“That’s not the point.”
“Here you are, Mr. Kahler,” Wilcox said as he came up to the counter with a white paper bag emblazoned with the shop’s name. The strain in his smile didn’t let on the anxiety tainting the air at Tobias’ display.
“How much?”
“Oh, sir, I couldn’t—”
“How much?” One arm reaching back, Tobias took the basket from Curtis to set it on the counter before them.
Quinn’s lips split in a sunny smile as she saw the waxy green plastic, extra bubbles, and a pack of batteries amid her collection of candy. As Wilcox rang up the purchases, Quinn snuck a hand into the crackling bag in order to retrieve a chocolate and peanut butter confection.
“Wait until later.” Tobias tugged the packet free of her grip, tumbling it back into the bag. Arm crossing over her chest, he held her hip to keep Quinn confined. Attention on the pharmacist once more, Tobias dared a smile.
“Well, then,” Wilcox said, weight shifting back and forth before he splayed his hands atop the counter. Gaze fixed square upon the Alpha before him, the corners of his lips fled south. “I don’t mean to cause trouble, Mr. Kahler, but that kid and his hoodlum friends have been coming around again. They busted out the plate glass on the front windows there.”
“When did that happen?”
Quinn shrank from the icy wave of his tone. Arm tightening, Tobias locked her against his body as he drew up to his full height. Shoulders broadening as his chest expanded, danger loomed on a too close horizon.
“Going on a couple weeks, sir.”
“You didn’t tell Jones about this when he came through.”
“Happened after, sir. That night, matter of fact.”
“Stan and Ross will stay behind and help. They’ll get this sorted out for you once and for all.”
“Thank you, Mr. Kahler, sir.”
Wilcox didn’t look relieved so much as resigned. He knew what would happen to this kid and his friends just as much as Quinn did. Anything Tobias intended to settle once and for all would be final in the most literal sense.
Uncomfortable with the knowledge of how much power the man at her back had, Quinn shrank into herself to make a smaller target as she had done all of her life. She’d known he was powerful when everything had started, came to understand he was the ruling Alpha of Alderbrook, but she’d never seen a display of that authority like this. As Stan trotted outside to gather the other man from the car, Quinn’s breath froze in her lungs.
They were going to kill some kid over a window.
“Don’t,” Tobias murmured as he led her outside.
Wilcox’s words of gratitude and acknowledgement became lost while Quinn buried herself under layers of protective walls.
As if she could stop.
Trundled into the backseat that was already warmed and cozy, he didn’t follow on her heels. Door shut tight, he stood beside it as he spoke with Curtis and the others for a long minute before he slid in beside Quinn. Taking the time to arrange her stiff limbs, forcing her to cuddle against his bulk, the others didn’t return to their seats.
“You know who and what I am, Quinn.”
“That gives you the right to kill people?”
“It does.” Tobias leveled an evergreen gaze carved from granite upon her, the full weight of it crushing the rigid length of her spine as a tender hand came to caress her cheek. “It’s what keeps you and our children safe.”
“You don’t have to—”
“When I finally located you, my hold on this city was hanging by a thread. I had placated and made deals with so many other Alphas, they thought I was weak. Not that I blame them.” A single brow bounced, the withered ghost of something self-deprecating and bemused creeping across his lips. “I promised them anything they wanted for passage through their territories with my men and guns, just to get to you. One little Omega, so much fuss.
“Now we’re home, where we both belong. Those ideas cannot be allowed to fester and grow. They can’t see me as easy pickings, Quinn, or what’s happened before will be nothing compared to what they’ll do now. Now there is AdamandElise, not just you. What would you do if they came to take our daughter? Raised her as their own, made her into something else? Killed her outright?” Hand cupping her cheek, he forced Quinn to meet his hard gaze. His other hand swept over her hair, pushing back the pale strands that had slipped free. “I would do anything to keep you all safe. If I have to rip apart the entire fucking city, I will. If I must wring the life out of a thousand little shits who want to cause trouble to see Adam and Elise grow up happy and safe, I will. I don’t expect you to like it or even understand it, but this is how it will be. Do you understand me?”
“I don’t have much of a choice.”
“In this, you do not.”
