It was this display of strength that gave Eva the strength she herself needed. She knew that, had she not had Adrianna by her side throughout the day, that she would have broken down in tears, and quite possibly given up.
Eva spoke to Quinn, throughout the day, whenever he seemed to be restless or in pain. She didn’t know what to say but she said it anyway. She told him stories about their childhood and how much she wished they could go back to a time when things were simpler. She reminded him that she needed him. Towards late afternoon, she started begging him.
They could only feed him little bits of broth and water throughout the day, and Eva could see how his strength was failing him as a result. They needed Quinn to open his eyes, to show them that he was capable of shifting and give them a chance to heal him.
So, she begged.
At first, there seemed to be no change in Quinn’s condition. Eva was convinced he was slipping away from her faster than she could grab at him to keep him.
Eva spoke softly to him, imploring, begging that he come back to her and stay. Quinn’s breathing seemed to change slightly, to become slightly less labored.
Eventually Eva lay down next to Quinn, and not quite knowing what she expected would happen, fell into a light and troubled sleep. Adrianna slipped out of the door then, knowing that whatever would happen would happen, regardless of her presence.
“You know you snore in your sleep?” a familiar deep voice broke through Eva’s scattered dreams.
“Do not,” she mumbled, eyes still closed.
“Oh, I beg to differ,” amusement was thick in Quinn’s voice.
Eva’s eyes fluttered open as she realized it wasn’t a dream – Quinn was really talking to her.
And true enough, there he was. Quinn had shifted back into his human form.
“Oh, thank God,” Eva muttered as she took him in, her eyes drifting over inch of his exposed chest, as if she’d never seen him before. She sat up next to him, to better be able to look him over.
Her eyes stilled as they found the bruising on his left ribcage, vicious purples and blues marred the surface of his skin, the swelling was more than pronounced and she could see how every breath cost him. The pain was written clearly on his rugged, drawn face. His usually laughing emerald eyes were drawn tight in pain, and he had a dark five o’clock shadow that went very much against his usual clean-shaven appearance.
Her eyes searched his torso for more injuries, and found only more bruising on his left side towards his back.
“It looks worse than it actually is,” Quinn tried to chuckle, and came up short as pain lanced through his entire left side.
“Don’t try to lie to me, Quinn Maywell. You were never any good at it,” Eva hmphed.
“Duly noted,” Quinn smiled slightly, his pallor tending more on the yellow side, Eva noted.
“What brought you back?” she asked, tentatively.
“Well, there was this beautiful woman all but begging me to return to her, something about one night not being enough?”
Eva scowled at Quinn, but she found the smile spreading across his face was too infectious to ignore. She grinned back at him.
“I wonder what could possibly have possessed her,” she smirked.
“I couldn’t possibly begin to imagine,” Quinn cupped her cheek in his right hand.
“No, I’m sure you couldn’t,” Eva leaned into his hand, thankful to feel his work-roughened yet gentle hand against her skin.
“You worry too much, has anyone ever told you that?”
“Shut up and kiss me,” Eva replied, lowering her face closer to Quinn’s.
“Done and done,” he replied as he did what she asked of him.
Eva broke the kiss, leaning her forehead against Quinn’s, her teeth worrying at her bottom lip.
“What’s wrong, sweetheart?” Quinn asked, searching her eyes. He found immeasurable pain reflected in their depths.
“Don’t ever do that to me again, you hear me?”
“I don’t understand, Eva?” Quinn was struggling to understand the depth of the pain in Eva’s eyes; there was no reason for her to have worked herself up this much. Was there? Quinn wondered if it were possible that Eva felt something more for him than he’d thought, and brushed the thought away immediately.
There was no reason to think that the one night they had spent together would mean more than just sex to her – she had never noticed him as a teenager, she sure wasn’t going to notice him now just because she’d given in to a carnal need once. Quinn couldn’t force himself to believe that she felt anything for him; he couldn’t stand it if she broke his heart if he did believe it.
