Chris (Second Wave Book 4)

by Mikayla Lane

  “We’ll carry ourselves with honor among the humans. Neither above them or beneath them, but as unseen guardians in their midst,” Shane muttered part of the oath.

  Chris knew what was coming, but Quinn was shocked speechless when Shane punched Chris in the face and dropped him to his knees. The brother hanging on his arm fell with him but immediately stood and kicked Chris in the ribs.

  “Oh my god!” Quinn screamed.

  She wiggled her way around the other women, getting ready to go to Chris when he stood, holding his jaw with one hand.

  “I’m good! It’s OK,” Chris mumbled, trying to play it off when he saw Quinn and the women watching from the villa window.

  “What the hell is going on?” Quinn demanded as she turned to the other women.

  “He broke an oath we made as family. He’s paying for it,” Angel said a little harshly. “Don’t worry though; he heals fast.”

  “Quinn? Can you please come out?” Chris roared as he headed towards the steps to their veranda.

  Dree and Chance looked at Quinn with raised eyebrows, and Angel shook her head.

  “I’ll tell him to get lost for you if you want,” Angel suggested as she crossed her arms over her chest. “I’m prime; I can do it.”

  “Quinn?” Chris called out again, this time from right outside the door.

  Quinn held her breath as the door opened slowly, and she watched in shock as Chris was tackled by a blur and thrown to the ground. Angel and Dree erupted in laughter as another man sat on Chris’s chest and punched him in the face.

  “What the hell!” Quinn whispered as she covered her mouth with her hand. She wasn’t sure if it was too hide her shock or the smile that threatened to erupt on her face.

  “Damn it, Liam! You bastards are going to ruin this for me,” Chris muttered in embarrassment.

  The large man got off of Chris’s chest and came into the room, scooping Dree into his beefy arms.

  Quinn ignored the intimate kiss between Dree and Liam as she looked a little worriedly at Chris. He was still sitting on the veranda holding his jaw as he moved it gingerly back and forth to see if it still worked correctly.

  Angel was still glaring daggers at Chris, and Quinn was caught between saving him and letting him suffer the way she had for four long months. She’d just decided on making him suffer a little while longer when Chris stood and moved to the door. The defeated look in his eyes was really getting to her when she heard a loud pop, Chris’s head was snapped back, and his lip began pouring blood.

  “Son of a bitch, Angel!” Chris mumbled.

  He covered his lip with his hand while the other held onto the door frame to keep him from falling to his knees from the ringing blow.

  Quinn looked over at Angel in shock, having never seen her raise her hand.

  “It was an energy punch. I’m too small to make the impression the guys do with my fist, so I improvise,” Angel said with an evil grin.

  Grai emerged from behind Chris, and he pushed him out of the doorway. Quinn watched as he went to the kitchen counter, grabbed a towel and threw it at Chris who easily caught it.

  “Don’t bleed on her floor, and don’t cross that doorway unless Quinn says it’s all right,” Grai growled at Chris. “Don’t test me on this, son.”

  Chris kept his gaze downcast as he stepped back from the threshold and nodded his head.

  Quinn was shocked at the defeated, downcast attitude Chris displayed. She had never seen him as anything but rugged, strong, and unshakeable. In her mind, she’d elevated him to a level of invincible or untouchable, and the man before her was nothing like the Chris she thought she knew.

  A part of her wanted to learn more about this side of him that she’d never seen before, while another part of her thought he should have already shown that side during the 10 years they’d been together.

  “Son, she doesn’t appear to want you here. Why don’t you ask before you show up next time?” Grai suggested as he looked between Chris and Quinn.

  Chris raised sad blue eyes to Quinn, and she sighed as she felt her determination to see him suffer waver.

  Grai moved in front of Chris and gestured for him to go. Chris gave her one last heartbreaking look before he turned away.

  “Wait!” Quinn yelled out, then felt like smacking herself.

  “Damn, I was really hoping you’d have lasted longer than this,” Angel muttered.

