Seeing his little shoulders rounding, head hanging low, twisted Quinn’s heart. Tears springing to her eyes, she pushed off the chair to swoop down on Adam with a hug, pulling him tight against her chest as she began to purr. The broken sound was strained, brimming with sorrow as much as comfort, but it had him curling into her, wrapping his small body around hers as he sought more of her touch.
“I’ll try, okay?” Quinn cupped the back of Adam’s head, holding him close as he pushed his nose against her neck.
“Okay.”
“But no more yelling,” Quinn added as she pulled him back enough to see rounded hazels swimming in tears.
“No yelling.” Adam sniffled, tugging on Quinn’s hair to pull her closer as he threw his body forward, wrapping himself in her.
“All right.”
Quinn grabbed on to the crib side for balance as she pushed up to her feet, groaning as Adam’s added weight almost sent her to her knees. He was too heavy, too solid for her to be carrying like this anymore, but she would rather the discomfort of it than to make him let her go.
Meghan preceded them down the stairs, Elise babbling over her shoulder at them. Quinn went much slower, taking each step with care as she held the banister with a white knuckled grip. For his part, Adam seemed to know not to squirm. He held on tight and remained still, letting Quinn concentrate on each step down.
Arriving in the dining room, Meghan brushed away Quinn’s insistence on helping. Leaving her alone at the table with the kids, Meghan disappeared into the depths of the house to prepare something. Whoever cooked their meals took lunch off during the week, only breakfast and dinner supplied in abundance. It seemed the rest of the household didn’t deserve a meal if Kahler wasn’t attending.
Snorting at her thoughts, Quinn tried to keep the two restless children occupied while they waited. The headache that had begun as a minor annoyance in the nursery had swelled. Now something angry and vicious attacked her skull, battering away with a dull chisel and hammer. Her stomach twisted and rolled in sympathetic unity. Very bones aching, joints tight and pinching, she wanted nothing more than to crawl into the nest and sleep for days.
Instead she listened to her children, strained smile fixed as she nodded and made the correct responses to their rambling dialogue, of which Elise seemed most intent on. The two had some bond, Adam seeming to know what it was Elise was saying, or at least guessing better than Quinn ever would. Fingertips tracing the thick whorls of the polished wood, she wondered if that was some trick of siblings, if perhaps she would have had the same if Marina hadn’t aborted every pregnancy after Quinn.
The sudden surge of tears shocked her, enough that a few slipped free before she could get some control of herself and blink them away. Why that would upset her was beyond understanding. Emotions all over the place, the hormones wreaking havoc on her body, it was no wonder something so trivial and stupid as her mother and the thought of lost children would bother her.
Meghan reappeared with a tray, smile sympathetic as she placed a plate with the other half of Elise’s sandwich in front of Quinn. A glass of juice and one of Adam’s pudding cups joined it, rounding out the wretched excuse of a meal. Quinn shuddered as she picked up the pudding, peeling back the foil top. Keeping the plastic grin in place, she spooned a bare taste between her lips and tried not to gag.
Too sweet, the thick texture clung to the roof of her mouth before she could swallow it. It coated her tongue with a veneer of sludge, one that tried to choke before it slipped down her throat. Closing her eyes, she spooned another bit into her mouth, listening to the bright chattering around her, hoping she could make it through at least most of the meal.
Some weird effect of the bond, everything tasted wrong. Tobias continued to tell her that it would get better, but it hadn’t. One bite of the grilled cheese, it felt sandpaper rough and oil spill slick all at the same time. She couldn’t chew it fast enough, the tiny bite taking forever to grind into a pulpy mass that tasted and felt like sawdust. The sip of apple juice was rancid, thick and cloying as it slithered down her throat.
If he felt anything of this, either before or after her claim on him, he showed no hint of his revulsion. The bastard ate with gusto, consuming huge amounts. Fuel for an Alpha’s higher metabolism and solid mass, he consumed food as if every meal would be the last.
The fucker.
Quinn couldn’t remember the last meal she’d enjoyed. Something Ilya had cooked her, something delicious and extravagant. Memories of crispy skinned chicken and lofty clouds of mashed potatoes made her mouth water.
Eyes snapping open, Quinn slapped a hand over her mouth and hurtled to her feet. Chair crashing to the floor, she tripped over the upended piece in her race towards the bathroom. The hall lengthened as bare soles slapped against the hardwood floors, colors melding and swirling as everything began to spin.
She wasn’t going to make it.
Behind her she heard Adam and Elise screaming. It took every ounce of effort to keep on her course, to move away from those awful sounds towards the door that was just out of reach.
A dark shadow glided in from another room, hooded eyes dark as pitch as they watched on with indifference. Quinn’s feet stuttered over the floor, grinding to a halt as she choked on the bile flooding her mouth and the shriek of fear that followed it.
There was nothing she could do though cold logic tried to assure it was only one of the males he set to guard the house. The panic running rampant through her veins had her crashing to her knees, palms braced against the thick rug ahead as she lowered her body in submission. The dull gleam of heavy black boots shifting closer was her undoing.
Tears searing pallid cheeks, she retched all over them.
* * *
It had taken hours to calm Adam and Elise down. An age spent soothing their tears and wails while trying to keep from falling apart. The man she’d thrown up on had been angered and disgusted, which Quinn couldn’t blame him for. She did however blame him for the violent roar that had set the kids off into an epic meltdown.
It hadn’t helped her shattered nerves, either. Especially with what came after.
Others had flooded in, flowing from hidden niches to fill the room to bursting with male posturing and anger. Smoky darkness and hot ash coated her sinuses alongside the acrid burn as she continued to heave all over the expensive rug.
They were quick to disperse when she began to growl at them, crawling her way back towards the dining room though the battered ache of her midsection kept her bent double.
At least they had known not to press a threatened Omega.
