Quinn swayed where she sat, blood leaving her head in a roar so fast she felt she might be sick again. How was she supposed to tell him what he didn’t want to hear?
“Alton… his man… they bought…” Quinn’s stammering dissolved into incoherent babbling as she stabbed her outstretched palm at the line of her leg. The many bite wounds, the scratches and gashes that had scarred, all laid bare for everyone to see.
As if a switch had been flipped, Lee began to purr. Tucking her up against all his warmth and that sound, he petted and soothed. Not a trace of the violence he had displayed before, not a single ounce of anger in his touch. Quinn was pale, shivering in uncontrollable fits as he murmured wordless sounds of calm into her hair.
“Ah, my sweet little pet,” Lee crooned, one hand leaving its tight clutch on her side.
Quinn whimpered as a dark shadow fell over her back, cringing. Terrified this wasn’t over yet, that with the evidence of her past so clearly displayed Lee was now dissatisfied. Flawed skin was one thing. To have a male strutting through your territory proclaiming he knew her scent…
She had to swallow the scream, a pathetic whine escaping, as something was pressed into her slack palm. Chin angling down, she blinked away the flood of misery at a knife as long as her forearm. Lee closed her fingers around the handle, holding it steady when she would have thrown the thing away.
“He hurt what is mine,” Lee said, nuzzling the soft skin behind her ear and firming their combined grip on the knife. He eased her up from his lap to stand between spread thighs facing the suspended Alpha. One hand splayed across Quinn’s back, he began to push her ahead of him. Towards the grotesque thing dangling.
How was he even still alive?
“I can’t have that, pet.” Lee drew their joined arms up, brandishing the heavy knife so the blade caught the light. “And just this once, I’m going to let you help.”
Blubbering refusal, Quinn shuffled back. Crashed into his imposing bulk. Small fingers spasming over the hilt, trying to fling the horrible thing away, only to be crushed by Lee’s grip.
“Did you like what he did to you,” Lee asked in a low hiss, rooting her to the spot with little more than his palm settling on her shoulder. “Was that little fit of temper just a charade to appease the Alpha you’re fucking now?”
Quinn shook her head, tangled curls tumbling over her shoulders in a defeated sprawl. Still she refused to hold the knife, to close her hand around it even as Lee ground her fingers into the smooth black handle.
“My, but you are a better actress than I gave you credit for. It would hurt my pride to see I’ve been wrong all this time. To have denied my men for so long when that was what you needed.” Lee gave a humorless laugh, free hand wrenching her head back, ripping at her hair. Dark eyes flat, he stared at her as if she was nothing. Had never been anything at all. “Maybe then you would be satisfied, hm? Perhaps then you wouldn’t think of someone else when surrounded by so much male attention.”
Pale brows crowded over the bridge of her nose as she looked up at him through muddled pools of horror. He knew. There was no space for a denial in the strident edge of his words, the way his fist twisted in her hair. He’d known before the nameless Alpha had even opened his stupid mouth.
Now here she was with few options.
Again.
“I needyou,” Quinn whispered on a strangled breath. Angling her body towards him, she grimaced at the strain on the arm he kept taut, the cruel angle of her neck. Pressing against him, uncaring of the way the robe splayed open, she curled her free arm around his hip.
“You need a hard cock. Lucky for you, they’re in abundance around here.”
Fresh tears spilled over the clumpy fringe of her lashes as she stared up at Lee. Lower lip trembling, she refused to look away. Met that cold stare and challenged it with a cascade of aching loneliness.
“I need you, and you’re never there,” Quinn said, words tangling in a hiccupping sob as she jostled free, shoving at the expanse of his chest. Real anger and hurt behind every slap of her small palm. “You said you would take care of me, that you’d give me everything I’d need.”
“I’ve given you everything.” Lee snarled, dark eyes narrowed, glaring, but showing something. The heat of anger seeped through all that cold. Infected his limbs as he yanked Quinn close.
She tried not to wretch when she felt his cock, hard and ready, shoving against her stomach. Turning the guttural noise into a sob, she fought him, tried to wrestle free.
“Except you,” Quinn whined, collapsing into him, clinging to his shirt. Panting, sucking deep breaths of him into her lungs. Something snapped. Cracked under the strain and became all too real. She screamed wordless curses, punching at his wide shoulders and deep chest. Crawled up his body, frantic.
She needed him. She hated him.
It all exploded into a maelstrom of emotions she couldn’t control. Inconsolable, she shrieked and clawed at the male as he pinned her against him. Shouted obscenities, spit and tears spattering his face. Back slammed against the wall, the force of his low growl shuddered through her.
It etched its way through her bones. Shivered through soft, wet insides. Heat bloomed low in her belly as her heart twisted and writhed.
Minutes passed as he forced that endless rumble into her. Sapping her strength, her will, until Quinn could do little more than hang on before she melted through the very cracks. At last he gave her space to breathe. Choking on the first deep lungful she swallowed whole. He pet and purred, rubbing at her neck, her back. Lee settled in the chair once more and cradled her against him. The warmth of his palm smoothed over her tight belly before he pulled the robe closed.
“If that’s what you need,” Quinn mumbled against his neck, the smoky taste of him thick on her tongue, melding with the salt of her tears and the vile tang of horror. “I’ve never hurt anyone…”
“I’ll show you,” Lee said through the comforting purr.
He didn’t force her ahead of him this time. Wrapped around him with her limbs locked tight, he took her the few long strides back to where the man hung. Ilya stooped, gathering up the knife from where it had clattered to the floor. Witness to it all, he presented the knife to Quinn as Lee set her down. Glacial blues held red-rimmed gray as Quinn’s trembling hand took the hilt. Turned to face the suspended male, Quinn sputtered and slapped her free hand over her mouth to stop herself from gagging.
