“He shouldn’t be eating Elise’s food.”
Shoulders crumpling, Quinn gave Adam’s soft hair one more loving caress before she sat back in her chair. Gaze fixed on her artful masterpiece of dismay and anxiety, she picked up her fork to roll the bright green peas around the dull white a bit more. She hated peas and Curtis knew it. She said nothing when they appeared on the plates set before her more often than not. Hunger had abated to something soft and constant, her stomach no longer growling its complaint when she spent the long hour she was forced to appear at this table to pretend they were some happy family.
“He won’t eat his if he doesn’t have some of hers, sir,” Meghan said, gliding into the conversation as if Kahler had spoken to her instead. “Just a bit of sibling rivalry.”
She did that often these days, trying to take the brunt of his agitation from Quinn. It wasn’t fair to the woman who already did so much for her, but Quinn was thankful all the same.
Learning that Meghan had no children had been a surprise. More that it had taken Quinn this long to ask Meghan anything about herself than the fact she knew how to go through all the motions. The eldest of ten, Meghan had raised most of her siblings and still handed off most of her wages to support the youngest three. It was one reason Kahler had hired her in the first place, which hadn’t been so very long ago. Contracted when Grace first started to show, she was to be a nanny for the other Beta. Kept on despite Grace’s sudden departure in the hopes Adam would be found soon. Then remained when Quinn was brought here.
Even now when Quinn was healed enough to care for both children, Meghan took on the lion’s share. She let Quinn sit and wallow in the suffocating depression, to collapse under the weight of the demands Kahler put upon her. There was no need to mask any of it in Meghan’s presence. She’d seen Quinn at her worst before and now was no different. Her babies were happy to be held and rocked as Quinn laid her silent misery onto their little shoulders.
Every night was the same now. Kahler demanded she leave Adam and Elise safe in their cribs, marching her back to the bedroom where he could do as he wished to her. Careful of her injuries, he’d limited his touch. Using his mouth and hands, making her do the same. As she’d healed, that had changed. He might not take her with the same violence he once had, didn’t demand as much from her, but it was still too much. Leaving her aching and sore only to repeat it again the next night.
Through it all, he still couldn’t stand the sight of her naked. Took her in the dark, under the sheets. Leaving the ever present long shirts on her body though he was content to grope and pinch through the flimsy material. Showering with her daily now, he was quick to come in her mouth as she kneeled on the tiles, and just as quick to leave.
At first the creeping numbness had seen Quinn through the hours he spent satisfying himself with her body. It didn’t help the horror and the humiliation, or the shame that sucked at her soul. A demonic vampire intent on leeching every last drop of her sense of self out.
Then came the tears. The ones she swore over and again not to let him see. They poured in rivers from red rimmed grays, cascading down pallid cheeks flushed with her shattered sobs.
It didn’t stop him.
He purred and petted, waiting until exhaustion had seeped in. Lying in wait for that vulnerable moment between agony and unconsciousness.
Then he’d strike.
Turning her body against her every night, making her feel. Forcing her to listen to her own shrill cries as they echoed inside her skull. Battering her mind, her heart. The bond hummed during those frail minutes. Content, sated. Quinn hated herself all the more for voicing the dulcet tone before awareness returned in full force. Slamming into her with the weight of reality, crushing her under its heel.
A gasp clogged her throat, choking her as she shoved away from the table when a hand closed over her shoulder. Hot as a brand, the touch seeped through the mandatory long-sleeved shirt as it slipped down to encircle her arm. Toppling the chair, she crashed to the floor with a raw sound of fear. Jerking free, scrambling back in an awkward crawl, wide grays showed too much white as they jerked up to see the threat of a discontented Alpha.
Kahler’s lip began to lift, shoulders tight as tension wound through his limbs. If he offered comfort, it was buried beneath the impatient growl. Any softness lost as he snatched at her arm, hauling her up from the ground.
The clamor had startled Adam and Elise, both of them crying. Reaching for her, Adam issued a litany of watery calls for her to pick him up. Turning to go to them, she was dragged backward in Kahler’s wake. Left to stumble and trip behind him, he kept her upright with the crushing grip on her bicep no matter how she tugged and twisted.
There was no need to order Meghan to see to the precious little ones. Warm brown eyes brimming with unease, she was already rising, hushing them with quiet sounds of comfort. Moved to block their view of Quinn when Kahler jerked her up into his arms, crushing her against his chest to stop her frantic kicking and beating fists as he carried her upstairs to his room.
When her back met the mattress, she shot up to her feet. Faced off with the enraged Alpha whose chest rose and fell with the controlled breaths of a predator as he stalked towards her. Light and quick, she darted away, moving to put space between them. A dance she would lose, had lost a thousand times before, but never stopped.
“Let me go back.” Words mangled in a fresh bout of tears, discordant with her sobbing breath, she was surprised when he answered.
“Meghan has it under control.”
“They’re mine! Let me—” Cut off with a shriek that was equal parts fear and anger, he caught her around the hips. She hadn’t even noticed how close he’d come over the span of seconds, didn’t see when he’d gotten within range. Tossed back onto the bed into the tangled folds of the nest, his dark form climbed after her before she’d even stopped bouncing.
Quinn gave up.
There was little point. He’d take what she didn’t want to give. Would keep her longer if she fought harder. Purpose draining from her so fast it made her dizzy, the jagged memories of the time before Gerry had come to wreak his havoc on her swelled. The way Kahler had shoved her into position, mounting her rough and, most important, fast. She’d been docile then and he’d left her alone.
Turning over to her stomach, meek as the well trained bird he called her, she spread her thighs and tipped her hips up. Presenting to the menacing presence behind her, clenching the sheets in her hands so hard it hurt.
She had to bite down on the scream at his first touch. Swallowed back the wails and jammed down the primal urge to run when his knees slid in against her thighs. He was just another male. Just another cock. He’d use her, fuck her, might even hurt her, but he wouldn’t kill her.
That became her mantra as he shuffled their clothes away. In a strange turn, he pulled the loose pants all the way off, flinging them aside before working her shirt up her torso and over her head. Leaving her naked and bare in too many ways to count. She screamed that litany of words inside her head as skin met skin and the first threatening touch of his bare cock skimmed over dry lips. There was no stopping the panicked tremble or the way her breath sobbed in and out of her lungs. If her limbs were so rigid she was made of stone, it was only to withstand the onslaught that waited.
She’d survived so much. Had made it this far, and while never unscathed, her heart was still beating.
She could survive this, too. Had to. For Elise, for Adam.
“I can’t fucking do this,” Kahler snarled, the hands at her hips already flipping her over. Shoving Quinn over to her back in a tangle of arms and legs, he collapsed to the side and threw an arm over his eyes. Scoffed at the ceiling and jerked a sheet over his hips, hiding what lay flaccid along his thigh.
