by Lacey Thor
“We’re losing her!”
Mitch wasn’t sure who’d said the words. It didn’t matter. In that moment, his entire world came to a grinding halt, and he did something he hadn’t done in too many years to count. He dropped to his knees and prayed to a god he’d disavowed years ago.
Chapter Five
Pain was the first thing Quinn noticed when she began to surface. Her abdomen resonated with a deep throb all the way across and down along her left side. Something wasn’t right. What had the evil fuck done to her this time? Talbot and his horrific ambitions to create the perfect shifter. A little of this, a little of that, and he’d get a killing machine he could control on a command. Unlike the shifters he’d captured and failed to break over the years. Even the ones taken from the womb and raised to hate had rebelled eventually.
She shifted and gasped, noting two things quickly. The first was that she wasn’t tied down as he was fond of doing. The second was the pull of stitches. Why had he stitched her up? He never did that anymore. He always coated her in a special liquid that prevented her wound from healing so he could have easy access to check or change or do whatever the hell he wanted to do when the mood hit him. What was going on?
She had to be sure. She gingerly slipped a hand down until she encountered the stitched wound. God, it hurt. But then Talbot always made sure she felt the utmost pain during recovery. Pain was a control mechanism for him. Pain split focus. Pain gave the enemy control. At least in Talbot’s mind. So he made sure she felt the most he could dole out. Still, she knew within hours, the changes he’d created within her would finally kick in, and as he wanted, she’d heal quickly. The better for him to start all over again.
“Quinn?”
She turned her head toward the voice calling to her. It was familiar, yet she couldn’t quite place it.
“She’s awake!”
The yell followed. Same voice. For some reason, it made her feel safe. What type of headfuck had Talbot accomplished this time? She wasn’t safe. She hadn’t been from the moment she’d been called in to help with an experiment only to become the experiment while Talbot laughed and belittled her for thinking she could sneak into his world and think he wouldn’t know her for the plant she was. He’d talked about how much he enjoyed plants. Watering and feeding them while he plucked the leaves then crossbred them to create his vision of what they could become.
The voice drew closer, and as a man’s face loomed over hers, everything snapped back into place for her. Her release from the lab. The journey to the Walker Post where she was supposed to find a shifter named Thomas. Ariel. The tigress who’d saved her instead. And Mitch. Mitch, who’d held her while she cried and was always there for her no matter how undeserving she was.
The fog disappeared as if burned away by the sun, and her hand skimmed from her left side to her stomach. Her flat stomach. Her baby!
She roared as she jerked up, and ignored the flair of pain that movement ignited. The trickle of blood didn’t faze her as she vaulted off the bed to land in a crouch at the foot. Nothing could compare to the horror ripping her apart inside. Where was her son? What had they done to him?
Tony walked through the door, and she focused all her attention on him. She’d learned enough in her time with the pride in Oklahoma to know that if anyone were a threat to her son, it would be Tony. He always had a plan. In many ways, he reminded her too much of Talbot. Always with the secrets and plans.
“What have you done?” She bared her teeth at him, hissing as he took a step closer toward her.
He merely lifted his brow at her, arrogance pouring from him as he took her in. The bastard had no clue just how much danger he was in if he didn’t tell her where her son was. She’d gut him just as easily as she’d done the hunter who’d merely threatened her son.
“Saved your life. You’re welcome.”
“Where is he?” she demanded.
Tony gave her a calculating look, and she prepared to launch. Arms wrapped around her from behind, and Mitch’s scent filled her. He wasn’t holding her back. He was offering her support, holding her softly so she knew she could easily shrug him off.
“He’s with Diane.” His words tickled her ear, his breath warm along her cheek. “The bullet you took tore the placenta. His life was at risk. They had to take him in order to save him.”
She turned to him, spinning in his arms so his palms landed warm on her back. It clicked in her mind that she was naked, but she brushed it aside. Talbot had stripped her of any modesty long ago, and her son was all that mattered.
