“Tobias, it’s three in the morning. Why don’t we wait until—”
“Do it now!”
“Yes, sir.” Movements cautious, voice stilted, Curtis peeled himself away from the wall and angled his steps towards the main room of the suite.
Chapter 10
Quinn screamed, voice long gone hoarse and ragged, as she threw her weight against the door. Elise was wailing, a strange woman’s voice seeping through the thick slab of wood that would not give under Quinn’s hammering blows. She didn’t feel the bruises, the cuts and scrapes, felt none of the agony that had gone on for hours and hours until Ilya had put her back in the room. Lee’s smile was smug when he shut the door and the lock slammed home.
Then the woman had come. Her soft voice difficult to discern over the low rumble of Lee’s replies. And it was him, of that she was certain. Elise began to cry.
“Quiet down!”
Quinn paused, falling against the door as she struggled to recognize the voice. It wasn’t Lee or Ilya. Someone else stood outside her door. Between her and her shrieking baby. Gulping a ragged breath, Quinn began again. Hammering at the door with her fists, kicking and screaming, she demanded to be let out. Demanded her child.
She expected the door to come open, but their timing was so precise she had no chance to dodge the panel as it swung inward. Slamming into the door before being sent crashing back to the floor, Quinn’s hoarse shriek as she scrambled back to her feet, leaping towards the door was cut short. Fist catching her in the stomach, Quinn doubled over in pain as the breath left her lungs in a violent surge. A mere glimpse of Elise, red faced and squalling in a woman’s arms, was all she got before the nursery door closed hard over the scene.
And then Lee was there.
Filling up the hall, his shadow was bitter cold as it fell over Quinn where she was sent sprawling once more. Darryl smirked, closing the door behind Lee, his wink the last thing she saw before the door shut.
“You’re being a nuisance, pet.”
“Give me my daughter!” Struggling to her feet, Quinn wheezed as her lungs tried to suck in air that wouldn’t come in anything more than a fragile sip. Strangling on the words that became a mangled wreck of syllables, she lurched towards the Alpha sneering down at her, gripping his shirt to remain upright.
“You’ll behave, pet, or even Ilya won’t be able to stop your punishment.” Lee’s hand went into her hair, gripping the strands in a loose fist. The casual slap of the back of his hand knocked her head aside, body spinning as she fell to her knees.
Mouth working, trying to breathe past the pain and the agony pulsing through her midsection, Quinn’s legs kicked weakly. The moment she gained her feet, he sent her down again, the other side of her face puffy and tight. Throbbing, aching, she dry heaved as his gleaming shoe connected between her thighs, shoving her across the floor until her back slammed into the wooden footboard hard enough to groan. Head cracking against the solid panes, Quinn listed sideways, only to be brought up short by his grip in her hair.
“I said behave, pet.” Leaning down, he took her chin in his free hand, squeezing her cheeks until the skin blanched and grew rosy to the imprint of his fingers. “If you ever want to see her again, you’ll be a good little bitch. When Hadler comes in here, you’re going to give him your arm and take the dose. One single peep out of you and I send her away. She’ll forget who you are, won’t even know anyone but the Beta is her mother. Understand me?”
Quinn whimpered as he jerked her head back and forth in a nod she had no control over. Pale strands ripped free, floating down around her, sticking to damp cheeks and the blood that spilled from her lips.
“Lee,” Ilya said, the beginnings of a warning in his tone as he came into the room with Hadler in tow. Elise’s shrieks followed them in before the door once again shut it away.
“If she damages herself, what good is she?” Lee released her, throwing her back into the footboard as he went to the vanity, leaning his bulk against the delicate piece.
“Beating her is the answer,” Ilya asked, scoffing as he crouched before Quinn. Clicking his tongue against his teeth, dismay painted his rough face as he gathered her up from the floor. Ignoring her weak struggles as he squeezed and held bruised flesh, heedless of the deep scratches scoring her. He sat in the ruin of her nest, keeping her pinned between his thighs and gestured the doctor forward.
“Some of those should be treated,” Hadler murmured. His detached gaze wouldn’t rise from the ravaged body before him, refusing to meet Quinn’s furious eyes. A syringe was produced from his bag, the milky fluid sloshing around the thin plastic tube.
Opening her mouth to scream at them all, Ilya’s palm slapped down around the bottom half of her face. Forcing her to breathe through her clogged nose, thick fingers impeding even that. Quinn bucked, slapping at his hand, clawing at his wrist. The warning that thundered against her back was not feigned.
Suffocating in small degrees, Quinn threw her arm out towards Hadler. Waved it at him when he took his sweet time taking her forearm to steady it. The bite of the needle sliced up her arm, grinding through her shoulder before blistering agony was pushed into her veins.
There was no purr to comfort her through that initial shock as the chemicals worked their way into her bloodstream. No daze from the male’s attention to get lost in as it corrupted her body. She felt it searing its way to her heart where it pumped in rapid time out to the rest of her limbs.
Not until Hadler stepped back, syringe held up to the light to prove its emptiness, did Ilya release her mouth. Let her gasp and choke as blood and mucus poured from her nose to spatter her chest and stomach. He had the gall to rub at her back when her stomach twisted, and she dry heaved over her thighs.
“How many more doses does she need?”
Shivering as her skin broke out in a cold sweat while her insides boiled, Quinn tried to blink away the film of tears. Shook her head hard to make sense of the melting, blurring visions around her. Hissed when rough hands scraped along her bruised arms, jostling against the sweltering mass behind her that burned where it touched.
“Two, maybe three. She was still nursing, it will take time for her to stop lactating and go into estrous.”
“You said it would only be a few more doses before,” Lee ground out as he stalked towards the shrinking Beta. Fisting Hadler’s shirt, Lee hauled the doctor up to his toes, growling inches away from his face.
“I said… it would take… time.” Gasping as he twisted in Lee’s grip, Hadler began to turn an uncomfortable shade of bright red.
