“You whore!” His shouts rang in her ears, drowning out the rushing of her blood and frantically beating heart. “Did you think I wouldn’t find out? Did you think you could sleep around and make me the laughingstock of this town!”

“I’m sorry, Chad. I’m sorry,” Maria gasped from her balled up position on the floor, trying to shield her chest and head from his blows. She already tasted blood from her punched nose and cut eyebrow. Her eyes were sticking shut because of the blood and the swelling from what would be a terrible black eye come morning. Only if she survived that long though.

“You worthless piece of shit! What kind of an Omega are you anyway? No heats, no children!” He talked himself back into a fit of rage. “I should never have married you, you cunt!”

The noise of spitting sounded above her before something hot and wet hit the back of the hand that protected her head. Spitting only hurt her soul, not her body, so she unintentionally relaxed a little. Chad used that moment to lunge out again and kick her straight in the ribs. Maria couldn’t keep her agonizing cry at bay as he punched the air out of her aching body.

“Shut up!”

Tears sprang to her eyes, her lungs refusing to fill with air for agonizingly long seconds. It felt like she was going to suffocate until Chad grabbed her by the hair and yanked her up from the floor. She took in a shocked gasp and braced herself against more insults and pain. But the sound of the doorbell saved her.

“Who the fuck is that? Your lover coming to save you, bitch?”

“I–” She gulped down another lungful of air. “I don’t know.”

“You are fucking disgusting,” he hissed into her ear and pushed her hard to the floor. Her chin connected with the hardwood flooring. Again, she couldn’t breathe from the shock of the impact and the pain that shot through her entire body.

Chad pushed the door to their bedroom shut and stormed down the stairs to the front door. While she couldn’t understand who had saved her or what they were talking about, Maria knew she needed to make it to the bathroom before her husband was back and could continue. She shouldn’t have smiled at the cashier, she knew it, but she wasn’t a whore or a bitch because of it… right?

With a groan, she fought the burning in her back where he had kicked her and pulled herself up by the leg of their bed. Blood was splattered over the pristinely white sheets, giving it almost an aesthetic, staged look. Maria clenched her teeth to combat the pain that blasted through her body with every movement she made to get into the bathroom. Chad would return soon and pick up where he had left off. This thought and the hatred she had seen in his eyes pushed her. She needed to get into the bathroom and lock the door. Hopefully it would hold up against his anger because her body wouldn’t be able to.

Just as Maria had managed to lock the door and push the bathroom cabinet in front of it, she heard his heavy steps on the stairs. Chad grumbled something before letting out a deep roar. “Our fucking neighbors should keep their noses out of our busine–”

He stopped for a second before his voice echoed through the entire house, “Where are you, cunt?””

Panic shot through her. Maria flinched back and pressed herself against the tiled wall. She covered her mouth with her hands to muffle her sobs. Wetness ran down her cheeks. She couldn’t tell if it was blood or tears, likely a mixture of both at this point. Every silent sob that ripped through her body hurt. Pressure built in her chest, her lungs wouldn’t fill with air completely.

His furious steps boomed in her ears. Was he coming closer? Was he leaving? Was he going to kill her if he found her? The last thought stung. They used to be so in love, but since her miscarriage two years ago, everything had changed. She couldn’t help but anger him, always doing something wrong. It was all her fault.

Maria yelped when Chad hammered against the door.

“Get out of there, Maria!”

“I’m sorry,” she tried again, hurting from speaking.

“Listen, I forgive you as long as you come out of the bathroom. Now!”

She wanted that. She wanted him to forgive her, but when she moved to push the cabinet back, a loud bang stopped her in her tracks. He must have hit the door again.

“Get out! I swear to God, I will drag you out of there by your hair if I must, rip your clothes apart, and chase you through the entire city. Everyone will see what a filthy whore you are!”

Maria stumbled backward until she sat down on the edge of the bathtub, holding onto it with white knuckles. She could only repeat that she was sorry, over and over again, until it was just words with no meaning left to her.

