Quinn’s heart had stopped in his chest at Todd’s comment – Eva had known they were coming for her. Had everything they’d shared been a lie, then? Had she only been pretending to love him, while she waited for her knight in shining leather shoes to rescue her? Could Quinn really have been that blind?
Quinn’s world shattered around him, as Eva’s next words drove the splinter in his heart even deeper.
“A bargain was made, Todd. Gold for me. Abide by the laws of your alpha; I have.”
Eva still believed she was only there as the result of a financial transaction. Quinn’s head was spinning and the very real possibility of losing his breakfast all over Todd’s shiny shoes now faced him.
“Walter gave his blessing,” Todd hedged.
“And what of it? Do you really think I care what Walter does or says now?” Eva sneered.
Quinn’s life was falling to pieces all around him, while he stood and watched Eva argue about nonsense. There was nothing he could do; there was no way he could continue to keep her with him, when her heart didn’t truly belong to him.
“You should care, Evie,” Todd was saying, as the rumbling in Quinn’s head quietened long enough for him to focus on something other than his heart breaking in his chest.
“And why would I do that?” Eva scoffed.
“He never told you. Did he?” Todd guffawed, his men behind him smirking at the untold joke.
Eva’s irritation was getting the better of her, as she stared at Todd, trying to bore holes into him with just her eyes.
“Speak Todd, or get going. Better yet, just get going,” Eva’s death stare seemed to perturb Todd slightly in that moment.
“You can’t honestly tell me you’re happy here, baby,” Todd tried again.
“I am no man’s ‘baby’, Todd. You are starting to push the wrong buttons.”
Quinn closed his eyes against the roaring in his head.
“I see what’s going on here. You let him into your bed, didn’t you?” Todd sneered.
“And if I did, it’s none of your business.”
The gathered crowd had grown in numbers, as news of the debacle spread through the tribe. A general murmuring and whispering went up amongst those gathered. The tension was so thick, Quinn felt the situation could deteriorate further at any moment.
“I hope it was worth what you paid,” Todd scoffed.
“You’d best watch your mouth,” Quinn returned, the noise in his head leaving room for little else.
“I see she didn’t watch hers carefully enough,” Todd replied. “You drank his poison like it was honey, Evie-baby. But we can fix that when we get you home, you’ll see.”
“What on God’s green earth are you talking about, Todd?” Eva’s patience was at breaking point.
“You let him brainwash you with his nonsense; how could you let him take you into his bed, Eva? It’s disgusting. I will forgive you, in time – we can work through it, baby. You’re not so far past tainted that I won’t take you back,” Todd smiled, his superiority and confidence written all over his face.
Quinn’s grip on his sanity was fading as fast as his world was being destroyed. His head spun uncomfortably as he tried to maintain his calm exterior, even though all he wanted to do was shift and howl his heartbreak to the moon.
“Take me back?” Eva spluttered, her composure failing.
Quinn wasn’t sure how much more he could take – it was one thing to be nothing to Eva, it was entirely another for her to stand there and get back together with her ex right in front of him. He truly had meant that little to her.
“Has he claimed you fully?” Todd asked.
“No, not yet,” Eva shook her head, mystified at the relevance. They had never spoken of Quinn claiming her to the world; they hadn’t found it necessary.
“That’s a relief, then. You belong back home, not with a man who pays a woman’s weight in gold for her body,” Todd jibed.
“Excuse me?” Eva’s eyebrow shot up into her hair.
“He really never told you. That’s hilarious, Evie-baby. No wonder you drank from his Kool-Aid.”
“Spit it out, Todd. Stop playing games.”
“I’m not the one who’s been playing games with you, baby.”
“You’re lying again, just like you always do. I don’t have time for this, Todd.” Eva turned as though to walk away.
“You want to hear this, princess,” Todd raised his voice, calling her back.
“I want nothing less than to hear more of your lies.”
“This isn’t a lie, Evie. I promise you that.”
“It better not be.”
“Your alpha-charming over here paid your weight in gold for you. Seems he’s always had some sort of crush on you, and knew you’d never look at him unless he paid for your attention. So, he bought you, to warm his bed and comfort his bruised ego. He paid for the chance to feel you pressed against him, because he’s not enough of a man to find a girl who will willingly share his bed.
You realize he demanded you in exchange for the gold? We offered him land; he said no. There was some by-line that stated that if your wolf chose his, and the claiming was completed, there would be a further exchange of gold. The bargain was struck on you – signed, sealed. You know the song and dance. Thank God you were smart enough not to let his filthy paws claim you, baby.”
