This was her. This was the woman. This was Grace, the one he had called for. It felt like it had been years ago, but Quinn remembered everything from that long night as jagged shards of horror slashed through her veins. The blow of hearing another woman’s name on his lips, so sweet and tender in a way he had never aimed at her. The dreamy smile and serene expression he’d had as he called this woman back to bed. It made everything since that moment feeble. A clever ruse to make Quinn complacent that had worked well.
Grace was hauled away, kicking and screaming in Tobias’ hold. Wide eyes showing far too much white rolled like a feral animal’s as she struggled against him. Anything in reach was bitten, clawed, Tobias’ arms and shoulder a mess of red as he tried to pin the wild woman in place. The fact the Beta female was able to injure the Alpha half again her size spoke volumes to Quinn as she kneeled shaken on the floor.
“Get her upstairs.” Tobias snarled as Grace sunk her teeth into his forearm. The crack of his hand meeting her jaw was loud, the way her head snapped to the side terrifying.
“Quinn, please,” Curtis hissed as she shrank from his offered hand.
Quinn scrambled to her feet unaided, clasping the baby to her chest as she stared in horror at the tableau before her. They were going to steal this baby from Grace. Tobias was going to force her to help him do it.
“Tobi, please,” Grace sobbed, throwing herself into his chest and clutching at his ruined shirt. Standing on tip-toe she pressed her blood smeared lips to his neck, pulling at the collar of his shirt to kiss his chest. “Please, my love. Forgive me. Why can’t it be like before? We’ll be happy again.”
Quinn felt her lips part, gaping at the sudden change. Something inside of her snapped. The warmth that resided in her chest, ever worming its way deeper, shattered into glittering pieces that threatened to flay her open if she didn’t leave.
The last thing she saw as she bolted from the room was Grace falling to her knees before Tobias, nuzzling his stomach in the way he liked. Quinn knew it well. She’d done the same as he’d taught her how he preferred to be sucked off.
Chapter 12
“It’s okay,” Quinn murmured to the fidgeting baby as she awkwardly held his head above the waterline. She’d changed the murky water out twice already, and she still didn’t think he was clean. The soft wisps of his dark blond hair stuck up in odd angles as she scrubbed at his scalp with a washcloth to rinse him. The first three squares that would never be white again lay in a sodden pile beside the bright blue plastic of the tub.
She’d only seen the room that was without a doubt a nursery in passing as Kahler had taken her from the bedroom to the sitting room. A scant handful of times, the door had been open, revealing a few simple furnishings and piles of boxes with bright colors and chubby cheeked infants on the sides.
It had been easy to assume he was acting like a proper Alpha, overbearing and ridiculously prepared. Quinn had thought it so sweet that he’d begun readying a room when she wasn’t even showing.
Now she knew the real reason, and it stared up at her with perturbed blue eyes.
After fleeing upstairs, she’d headed straight for this room and its contents. In it she had found a baby bath, all-purpose soap, and squares of thick white cloth labeled as diapers. The diagram included with the fluffy fabric looked like some kind of complicated origami, with tucks and folds that didn’t make any sense to her.
She’d find out soon enough if it would cover him or make a swan.
“His name is Adam.”
Tears welled. She’d heard him come into the room, felt him towering behind her in the doorway to the small bathroom, but hearing his voice had been just a little too much. Eyelashes fluttering as she blinked to clear her vision, she let them fall unhindered. Quinn gave the baby a watery smile as he made a squealing giggle, legs and arms flailing to splash in the water.
“Quinn, your face—”
“It’s fine.” She kept her gaze on Adam as she soaped up his arm again. He wasn’t half as chubby and wrinkled as the babies on the boxes. The limb felt bird-like, fragile in a way that terrified Quinn. The scratches on her face still burned, and the ache behind her right eye promised a beautiful bruise. But if she didn’t concentrate on the child now, she was afraid she would lose the tenuous grasp she had on herself. Seeing to the multitude of small wounds could wait until she had Adam bedded down for the night.
How did one do that?
“I didn’t want you to see that,” Kahler said as he came further into the room, crowding the small space with his bulk and presence, leaving too little room for Quinn to breathe. From the edge of her peripheral vision, she could make him out in the mirror. Looking over her shoulder, he watched Adam gurgle and coo as Quinn rinsed him off again.
“Of course not, but what was your plan?” Tears streamed down her cheeks, dripping into the water of the bright blue bath. Somehow her voice remained steady though her hold on the turbulence of emotions clawing at her insides began to slip. “Were you going to slip him into my nest one day and see if I noticed? Maybe some extensive lie where he was abandoned or how he lost his parents.”
“I do not care for your attitude or tone, little bird,” he said in a low growl as he pressed against her back. Hands set on the sink to either side of her, he pinned her against the porcelain. “You would have welcomed him intoournest when I put him in your arms and told you to.”
Her hands slowed then paused, holding Adam as he made arcane baby noises.
“This is why you did this to me, isn’t it?” A shaky inhale followed the question, clarity coming in a bitter, cold wave. “This is why you got me pregnant. Omegas live for children, right? And if I was pregnant, I’d already have all the maternal instincts for him. You knew I wouldn’t be able to refuse him. But why did you claim me? Everyone would have sided with you. You have all the rights to any child between us. You didn’t have to bond me to do all of this. It didn’t even have to be me!”
“You are mine.” Each word was bit out through a growl that raised the fine hairs on the back of her neck. Kahler stepped forward to push against her back, wedging her against the sink. Adam started to whimper, pale blue eyes going wide as tears began to flood over the dark fringe of his lashes.
Lower lip quivering, she scooped Adam up from the bath and fumbled for the towel she’d left on the bar. Breaths hitching on her silent tears, she tried to soothe the baby in her arms that did not appreciate her awkward efforts to get him warm and dry.
“You’re scaring him,” she said, blurting it out in a choked whine as she wrapped the squirming infant haphazardly in the towel.
“Put him to bed.” His departure was so swift, Quinn almost stumbled. Standing just outside of the bathroom, he was a menacing presence in the otherwise cheery room.
Clutching the fussing boy to her, she hurried to the changing table. Setting her armload down, both hands keeping Adam in place on his back, she looked around with a vague sense of horror. She had no idea what she was doing. She stared at the diaper diagram to stall for more time, swallowing back the sobs that clawed at the back of her throat. What she thought it would accomplish was anyone’s guess. When Adam began to cry again, she pet at his chest with nervous strokes to soothe him.