  Grai looked so intently at Quinn that she felt nervous for a moment until he spoke.

  “Don’t let him push you around or manipulate you. If you want him to go, tell him so, and he will. Won’t you, Chris?” Grai said, turning a dark glare at his son.

  “Yes, sir,” Chris said, his voice sounding almost normal.

  “You bring her back here in time to eat dinner and rest. She’s pregnant with your son, so don’t wear her out,” Angel said threateningly before she huffed into the kitchen.

  Chris narrowed his eyes at his sister until Grai growled at him. He nodded his head quickly and moved away from the door so Quinn could come outside.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Quinn gave Grai a small smile of thanks as she moved past him and out of the door. Just leaving the villa and the protection of the people inside made her wonder if she’d made the right decision. She stepped away from Chris so they wouldn’t touch and put her hands protectively over her stomach, unwilling to look into his eyes.

  “I was hoping we could walk for a bit, but if you’re too tired we can sit right here,” Chris said softly, uncomfortable with the faces spying on them from inside the villa.

  Quinn looked towards the window, saw the curtain move, and knew everyone inside was listening to them. What they had to say to one another really needed to be done in private, but Quinn wasn’t comfortable going too far from the villa either.

  “Maybe just down to the lake,” Quinn suggested.

  She knew it would be easy for everyone in the villa to see them, but she hoped they wouldn’t be able to hear them. She started toward the stairs without waiting for Chris.

  She sucked in a quick breath when Chris gently took her arm, and she jerked it away from him. Chris looked like he’d been punched again before he quickly masked it.

  “I’m sorry . . . I just thought you might need help,” he said before he stepped away from her.

  “I’m fine,” Quinn snapped, then calmed herself. “We’ve been managing without you just fine.”

  Oh gods, I’m so fucked, Chris thought. He knew damn well that a woman claiming to be fine was anything but.

  Chris wracked his mind for something to say that wouldn’t cause an argument or drive the wedge further between them.

  “How . . .” Chris paused to clear the lump from his throat. “Did Amun say how the baby is doing?”

  Quinn almost missed the next step, and she caught herself quickly.

  “Christopher is fine,” Quinn snapped back.

  As if to prove her words, her stomach lit up with arcing blue lights before disappearing.

  Chris threw his hands up at the violent display of energy, and it suddenly dawned on him what Grai had tried to tell him about teaching his son control.

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean anything by that. I just wanted to make sure he’s all right. That you both are,” Chris said softly as he looked around the lake. “Fuck! You bastards!”

  “What?” Quinn shrieked as she turned on Chris.

  Her emotions were so on edge that she let fly with a volley of energy bolts at Chris, launching him through the air and right into the lake. Chris came up sputtering and cursing as Quinn stared in horror at the grinning man Chris had been talking about. Not her.

  “Hey! I’m Alex, nice to meet you, Quinn and Christopher,” the adorable man said with a gallant bow and flash of smile as another man ran up to them.

  “I’m Reign,” he introduced as he held out a hand to her.

  Quinn shook it automatically as Chris stomped through the water towards the edge.

&
nbsp; “We’ll talk more later,” Alex said and quickly kissed Quinn’s cheek before running to where Chris was almost out of the water.

  Reign laughed and Quinn winced as Alex punched Chris in the face, dropping him back into the water. Alex glared momentarily at his brother before he stomped off on the other side of the lake.

  “Gods damn it!” Chris roared as he stood back up and shook the water from his head. “Give me 10 fucking minutes!”

  Chris began stalking towards them as Reign laughed and began heading in the opposite direction.

  “I’ll catch you later, brother,” Reign said as he broke into a run.

  Chris’s face looked painfully swollen on both sides as he approached her, but his sodden clothes and squeaking shoes had Quinn fighting to contain her smile.

  “They . . .” Chris threw his arms up then shook his head. “I screwed up with you really bad, and they’re basically giving me what I deserve.”

