Sensations and thoughts came in jumbled arrays that she had no hope of untangling. Lashes stuttering in sluggish fits, darkness edged in around her from all sides. Quinn sat in a puddle of melted frost and murmured to Adam. Prayers and promises were made to the Gods, pleas for the Alpha who haunted her thoughts even now to appear and set things right.
Quinn gasped as her eyes opened wide. Adam’s screams were not just irritated anymore. They were downright distressed. Numbed lips trying to form the words that would comfort him, her lashes fluttered to clear the soupy fog from her thoughts.
The house was engulfed in fire. Almost liquid as it roiled and danced through the skeletal framework of the once fine building, Quinn watched the corner of Kahler’s bedroom collapse. Time had passed, but how much she couldn’t be certain. The figures that had once run around the building, trying to save it, now stood in grim silence as they watched it burn.
“I found her!”
“What the fuck is she doing all the way out here?”
Head flopping back, Quinn narrowed her eyes in the hopes of making sense of what she saw. Shadows swept across the lawn on a rolling tide, two indistinct shapes separating from the mass to rush towards her. One bulky, one smaller, they were almost on top of her.
One blink. That was all it was. Made as she tried to gather the last dregs of her resources to stand and meet this new thing head on. Only when she tried to tuck unfeeling legs under her did she realize she was drifting through the air.
The sky slipped by overhead, dark patches against even darker fingers of shadow, faint stars winking cruelly at her.
A hard jostle snapped her head in a whiplash of pain. The explosion of violet hues behind her eyelids cleared away the cold muck swamping her mind for a crystalline moment.
Adam wasn’t in her arms. His screams were hoarse, terrified. The caustic scent of his fear drifted through the night to her.
Lips curled, the rattle of her growl was feral as Quinn lashed out at the male holding her. Large and dark, no other features were clear under the screen of shivering trees. Still, her fingers found their mark, clawing down the side of his face. A rush of wet heat spattered over her hand.
The male’s howl was muffled behind clenched teeth. His supporting arms fell away, the back of a meaty fist connecting with Quinn’s temple as the thick padding of old brush and twigs rushed towards her. Stars exploded, violet-red-black, the darkness sparkling with after images of green.
“Shut that fucking thing up,” the male ground out through a snarl as he jerked Quinn up by her arm, as if trying to tear the limb from the socket.
Held dangling on tiptoe, forced to meet his bloodshot gaze, recognition seeped through the fog. Her other arm came up, intending to take Gerry’s dark eyes, but it was caught in a crushing grip. Pain crackled down her spine, explosions of agony bursting through the heaviness that plagued every cell as the Alpha wrenched her arms back. Bowed over her wrists, weight suspended from that grip alone, Quinn whined through bared teeth.
“You’re going to behave yourself now, aren’t you, you little bitch? Wouldn’t want to damage this pretty face, now would we?” Crashing into Gerry’s chest, his rancid breath washed over Quinn in a sickening wave. Ripe with rot, he whispered against the corner of her lips, “Bet I could do a whole lot before I fuck you up enough he won’t pay out.”
Quinn fell boneless back to the ground. Twigs punched into bare thighs, other detritus bloodying her legs and arms. None of it mattered as dilated gray eyes fixed on Adam in the clutches of the ragged Beta.
“Shut that fucking thing up, Tina,” the Alpha hissed, a threatening step taken towards the Beta female as if that would silence the baby.
“I’m trying, Gerry,” Tina whined, jostling Adam in an awkward bounce that only made him scream all the louder. Under the growing resonance of the Alpha’s anger, Tina slapped her hand over Adam’s mouth to muffle him. The breadth of her palm covered his nose. Brilliant crimson hazed Quinn’s vision.
Thoughts racing faster than she could hope to follow them, Quinn lurched to her feet. Hands up, gaze trained on Adam, she tried to make herself appear cowed. “Give him to me. He’ll settle down.”
“Don’t think so, bitch.”
“You’re going to kill him! He can’t breathe.”
“Shut. Up.”
“Please, look at him! She’s suffocating him. He’ll quiet down if you just give him to me.”
“Fuck!”
In an almost violent move, Tina shoved Adam into Quinn’s arms. Before she could do anything more than support his neck, Gerry had his arm around Quinn’s throat. Squeezing, choking, he angled her head down over his bulging forearm to see the sinister black pistol nuzzled against Adam’s neck.
“Make one move, bitch. He’ll make more with you, this one won’t matter to him.”
Blackness ringing her vision, Quinn tucked Adam closer to her breast and strained to offer the comforting purr. It came out as a rattling wheeze, but it worked. He quieted, turning into Quinn’s chest and latching onto her nipple through the thin cotton of her dress.
A hiss of discomfort preceded a faint whine. She couldn’t provide what he wanted. Quinn stood frozen in place as the two intruders stared on. It wasn’t the first time he’d done such a thing, but she worried what would happen if she pulled him away.
“Quinn!”
The call was faint, but they heard it clearly.