“Where is he? Take me to him.”
“As soon as we check you over first,” Tony decreed. “You’ve ripped your stitches. I’ll need to fix those and check your vitals before you can go anywhere. Not to mention clothes. I’m not sure you want to parade around here in the buff.”
She was up and on him in an instant. Her fingers dug into his windpipe, controlling the amount of air he breathed.
“Take. Me. To. My. Son.”
The door opened, and Diane pushed in an incubator. As if her body had merely been waiting for that, Quinn’s breasts began to leak from the tips, more than ready to feed her son. She left Tony and moved with single-minded focus to her baby. Inquisitive eyes met hers, and the tiny mew of his lips seemed to turn up as if he were as happy to see her as she was to see him. She scooped him up, touching his face then moving the blanket to check over every inch of him for any manipulations that may have been made while she’d been unable to protect him. All his fingers and toes were accounted for. His creamy skin was baby soft and unblemished. Beautiful. He was the most beautiful sight she’d ever beheld.
“Welcome to the world, sweetheart.”
He made a sound that echoed in her heart as he grasped her finger with one hand, giving it a squeeze that showed the strength he held even in infancy.
“Look at how big and strong you are, my brave, little boy. I’m sorry I wasn’t there to greet you when you opened these beautiful eyes and took your first look at the world. I hope it wasn’t too scary. I promise I’ll be here from now on. I’m going to protect you. No one will ever hurt you.”
She couldn’t take her gaze off him. Her heart overflowed with love. Her little miracle baby. Her brave boy. Her little lion. She moved him to her breast when he turned his head and began to nuzzle. He found her nipple with ease and after a brief adjustment so she could properly attach him, he nursed with relish as if he’d been starving while he’d waited for her to awaken.
“He should have been here when I woke up. This should have happened immediately.”
It was a bonding moment between mother and child. One they’d both been robbed of.
“He needed care while you recovered. You almost died, Quinn. I watched over him while you couldn’t.”
Diane was the one who responded to her harsh rebuke, using a soft tone for her reprimand and making Quinn feel ungrateful when she was anything but.
“I’m sorry.”
“No need to apologize. I’d have felt the same way in your place, but you’re not alone anymore, Quinn. It’s time you accept that. You have family here, and I’m not only speaking of your father.”
Diane pointed toward a chair in the corner before Quinn could formulate a response. “Why don’t you have a seat there while you nurse? Mitch, grab her a blanket while I change the bedding.”
Quinn took a seat, cuddling her son close. She didn’t blink when Mitch moved toward them and put a blanket over them both. He remained beside them, squatting next to the chair and reaching out to rub a finger down her son’s cheek. It surprised her when her baby waved his free hand and took Mitch’s offered finger.
“He has a strong grip,” Mitch murmured, bringing her attention briefly to his face. There was wonder and awe and maybe the beginning of love there. She didn’t blame him. Her son already held her heart in his tiny grasp.
“He takes after his father,” she replied, giving her son her full attention again.
“I’d say his mother is plenty strong,” Diane called as she put fresh sheets on the bed. “We need to stitch you back up before you get back in here or you’ll need another set of clean bedding.”
“Leave it. Unless something was put on it to keep it from closing, it’ll be fine now that I’m awake.”
Diane paused, and had Quinn not been watching, she might have missed the look the other woman sent toward Tony, the slight jerk of her chin giving him a no to whatever question must have been asked while Quinn hadn’t been aware.
“We need to talk about that, too,” Diane told her. “The bullet, the surgery, the baby, and why you heal like a shifter when you’re human. An unmated human.”
“His father—”
“Wasn’t your mate.” Tony cut her off. Something in his tone had her hackles rising and a growl spilling from her lips. There was no way he could know that just from looking inside her.
“There’s that also,” Tony continued. “The growls, the claws, and the change in your eyes when the animal you shouldn’t have is close to the surface. What the hell are you?” The last was said as a casual musing. As if he weren’t worried because he was going to find out one way or another.
