripper to come in and pump milk from her while dancing and she said no.”

She laughed, and I could imagine her throwing back her head as she did so. “If my guys wouldn’t tear that stripper apart, I’d say you hire one for me when the twins come.”

“Noted.” I chuckled and stared up above the cityline at the night sky. “Yeah, I think maybe I’ll come your way. Likely my dad’s going to be with the team for the rest of the season.”

“I know it’s not Ireland, but there are a few cozy pubs here.”

Fuck, I wanted to hug her. “Thanks. I’ll text you when I get to Fargo and figure out flights. You’re the best.”

“Love you lots.” The dogs started barking on Nicolette’s end. “I’ve got to go. Take care and drive safely.”

“Love you too. Bye, girl!”

I ended the call and dropped my cell on the seat beside me. Tears momentarily blinded me, and I let them fall. The world romanticized being an Omega. The special females who could bond with Alphas and breed more Alphas, because, in the end, that’s all that was important. What they didn’t want the world to know was how isolating it could be, how limited your social life and career choices were, and how scary it was for the majority of Omegas to think they might accidentally have their heat triggered by a random Alpha.

I never felt the isolation until after we graduated from school, and I didn’t know what I really wanted to do with my life in terms of a career. I only recently turned twenty-one. There was so much living I wanted to do before I settled into a job. As for being scared of Alphas, that was never me. I’d gone to so many parties over my teen years and my family had introduced me to many Alphas over the past year, but never had I felt any connection. Something in me had to be broken.

Wiping away my tears, I breathed out the last of my self pity. I was going on an adventure. As an adult, I didn’t have to stick around some place I didn’t want to be. Screw the chaperon law and whatever other Omega bullshit.

I pulled the car up beside the pumps and filled the car with gas. Realizing I’d need snacks for the road too, I grabbed my purse and went inside to pay and load up on sweet treats. I also nabbed a local paper which featured stories about the recent killings by the serial killer, ‘The Manitoba Hangman’ in the area. The police found a new connection with lilies being at all the victims’ homes. It would be good reading material for the flight to Alaska. The tattooed woman behind the counter complimented my pink hair, and I exited with a smile and a sack full of sugar and caffeine.

With my mood boosted, I said hi to everyone I passed and opened my car door to hop in.

“Miss.” An older man with a receding hairline and black rimmed glasses gave me a little wave from the other side of the pumps where he was gassing up his car. “You forgot to put your gas cap back on.”

I glanced back and laughed. “Thank you.”

Shaking my head at myself, I screwed the cap on and flipped the cover closed, and waved to him as I left the station lot. The roads were clearly marked, and I easily hopped onto seventy-five south. It wasn’t busy at this time of night, and I turned up the radio and dug into the bag for a chocolate bar. A fantastic start to my adventure.

I sang and munched as I cruised along. The city faded behind me and there was nothing but darkness and a few other cars to keep me company. The oppressive feeling of isolation crept up on me again, but I cranked the volume and drowned it out.

A sound like a gunshot shook the car and I screamed, instinctively covering my head. The rental was suddenly being pulled to the left and neared the center line toward an oncoming rig. Death by eighteen wheels!

I screeched again, my heart pounding, and yanked the wheel to the right. There was a flump-flump-flump which set a rhythm in my ears along with the ringing from the bang. “The tire.” Saying it out loud calmed me down. “Damn tire popped.”

I hit the four-ways button as I pulled over to the side of the road and stopped.

Breathing heavily, I rested my head against the steering wheel and let my heart rate return to normal. I peeled my hands off the wheel and rubbed them on my thighs. “It’s no big deal. Just a flat tire.” I wasn’t stranded in the middle of nowhere. I was fine . “Everything’s good. Flat tires happen all the time.”

I repeated that to myself a few more times until I nodded with it. “A flat tire. It’s not a problem.” I got out of the car and went to the trunk. When I was sixteen, I had a boyfriend named Danny who taught me how to change a tire and quite a bit about cars. It wasn’t a proper thing to teach Omegas, and that’s why I eagerly ate up everything he had to say. “I can do this. I can do anything I want.”

Girl power!

Except there wasn’t a spare tire. Not even a jack. I slammed shut the trunk. “What the fuck? Isn’t the rental company supposed to have everything in case of an emergency?”

If I had to go back to Winnipeg and sit another month in the hotel room, I would sue the hell out of the company. I grumbled and walked around to the passenger side. Opening the door, I pushed aside my treats to grab my phone. But like the spare tire, it wasn’t there.

Not on the seat, under it, or in the back. I checked everywhere a dozen times. Did I bring it into the gas station and forget it there? “Fuck!”

The darkness didn’t care how angry I was. It didn’t even give me an echo of my cry.

I cursed again and looked back the way I’d come. I was not doing the walk of shame back to the city. No way.

A few cars zoomed by on the other side of the road. I could hitchhike, but it wasn’t the cold night air that gave me the shivers. It didn’t matter that I was an Omega, hitching was dangerous for anyone.

But what choice did I have?

It was dark and cold. Walking even to one of the little towns along the highway would be horrible. On top of that, I wasn’t even sure how close I was to anything as I didn’t have my phone.

Maybe I shouldn’t have left the arena and waited in the office for my dad. I would have been warm and safe and had wifi. I groaned and kicked the flat tire. The universe was conspiring against me.

“This sucks!” I shouted and kicked the tire again, and earned a few honks from cars going down the opposite side of the road.

I tipped back my head and breathed in the crisp night air. There was walking ahead of me. Just see it as an adventure, Kienna. You’re like those cute little hobbits with your pockets full of snacks and the whole world breathing down your neck .

A car coming along my side of the road drove past and slowed to a stop ahead. My heart started thumping hard for several new reasons. This could be a good samaritan and my ride south, or at least part way there. Or this might be a creep who sees a young female stranded and is thinking she owes him something for rescuing her. I couldn’t see much about the man at all except he was wearing glasses.

So focused on the stopped car and its single occupant, I didn’t notice the SUV coming up behind me until the gravel crunched as it pulled onto the shoulder of the road and skidded to a stop. I spun around, my eyes going wide at seeing there were five guys exiting the vehicle.

Five really big guys.

Oh no .

The possible good samaritan in front of me pulled onto the road and drove away.

Shit! Five men were way worse than just one.

Fear wanted me to run and flee into the darkness. But I didn’t know what the hell was out there. Muddy fields? I was quick and sneaky, but could I outrun these guys?

Instead, I dove into the car and slammed the door shut. My hands shook as I locked all the doors. There was no calling for help as I didn’t have my phone, but I had pepper spray in my purse. If the locked doors didn’t deter them, it was my only line of defense.

“I’m so fucked,” I moaned as I dug out the spray, cringing back against the center of the dashboard as five huge shadows loomed over the car.