  Quinn was so taken aback by the admission that she didn’t know what to say. Then she remembered how he’d lied to her for 10 years and knew she really couldn’t trust what he said.

  “What did you want to talk about?” Quinn replied, pretending to be unaffected by his words.

  Chris sighed heavily.

  Yeah, this is fine, he thought. It means I can go pound sand because I’ll get farther.

  “Quinn, I know that saying I’m sorry can never change what happened, but I am deeply sorry,” Chris said, feeling at a major disadvantage as he dripped water and faced her blank stare.

  “Thank you for apologizing,” Quinn said then turned to head back to the house.

  There was no way she could stay this close to him with her pregnancy hormones going haywire. Quinn knew she was either going to cry or cave to his sad blue eyes, squeaky shoes, and pathetic demeanor.

  “Damn it, Quinn!” Chris growled as he ran up beside her.

  All Quinn heard was the splack, squeak, splack, squeak of his pants slapping together and his boots squeaking, and she choked on a laugh.

  “I’m glad that at least my indignity can make you smile again,” Chris said quietly, unable to stop the smile that came over him when he saw hers.

  That stopped Quinn in her tracks, and she turned to him.

  “I would never want to see you stripped of your dignity, especially not in front of those you respect and care for,” Quinn said as she gestured to the villa and the curtain that was mysteriously swaying. “I know how much that hurts.”

  The look in her eyes before she headed back up the stairs made Chris’s heart clench at the pain he’d caused her, and he closed his eyes, remembering how he’d done just that to her when he erupted at her in the restaurant.

  “Yeah, I would more than deserve it if you did,” he muttered as he easily caught back up to her.

  He scrambled for something to say or something to do to make it better, but his mind was completely blank. Before he knew it they were at the veranda, and Grai was staring at him disapprovingly.

  He was still clueless about what to say when Quinn walked inside and into Angel’s open arms. It was the last he saw of her before Grai blocked them from view as Liam closed the door.

  “Still think you have no need for advice from your sister?” Grai asked with a quirked brow.

  “Don’t you have any advice?” Chris grumbled, thinking he’d rather talk to anyone but his sister right now.

  “I think you need more help than I can give you,” Grai admitted. “Let’s go. You’re done being a fool today. You’re staying in town with your brothers, and I better not catch you near Quinn without her permission.”

  “How the hell am I supposed to fix it if I can’t be around her?” Chris demanded as he followed his father down the path back to town.

  “You don’t fix it by forcing yourself on her and pissing her off,” Grai stopped suddenly and turned a questioning gaze on his son. “Chris, why were you friends to begin with?”

  Chris shuffled his feet and avoided Grai’s eyes as he thought about it.

  “I don’t know . . . we were just great together. It’s not like we had a lot in common, but we enjoyed being together enough to do what the other liked,” Chris admitted, a little surprised that he didn’t have a better answer than that.

  Suddenly Reign came running up beside them, and as Chris turned to see who it was, Reign nailed him in the side of the head. Chris stopped and put his hands on his knees as he tried to clear the stars in his vision.

  “You’re still an asshole!” Reign called out as he ran back towards town.

  “How is this helpful?” Chris roared back at his brother, sick of being blindsided from the long-term beating at the hands of his brothers and sister.

  Grai smothered a laugh as he patted Chris’s back.

  “Maybe I was wrong. Since your brothers appear to be such experts with women, maybe you should ask them how to fix it,” Grai suggested.

  He burst out laughing when he saw the look of horror on Chris’s face.

  “How bad could it be?” Grai asked.

  “I’m supposed to ask the guys who are currently humiliating me in front of her how to win her back?” Chris shot back incredulously.

  “It appears to me that a little lesson in humility is more than warranted in this case. Don’t you agree?” Grai countered with a raised eyebrow as he resumed walking.

  “I fucking hate you people sometimes!” Chris growled as he caught back up to his father.

  “Tell me, son. If it had been Reign, Haruki, or any of your other brothers who had done this to a pregnant female, would you be treating them any differently right now?” Grai asked.

