Quinn startled at the sudden change in his demeanor. Back slapping against the wall, she wrapped her arms around her middle. It was then she felt the prickling ache from where she’d rubbed her chest raw. Looking down at the line of her chest laid bare by the vee of her shirt, she saw a smattering of brilliant crimson pinpricks.
“It hurts. I hear things.” Lower lip trembling, she looked up at the male who was too big, too violent, just too… everything for this bright, happy space. Her words hadn’t been much more than a whimper, but Ilya looked as if she’d hit him upside the head with a baseball bat. Something approaching concern filled the bitter blues that were forever merciless.
“Kroshka…”
“Why isn’t she in the fucking nest,” Lee bellowed as he raged into the room, shattering the fragile moment into shards of disarray.
“It was not yet time.”
Quinn groaned, hand fumbling to grip the dresser when her knees went loose, threatening to drop her to the floor. Stronger than any of the others, the agony wrapped around her middle in taut cords. Drawing her body down on itself, twisting her back. A low cry slipped over her lips as it only got worse.
“Now is the time.”
Snatching Quinn up into his arms, purr violent, Lee stripped the filthy sweats from her body before he’d even gotten her into her room.
It had taken hours. Through the last of the night, the full of the day, and well into dusk. Long enough for Hadler to be called in, his needles and poisons injected into her veins. An Omega in her nest, in labor, and in pain had meant no one could get near. Even Lee had been hard pressed to get close enough to soothe her through the worst of it. They’d had to pin her down. The memories were dream-vague, but she remembered fighting. Remembered Ilya’s face swimming above her, Lee on the other side as Hadler tried to shove a syringe into her arm. More at her feet. She’d inflicted some pain on more than one of them.
It had hurt. She’d never known a pain like that, not even in the worst moments. Nothing could have begun to prepare her for it.
It had all been worth it. Every second.
Cooing and working pursed lips, the little blue-eyed wonder stared up at Quinn in the dim confines of their burrow. Expression one that seemed conflicted between surprise and distaste, she learned the outside world and whether she liked it.
Pressing her smile to the chunky roundness of a cheek, Quinn purred over her baby girl. Heart swelling as tiny hands sought and curled around her finger, it muffled the agonized sounds that continued unabated in her skull.
Lip lifting in a silent snarl, she curled over her daughter as the door to the room closed with a quiet click. Approaching footsteps came to a sudden halt, shuffling back.
“No further, doctor.”
What was Ilya doing in here? Or Hadler for that matter? Panic prickled up her back, seized her shoulders as she hunched over the tiny infant.
“I would rather not have a repeat performance, Hadler,” Lee said, tone unamused and bordering on irritated.
Had she struck out at him during all the chaos? She didn’t remember. Just flashing teeth and hands curled into claws, desperate to protect the tiny thing trying its damndest to get free of her. He couldn’t hold her responsible for that. Not in those moments of blind instinct. Petting the little girl’s chest, Quinn soothed them both. Hoping to feign sleep, she kept quiet as she listened to the males invading her space.
“How long?”
“There are many factors to consider and with—”
“How long,” Lee repeated, a serrated edge to his terse words.
“Feasibly? Two weeks, maybe three, depending on hormones and healing. Ideally, at least six months if not longer. At least long enough to wean the child.”
Lee grunted but gave no further response. More footsteps and then the door opening and closing again. When Ilya spoke, Quinn could only assume Hadler had been dismissed.
“You need to claim her.”
“Is that so?” Lee was nothing if not amused as he came to sit on the bed. His heat and scent permeated the heavy layers of fabric, stifling her and the baby.
“She is not like those blooded Omegas,da? She was not bred to accept this life. She will be a bad breeder for you.”
“I think she’d be very good at it. You saw her, how protective she was. She’d take good care of my offspring.”
“Too much,” Ilya said, frustration couching his words in thick drifts of rough accent. “Too much time spent keeping her sane, labor too hard, too long. Will only get worse. Every baby you put in her, could be her last. She will not handle miscarriage. You claim her, she gives you a dozen with joy.”
The layers of fabric were peeled away, the sudden draft and glaring lamplight making her baby pout and fuss. Purring over cottony tufts of hair, Quinn cradled her closer.
“What do you think, pet? Should I claim you?” Lee’s smile held too many teeth as he leaned over her, finger tracing the pudgy hills and valleys of the baby’s arm. The bastard had known all along she was awake.