“I’m his mother.”
“Maybe. Maybe not.”
Tony’s words jerked up her head as fear beat a sharp staccato inside her. He didn’t know. How could he have hit on her greatest fear right out of the gate? He couldn’t know the fear Talbot had planted inside her. But his gaze said he did. Said he knew more than he should. Said he knew every fear she’d locked inside. Growls spilled from her throat again, and to the shock of everyone in the room, her son released her nipple and rumbled with tiny growls along with her.
“Tony, enough,” Diane warned as she moved toward Quinn.
She held out her hands as Quinn turned her growls onto the approaching woman.
“No harm. I know you’re his mother. The bond between the two of you is strong. Look at how he feels your anger and responds to it.” She brushed her fingers over the baby’s head. “Calm yourself, Quinn, so he’ll calm, too. He needs to keep the nourishment you gave him inside and not throw it up. He’s so little. It’s easy to overlook that when you can feel how strong he is. But he was early. Further along than any of us thought, but still a few weeks early.”
“Is he okay?” Quinn frantically ran her gaze over him as if she could see inside to the organs hidden by skin and muscle.
“He’s fine. Absolutely fine. I promise. He tolerated me cleaning him up. Even let me feed him a little bit to hold him over until you woke up. He watched me the entire time, as if he were deciding if he could trust me or not.” Diane shook her head, but there was a smile on her lips. “He’s a little fighter. And he loves his mother.” She emphasized the word, throwing a scathing look toward Tony.
“Blood doesn’t lie,” Tony challenged.
“Blood isn’t everything,” Diane countered.
“What are you getting at, Tony?” Mitch demanded, and Quinn tried to prepare herself for Tony’s next words.
“The baby’s blood is different from Quinn’s. Too different.”
That rumble spilled again, echoed by the babe in her arms. It was a clear warning Tony blatantly disregarded.
“Biologically, I’m unsure whether he’s yours or not. Which begs the question, if he’s not yours, then who are his parents, and what part did you play in the reason they’re not here? What did you do to them, Quinn? How badly did you want that baby you’re holding?”
Memories spilled in. Bright lights. Blinding pain. Incisions on her abdomen, indicating Talbot’s machinations. The burning hatred in eyes that followed her every move, plotting an end for Quinn and the babe growing within her. The attack. The rage. The blood.
“Careful, Tony,” Mitch warned, obviously picking up on the rage building inside her.
“Why? Doesn’t that child deserve to know how he was conceived? Don’t we deserve to know the woman we’re dealing with here? To know how complicit she might be in how he ended up in her womb? A womb that’s no longer there, by the way.”
His words ripped her to the core. She’d thought the emptiness she’d felt was the fact her child was no longer nestled there. Instead, it was a sense that a vital part of her was missing. The part that would allow her to bring another child into the world. A part of her that made her a viable mate and woman for a man she could love. She glanced toward Mitch and cringed away from the sadness she saw there. She’d didn’t want nor need his sympathy.
“Quinn.” Mitch’s voice was soft, quiet. Accepting.
“Tony, enough,” Diane warned again, though she eased away from Quinn. “Calm down. Quinn, think of your son.”
“Or someone else’s son. We don’t really know. Do you, Quinn? Is there another woman who should be sharing this moment with him instead?”
She was on her feet with a snarl.
“Don’t make the mistake of threatening me,” she warned, taking a step toward Tony. “You’ll be the next man I gut, if you think you’re taking my son from me.”
Tony’s mouth curved into a cold smile. “It’s not taking if he never really belonged to you in the first place.”
She lunged, smoothly passing her son to Mitch mid-move so she could wrap both her hands around Tony’s throat. She backed him against the wall. The claws were back, sprouting from her fingertips and drawing blood so it dripped from the cuts she’d opened on his throat.
“You think you’re so untouchable. That you can say and do whatever you want. You’re more like Talbot than you care to admit, I bet.”