Eva bowed her head, and closed her eyes. Quinn’s confusion increased as he tried to understand what was bothering her so much. When the seconds had dragged into minutes, and she still hadn’t said anything, Quinn placed his forefinger under her chin, and tilted her face upwards, forcing her to meet his intent green gaze.
Her deep blue eyes regarded him solemnly, tears coursing their way slowly down her cheek. Quinn brushed it away with his thumb, eyes still searching hers for an answer.
Eva sighed, “There’s nothing to understand.”
“I disagree.”
“You don’t get to make me fall in love with you, and then go and nearly get yourself killed, Quinn. It isn’t fair,” Eva all but growled the words.
Quinn’s breath caught in his throat. She had said it. He had heard her, hadn’t he? He wasn’t sure he could trust his own ears at this point – he was weak and in pain. Surely, he had heard wrong?
“Could you say that again?” Quinn asked, his mouth dry.
“What?” Eva’s confusion was written clearly on her face.
“Could you say that part about how you’re in love with me again?”
Eva raised an eyebrow, but obliged anyway, “I’m in love with you, Quinn.”
Quinn finally let out the breath he’d been holding, and said simply, “It’s about time, Evangeline.” He pulled her towards him, and kissed her, letting the kiss say what he needed it to.
***
Quinn’s injuries were, thankfully, not as extensive as they could have been. He had several broken and cracked ribs, and could almost have punctured a lung if things had been worse.
He had also managed to hit his head on a large rock when he had been thrown down to the ground, causing a large gash on the back of his head and a rather unrelenting headache.
His bruising was extensive, and he was in an incredible amount of pain. But Quinn refused to let anyone know the full extent of his pain, let alone Eva. He put a brave face on, and bristled at Adrianna when she told him he was on bed rest, under no uncertain terms. He was not to leave his bed for at least the next two weeks. He would have to stay as still as possible, in order not to further irritate his ribs, she had said, smirking at Eva, who blushed a deep, yet flattering red.
He was also told to let Thomas, as his beta, take over the running of the tribe, for the time that he was on bed rest, and to keep his stress levels under control. Quinn had raised his eyebrows at that, and before he could give a sarcastic comment, was told that he would listen to Adrianna or else.
Eva, for her part, wasn’t taking Quinn’s usual levels of nonsense when it came to looking after himself. She put her foot down when he tried to cajole her into letting him go check on the hunters.
It wasn’t going to be the easiest road to recovery, Quinn knew that; but he also knew that it could have been much worse. Adrianna had also let him know that if he didn’t behave for two weeks, it could easily turn into four or six weeks instead. Quinn didn’t much like the sound of that, so he bit his tongue and pushed his pride down, and decided to stay put, whether he liked it or not.
Thomas came to check on Quinn later that day, poking his head around the bedroom door with eyes closed, asking if it was safe to enter.
“Thomas, what, do you think I’m allowed any physical exercise?” Quinn laughed, as Thomas sighed in relief a
nd sat down on the edge of the bed. Evangeline excused herself, with a warm smile for Thomas, and left the room, closing the door behind her.
“So, the bruising doesn’t suit your complexion,” Thomas noted sarcastically.
“It doesn’t suit my sense of humor, either,” Quinn remarked.
“No, I can imagine not.”
“All right, give me the breakdown.”
“Eleven of our own with minor injuries, one with a bit of a major concussion, and one idiot for a leader.” Thomas ticked off the list on his fingers, his lips quirking into a smile as he hit his mark with the last. “That brings the total to thirteen out of action. On their side, they had a fighting force of about forty, a good half of them were taken out completely. Another ten fled into the wilds, and the remainder have decided to join us. Awaiting your permission, of course.”
“The question is, can we afford to feed them, Thomas? At this point, our expansion is exceeding our capabilities. And if we aren’t capable of feeding them, are our finances stable enough to fund the expenditure until we get them up and running as a functioning part of society?”
