“Let me guess, you want more money now.”
“We had to go to a lot of trouble…”
“Fine, how much?”
“Double it,” the Alpha said with a cocky smile that said he knew Tobias would pay it. He was, of course, right.
Tobias gave a curt nod, an impatient flick of his hand demanding the Alpha get on with it.
“Go and get it, Tina,” the Alpha said to the female. A dead eyed stare met the woman’s pout, sending her scurrying from the room.
“Tobias,” Curtis said in alarm as he barreled into the room, the mousy haired female in tow. Panting with a fine sheen of sweat on his brow, anger flowed from the bulky Beta male.
“I’ll deal with you later,” Tobias said, dismissing Curtis and the woman with a glare. The thing in Quinn’s chest twisted and pulsed, a maelstrom of emotions she didn’t even understand bombarding her. Impatience, anger, and a searing thread of hope. Sparing Quinn a bare glance, Tobias turned back towards the door.
What was there was not what she had expected—rather,whowas there.
Though her eyes were wide open, the mellow honey-gold was glassy, pupils contracted down to miniscule pinpoints. Swaying where she stood as Tina positioned her in the center of the room, her head turned in slow swivels that would have been comical had her grip not slackened on the infant in her arms while she did it.
The baby started screaming as it slipped down from the woman’s arms, and if Tobias hadn’t been so close it would have been horrible. It was close enough as it was, his large hands fumbling the small bundle in its swaddling of dirty blankets. It continued to wail, and Quinn wanted nothing more than to join the poor thing.
It was at that point when everyone decided to start yelling all at once.
Tobias shouted at the Alpha and his woman, they yelled back, Curtis joined in the melee. The glassy-eyed Beta started to weep and then wail as she stared at her empty arms, her cries outdoing even those of the infant’s.
Dragging herself up from the couch, Quinn stood rigid for a moment to gather her nerve. One hand on her stomach, the other gripping the arm of the couch, she drew slow breaths to steady the trembling beat of her heart. The pulsing in her chest eased, soured and twisted into something more akin to those first few days than what she had begun to grow accustomed to. It was slimy, hated, a thing to be reviled. One final breath was let out through clenched teeth.
Then she waded into the fray.
A snarl that was more vicious than anything she had ever uttered slipped over her lips as she maneuvered between Tobias and the others. With a strength contrary to her size, she shoved Curtis out of her way. Gray eyes narrowed, a growl of challenge issued to all of them.
She gave the intruders her back despite all her misgivings. Glaring up at Tobias, she took the tiny screaming bundle from his too tight hands, ignoring his growling and posturing all together. Stiff-backed and awkward, she started towards the doors only to be stopped by the weeping of the baby’s mother.
Hesitant to abandon the woman who was so distraught, Quinn turned back and looked at her. Matted and wild, the Beta’s greasy brown hair hung in thick clumps around a wan face that would be gorgeous when not smeared with filth. Drab clothes hung from a small frame and it was obvious she hadn’t had a decent meal in far too long. Thin hands, covered in a layer of dirt with blackened crust under the half-moons of her nails, reached out towards the quieting infant.
“Go upstairs,” Tobias said, barking the order as if she were some underling to cower at his feet.
“It’s her child, Tobias,” Quinn snarled back, trembling under the effort to deny the command. With the baby held close to her chest, she reached a hand out to catch the Beta’s.
“Tobias?” Sluggish and dazed, the Beta stumbled sideways as she turned towards him. Glazed eyes turned up to him, struggling to focus on the male as he held himself rigid. Stick-like arms cradled air as she slurred in a sing-song, “Ooh, Tobi, my love. Tobi, Tobi, I have him.”
“Not anymore you don’t.” Tobias’ growling voice came through clenched teeth, aggression written in every line of his body as the Beta crooned over the emptiness of her arms.
“He’s mine, Tobi.” The Beta added a slow, staggering twirl as she rocked her empty arms. “You can’t take him away from me. I’m his mother.”
“The hell I can’t.” Delivered in a flat, dead tone, Quinn had a surreal moment as past and present overlaid one another. Hadn’t his eyes looked just so when he’d said the same thing to her? The Beta could be the prophetic image of what was in store for Quinn.
Swallowing the lump of cold dread in her throat, choking it down along with the acrid taste of bile, Quinn snatched the Beta’s arm and pulled her away from Tobias. A quivering smile was offered to the woman’s bewildered stare, Quinn uncertain if she was even seen. “Come with me, we’ll get you both cleaned up.”
“He’s mine.”
“Yes, I know,” Quinn murmured, shuffling backwards as she clutched the baby and woman. Trying to ignore the dominating presence of Tobias as he stalked forward, the rage that seethed inside of her chest, she urged the Beta to hurry.
“You can’t have him,” the Beta shrieked, snapping out of her dreamy daze. Fingers like claws, she slashed at Quinn’s face, raking the broken edges of her nails down Quinn’s cheek.
Knees met the floor with a jarring thud. Quinn bowed over the screaming bundle in her arms as fists pummeled her head and back with a strength Quinn wouldn’t have thought the woman capable of.
“Grace, stop,” Tobias shouted.
