Daring to look up at him, eyes narrowed as she watched the wry smile pull his lips up, she gave a faint shrug. Already the thing between them was quieting, becoming soft and hazy. Quinn could no longer feel him in such sharp relief, but a vague impression of him centered under her sternum.
Finishing getting dressed, she went around to set the bed to rights. Plumping pillows, reordering the sheets and blankets, she ignored him as he left the bedroom.
He didn’t even say goodbye.
Chapter Four
Slumping her way downstairs, Quinn felt the momentary lightness of victory fading away. It left her bitter, a chill that would not cease as she shuffled her way through the halls and rooms towards the sound of voices.
Not his though, and now she was sure that he had departed for the day. Gone and left her dealing with this new thing that continued to burst apart in her chest, the bond discordant and jangling now.
Nothing had changed.
Her success felt empty and shallow now. Kept locked away inside his prison of a house, no different than it had been before. Yes, she could fight back when he tried to control her, but what use was that when nothing else about the situation had altered?
Anger fueled her steps, pushing her feet out of their customary shuffle to something grim. The raised voices grew louder.
She wasn’t strong.
She was pathetic.
He thought he could shatter everything and walk away as if nothing had happened. She would show him.
Jaw tense, resolve hardening, Quinn stomped her way into the kitchen and the source of the argument. Lips a hard line, eyes pinched, she watched a Beta male straighten to a considerable height as he growled at a red faced Meghan.
“I don’t give a damn who you think you are, woman. If he wants to cook in his own damned kitchen, I am not going to argue with him.”
“Mr. Kahler does not need to be making food for—”
“I’ll say it again since you apparently didn’t hear me,” the man said in a rumbling snarl, stepping forward to invade Meghan’s space, putting his face closer to hers. “It’s his kitchen and he can do whatever the hell he wants in it.”
“What’s going on?”
Meghan jumped, whirling around with such speed that she knocked the man back a step. Staring at Quinn with her mouth working though no words came forth, she made a fluttering motion towards the French doors leading off of the kitchen to the backyard.
“Mr. Kahler, he, uh, he made lunch for the children and…”
“And she has a problem with it,” the Beta muttered as he gave a stiff nod of greeting to Quinn before bustling to a counter loaded with sandwich fixings.
Clothed in a crisp white apron, Quinn gathered he was the cook she’d yet to meet. Glancing at Meghan, seeing the flustered irritation, she was tempted to insult the man’s cooking, to tell him it was that which made her so sick. Something else caught her attention, stringing it along to flail in wild fits, a fish on a hook.
“My issue is that it’s your job to—”
“He’s still here?” Quinn wrapped her arms around her middle, eyebrows bunched tight.
“I’m out here with the children,” Tobias said from the door, smile as arrogant as ever. The deep green of his gaze swept over Quinn, taking her in as a muscle jumped along his jaw.
“You can’t just leave them out there alone!” Quinn shoved past his imposing bulk, ignoring the way her skin came alive as it touched him. Hurrying down the steps to the brick patio, Quinn swooped in to grab Elise where she attempted to stand by herself.
“I was right here, nothing was—”
“She could have busted her damn head open!”
“I think maybe you need to—”
“Adam! Get out of that right now, young man.” Propping Elise on her hip, Quinn hurried over to where Adam crouched over a muddy puddle.
“Look, Mama!” Arms grubby up to his elbows, knees and shins caked with dark sludge, he grinned at Quinn. Stretching out his hand, he held a deep red worm up in his fist where it jerked and wriggled to be free.