“I will make you sorry!” Chad’s fists made the door shake in the frame.

Maria knew, if the door failed her, she would die today. She allowed herself to cry now, whining at the pain in her chest when she sobbed.

Suddenly, he stopped. A flicker of hope sparked in her until the biggest thump yet came from the door. Was he using his shoulder now? Maria stared at the cabinet bouncing with every new attempt until he stopped with a loud, “Fuck!”

His painful hiss traveled through the wood door. Had he hurt himself? Worry that it would only make him angrier rose inside her. “I busted my fucking shoulder because of you!”

The need to help him overrode every sensible reaction in her. If she helped him, drove him to the hospital and apologized, everything would be fine again. But before she could even reach for the cabinet, she heard his steps getting quieter. Next, the front door slammed shut and his car drove off.

A hot tear rolled down her cheek. He was gone. Chad had left… and she didn’t know when he would be back.

Her lungs hurt even more when she sucked in a deep breath, testing if he had broken one or maybe several of her ribs. She reached her pain limit rather quickly, especially now that the adrenaline had slowly worn off. His angry fits had never been this horrible, this… unrelenting and severe.

Maria stood up and caught a glance of herself in the mirror above the basin. She hardly recognized herself under the mess of bruised, bloodied and swollen flesh. She pushed the cabinet out of the way, left the bathroom and headed straight for her side of the wardrobe. She threw everything she could get her hands on into the overnight style bag before she ran downstairs into Chad’s office. Hopefully he hadn’t changed the combination to the safe over the years. He hadn’t. It was still her birthday. Maria groaned when she kneeled down and stuffed as much cash into the bag as she could. As well as something that caught her eye tucked on the side of the safe with their wedding license and the deed for the house. Her throat closed around the lump choking her. It was the only sonogram they had of their son. She couldn’t leave this here, she couldn’t leave without him.

Her back and chest ached when she straightened herself, lifting the heavy bag. On her way to the door, she calculated how much gas she still had in her tank, if she should take her phone with her or not, and where the hell she was going to go to. The answers came easily: enough for at least a couple hundred miles, no because he would use it to trace her, and... It didn’t matter as long as she was far away from him.

The news had warned about a heavy snowstorm hitting the area tomorrow morning. People were advised to stay home and barricade themselves in with supplies. She still had a few hours left to run.

Maria grabbed her coat and slipped on her ankle boots, not the warmest choice, but she didn’t intend on walking far in the heavy snowfall. When she hurried toward her car in the driveway, a light on the neighbor’s porch caught her attention. For only a split second, her eyes met those of the old, disabled man who must have rung the doorbell earlier. There was shock and sympathy in his dull gaze.

“Good luck, Maria,” he called out to her and gave her a soft smile before limping back into his house. She didn’t need luck, she needed a head start.

***

Maria could hardly see the street ahead because of the heavy snowfall. About an hour ago it had gotten so bad that she needed to drive slower on the icy road. She had absolutely no idea where she was and if she would find a gas station in time before her tank ran out of fuel. It was still half full, but this part of America – close to the Canadian border – was sparsely populated. Was she even still in the States? Who knew? Without her phone she couldn’t use GPS and her car was so old that it didn’t have a built-in one either.

Her face still hurt, even worse now that the heating was blowing hot air at her injuries. The seatbelt had only put pressure onto her chest and thus she had removed the part over her ribs, pretty quickly, and only left the part over her hips to protect her. Not that a police officer would actually stop her for that in this storm. The wipers did their best to keep her sight clear, but thick white flakes blinded her constantly, reflecting the light of her headlights. Maria checked the rearview mirror every couple of minutes, making sure nobody followed her. But apart from one truck that had been driving in the opposite direction to her, she hadn’t seen anyone since leaving her hometown behind.