Thomas sighed, and studied the back of his hands for a minute, deliberating what his answer would be.
“Honestly, Quinn?”
Quinn nodded.
“We may not have the resources to see us through the winter, but that’s even without them. What I can say, is gold we have enough of. We took what they had, and it was more than we expected, and we’re still floating from the other skirmishes over the last couple of years. So, there’s gold enough, yes. Do you need more men?” Thomas shrugged. “But what do you do with them if you don’t take them? You have to decide what’s best for the tribe, I can’t do it for you. I can only tell you what I’d do.”
“Do any of them have any useful skills?”
“Four were farmers, before they were promised riches. Three are solid hunters, or so I’m told. The other three are fighters.”
Quinn nodded, lost in thought for the moment.
“Take them on, with the understanding that they are going to carry their weight through the winter and the next summer. They’re on probation, as such. If I see anything I don’t like, they’ll be chased into the forest, winter or not.”
“Done,” Thomas smiled tightly.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Time seemed to crawl over the next few days. Quinn’s irritability at his confinement seemed to increase exponentially as each day wore on. He wasn’t someone who ever sat still, and the prospect of another week, at least, of doing nothing was eating him from the inside out.]
Quinn found himself being rude or short with his caretakers, and more often than not, found he’d bitten off Thomas’s head for something that was no one’s fault. No one’s, Quinn repeated to himself, not wanting to blame himself for the predicament he now found himself in.
The only good part of Quinn’s time being forced to sit still, was that he and Eva seemed to spend that much more time together. But Quinn knew he wasn’t being an easy patient, and try as he might, he couldn’t seem to change his attitude.
Eva was as patient as she could be, which, in all respects, wasn’t very patient at all. She bit her tongue so often that she felt it should be criminal to irritate someone to such an extent. The odd thing was, she found she was falling more in love with Quinn every day – his irritation even seeming to help that fact.
It seemed that, having finally told Quinn how she felt, had opened a flood gate of emotion in both of them – and the feelings they had for each other grew, with no bounds to keep them in check. It almost scared Eva, but she realized that it didn’t matter at this point how they’d come to be together – all that mattered was that they had found each other.
For Quinn, his relief at knowing that Eva, finally, magically, somehow, had fallen in love with him, took such an enormous weight off his shoulders that he found he could finally sleep at night. Or, was that due to Eva’s constant presence? he wondered. He found he really didn’t care what the reason was – all Quinn knew was, that he had the girl of his dreams finally reciprocating the love he had felt for her since they were teenagers.
That left Quinn with only one problem: the truth of why Eva had been bought and paid for, by him. He had yet to manage to tell her that he had been in love with her for years – he wasn’t sure she’d mind that part so much – but to tell her why he’d bought her, he feared that telling her the whole truth would cause a rift between them that he wouldn’t be able to fix. And he hated himself for that.
Quinn hated knowing that his actions had finally brought them together, but those very same actions could quite possibly force them apart, permanently.
So, he made a decision to enjoy the time they had together, rather than worry about it – he found that worrying only added to his irritation. Quinn knew that the truth would come out some day – it just wasn’t that day yet.
Quinn knew in those precious moments where Eva looked at him with a smile in her eyes, that they could go the long mile together. He knew, too, that he had never expected that her love would complete him to such an extent.
And so, he tried his utter best to block out the reality that one day all that they were building could shatter around him.
He could only admit his love to her, and hope that when it came down to it, that it would be enough to keep her.
The hollow in the bottom of his stomach, however, wouldn’t quite let him believe that it would be enough. His trust in himself had never been strong enough to believe that he could ever be enough for Eva. That, and a lifetime of living under his father’s thumb, had taught him to always prepare for the worst. The reality, in Quinn’s mind, was that this was only temporary for Eva – but he would take what love she gave him, until she took it away.
