He’d broken Meghan’s arms. Multiple places, judging by the way the limbs hung askew at shoulder, forearm, and wrist. It had to have been agony to continue hitting Quinn with such mangled hands, yet she’d done it.
Meghan wasn’t done, either. Shuffling up the wall with back braced and scuffing feet, Meghan panted through her sneer.
The bond came alive in Quinn’s chest, drawing on something she’d never felt before. Sapping what little strength she had left, she collapsed to the floor and could only watch as Tobias stalked towards his prey.
The tangled threads roared, one thing clear in the twisted tide of crimsons and scarlets that seared her thoughts into ash.
Death.
Chapter Fourteen
Quinn’s hands slapped over her mouth to muffle a scream when Tobias reached Meghan.
Words were done. Eons of evolution gone in a blink of an eye, Tobias’ higher thoughts scattered to ash. The Alpha grabbing his prey was feral, a base creature who knew one thing. Meghan would die at his hands, and he would glory in it.
The sound of ripping skin flowed through the air on a fine red mist. Wet and pulpy as he shredded connective tissues and bones with the ease of a male in his prime. Snaps and pops, the crackle of splintering bone, it all echoed deep into Quinn’s soul. A twisted part of her enjoying it as Meghan’s shrieks and wails grew louder with every inch he separated from the body he destroyed.
Piece by meticulous piece, he tore Meghan apart. Fingers, hands, arms. Each one coming free with a sickening wet squelch and hard pops. Limbs tossed aside with careless abandon. Like a child ripping paper free of a present, the tattered pieces of her blood soaked flesh drifted down around him. The sodden clap of her body against wood vibrated through the wood as he threw her flat. Foot pinning the shrieking woman’s hips down, he twisted and wrenched. Face spattered in sticky red drops as he pulled Meghan’s foot free with a sickening crunch that Quinn felt through her teeth and down into her spine. Meghan’s screams began to fade as he repeated the motion on her other foot, the weak kicks abating into useless flopping.
Quinn cried out along with Meghan’s sharp screech when Tobias kneeled on Meghan’s thigh. Gripping the one opposite, he pushed. Hard. The pop of the joint, the hip shattering beneath his palm sounding like dry kindling. Crimson oozed and gurgled from the ever widening gash as her skin split and tore.
Unable to believe this was the same man she thought she knew so well, Quinn huddled against the couch. Tried to make herself small and invisible as she watched him rip Meghan apart like some kind of animal. A beast in a man’s skin, a monster she didn’t recognize under the syrup thick stains of blood and gore sheeting from his skin. Tobias’ wild green eyes swung up to meet Quinn’s. Lip curled up, showing the vicious edge of his teeth, he took in Quinn’s horrified face. Whatever else he saw snapped something inside of him. Something she felt torn asunder deep inside her heart. Pain, yes, but so much more. Possessive, protective. Swimming through it all the sharp edged sword of his love.
With a roar he turned back to Meghan.
Quinn retched as the wet sucking sounds filtered through the suffocating tension. No longer precise in his destruction, he tore at Meghan’s body. Ripping away chunks of flesh, tossing them aside to grab hold of slick organs and whatever else the body hides away from sight. Ribs cracked open, he flung the meaty bones to smack against the dripping walls. The glimmering white of her spine twisted up through the gaping hole of her stomach, the delicate bone shattered to dust in his clenching fist.
This was her mate. The man who had claimed her, kept her and given her the children she loved more than anything. Thinking he protected her with such violence, that he proved his prowess with all that destruction. Hugging her middle tight, Quinn couldn’t find an ounce of fear for the beast making sounds that should never come from a man’s throat. He wouldn’t hurt her. This rage he showed would never dare to touch her. Somehow warmed by the thought, Quinn found the strength to leverage herself up to her knees. Refused to look at the carnage but did not huddle and cringe. Looking out of the French doors leading outside, she stared in fascination at the day proceeding outdoors as if nothing of importance happened within these four walls.
It was a long time before he sat back on his heels, fists braced against the floor in thick drifts of gore and cooling red pools. Shirt and skin stained, his dark suit soaked through, he appeared a devil clothed in red and black. Strands of unspeakable things twined around his fingers, leaking more fresh scarlet onto his slippery hands.
Between one second and the next he came back. Startling himself and Quinn, he sat up fast and rocked back onto his heels. Pulling away from the evidence of all that violence with swift movements that belied none of the adrenaline coursing through his veins. Not even a tremble in his hands as he stalked towards Quinn with an intensity that worried her.
“Are you all right,” he asked, the words sounding as if they were dragged through rough stone and broken glass. He didn’t even pause before crouching, running his hands over her body to check for any injury. Uncaring of the dark smears he left on her clothes and skin.
“I-I’m fine. Please stop,” she whimpered, eyes squeezed shut as she turned her head away from the swaths of crimson coating her now.
“Your neck,” he muttered with a snarl when his burning gaze landed on the weeping lines marring her nape and throat. Grabbed her up to cradle against his chest then stormed from the room. The door slammed against the wall before bouncing back, the loud crack of splintering wood too much like bone.
Men in dark uniforms fanned out, making room for the Alpha walking through the tight clump that once defended the hall and office door. Quinn wondered if they’d been there the entire time, if they’d heard Meghan’s screams and ignored them.
If they’d heard all the awful things Meghan said about her.
For so long she’d listened to Meghan’s little digs at her abilities, the small comments of how Quinn could never be good enough. Realizing the madness hidden away, the ultimate goal Meghan had, didn’t make it any easier for Quinn to cast it all aside.
“Get Annan,” Tobias shouted, hand cupping Quinn’s ear to muffle the volume though he left cold, tacky trails on her cheek and hair. Pushed her head against his shoulder and kept it there as he took the stairs two at a time.
“No need to shout I’m right—” Annan crashed to a stop, face paling as shaking hands covered pallid lips. The deep blue-gray of her gaze troubled, she took in the state of Tobias before even noticing Quinn. Lacking all of her usual bluster in the face of the still growling Alpha soaked in blood, Annan gave a faint wave towards the bedroom door. “I’ll need you to put her down to check her out.”
Tobias’ first reaction was instinctual. He roared at the Beta, clutching Quinn tighter and turning his shoulder so that she would be hidden behind his bulk. Protecting her from an imagined threat. The sudden appearance of Rebecca at the nursery door and the wails of both kids flowing out into the hall had him ready to charge. A repeat of what happened downstairs waiting to happen.
“Tobias, please, you’re scaring our babies,” Quinn whispered against his neck, shaking hand smoothing back the thick locks of his inky hair. Try as she might to ignore the slick feel of blood oozing between her fingers, she still shuddered. “Just take me to our room. Let Dr. Annan see how bad it is.”
The grinding of his teeth, the creak of his jaw as it tensed shuddered down her back. Arms crushing Quinn to the point she had to stifle her whine, Tobias gave a slow nod. One step became two, another bringing them to the bedroom. From there he became more decisive, consolation in the space permeated with their scents. Depositing Quinn on the couch, he hovered over her. Blood smeared face close, he ran his palms from cheeks to hair, tipping her head back to look at him.
Dr. Annan was wise to remain at the door. Clutching her little black bag high at her waist as a shield, she kept her gaze centered on the floor before her. Smart woman not to push the man, to hurry him along as he reassured himself Quinn was all right.
“You’re getting it all over me,” Quinn murmured, gasping through a wave of disgust that tried to make her stomach revolt. Made no move to bat his hands away or to shy away from his touch. Looking up into the twilit evergreen of his eyes, they were still far too focused.
