Uncertainty gnawing at her as Lee continued to stand stiff and unresponsive. Quinn aimed to resolve the problem the only way she knew how. An Alpha’s aggression could be managed one of two ways, and sex and violence weren’t so very far apart. Small fingers fumbling at the fly of his pants, Quinn started to go to her knees before him.
His growl punched down her spine, every vertebra locking up, frozen in terror. Controlled descent abandoned, she fell hard to her knees. The dull throb of pain didn’t even register. Head low, hands braced against the plush carpet, she lowered herself in submission to that sound.
The growl deepened, brimming with violence and anger she didn’t understand. There was nothing she had done to warrant this sudden turn, but she seemed to be the one that would suffer the brunt of it. Lowering herself further, kissing the floor, she groveled at the Alpha’s feet. It still wasn’t enough, his weight shifting, the muscles of his calves and thighs flexing.
“Please.” The word came out a plaintive whine, stretched thin with her fear. Fingers scratching across the lush pile, she edged her hand towards his shoe. Didn’t quite dare to mar the glossy surface of his shoe with her pinky.
And then he jerked her up, his hand locked around Quinn’s arm. Dragged from the room, her cries sealed behind clenched teeth as stuttering tiptoes struggled alongside the furious male. Down the hall, the stairs, her robe loose and flapping as she struggled to hold it closed when others fell into step behind Lee.
Scalding tears slipped down Quinn’s cheeks as she racked her brain for anything she could have done. Some imagined slight, some accidental mistake. Lee had been well pleased when she left him this afternoon. What had changed?
Body going limp, she threw her weight back as the simple door leading further downstairs loomed into view. Her heels skid across the tile, free hand reaching, fingers scrabbling at the simple wainscoting to grab hold. A litany of denials seeped from between her lips as she struggled to get free. Lee didn’t use the room often, but she knew what lay beyond.
Lee’s roar thundered through the short hall, echoing, an army of pain marching its way through her bones and shattering each one under the breadth of his fury. Hauled up until her shoulder lit up in brilliant strobing pain, he pulled her after him through the door. The drab cement steps leeched the very light from the space. It sucked the warmth from her body and forced her heart to still its hysterical rhythm.
Suspended from chains in the middle of the room was a bloody slab. It could have once been human, but surrounded by soggy rifts of gore, there was no way it was still living.
Quinn bit back the cry, not wanting to incite him further, as Lee tangled his fist in her hair, shoving her forward until her face was only inches from the body’s.
And then it groaned.
The scream ripped free from her throat. Her hands went to Lee’s arm, scratching and clutching to loosen his hold so she could get away from the hideous image of a bright blue eye dangling from a pulpy thread. The raw, terrified sound refused to stop even when Lee gave her a single step of retreat, his unmoving bulk holding her there as his arms wrapped around her. In a mockery of affection, he set his chin on her crown and made her look.
“Enough!”
His voice, threaded with dominance, a heavy slap to her senses, cut the scream short with razor edged precision. Shivering against the wall of heat that made her frozen skin ache, Quinn huddled.
“Do you know him, pet?” Lee’s voice was serene, casual, as if he’d asked her to pass the salt.
Words escaped her. They flew from her tongue in a watery spray of bile as she hunched over and threw up the little contents of her stomach. Before Quinn could even choke on another gag, he had her upright. Fist in her curls he kept her head pointed at the… thing hanging before them.
“Answer me, pet.”
Tongue useless as it swelled in her mouth to choke off her air, Quinn gave a vehement shake of her head. Didn’t even wince as the tangled snarls in his fingers ripped free of her scalp.
“Are you sure, pet?”
The studied calm in Lee’s question made Quinn rethink her actions. There was something she was missing in her panic. Forcing a breath through her trembling lips into her burning lungs, she dragged her eyes up to what was left of the hanging man’s face.
Trying to look past the damage, the pleading in the remaining bright blue eye, Quinn examined him. Confusion swelled, drowning her, and then recognition seared across her brain. A jagged crackling of synapses as memories aligned. She knew the line of the jaw, the sharpness of his cheekbone, the blue of that eye.
There was no explaining her response. Lips curled back over her teeth, Quinn screamed. Foot coming up as she threw her weight into Lee’s solid presence, she kicked the Alpha dangling listless from the chains. Dissatisfied with the pathetic whine, her small heel making so little impact among so much damage in the bloody mush of his groin, she reached to tear that unmarked eye out to join its twin.
“Easy, pet, easy,” Lee murmured as he pulled her back.
“Let me go,” Quinn screamed, making useless kicks at the hanging male as Lee dragged her away with ease.
“Enough, in a moment,” Lee said, no less imposing though his voice was softer and had lost the sharper edges of his anger. Bundling Quinn into his lap as he sat in the horrible, comfortable chair that was always present at these things, he tucked his chin on her shoulder. “Who is he to you, pet? He seems to know you. Quite well, in fact. Knew your scent the moment he came into my office. What was it he told you, Ilya?”
“Best pussy he ever had. Could not wait to have another go at it, hear her under him again.”
And then it made sense.
Quinn went limp in Lee’s arms, so abrupt in ceasing her struggling that he tightened his hold, thinking she was trying to get away. He squeezed until her ribs shrieked in complaint and her lungs couldn’t take in air. When a weak flutter of her hands against his thighs was all the resistance she offered, he relented.
“B-before,” Quinn said, choking on the word before she could spit it out.
“Explain.”