Eva could tell something was wrong, even before she opened her eyes. She was stretched out on Quinn’s side of the bed – had he woken up early? But there was a charge in the air that had her wolf senses on high alert. She opened her eyes slowly, half expecting to find someone in the room with her – but she was truly, horribly alone.
Eva dressed quickly, throwing on Quinn’s T-shirt from the day before, and a pair of faded jeans. She grabbed a gray hoodie on her way out of the door, knowing that the heat in the room would not follow her outside, where winter had finally taken hold of the land.
She stopped, as a growl ripped through the air. Eva’s feet took over then, rushing her to the kitchen door, and out into the central area of the village. She stopped short, as Quinn’s voice echoed across to her.
“You were warned, Jonah,” the iron and strength in Quinn’s voice belied the pain Eva knew he was still in.
A growl grew on the winter-still air. Eva walked around the corner of the central long house, to find a gathering of some of the tribe standing behind Quinn, who was pointing into the forest. A few yards away from him, a single wolf had his hackles raised, aggression written clearly on every part of his wolf-shape.
“Go, Jonah. We had a deal. You broke the accords of that deal on the most basic level,” Quinn was perfectly calm in the face of Jonah’s snapping and growling.
Quinn took a measured step forward; only Eva, Adrianna and Thomas knew that Quinn would be unable to shift for at least another week or two. The risk of causing more damage to his already injured human body was too high.
Eva’s eyes widened in fear; if the wolf decided to attack, Quinn was defenceless. Quinn knew that, as well as she did, but the villagers crowding behind him didn’t know that. Would any of them be able to shift in time to protect their leader, if it came down to it?
Eva’s sense of unease threatened to overwhelm her, so she took a step behind the long house, and shifted, hoping no one would notice – least of all Jonah.
“I’m not going to ask again, Jonah,” Quinn’s patience was wearing thin, as the wolf continued to snap and growl, standing his ground, refusing to leave the village.
Eva saw the change in Jonah’s posture be
fore Quinn did – a slight shifting of his weight to his front paws, indicated that he was preparing to take a running leap.
Quinn shouted, as Jonah started forward, taking a bounding leap in his direction. Eva sprang into action; her wolf form a blur of shades of grey and black as she launched herself between Jonah and Quinn. She snarled as she launched herself through the air, both a challenge and a threat in the same moment.
Eva’s open jaws connected with the side of Jonah’s throat as he leaped to tackle Quinn. She snapped them closed around his throat, and felt Jonah’s blood spray into the back of her throat, hot, burning liquid. Jonah’s spine snapped like a twig in her strong jaws, and she felt her teeth rip through flesh, muscle and bone like it was paper.
Jonah was dead by the time Eva’s forepaws hit the ground. She unclamped her jaws from his throat, and took a step back from his body, retching up the blood and tissue that had made its way down her throat. She shook her head, as if to clear the blood from her sinuses, and turned to check on Quinn.
His eyes showed more white than usual and he seemed to be trembling slightly, but other than that he was unharmed.
Eva trotted over to him, tongue lolling out the side of her mouth, and bumped his hand with her head. Quinn gave her a quick scratch behind the ears, before whispering, “What the hell were you thinking, Miss Eva?” before turning back to the villagers still gaping their surprise.
“Right, well. We all know not to mess with a she-wolf, huh?” Smiles and a general spattering of laughter met Quinn’s words, as the crowd started to disperse. Two burly men moved forward, letting Quinn know they would take care of the burial of the body, and went off to fetch shovels and anything else they would need.
Quinn scratched Eva’s ears one last time, before telling her they’d best go back home so that she could shift back and he could give her a talking to.
Eva smiled a wolfish grin, and ran off home, tail wagging in the air.
“What were you thinking?” Quinn’s voice was dangerously low, as Eva stood over the sink, brushing her teeth. The copper tang left in her mouth disturbed her more than anything else, and she was doing the one thing she could think of to get the feel of death off her. She had planned to take a shower after, but it seemed Quinn wasn’t going to let her off that easy.
Bought By Their Alpha Page 6