  “I also fucking hate it when you’re right,” Chris muttered, knowing full well he’d be doing the same thing his siblings were doing.

  Grai chuckled and put an arm around his shoulder as they neared the town.

  “Chris, you’re a smart man. Think about what endeared you to her to begin with . . . and start all over again,” Grai suggested before he left Chris and headed into the castle for a meeting in the conference room.

  Chris threw his hands up in the air as he stood by himself in the middle of the stone-lined street. As he looked around, he realized he was leaving himself wide open for another cheap shot from his siblings, and he headed into the building to see what room Thjodhild had ready for him.

  Resigning himself to taking the hits from his siblings, Chris didn’t even try to defend himself when Mikal popped up beside him. He breathed a sigh of relief when he realized Mikal had already taken his shot, and he was safe—for the moment at least.

  “Lara, Siggy, and Dante may have a lead on Satalis,” Mikal mentioned then scrunched up his nose. “We can discuss it after you’ve showered and no longer smell like Nessie. Did you think pity would help your case with Quinn?”

  “Fuck you, Mikal. Where’s my room?” Chris demanded, no longer amused.

  “Come on, you idiot,” Mikal said as he led them up two floors and down the hall.

  Mikal opened up one of the doors and gestured for Chris to go inside before he followed.

  Chris stripped his shirt off and headed towards the bathroom to turn on the water.

  “What have they found out?” he called out.

  “They think they may have a way to find him. They’re checking it out now. We should know more by the time you’re done and we get down there,” Mikal called back.

  He dug through the gear bag he’d brought for Chris when he heard Quinn had come to beta and began laying out a clean, dry set of clothes for his brother.

  “What the hell did they think of now that we hadn’t tried over the last year?” Chris asked.

  “Well, Ainsley for one. Lara thinks that wherever Satalis is, he got there by a portal that the girl most likely created for him. Or helped create. Either way, they may be able to pinpoint the energy signature and find the other portals,” Mikal replied as he sat in a chair and waited for Chris.

  “What do you think?” Chris asked as
he got in the shower and hurriedly bathed, more than glad to think of anything besides Quinn and his inability to fix things with her.

  *****

  “You guys really don’t have to stay here with me. I’m sure you have other things to do,” Quinn said as she looked at Liam, Dree, Angel, and now Drago. The latter had arrived only minutes after Chris and Grai had left.

  “We figured you’d have questions, and everything you’d have a question about is right here. A Tezarian, a Dranovian and a prime,” Angel said with a grin.

  “Not to mention one of Chris’s brothers in case you want dirt on him,” Dree added before Liam put his hand gently over her mouth.

  For the life of her, Quinn couldn’t think of anything. The only thing she wanted at that point was to be left alone to her own thoughts and her riotous emotions after seeing Chris after so many months.

  “You still love him,” Drago said simply, not expecting a reply.

  It caused Angel and Dree to sit forward and look at her, expecting her to confirm or deny it. Feeling trapped, Quinn knew she had to say something.

  “He’s the father of my child. Of course I love him,” Quinn said, watching Angel and Dree look at one another knowingly. “Don’t get any ideas; I’ll never trust him again and don’t want him back.”

  No one seemed to even notice that she’d added the last to her statement, and she shook her head, giving up on convincing them otherwise.

  Actions speak louder than words, Quinn thought. When I get my bearings, I’m out of here.

  Those thoughts led to questions, and she spent the next few hours learning about Satalis, the Relians, dark ones, and all about the shadow governments the Dranovians and hybrids fought around the Earth.

  Everyone had eaten dinner as they answered Quinn’s questions, and she was trying to hide her yawns as Angel explained what it was like growing up as the only human and only girl among the tough, alpha male Dranovians.

  “I think all of you need bed,” Drago said suddenly as he stood and held out his hand to Angel.

  Quinn stood quickly and was getting ready to ask where she was supposed to sleep when Angel took her hands in her own.