“You like it when I’m greedy.”
Kahler laughed. It was a sound she wasn’t sure she had ever heard before when it wasn’t colored with casual cruelty. Rolling to his back, taking her along for the ride, he settled her right where they both wanted her to be.
Chapter 9
The nest was warm and quiet as was its single occupant. Quinn was only half awake, floating somewhere just under cognizance. She knew she was alone in the bed. She also knew he wasn’t that far away.
Large and twisted, the alien presence lodged in her chest could not be ignored. Its creeping threads tangled through her soul, woven around her heart in impossible knots.
It was just as hopeless to ignore the warm flutter that was wedged under it.
“I know you’re awake.”
“I am not.”
He wanted her to eat. He’d said it had been eight days this time. The catalyst he had injected her with had been far superior to anything she had ever laid eyes on, the perfect poison. The induced heat had been extreme, an intensity that had left them both bruised and bloody, and well sated in the end.
Now she was pregnant. The knowledge had come even before lucidity had returned. She wanted to hate it, to hate him, wanted to think all manner of evils that could be done. Even contemplating thinking about such things had her hand darting to her belly, splayed fingers protecting that delicate flutter from her internal diatribe.
The smell of sausage and biscuits won out against the multitude of emotions that tripped over one another. She didn’t want to try examining any of it. It might have been cowardice, but she wasn’t certain her sanity could hold up under too much scrutiny just then.
Pushing back the heavy comforter that shrouded her, Quinn sat up and squinted at the sudden glare. Going back to sleep sounded like a better idea by the second as she looked around. The little room with all its games and hurts was gone. It lurked down the hall she almost remembered, hidden behind a cheery door. At least, for the moment it was gone. He hadn’t mentioned that part yet. For now, she was in his room, surrounded by expensive tastes and lavish expense that annoyed.
“Come sit.”
He didn’t even look up from the table where papers and a tablet were spread out for his perusal. She was expected to obey. Given how she had crumbled, how soon she had fallen into his arms as his game unfolded, Quinn couldn’t blame him.
A nasty comment about clothing lingered on her tongue, sour and vile, but she didn’t give it voice. Instead she tugged a sheet free of her construct, muttering and snarling as she righted the blanket that tumbled over when she rose from the bed.
Distrustful and uneasy, she wondered if she should even bother fixing the nest as every instinct screamed at her to do. He’d exile her again, his needs met. Some Omegas were perfectly capable of carrying without the attention of their Alpha. Maybe she was one of them.
Maybe he had evil thoughts of his own.
Wary, Quinn shuffled around the small table after tucking the sheet around her body. Trying to keep out of arm’s reach was difficult, but she thought she had managed well enough once she took the chair opposite.
“What exactly do you think you are you doing?”
Looking up from where she held the carafe hovering over a china cup, Quinn narrowed her eyes and looked at the dark coffee that swept around the glass container in gentle waves. When Kahler only continued to stare holes into her, she rolled her eyes and offered up the best sarcasm she could dish out before caffeine. “I’m concocting an explosive to bust through the wall there. I saw it on a show once. He may or may not have had a battery and a bit of string though.”
The male was not amused. The carafe and mug were taken away despite her protests and placed back on the tray.
“What the hell? You were finished with it. You can’t tell me you’re squeamish about someone drinking after you when you’ve had your mouth all over me.” Scoffing, arms spread wide, she attempted to be magnanimous. “Fine, tell your Beta bitch to get another cup and I’ll drink out of that.”
“There is only one cup for a reason. You do not need to drink coffee.”
“Like hell I don’t!”
“You can drink water, tea on occasion.”
“The fuck you say?”
“You will also watch your language. I’m growing tired of hearing it.” Kahler stood, stacking his papers and straightening them with a hard snap against the table. “Now eat before it gets any colder.”
“Screw you and fuck this,” Quinn snarled as she stood to face him. Chair toppling aside, she scrambled away when his hand rose towards her. “Take me back to my cell. I’m done with you.”
“Are you forgetting how pathetic you were when I first brought you back?” Sneering, all ugly contempt and cruel judgment, Kahler stalked towards her. “You wouldn’t last a day.”
“Yeah, well, maybe that’d be okay. At least then no one would have to see how fucked up this thing you put inside me would be.”