Maria’s nose was blocked from clogged and dried blood. Everything felt wrong. Breathing, moving, even thinking, hurt. And she was getting tired. Maybe the radio would help her stay awake and focused on the icy road. The news only repeated the storm warnings over and over again, urging people to stay home and safe, but what if home wasn’t safe?

She tried to find another station with music playing, drawing her attention away from the street. Those couple of seconds were enough to have the car burrow its nose in a thick snowbank by the side of the road. The abrupt stop caught Maria completely off guard. The seatbelt dug into her hips, the scare pushing the air out of her lungs and hurting her ribs even more. She only felt her head coming forward toward the steering wheel before everything suddenly turned black.

***

The scratchy sound of frequencies woke her again. Maria had no idea how much time had passed or where the hell she was. Snow had formed a dense layer across her windshield, blocking out light and muffling any sound from the outside. The engine had stopped. Had she stopped it? Had it stopped on its own?

Maria lifted her hand to her face, it felt like it was even more swollen than before. Did she dare glance at the rearview mirror and see the damage this crash had caused? No. She needed to start the engine and get out of this snowbank before Chad could find her. Her breath danced like little ghosts in the freezing cold air inside the car when she reached for the key in the ignition. It was still in the on-position…

Maria turned it back and forth, trying to start the car but nothing happened.

“No, no, no, no,” she whispered and watched the fuel needle when she tried starting once more. It didn’t move. She had no gas left. How long had she been sitting here? Judging from the coldness around her creeping into her bones, too long.

Maria ignored the burning of tears when she pleaded and prayed, again turning the key in the ignition with the same result. It wouldn’t start. Frustration turned into anger and Maria slammed her fists into the steering wheel with all her might, screaming and calling her useless car names she should have shouted at Chad instead.

After a few seconds the pain coursing through her body caught up to her and she stopped with a sob. She couldn’t stay here, she knew that, but the sound of the icy wind outside didn’t sound promising. Maria swallowed thickly against the pain and the tears.

Suddenly another sound traveled closer, quickly. It sounded like heavy tires on the packed snow. Help!

Maria fought against the ice holding her door shut and managed to get out of the stranded car just in time to see the taillights of the truck disappear in the mess of snow and wind. She let out a strangled cry and tried to make out another car going her way, but the snowfall was too dense. Shivers ran through her body, her feet already getting numb in the shin-deep snow. She took one last look down the road to make sure nobody was around, before she got back into her car. It was hardly any warmer in here, but at least the wind didn’t try to peel the skin from her face.

What was she supposed to do now? The news had said the storm would rage for at least three days. She wouldn’t survive three days out here in the snow with no food, or water, or warmth. Maria glanced at the bag on the passenger seat. She could try to put on as many layers as possible, but most of her clothes were too tight-fitting and wouldn’t work on top of one another. Why did God, or fate, or whoever had done this to her hate her so much? Chad would have killed her after coming back from the hospital, surely, and now that she had finally found the strength to leave him, she would freeze to death in the middle of nowhere.

She must have angered someone to be treated so cruelly.

Maria snuggled deeper into the uncomfortable seat, hugging her chest tightly to keep herself warm. She wiggled her toes in her wet boots, wincing when it stung. Was she already getting frostbite and losing her toes? Did it happen this quickly? On the other hand, she didn’t know how long she had been unconscious. Maybe an hour or perhaps two? Did it matter when she would die here anyway?

With a quiet sob, she stared at the snow covering the windshield. This would be the last thing she’d see on this planet, dying a sobbing, hurting, abused mess in clothes she hated and a car that had done her no good.

No, something inside her rebelled against her motionlessness. She would survive, if only to finally go to the police and tell them what Chad had done to her for years! But she couldn’t stay here and wait for help. Maria wiped the wetness from her cheeks, mindful of her bruises and grabbed the bag. She pushed the door open again, throwing all of her weight into the motion and entered the storm. The wind howled around her like a pack of hungry wolves, the tiny snowflakes cutting her like a million blades.

