The warmth sliding up her thigh shocked her out of the daze, eyes flying open. She had only just closed them, but darkness shrouded her burrow. The plaintive keen slipped past her raw lips. Knees pulling up, Quinn tucked Elise against her body, curling around the sleeping infant.
Whether it was Lee returned for more or Ilya to finish what he had started, she couldn’t do it. Not now that she knew what they planned for her. Unable to plaster the smile across her face, to soften under the male’s touch, she wept and held her daughter close.
“Shh, little bird.” His voice flowed over her senses, a comforting rumble that infected her mind, her limbs. It calmed the agony clawing under her ribs into a dull ache before erasing it altogether. Heat enveloped her back, sat snug along her spine and tucked in against her thighs. Rich and spicy, his scent suffused her as the weight of an arm curled over her side.
It was impossible. It was insane.
She soaked it in like a flower reaching for the sun.
It didn’t matter that it was Kahler. Quinn didn’t care that she hated him. The only thing of consequence was for just that briefest moment, she felt safe. She couldn’t explain why she would feel that way. Why he, of all people, could engender that reaction. Warmth flowing through her, surrounding her, she let out a faltering sigh as her tears trickled to a stop.
“I have you, I’m here.” Pressure along her neck, nudging aside the tangled length of her hair to kiss along the scarred breadth of her shoulder. The weight of his hand settled over her hip, the firm grip gentle and comforting. An anchor in the tempest of misery she found herself in.
“No, you don’t.” Voice little more than a hoarse croak, she curled into the pocket of absurd heat anyhow. Drowned herself in that decadent scent as she wrapped herself and Elise in the comforting embrace. “You’re not real.”
“I am, sweetness.” As if to prove it, the smooth timbre tripped down Quinn’s spine, resonated through her bones. Rich and full, loud enough to block everything else out, he purred for them. Even Elise murmured in her sleep, pouty lips stretching into a soft smile as she snuggled closer.
“You’re not,” Quinn whispered into the humid darkness. No matter that the bond was humming, gentle and sweet, where it always twisted in pain. She knew he wasn’t there, that this was just one more step into the madness that infected her. The reason Ilya wanted to claim her soon. “You’re not here and they’re going to hurt her.”
“I won’t let them, sweetness.” So confident, arrogant in his surety. The purr held the rough edge of a growl, a promise of violence against those who would harm what was his.
It didn’t matter if she was just a thing to him. He’d keep Elise safe, his own flesh and blood. While not a good man, never a good mate to her, he wasn’t Lee. He had never flaunted the death and chaos that Lee held so dear. “If what he said is true… If this is the bond and you can… Please come and save her. Don’t let them raise her.”
“You can’t give up now, Quinn. Be strong for me, little bird.”
“I’ll die before I let them take her from me. Get here before she forgets who I was.” Resigned, bereft, but certain of her decisions for once in her life, Quinn brushed a kiss against Elise’s soft curls and closed her eyes once more.
****
Tobias shot up from the chair with a vicious roar. Chest heaving, his eyes darted around the dim room in search of the source of the delectable sweetness that still clung to him. Lavender and spun sugar, he could taste Quinn on his lips even now. Not finding her as the hotel’s strange furnishings came into focus, he bellowed his rage. The heavy chair he’d fallen into, exhausted and drained after days of endless searching, came under his hands to fly across the room.
The crack of shattering wood and the hiss of ripping cloth did nothing to appease his fury.
Her words that had been so clear in the dream were fading, the names and places she had whispered drifting into a murky fog that became more incoherent the harder he tried to recall them. She had been terrified, but that hadn’t been new. No, the resolve and despair had been different. She was prepared for something terrible. Something she felt would end with a finality.
“Tobias!” Curtis rushed into the room then shoved his back against the wall. Hands raised and chin aside, he bared his throat to the threat of the angered Alpha who stalked towards him. Far quieter, bordering on hesitant, he continued. “They still can’t find him, but we have new footage from the toll road and information about what direction he went. There are possible sightings, but… they’re months old, but it could be her.”
Tobias struggled to control his breathing, to make the low growl abate as he stared at his second. It took a long moment for the words to sink in.
They had information on that bastard Rippin and where he had taken Quinn.
“Where?”
“The footage shows the truck—”
“Where is she, Gods dammit!” A menacing step taken, clenched fists trembled at his sides as he tried to hold back the need to hit something.
“It’s only a chance, Tobias. It might not be—”
“Where,” Tobias roared in Curtis’ face, grabbing the rumpled white of his shirt and hauling him up. Slamming Curtis to the wall, Tobias snarled. “Tell me where she is!”
“Highriver,” Curtis said in a wheeze. Remaining slack in the Alpha’s violent grip, head down and aside, he sought to calm. “The sightings of a pregnant Omega matching her description were in Highriver.”
“How am I only hearing about this now?” Tobias dropped Curtis, stalking stride carrying him around the room. “That’s only a three, maybe four day drive from Alderbrook! How has no one mentioned this before?”
Curtis sputtered a cough, heaving a deep breath before he answered. “The Alpha in control there, a man named Lee Grimes, he keeps a tight rein on the people coming and going from the city. One of our operatives didn’t check in and then never returned. We think he was found out. Another was sent, and it’s taken him this long to get information out. It’s… it’s not good, Tobias.”
“What the hell does that mean?”
