An Alpha in rut was a volatile beast. Inhuman. Animal.
Her body was telling him to be nothing else.
Slick eased his every entry, mixing with the coppery tang of blood that confused and angered him. A vicious cycle that caused him to become more brutal with every successive mounting. Still her pussy fluttered around him, strangling his knot to force his come deep inside of her as he ground against her cervix.
It was twisted, abhorrent, but a heat, nonetheless.
The damned fertility drugs had gotten the last laugh. Enough of the caustic cocktail flowed through her veins to induce an estrous, but her body failed to respond the way it should. No dulling of her pain receptors, no blind need to have him inside of her, Quinn could do little more than lie passive as it ran its course.
Except the flat iron taste of blood grew stronger with each passing moment. It stained the pristine tiles of the bathroom to a muddy hue. Blankets smeared in wide swaths of rusty brown when he’d dragged her to the nest, overshadowed by strings of brilliant crimson.
Everything was so very wrong and seemed to be getting worse.
Weaker as each hour passed and the sun set to allow true night sneaking through the room, Quinn was no longer certain how much of the wet slide between her thighs was slick and come or other more horrible things. Her lower body throbbed and ached, a burning tingle centered between her thighs. The bite at her nape he gave with his last reprimand trickled a steady runnel of scarlet that mottled the sheet beneath her.
Cracked lips a trembling line and gritty eyes scrunched, she set her cheek to the bed, unable to keep it out of the tacky spill any longer. Sky now showing brilliant golds and ruddy orange beyond the banks of wide windows, it had been near a full day of this torture.
“Please, Tobias,” she rasped as he growled at her shoulder, tongue lapping over his mark. “Please stop.”
Vision graying around the edges, she whined when he began to move over her. Pumping his cock into the tight clench of a body that refused to remain limp, her back arched into the hard slap of his hips as the world began to go dark.
“Please.”
“You fucking wake up! Do you hear me? Wake. Up. Now.”
Roar near silent, it thundered through her aching chest. Cracked open her sternum, splitting her wide to let everything spill out into the darkness that clung to her in ever tightening coils.
“You wake up, little bird, or so help me, I will make you fucking regret it.”
Threat laughable, Quinn didn’t feel like smirking at his menacing tone. Too tired, too cold, she shivered as the blackness dragged her deeper. The intangible threads of the bond frayed and unraveled, losing their vicious hold upon a disintegrating soul.
“You answer your Alpha, Quinn.”
Words following her down into the swirling emptiness, she could do nothing to respond. Throat closing over the reply that lingered, the vastness choked off the words and took her where nothing could reach her.
Eons, heartbeats later, she rose. Not out of the shadows, but close. Hovering in the dim corridors of the murky landscape near enough that she felt his large hands crushing her arms.
“I need you. Is that what you want to hear? I needyou, my proud, stubborn, ridiculous mate.” Snarling against her temple, the warmth of his breath a brand on frigid skin. Moments dragged on, his breathing growing more serrated. “You come back to menow.”
It rushed up to meet her, grabbing hold and dragging Quinn down into the inky depths of nothingness. Shackling her in the desolate darkness, abandoning her in the empty.
There she remained.
Until the sweep of her lashes fluttered only to drift shut once more against the radiant glare of blinding light. Everything hurt, a deep agony that even the sigh of her rattling breath caused to increase by tenfold. Shrill tones scored the inside of her skull, building to a furious pace that coalesced into one long keen as the broken flesh of her lips parted on a silent cry.
“Make it stop.” Little more than a trembling breath, she didn’t think she would be heard over the furious wailing of the machine stabbing through her eardrums.
Then it cut off, the sudden silence loud in the now quiet room. The blinding light blinked out of existence, leaving a shimmering afterimage of reds and greens on the backs of her eyelids.
“You still with me, sweetness?” Rough hands cradling her cheeks, Tobias pressed his forehead against hers and breathed her in on a slow inhale.
Quinn’s grunt, worn and frayed, trembled on a breath that stung the cracked planes of her lips. The grating rasp of a thick layer of stubble scored her temple as Tobias pressed closer. Trying to be careful, failing in such a miserable fashion as to make it all worse. Hearing her low whine, he settled her back into the rustle of pristine sheets and hovered. As if he could protect her from everything with his body alone. Including himself.
Lashes fluttering open, she was able to make out the dark smear of his gaze through a murky cloud that crusted the corners of her eyes. “What…?”
“How much do you remember?”
Lashes slipping down, she tried to pinpoint the moment, searching through the tumbled drifts of thought to find the last clear memory. Darkness sucked at her, trying to pull her back into the gloom.