Finding help was all she thought. Maria bit down against the cold and the ache running through her limbs, fighting to lift one leg after the other and not sink too far into the deep snow. She could only see snow ahead, above and behind. The world had disappeared.

Cold quickly seeped into her, the snow settled on her hair and coat, melting and eventually freezing solid, making moving forward even harder. It felt like she was breathing in needles as the cold penetrated her lungs. The bag soaked up the snow as well, getting heavier and heavier with every passing second. Why was nobody out here? She needed help! Her desperate tears froze halfway down her icy cheeks. Maria couldn’t feel her feet and hands anymore. Soon she stumbled and landed face first in the snow, sobbing and shivering.

“Help!” she shouted, but the howling of the wind was louder.

Rest. Maria needed rest, just for a second. She would get up in a second and continue. At some point the road had to pass through a town and she would find help there.

“Get up,” she hissed at herself and staggered up to her feet, not noticing that the strap of her bag had slid down her shoulder and she continued without the baggage. It was hard enough as it was. Maria fought on. Step after step, she made her way down the road. Just a little more, only a few more yards and the lights of a city would glisten through the snowfall. She knew it.

Tired. Suddenly, she was so tired. Maybe if she rested again and gathered her strength, she would make it. Her knees gave in. Maria’s eyelids grew heavy just as she saw lights.

“Help,” she whispered, not strong enough to scream above the storm around her.

The lights came closer. She lifted her numb hand to make them stop. They didn’t and everything turned dark.

“Fuck,” Joseph grumbled when he stopped the truck and looked in the rearview mirror. He should just keep going. Everyone who was dumb enough to go out in this snowstorm deserved whatever happened to them. The form lying in the snow didn’t move anymore. What if this was just an ambush? Some fucked up plan to rob good Samaritans? People were monsters, he knew that better than anyone else, but the person still didn’t move…

“Fuck,” he cursed again under his breath and put the truck in reverse, slowly backing up until he was right next to the form that got slowly covered by a thick layer of snow. If he concentrated, he could make out the clouds of warm breath leaving their lips, small clouds from shallow breaths. Joseph glanced at Moose who only gave him one of his cold stares. This dog was a beacon of morality.

“I hate you sometimes.”

Moose only yipped uncharacteristically high for a German Shepherd and used his snout to push Joseph closer to the truck door.

He pulled the zipper of his heavy parka up roughly and unlocked the door before sliding out into the biting cold. It was poison for his stiff leg, but Moose was right, he couldn’t simply let this stranger freeze to death. In the end, he was just a good Samaritan at heart. With a groan Joseph bent down and shook the person, a woman it seemed. She didn’t react.

“Fuck,” he muttered a third time and tried pulling her upright. “Hey, wake up! You can’t stay out here or you—”

He stopped in the middle of the sentence when he saw the heavy bruises and blood covering her pale face. Jesus, whatever had happened to her had been bad, very bad. Joseph used his teeth to pull his glove off and checked for a pulse. It was there but hardly detectable. Warmth. She needed warmth as quickly as possible.

He grunted as he hoisted her snow-laden body up over his broad shoulder and carried her to the backdoor of his truck. This close his nose picked up on her sweet, albeit distressed, scent and he closed his eyes with a silent curse. An Omega. Just what he needed.

Carefully, he placed her over the backbench under the watchful eyes of Moose. Joseph looked at her for a second and decided he didn’t need his parka as much as she did. Shrugging it off, he placed it over her like a blanket—her small form drowning in the thick material—before climbing into the driver’s seat. He locked the doors again and pumped up the heater, letting it blast out of the vents to help her warmup. Moose never stopped staring at her while Joseph cautiously drove the last two miles home. He didn’t intend on leaving the safety of his log house for at least two weeks. Having made the last necessary purchases today, before the storm would reach its peak tomorrow night, he had been positive he’d get some work done undisturbed. He could probably throw that plan out the window now with his unexpected guest. Joseph glanced over his shoulder to the Omega, her breath still leaving her lips in shallow puffs and one side of her face so beaten up that she hardly looked human from this angle.

