“Who paid for it?” Quinn asked as she directed the men to leave the bags just inside the door. While Omegas in general were territorial, Quinn didn’t mind people in the small area dedicated to entry, kitchen, and dining. Something well beyond the fact these men were strangers nagged at her though, making her skin itch and her lips feel a need to curl in a snarl at the idea of them coming much further into her space. Maybe she was just beyond exhausted and the Alpha prick was making her paranoid.
“It doesn’t say, ma’am. Only that it’s been paid for. Could you sign here?” A fancy digital pad was held out to her, the glowing screen inviting her to accept the delivery.
Squinting as if that would somehow make it easier to allow this insanity, Quinn scrawled an approximation of her name on the line. Closing the door and engaging all the locks once the males filed out, she turned to stare at the bounty spread out on her floor. Seven massive plastic bags, each emanating a mouth-watering aroma all its own. Each passing their silent judgment on her weakness.
Growling low in her throat, Quinn snatched up the first bag and unloaded its contents. Her eyes grew wider with every box unpacked onto her postage stamp of a counter. Gaze sliding towards the other sacks as if they were now somehow dangerous things, she crept back to them. One after the other, she unpacked the cartons from each bag. Her stomach began a litany of complaints as she denied it.
A veritable mountain of food was displayed across her counter and stove, even taking up residence on the narrow sink. There was more food than she could eat in a week. Hell, she couldn’t eat it all in a month!
With a crooked smile on her lips, she decided to give it a try.
Chapter 3
Three days later and Quinn regretted ever accepting the damn food. No matter how incredible it had been to go to sleep full and sated for the first time in what felt like ages, it hadn’t been worth the increasing frustration of the Alpha’s arrogance. Out of the three males that knew her address, it had to be him. She doubted Mr. Rey and Beaumont would go to such excess.
Quinn remembered being courted even if it had only been the once. She could look at fond memories of cheap roses, taste the painful sweetness of even cheaper chocolates. The way Tom had been so eager to see her pleasure in the little gifts he brought her. While the whole endeavor had failed, it had been sweet at the time for a sixteen-year-old girl.
This was not sweet or kind on any level. Every few hours brought another pounding knock on her door, each one grinding her sense of safety under its heel until she was jumpy and agitated. She snarled at the delivery people now, not even attempting to be polite as she turned them away. Thin fingers were a constant presence in the tangles of short hair, worrying at the soft strands until they became a puffy mass of disquiet. Everything was refused, yet still more came.
Unable to sleep, she sat hunched in the nest in a sort of half aware daze. Threadbare sheets would be snatched up and wadded between her fists when the smallest sound from beyond her door made her jolt awake, heart slamming around the delicate cage of her ribs. Even the sounds of the city beyond her window were enough to incite a rushing wave of panic that seized her insides in a brutal grip.
It was untenable.
By the fourth day she was a complete wreck and had become unhinged. Unable to even eat from the way stress had twisted her insides, Quinn just lay in her nest and hid. Every piece of bedding she owned was piled on and burrowed under. She was little more than a quivering lump under the mass of tumbled linens.
And then it all stopped.
At first she didn’t trust it, the agonizing wait for the next invasion shredding what little composure remained to her. When the entire morning passed without a single disturbance, she began to hope. By midafternoon she had managed to reconstruct her nest into something beyond a bulwark and as the sky lit up in brilliant reds and golds of sunset, she was dead to the world in a sleep that refused to be denied.
With a disgruntled groan, Quinn burrowed deeper into the blankets shrouding her and sought out the pocket of heat that had shifted. Pressing cooling toes against solid warmth, a sleep broken hum tumbled from her lips.
A chill rippled down her spine though her skin felt feverish. Half aware, she wondered if she was getting sick. All the stress of the past week would be a likely culprit if she were. Despite the sluggish weight of her limbs, she was comfortable and couldn’t bother to wake enough to examine her state closer.
Turning her head into the wad of sheets that served as a pillow, she pulled the fog of sleep back over her. Light was invading the nest, but she wanted no part of it. All she wanted was this glorious heat and the comforting smell of lavender and something spicy. It was like chilies and dark chocolate sticking to the back of her tongue.
Pale brows crept down over the bridge of her nose, a deep wrinkle forming between them. Lavender made sense. It was her favorite scent and a perfect pairing for the soft violet hues she surrounded herself with. The other…
“How the hell do you sleep like this?” The rough voice was familiar, the spicy musk placed just seconds after. The deliveries had stopped, but now he had invaded her home, her nest. It was his heat invading her limbs, and she felt fouled by it. His scent assaulted her senses.
He had violated her single remaining sanctuary.
Scream shrill with rage, Quinn lurched up and away. Clawed hands shredding through the mass of fabric to be free, she only managed to sit upright before she was shoved flat with his hand on her chest. The weight of him crushing her into the floorboards pushed the last air from her lungs. Pinned under his bulk, she kicked and flailed. In an instant he had even that fit of temper curbed, limbs tangled in hers.
“Not a morning person, eh? That’s all right.” The male had the gall to purr to soothe away the vibrating tension from her body as he set his nose to her exposed neck. Each inhale was followed by a louder rumble of pleasure as the Alpha took in her scent where it was strongest. The purr changed. Deeper, rougher, he growled. “This won’t take too long, little bird. I have a meeting soon, and once I’m finished, you can nod right off.”
Gray eyes went wide as saucers, pupils contracting down to pinpoints as acrid fear swamped the close heat between them. Too large hand covering her pleas, Quinn shook her head in denial to the heavy thigh wedging between her legs.
“We both know you need this.” Another enticing growl slipped down her spine, knotting along delicate vertebrae to twist it to his devious intentions. Base chemistry had her pussy flushing with heat, folds growing slick as her traitorous body answered the call. He demanded that she open for him. Her legs trembled with the strain of holding him back.
Keening against the palm he held across her mouth, she fought. Tangled up in her as he was, his angle was all wrong to force her wide around his hips. Either he released her for a better hold elsewhere or he struggled against her thrashing, both knowing one wrong move could break her.
Decision apparently made, he let go of Quinn’s hands to take hold of her hip. Pushing her to the floor he fought for space between knees clamped together and held rigid. While her hands were small, the bones of her fingers delicate, they could inflict an unholy pain when she needed them to. Now free, they grabbed at his hair and pulled, scratching down his face and shoulders. The bastard was naked, bare and pulsing against her thigh despite her anger and fear.
“Spread,” he said in a snarl at her ear. His hand tangled up in pale curls to wrench her head back on a stiff neck.
“No,” Quinn wailed, equal parts rage and terror as she used every ounce of her strength to hurt the Alpha above her. She gave a vicious bark of victory as her nails scored his cheek in livid crimson lines.
The world went spinning. Her body flew through the air, coming to a lung crushing halt on the sticky linoleum of the front half of her apartment.