“The fuck I am.”
She cut off his words by increasing the pressure on his throat. “What’s the matter? Afraid the mad doctor DNA passed on to you?” Utter silence permeated the air. Tony’s expression switched from surprise to anger in mere seconds, making Mitch realize there was more to Quinn’s words than a verbal jab.
“Tony?” Diane questioned.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Tony warned Quinn.
“You’re not the only one who knows secrets. I learned a lot during my captivity. Funny how freely people speak in front of you when you’re no longer seen as a person. When you become an object to be manipulated and studied. And Talbot loves to brag. Especially about the nephew he thought was following in his footsteps.”
“Fuck you,” Tony snarled and shoved her away.
She let him go, let him walk out the door, because she knew the truth. She knew no matter what fear ate her inside that she was the only mother who mattered to her son. The only one who would die to protect him.
“Did you just… He’s…” Diane didn’t seem able to finish her questions, but Quinn was happy to answer them anyway. She’d see how Tony liked having the spotlight thrown on him.
“I did. Your boy wonder is none other than the nephew of Dr. Victor Talbot. Blood doesn’t lie.”
Chapter Six
Mitch wanted to follow Tony out the door and demand answers. He’d known Tony had secrets, but he’d never once considered they’d be something like a connection to one of the biggest monsters within the purist hunter society. It was hard to wrap his brain around. Made him wonder if anyone else knew, mainly, Aleksy, the black liger shifter who was like a brother to Tony.
“I don’t—”
Quinn’s words jerked his attention back to her in time to see her hit the floor hard. He passed the baby back to Diane and moved to scoop Quinn up against his chest before placing her back in the bed. Her side bled heavily, and he glanced around to see he’d been left alone.
By the time he reached the bed and laid Quinn down, Diane was bustling back in with Gideon at her side. She passed the baby back to Mitch with a warning. “I think it best if you’re holding her son when she wakes. You seem to be the only one she trusts.”
He shrugged at the unasked question behind Diane’s words. He wasn’t sure why Quinn trusted him, but he’d damn well do his best to make sure she knew she
always could.
“She needs someone to trust,” Diane continued. “Don’t screw it up.”
“Her side isn’t healing.” Gideon’s words claimed their full attention. “Didn’t she say her healing ability usually kicked in once she was awake?”
“Yes, but she’s passed out now. Would that stall it?” Mitch asked.
“That doesn’t make sense,” Diana murmured.
“What about any of this makes sense?” Gideon challenged as he went to work suturing Quinn’s side closed again. “We have a human woman clearly displaying shifter attributes. The growls, the claws, the changing eye color.”
“She was pregnant with a shifter baby,” Diane reminded.
“As were you and Abby and Darby. All human women. None of you have exhibited shifter traits like those. Enhanced senses, yes. Claws and lion growls, no.”
“What about what Talbot did to her?” Mitch asked when Gideon paused.
“Obviously, his actions caused the changes within her. But how? How has he managed to change her physiology in such a way? It shouldn’t be possible,” Gideon challenged. “Shifters are born. Not created in a lab.”
“What the hell did he do to her?” Diane asked again, horror clear on her face.
“Whatever he wanted.” Quinn whispered the answer as she blinked open her eyes. Her gaze immediately went to her son, and she held her arms toward him. Mitch moved closer and eased the baby down to her. The baby immediately cooed and nuzzled at his mother. Shared blood or not, she’d carried the baby and obviously created a bond with him.
Diane wasn’t as enthralled with the maternal picture Quinn and child created.
“That answer doesn’t cut it any longer. We need to know what happened, Quinn. What did he do? How did you end up with this gorgeous little boy in your womb? What happened to his father? There’s too much at stake here for us to be flying in the dark. We need to know what was done to you if we’re going to be able to give you and your son the best care we can. I don’t like operating blindly.”
Quinn never moved her gaze from her son. “I am telling you. He did whatever he wanted to me. He took everything. Everything.”