His chest clenched and he needed to look away and roll his shoulders to work against the tension creeping into his muscles. She had obviously had a very good reason to be out here in this storm, he thought, as anger pooled in the pit of his stomach and seeped into his scent. Joseph remembered what it felt like to be a victim.

Moose nudged him with his head, drawing his attention back to the here and now before his master could slip too deeply into the painful memories that would haunt him for the rest of his days. Joseph ruffled his thick fur around his neck with a half-smile before leaving the road to drive the last bit up the winding driveway toward his secluded home. He didn’t look forward to carrying her up the couple of stairs to the porch, but he couldn’t leave her in his truck either. So, biting the bullet, he made the first trip without her, bringing in his groceries and leaving the door open for his second round.

She let out a soft cry when Joseph pulled her out of the back of the truck. He checked if she was awake, but she didn’t react to his words. With another grunt, he lifted her bridal style and clenched his jaws tightly every time he needed to put both their weights on his stiff leg. She wasn’t heavy by any means, but his own weight was often already too much to walk longer distances.

Joseph brought her into his bedroom and was pleased to see that the fire he had left burning in the fireplace was still glimmering. He added another log, retrieved a small bowl with warm water and a cloth, before he began pulling her wet and cold clothes off, mindful of any injuries that might still be hidden underneath those thin layers. Why had she not put on something warmer? She must have been on the run, panicked, he decided and clenched his jaw tightly.

Moose sat beside them, watching attentively for any indicator that she might wake up. Surely, he wanted to be the first one to say hi. This dog was just a giant teddy bear sometimes.

Joseph shook his head and concentrated back on the task at hand. He checked her breathing and pulse before proceeding with undressing, and washing the blood off her face to see if she was still bleeding. Some still seeped out from a cut in her eyebrow which he quickly patched with a few butterfly closures. First, her blood-soaked sweater, then her tight and equally thin leggings, which provided absolutely no protection against the cold, ended up in a soggy pile on the floor. Joseph frowned at the developing and already almost healed bruises covering her chest, arms, and legs.

“Who treated you like this?” he asked in a whisper and traced the clear outline of a handprint wrapped around her upper arm. Somebody hated her.

Her low grunt startled him and he checked once again if she had woken up, but she remained in her deep slumber, shivering now that she was left in only her underwear. La Perla and Victoria Secret. too expensive for someone who wouldn’t be missed soon. Joseph glanced at the tag on the inside of her coat. Armani. What was someone able to afford all these things doing in the middle of a snowstorm?

He would ask her when she woke up. Now it was still most important to warm her. But before that happened, he needed to gather evidence. He would not let anyone accuse him of beating up a much smaller Omega, so he retrieved his phone from the mudroom and snapped plenty of photographs of her injuries, holding a quarter next to them for scale references. Since he wanted to get her into warm clothes as quickly as possible, he didn’t bother climbing up the stairs into his office to search for a proper ruler.

After he was satisfied with the number of pictures he had, Joseph limped over to his dresser and pulled out a sweater that would easily reach her mid-thigh, but to make sure, he also maneuvered a pair of oversized sweats around her bottom half. The more layers, the better. He examined her feet for any signs of frostbite and was relieved to find none before slipping on heavy wool socks he usually used when he would be outside the whole day. Before leaving, he draped two blankets and a comforter over her and fed the fire another log.

He would check on her over the next few hours and see if she developed a fever. She looked troubled in her unconscious state, a frown pulling on her eyebrows and the corners of her mouth.

“You are safe now,” Joseph told her from the door, knowing she wasn’t hearing him. He motioned for Moose to follow him out of the room. The dog refused at first, wanting to stay and watch over her, but he eventually followed his master out of the room. Joseph understood his desire to stay close to her. He couldn’t give in though. He lived alone for a reason after all.