Further proof of her irrelevance, unable to even provide that small thing for her own daughter. Heat suffused her cheeks, nose buried into the powdery sweet drifts of Elise’s soft hair. Terrified he’d take her away again, would hand Elise over to Meghan, more tears slipped free of clumpy lashes.
Brows drifting together, Quinn watched from beneath lowered lashes as he made his way around the too large bed. Sliding back beneath the thin sheet, he rolled to his side with his head cradled on a palm. Rough fingers gentle, he smoothed the bunched cloth covering Elise’s arm.
“She looks just like you,” he whispered, touching the wispy curls of Elise’s crown before he twisted a stray lock of Quinn’s hair.
“She’s yours.” The words flew from trembling lips, a new terror trying to rear its monstrous head as adrenaline began to fade, leaving Quinn confused and slipping through the here and now in jerky fits.
“I know.” The proud assurance in those two simple words was enough to smother the room with Alpha ego. Green gaze holding a wealth of things she couldn’t understand, he brushed the hair back from Quinn’s forehead to place a kiss there. “You need to rest.”
Uncertain, twitchy in the backdraft of so much emotion in so little time, Quinn curled around the now drowsing Elise as best she could. Would have jumped clear off the bed when his hand caressed her arm before settling on Elise’s back if not for the low throb of pain and the way her lashes seemed weighted.
“I’ll leave the light on tonight.”
Murmuring her assent, knowing the quiet bundle snuggled tight to her would do far more than any lamp left to light the darkness, Quinn let her eyes close.
Darkness swallowed her within seconds.
Chapter 12
“It’s time to wake up.”
Quinn’s nose scrunched, lip lifting in a silent snarl of complaint as she snuggled further into the pocket of warmth that smelled of babies and sweetness. Ignoring the spicy richness of him that was a bold undertone to it all, she ran a languid palm over Elise and Adam as they slept on.
“Your appointment is today,” Tobias said, insistent as his knuckles caressed her cheek. Pulling her from the deep fog of drugged sleep with the simple touch, he smiled when her lashes fluttered open to find him leaning over her.
Quinn blinked up at him, uncomprehending until the slow gears of her thoughts clicked and shifted into motion. Her checkup. The one where they determined the viability of the fertility treatments already outlined for the damage she’d withstood.
Smile widening, Kahler maneuvered Quinn from the bed as if it was those first days again and not going on three weeks. While she was far from healed, her small treks to the nursery to play with Elise and Adam were no longer endless journeys that left her panting and sweating. He still refused to allow her to take the stairs alone, carrying Quinn down when he insisted she rest in the sitting room connected to his office and for the meals she now shared with the entire household.
Not that there were many of them there. Besides Kahler and Quinn, there were two faces that appeared morning, noon, and night. Meghan helped Quinn with Adam and Elise, keeping the unbelievable mess the two could create to a minimum. The other was Curtis, who all too often had a sneering glance or a contemptuous glare for her.
It grated Quinn’s nerves raw.
And she couldn’t say a word against it. Omegas were expected to make their Alpha happy, in whatever ways were demanded of them. At least where his daughter was concerned, Kahler allowed Quinn her possessive behavior. He allowed both children to sleep in the shambles of a nest each night, his smiles indulgent.
“The kids—”
“Are going to the nursery,” Kahler said, cutting off her worry with a soft call to Meghan who was hovering near the closed door.
Strained smile on her face, Meghan swept inside the bedroom. Aiming for the bed to pluck the two children who remained dead to the world in the way only babies can be, she scurried back out of the door before Quinn could voice a protest.
“What are you doing?” The wary mistrust couldn’t be helped, not as he carried her towards the bathroom. Meghan had been the one to help her bathe and dress since her return, never him. Still given long-sleeved shirts and pants, it wasn’t difficult to connect the dots. That he continued to be repulsed by the thought of her bare body was obvious. While it was at odds with the way he fussed over her, insisting she remain within his sights at all times, she would be an idiot to think it anything more than the instinctual actions of a possessive Alpha. No matter how he purred to calm her or stroked her hair as she drifted off at night.
The way he held her when she still woke up from the nightmares.
“You need a bath.”
The statement hurt, more than it should have. It wasn’t as if she hadn’t showered, but between feeling as if she asked too much of Meghan and the pain that refused to abate no matter how many of the pills she choked down, it hadn’t been as often as she would have liked. Plummeting into the sticky fingers of wounded resentment, Quinn crumpled in on herself as he set her on the low bench. Doing her damndest not to let the host of memories of all the things he’d done to her there assail her, she let her brooding thoughts free. Better to be cold and bitter than to remember his touch, the way he made her cry out his name a lifetime ago.
Uncertainty had woven its way through her days, worse every dreaded morning as she woke beside him. Her use in his house, his world, came under question on a near constant basis. Despite his certainty the treatments would give him what he wanted, Quinn was just as sure they wouldn’t.
An Omega was only as valuable as her ability to reproduce.
Why he wasn’t spending his time and attention on some other female instead, Quinn didn’t understand. There was the chance he was slipping away and fucking another woman before he scrubbed her scent from his body and roused Quinn from yet another drugged slumber. It didn’t quite fit with his doting performance, but it wouldn’t be the first time he had fooled her. Kahler might even just be keeping his attentions to another female at a minimum to maintain calm until Quinn was healed.
There was no ignoring the bond that hummed in her chest, the perfect chord of satisfaction that she was near her mate once more. Time didn’t slip away any longer and there were no more desperate hours spent heaving over the toilet. No more pain ripping through her and leaving her exposed and raw. It was just as slimy and dishonest as it had ever been.
“Where are you, little bird,” Kahler asked, quiet and contemplative. The way his eyes narrowed, brows pinched together, left no doubt he did not care for her lack of attention.