The gathered crowd gasped as all eyes turned to Quinn.
“Is that true, Quinn?” Eva turned to face him.
Quinn’s words failed him in that moment – as his life collapsed around his ears – even though his words had been taken out of context, he could do nothing to fight for Eva. There was nothing to fight for.
Eva turned back to Todd, her breath caught in her throat. She couldn’t breathe – she couldn’t think – she couldn’t move. She was rooted to the spot, her nightmare a living reality. Her dreams splintered into nothing as she forced herself to take a step backward. This couldn’t be happening – it had to be some sort of mistake. There was no way that Todd was telling the truth; she wanted to believe that. She took another step backwards, away from Quinn, who still hadn’t replied. He hung his head, as though in shame, and that was answer enough for Eva.
“Let’s go, baby. Come back home,” Todd whispered into the silence, as though he hadn’t wanted any of this. As if he hadn’t just shattered Quinn’s life.
“I-I don’t –” Eva started, her uncertainty gaining the better of her.
“Go,” Quinn said into the silence. “Your tribe’s debt is wavered, Todd.”
When Eva didn’t move, Quinn gathered the last of his strength, and throwing the full force of his alpha powers behind the single word, said only, “Go.”
Eva’s eyes glistened with tears as she couldn’t ignore her alpha’s directive. Her feet started moving before she could stop herself, and she walked off towards the trees, shifting into her werewolf form just as she reached the treeline.
Todd and his men began to follow her, muttering snide comments under their breaths.
Quinn watched her go, never looking back, and his last strength seeped out of his bones as he turned to Thomas.
“Make sure they’re off my land come sunset; if I catch them we’ll be at war with Walter for what I’ll do to them.”
Thomas nodded, as he watched Quinn’s retreating figure.
*
Eva started running as soon as she made it under the cover of the trees. She didn’t wait for Todd and the others to catch up, as she dove headlong into the trees. She didn’t feel the usual rush of power and energy of her wolf form as she pushed forward, instead feeling nothing but pain in her soul. As she ripped herself away from the safety of Quinn’s arms, Eva’s pain threatened to overwhelm her. So, she ran.
When Eva felt herself tiring, she pushed harder, faster, further. She knew she needed to get as far away from Quinn and his warmth as fast as she could – she knew if she didn’t, she’d go running back with her tail between her legs to beg him to tell he
r it wasn’t true.
A part of her still wanted to believe that it wasn’t the reality of it – that she hadn’t been bought to warm his bed and given no choice in the matter of falling in love with him. That part of her knew, in her deepest soul, that there was no way that Quinn could do that. She knew, too, even if she couldn’t admit it to herself, that she had fallen in love with him willingly.
Quinn had only ever given her the choice to fall in love with him. She knew that, but she refused to turn back. He had said nothing when she asked him for the truth; how could she deny that evidence?
She had loved him willingly; she would never deny that. That she had never been claimed now made an odd sort of sense to her. Quinn must have known that, if he’d tried to claim her, and their bond broke due to what she’d only just found out, that they would wander the world two broken halves unable to find their whole. It would have destroyed both their lives.
That Quinn had demanded her, refusing land when his tribe needed it, only drove the hurt deeper into Eva’s soul. Had he honestly thought she would never find out?
Eva ran, until her legs couldn’t carry her any further. She came to a stop, and lay down where she was. There was nothing in her heart that could force her to move in that moment. She was weary, not only in body, but in spirit, too. She closed her eyes, and waited for Todd and his friends to reach her. She hadn’t realized how much of a lead she’d had on them until they arrived, nearly an hour later. Her legs ached, as she pushed herself up to a standing position.
Not looking behind her, Eva started off again, ignoring the burning sensation in her legs as she pushed herself forward. She didn’t care if the men decided to stop where they were or if they carried on trying to catch up with her. She knew it was stupidity to carry on when she was so tired, she knew they all needed to rest, but she had to keep going. There wasn’t enough distance between them yet.
There never would be.
Night had fallen at some point as Eva had run like something was chasing her. The nights were still cold, and she was thankful for her thick fur coat. She only longed to be in front of the fireplace, back in Quinn’s arms, his heart beating in her ear as she lay on his chest.
Eva tried to banish that thought as she ran, her heart slipping further and further away from her.
