She could feel him there, a steady presence. Solid and hard in all the places she was soft. Mangling her insides, ripping it all to shreds with gleeful determination as he bounced Elise on his knee across the room.
Yet somehow he knew the second the terror started to build, the mounting grief overshadowing the unsettling presence lodged under her sternum. No longer a vague sense of him, but a crystal clear image. A vivid, technicolor sensation that pounded through her veins, soaking in heady waves through her bones. He’d call to her, distracting. Feeling his voice as if it vibrated through her lungs. Her heart stuttering along in its silken cage before slamming against her ribs in a bid to break free.
“Come here, she wants you.”
“I-I can’t.” Quinn recoiled when he stood, coming closer. His heat emanated frominsideof her. Every deep, calming breath filled her lungs as well as his, despite the way she panted in shallow panic. Her distraught whimper was brushed aside as he settled Elise into the ruined nest.
He wanted her to rebuild it. Wanted to bring the babies to her, to have them all clamber and snuggle there together, a family. Whole. Sheknewthat. How the ever lovingfuckcould she know that?
“What have you done?”
“What needed to be done.”
She wondered if this was what it had been like for him all this time, if he had been so aware of her every movement, every emotion. Her heart tried to slam to a halt only to be dragged along by his. A steadying thump that was too large, too heavy to be contained by the far more delicate bones of her chest.
Shaking her head, wonder and outrage simmered under her skin.
“They’ll kill you,” Quinn stammered out, flighty hands petting at Elise, soothing abraded nerves and agitating the crawling girl. “Kill me, them. Everyone.”
“No one will ever hurt you again, little bird,” Kahler said in soothing tones, purring as he sidled up to her. Wrapping her in an embrace she didn’t flinch from. “It’s not unheard of—”
“It’s not normal! It’s wrong.” Jerking her shoulder hard to dislodge him, Quinn scrambled across the bed, out of his reach. Staring across the wide expanse of the mattress as she stood beside it, she shook her head in hard jerks. “It’s wrong and perverse. It’s fucking sick! What you’ve done to me…”
Anger, sadness. Emotions that weren’t hers but swirling through hers. Deep eddies of confusion that ripped apart her thoughts. Devastating everything but the maelstrom ofotherthat saturated her mind. Left her swaying, clinging to the bed to stay upright.
“You are mine in all ways now,” Kahler said as he swept a hand over Elise’s curls to calm her, distracting her from Quinn’s panic. “I fail to see the problem.”
“This isn’t done,” Quinn screamed. Feet stuttering along the floor, she backed away. Needing more space between them. An ocean, an abyss, some black hole to open up where she’d be safe from the silken worm that gouged out her insides with each breath until there was no more discerning him from her. Collapsing against the wall, sliding down until she could press her eyes hard against her knees, Quinn wished it would all just go away.
Intent pulsed through her veins, ferocious and determined, seconds before his hand tangled in her hair. Jerking her head back as he crouched before her, the sharp edge of his teeth bared in a silent snarl. Quinn pressed her spine to the wall, trying to merge with plaster and wood as he leaned close.
“You are mine and I will do whatever I damn well please with you.” His growl was quiet, a soft threat that didn’t disturb Elise as she toddled closer to her parents, babbling and grinning. “Now you will stop this at once. You will get up and fix our nest while I fetch our son.”
Already rising, she was unable to resist the command that battered her senses from every direction now. Quinn balked as she found herself at the bed, hands going through the motions before she could even think to lash out.
More disturbing was how good it felt.
Peace oozed through every tensed muscle, anxiety dripping away into grimy puddles. The simple pleasure of arranging her nest, the gurgling coos of her daughter a background to the rustle of sheets and blankets. The heady spice of Kahler wafting up, assaulting her, she found a small smile warming her lips as she smoothed and tucked the fabric just the way she wanted.
Uncertainty boiled under the surface, attempting to drown that creeping sunlit glow invading her.
Then he was there. Not just the memory of warmth but real heat against her back, his quiet sound of satisfaction thrilling down her spine. A hard inhale, the arch of her back pressing her into him as she accepted his touch. Felt it deep under her skin as fingers skimmed along her side with a throaty chuckle.
“Damn little eyes,” he murmured against her shoulder before kissing the edge of his marks where they peeked from the neckline of her shirt.
His claim.His.
Quinn shivered, panic twisting with the delicious sensation of melting against him.
The final touches made, she grinned. Laughed as Elise and Adam tumbled around the thick drifts as their Alpha doted on them. Mother and father tickling and purring to them, they basked in the comforting attention. All of them together at last. Happy, a family, safe in the nest she had built with her Alpha mate to protect them all.
A moment of clarity seeping in through the brilliant golden haze that fogged her thoughts, Quinn turned to him. Eyes wide, pupils contracted to terrified dots.
“What have you done?”
“Hush now, little bird,” Tobias said, his smile wide and holding an edge of heat that spoke of what would come soon, when little eyes and ears were no longer there. Brushing the back of his hand against her cheek, he pressed a gentle kiss against her lips. “All is as it should be now.”
They spent much of the day there, and it was only his insistence that made Quinn drag herself from the warmth of the nest to go downstairs to eat. She smiled at Meghan’s concerned looks, eager to help and fuss over Adam and Elise as they smeared food over their plates. Elise managing to get as much in her hair as in her mouth.
