“Who can no longer give you what you want,” she said, and the agony held in those words twisted through the air the same as the misery of her injuries. Shaky hand fluttering over her stomach, lips stretched taut, she breathed hard through her nose as the agony began to return in force.
He was gone and back before she could take comfort in her moment of peace. Pills pushed against her lips. She choked them down, greedy for the drugged bliss they would impart no matter what the darkness would hold or what her dreams taunted her with this time. He held the back of her head longer than was necessary, forcing sips of cool water down a desert parched throat.
Crouching beside the bed so he didn’t loom, he brought their faces close. His hand smoothed back the matted mess of her hair before scrubbing at her scalp once more. She waited for him to shush her, to tell her to be quiet in all the little ways he sought to keep her silent, but they didn’t come soon enough to stop the miserable well of anger. Or the fear that followed close on its heels.
“Why am I here,” Quinn whined, curling around her middle as she struggled onto her side. Baring her teeth when he helped, turning her with ease, she pushed her face into the pillow to hide the tears that had been falling all along.
“You are my mate.”
“That’s not an answer!”
“It is answer enough.”
“It’s not enough,” Quinn snarled, shoving at his arm to pull his hand from her hair. “Why amIhere and not someone else? That cunt would fall all over herself to give you what you want!”
“Anna is a good worker, and—”
“Then bring her to your bed and leave me the fuck alone!”
Kahler rocked back on his heels, a single brow sliding up, eyes seeming to grow wide for a moment. Unable to believe he’d show her something as simple and unguarded as surprise, she didn’t have to wait long for his anger to surge forward. It found the perfect place to lay its heavy heat in her prone form. Fingers tightening in her hair, refusing to be knocked loose, he twisted the fistful of strands. Pulling her chin back until her raw misery was laid bare to him. Pushing his face close, he let her see his teeth, to feel the hot breath of his growl as it grinded from his chest.
“You are my mate and you will act like it,” Kahler said through the menacing sound. “Do you have any idea what I have done to get you back?”
That was something she didn’t know. No one would speak of that time, of what all had happened during the months she’d been under Lee’s control. Even Meghan would give her tight-lipped smiles, something filled with strain and more pain than the sweet Beta deserved to know. Brows pinching, she felt something too close to guilt slip over her skin in greasy tendrils before she shook it loose. It wasn’t her concern what he’d done.
It had been his choice, not hers. Just as it always was. To demand her obedience was just more of the same. Even Ilya had made that command.
“You got your daughter out of a monster’s clutches. I was a bonus, a thing to soothe your pride, don’t even pretend it was more than that.”
There was truth there, more than either of them could deny. He didn’t bother, instead rising, movements slow and fraught with tension that twisted through his back. He loomed and gave her the full breadth of his frustration as he seized her wrists. Fear rippled up her spine, too many memories stabbing into her with their vicious claws as she flinched and cringed.
Stomping down the useless emotions, she slapped the easy mask of contempt on her features. Sneered at him as he pushed her thighs apart even as her heart began to slam against the back of her ribs. He’d do more than hurt her if he tried to fuck her now. Already damaged, she’d be lucky to survive his mounting, let alone come out the other side intact.
“I didn’t know about Elise. I had hoped, prayed to the Gods, but it was anything but certain,” Kahler said through a growl as he climbed onto the bed and shoved her wide with his knees. He leaned down until their faces were a mere breath apart. “I destroyed a fucking Alpha, his entire Gods damned territory for you. Do you have any idea what the repercussions could be for something like that? Ruined my connections and reputation with others. I put my business and life at risk to get you back and you dare to question me?”
Incredulity warred with terror, blood flowing hot and cold as it ripped her apart from the inside out. He’d ruined connections and relationships, killed an Alpha who had the audacity to keep the ravaged Omega dropped on his doorstep. All while countless hands and cocks forced their will on her, bruising, biting, breaking her into a thousand little pieces. Beaten bloody, scarred for the rest of her life, it meant nothing. It didn’t matter compared to his being inconvenienced. Of course the endless time subjected to Lee’s cruelties, large and small, held no comparison to having risked Kahler’s reputation. Having to preen and purr for a man who would have been happy to rip her apart, piece by piece, as much as to fuck her for months was no feat to him. Dancing the razor sharp line between Ilya and Lee, staying somehow whole while Kahler’s damned bond ripped her insides to shreds, it was all nothing. Keeping her daughter safe from that evil, willing to die for that purpose, and he didn’t even have the grace to acknowledge it.
The man she had killed, swinging like a side of beef from a hook as she sliced him up like a Sunday roast while Lee and Ilya urged her on…
Quinn screamed. Flailing, kicking, she fought with everything she had left to tear at him. Flesh, clothes, she didn’t care if she could just get free. Writhing against him, trying to get away, she was going to hurt herself more and didn’t care. Just so long as she was away from him. The male she was bound to, the one she would never be able to escape.
She hated him.
Taking a wrist in each hand, he forced her to still, pulling her arms taut and pinning them to her wide open thighs until she could do little more than thrash her head against the pillows. Held her there no matter how she bucked and railed, screaming her hatred in a string of curses that lit the air on fire between them. Doing no more damage to him than a warm breeze while she felt the now familiar stinging pull, the shredding ache of the stitches straining.
“Stop this! Damage yourself again and it’ll be months more of healing.”
“It won’t work! Whatever fucked up plan you have to make me your breeder, it’s not going to work. So just take that fucking cunt and leave me to my children. She’ll give you more, she’ll be the perfect fucking bitch for you! You won’t have to shove her in a room to forget about the mistake you’ve made.”
Kahler reared back, the edge of his teeth gleaming in the light before his snarl settled in a grim slash of his lips. Crushing her wrists together in one hand, the silky material of her pants was ripped down. Shredding as he tore the seams, baring her lower half in a series of jerky movements that were over before Quinn could do more than kick once at his grabbing hand. Then he was moving, shoving her legs wider apart as he shifted down the bed. Working his shoulders between her thighs as he transferred her wrists, one to each hand to push against her legs. Keeping her pinned, body immobile, Quinn screamed and fought for an inch of space that he took away as Kahler pushed her thighs flat to the mattress.
Unable to do more than twitch, the hot wash of his breath froze her lungs. Heart stuttering to a halt, her eyes flew wide as she tried to tip her head forward. Abused muscle refusing to hold her up, to let her see him there between her legs, all she knew was the wet slide of his tongue against desert dry flesh.
“I’ve been denied this for far too long and there aren’t little eyes and ears keeping me from it now.”
The acrid stench of her fear, the way her body trembled with it, was ignored as he began to feast on her. Lips and tongue moving in concert, he lapped at the folds of her pussy, mouthing the delicate pink of her. Lips closing over her clit, sucking hard on the soft nub, he thought to force it. A ragged breath shuddered into her lungs, filled with pain and thick with the wet sound of tears.
Once more she was to be violated. Yet again she’d be used for some male’s pleasure. It didn’t matter if he mounted her or not at this point. Defiled, unable to stop this fresh abuse, a sob caught in the back of her throat.
