“What?” Face darkened, brows slamming down into a thick line, he was already shaking his head.
“It’s been happening since you put me on the fertility drugs. It’s gotten worse the longer I take them. I feel a little better, and you didn’t make me take them last night.”
It was the truth. Her stomach wasn’t a twisted mass, and though she was still so very tired, she didn’t want to crawl into a hole and die. How much was this thing that was happening between them and how much was the drugs, she couldn’t say. If he would just give her this one thing…
Tobias watched her, the deep green of his eyes shadowed with worry. For once, she felt his indecision. Warring with the need to see her fixed, as much as he thought he could fix her, and his desire to give her something, anything, to keep this alive and whole between them. Quinn saw the moment he made his decision, felt it like an electric charge down her spine.
“We’ll just have him look you over, little bird. Make sure you’re all right.”
Nothing had changed. The moment was gone, ash on the wind as he wiped his hands clean of her complaints.
He was there, drawing closer. The warmth of his command slithered through her in thick, honeyed rivers, draining the fight from her.
She’d been stupid. Again. A whole life spent priding herself on being smarter than others, of not dwelling too long on her weaknesses and instead reveling in her strengths. Now she was just the bastard’s toy, something he played with when it suited him.
Feeling himrightthere, pounding away next to her heart, had been… overwhelming. Despite the way her thoughts had remained clear, the easiness she’d felt with the simple act of breathing, she began to wonder if it hadn’t all been some trick. Some way to get her to agree to a new horror, to make her a more malleable slave since what he was doing didn’t appear to be working fast enough for his tastes.
Ice crackled through her abdomen and chest, making her shiver with the intensity of the cold that pervaded her. She couldn’t deny the effectiveness of his ploy. For that all too long span of minutes, she’d been pliant and quiet. She hadn’t railed against him, he hadn’t had to force her. She’d gone belly up with nothing more than a shock to the system.
Ilya had explained a great many things to her, had told her much about the bond and mates, but he’d never even whispered what it would be like if the Omega completed the circle. It wasn’t done, and Quinn could understand why. It wasn’t natural to feel a person like this, to be tangled up in them until you couldn’t define yourself any longer. Nothing he or Tobias had ever mentioned even hinted at it being like this for the Alpha.
If he could sense even half of what she did… She’d had no sense of him before, a one way channel between them, but now she could feel him in a way that overwhelmed her with a thought. It stood to reason that what he did to her, she could do to him.
So she hoped, because if she was wrong, she was sure he’d make her pay. There would be no more ground given. No more moments where she was a person and not a thing, a piece of property.
Shoving away the ache of exhaustion that still dragged at her limbs, she straightened her spine and raised her eyes to his. The heat of him slipping through her veins, so hot her heart tried to seize, tried to bow her head. Wetting dry lips, Quinn dug her nails deep into her palms to center herself. She wouldn’t just let this happen. Couldn’t just lie there and let him do this to her again.
Taking in a long breath, Quinn closed her eyes and sought out that thing writhing in her chest, the brilliance of it blinding in her mind’s eye. All the many things he could do to her, the horrific ways he could break her, flashed through her thoughts. If she didn’t at least try, she’d never forgive herself.
Moving before her nerve could run out, she grabbed hold of it.
Crashing back into the bed, her head bounced off of the headboard. Mouth open in a silent scream, jagged agony tearing her open, bursting from her heart. Vision blurred and ears ringing with the impact of the devastating explosion within her skull, she saw him coming towards her.
Envisioning ripping at the bond, making him hurt, making him bleed, she poured every ounce of pain and fear she had ever felt into it. From the terror of her first heat to this very moment and all that lay between, she wanted him to feel every second of it. How Marina abandoned her, Alton used her, how Lee made her beg, the betrayal of Ilya, and all the faceless males who had ever caused her pain.
Quinn watched him falter and stumble, falling to one knee with a vicious roar.
Drunk on the agonized lines of his face, the whites of his eyes showing as a hand slammed into his chest to grip the space over the bond, she fought.
Wrenching, tearing, pulling, she tried to destroy it. She wanted to cut it loose, rip it out and throw away this thing that connected them. If her purpose to him was gone, obliterated, then she could be free of him.
Quinn wanted nothing more than to end it all.
Tobias lunged forward, grabbing hold of her quivering arm and dragging Quinn’s body to him. Wrapping her up in his body, he growled meaningless words against her crown as a snarling purr reverberated through his chest, pushing into her. Forcing her to calm and melt into his arms.
The heady sunlight seeped into her, surrounding her on all sides as it drowned her in its honey gold depths.
She couldn’t help but think if she’d had one more second, she might have succeeded. Unable to hold out any longer, she raked her nails down the side of his face in a last bid to be free.
Tobias hugged her tighter, gathering her into his arms as he crawled onto the bed. Muffled words lost in the vibrating warmth that dragged Quinn down into senseless oblivion.
Quinn’s eyes fluttered open, a bone deep agony stealing the breath from her lungs on a ragged groan. Pale grays swam in heavy pools, swirling the multihued landscape into indistinguishable blobs of color.
“Lie still,” Tobias murmured, feathering the lightest caress over her hair. A touch that was gone before Quinn could recognize it for what it was.
Feeling bruised and flayed, she took the advice. Even let her lids drift down to block out the muted light. Not much time had passed, or so she thought. The room still had the golden glow of early afternoon. Perhaps she had missed lunch with the kids, but the entire day wasn’t lost.
Not that she felt much like breathing, let alone moving.
