His smile was small, but it didn’t smack of male satisfaction or an Alpha’s ego. It was sheer enjoyment, the set of his shoulders as loose and easy as she had ever seen them as he turned sideways to squeeze through the first doorway alongside her. Refusing to let her go, to stop whatever this was.
By the time they reached the dining room, Quinn was bewildered with this turn of events. Distracted, she brushed kisses against the sleep rumpled mops of tawny brown and pale blonde, nuzzling her children to breathe in their perfect scents. Powder soft and clean, still warm from their beds, she wanted to scoop them both up and cuddle them.
Tobias watching her with a serenity and unabashed joy made her rethink it. It was all wrong, this sudden peace, but… she was enjoying it.
As his focus became more distracted once Curtis crouched beside him, their murmuring voices unable to be deciphered under the excited talk of the kids, Quinn became aware of a chill slipping between them. It grew in measured pulses, dampening the warmth that had oozed through her veins until, riddled with ice and limned in frosty indignation, she thought she had an idea of what happened.
Up to his old tricks, the bastard must have tempered his control. He had to have known she’d fight tooth and nail if he tried to drown her in it and had instead let it trickle over her until it became a flood she would not resist against.
“Mama, eat!”
“Adam, I have had enough of this,” Quinn snapped, jerking the plastic cup from his hand before it could slap against the polished wood of the table. Instant regret twined with misplaced anger as tears welled in his deep hazel eyes. Ignoring the stares from the others, she took a faltering breath. “I’m helping Elise right now. Please don’t do that.”
“He’s just worried about—”
“I know what he is, Meghan, but he doesn’t need to shout and slam things around,” Quinn said, straining for calm as she felt Tobias’ gaze slide over her. Leaving a slimy trail in its wake, she was hard pressed not to wipe at her skin to be rid of the sensation.
“You shouldn’t take things out on him is all,” Meghan whispered to her plate, fork and knife trembling over the food piled high.
Quinn sucked in air, but she was too late. Tobias was already leaning over the table, hands clasped in a terrifying display of casual restraint. Quinn felt the rush of an enraged Alpha’s presence like a blast furnace, while he remained impassive to all but her. Even Curtis, close enough he should be able to scent the underlying aggression, to see a telltale twitch of muscle, gave no indication he sensed anything was amiss.
“I think that will be all for now, Meghan. Perhaps you would like to take the morning.” Tone severe and giving no room for argument, he dismissed Meghan with ease. He didn’t even wait for a response, leaning back in his chair and turning to Curtis with a raised brow of inquiry. Their near silent conversation resumed as if it had never been interrupted.
“I think that would… be good, yes.” Meghan rose, head bowed as she straightened her shirt in a nervous fit of fumbling. “I’m sorry, Miss Quinn.”
Gone before Quinn could even think to reply, she found herself face to face with two children that she now had to feed, clean, and keep entertained all on her own. Something she hadn’t had to do since this all began. A hand on each head, Quinn’s mouth hung slack for a moment as she stared at Meghan’s retreating back before turning to Tobias who remained engrossed in his conversation.
The comment had hurt, yes, but there was truth to it. It wasn’t enough to send the woman away, abandoning Quinn to a level of responsibility she wasn’t sure she was capable of without someone melting down. There was nothing for it now as Meghan turned the corner and disappeared.
“Okay,” Quinn said in a hard exhale, the rush of breath feathering Adam’s fine hair. Handing his cup back, she grabbed her fork and dissected his food into bite-sized pieces. Once she had him eating again, she turned to Elise and gaped.
Tobias sat close to Elise’s highchair, helping her chubby hand hold the bright green spoon to bring oatmeal to her wide open mouth. Giggling and smacking her lips after each bite, she wielded a stick of French toast in the other hand. Offering it to Tobias, Elise cackled as he opened his mouth as wide as she had and pretended that he would take her fist and all.
“Daddy’s silly,” Adam said before spooning eggs into his mouth with far more care than his sister showed.
“Yes, he is,” Quinn murmured while the massive Alpha mouthed Elise’s chubby cheek much as Quinn often did. Snuffling at the little girl’s neck, he made her squeal with laughter before he got her engrossed in eating all of her oatmeal, a feat that was not often accomplished.
There. It was happening again, that delicate softness infusing her as she watched him and their daughter. Riffling through her thoughts, the sensations, all of these emotions, she couldn’t pick out the thread. Gone was the icy venom, but at what point had he begun his game again? She’d been watching for it, waiting, and no Alpha had such control to get past a wary Omega.
“Sir, we really—”
“I think you should take care of it,” Tobias said over Curtis, not turning away from where his daughter tried to dunk something less than her fist into the smear of syrup decorating her plate. “I have other business to attend.”
“Mama,” Adam said, dragging Quinn’s attention away from the spectacle before her.
“Yeah, sweetie?”
“You eat, too.” A sniffle added the knife to his sorrowful pout, stabbing straight into her heart.
“Okay, Adam. I’ll try.”
Quinn tried. It wasn’t as bad as it often was, but it was by no means wonderful. The fact her stomach didn’t reject the cautious bites as soon as she swallowed them was a Gods send, but only just. At least the coffee she sipped at didn’t taste putrid, a hint of the dark roast bursting across her tongue before it became oily and bitter.
Not until everyone had eaten and she fetched wet wipes to clean the messy kids up did things go so very wrong again.
Hauling Adam from his booster, she felt the twisted churning that signaled the end of her reprieve. Trying to get a squirming toddler to the floor without dropping him while quelling the urge to vomit was a feat, but somehow she managed. A gentle nudge to Adam’s head, guiding him towards Tobias was all she could afford before she sprinted down the hall.
There were no dark guards this time, no strange floors slipping sideways out from under her slapping feet. Hunched over the toilet, she was able to hide this particular humiliation and pain this time, or so she thought.