By dawn Eva had no alternative but to rest, as the men had fallen behind again. Her legs couldn’t – or wouldn’t – carry her further away from the other half of her soul.
She lay down next to a stream, after drinking her fill, and fell into a fitful sleep.
When Eva awoke, it was to the bright afternoon sunlight. The men around her were starting to stir, and she almost felt a pang of guilt at having exhausted them. It was one thing to push herself to the limits – she had nothing left to live for. But these men had lives, families, girlfriends. She shook her head, refusing to feel anything other than her own agony.
Todd, who had shifted into his human form, came over to her. She growled low in her throat, more a warning than a threat, causing him to stop short.
“Evie, baby,” he implored.
The air around Eva shimmered as she shifted.
“I hate being called Evie, Todd. It’s like you’re trying to irritate me on purpose,” Eva said as she walked towards the stream.
“Don’t hate on me just because you can finally see past the blinkers he covered your eyes with.”
“You don’t know the first thing about him,” Eva rounded on Todd, poking her finger against his chest.
“I know –”
“Don’t, Todd. Just don’t.”
“Fine,” Todd held his hands up in front of him.
“Do your best to leave me alone, Todd. The honor guard isn’t needed; I’m safe in these woods without you and your pups following me. If you can’t keep up, don’t bother trying.”
“Why are you coming home, it’s not like you were happy there in the first place!” Todd snapped, his short temper flaring up.
Eva’s eyes flashed dangerously, as she said, “You don’t know a thing about my happiness. I’m coming home because I was commanded to leave.” Her chest panged in agony at the realization that her bond with her alpha was stretching to its fullest limit. She knew that, once she crested the next rise and entered her old tribe’s territory, that there was a possibility that that bond would snap.
She wasn’t sure what she wanted at that point – for the pain of their bond breaking – or the pain of having their bond and not being in Quinn’s vicinity. It meant pain, either way. If their bond was fickle enough to break, she couldn’t see the point in the pain it would cause her, it wouldn’t be fair on her. At the same time, if their bond was strong enough to survive the distance and territory change, she wasn’t sure she’d survive the pain.
There was no sense in worrying about it, she thought. She would deal with the pain as it came, until it overwhelmed her and broke her with its power.
“Finally, nothing to say. I’ll be leaving in five, Todd. Keep up if you can. But leave me the hell alone from here on out.”
As Eva crested the rise, she felt her bond with Quinn pull taught. As she pushed on, the bond in her soul seemed to stretch as she ran. The further she ran, the more it stretched, until she had to admit that it wouldn’t break. Their bond was too strong – for all the hurt she felt, she couldn’t deny it. She had nothing left in her but agony and a hurting so deep she couldn’t help but howl it to the world.
If she had listened closely enough, Eva might have heard an answering howl.
Eva had left behind not only her heart, but her soul, too.
Eva bounded up the porch stairs to her father’s front door, as she shimmered back into her human form. She had lost Todd and his men in the last stretch, and was thankful for it. She wasn’t sure if it was due to her own speed, or if Todd was actually listening to her for once in his life, but it didn’t matter. What mattered was that she was standing on the porch to her childhood home, where strength, love and laughter had followed her all her life.
“Eva,” her father sighed as he opened first the inner, then the outer door, stepping aside to let her in.
“What kind of code were you speaking in that you thought I’d pick up on half-formed concepts like ‘Todd hasn’t forgotten you’, Dad? What in the actual grand scheme of life made you think I wanted to be saved like some damsel in distress? I was free to leave at any time, I chose to stay,” Eva sat down at the kitchen table, her head hanging in her hands.
“You never told me that.” The disappointment in her father’s voice was unmistakable
“I was trying to spare you the hurt of knowing I had chosen to stay. Why did you mess in business you had no right to mess in?”
“I thought you would want to come home; Todd said –”
“Since when do we listen to what Todd says, Dad? He’s been a liar for as long as I’ve known him, which is longer than you have. You knew that.”
“Why would he lie about this? He said he had promised to claim you?”
“He promised, I rejected the offer. That’s why we broke up. That, and his screwing Suzie kind of ruined things.”
“I didn’t know. I’m sorry – I don’t know what to say.”
“I didn’t tell you; it was nothing you needed to worry about. There is nothing you can say to change things.”
“You’re home now, though?” Angus asked more than stated, hope clear in his voice.
Eva sighed and nodded.
“I’ll fix us some tea, then,” Angus busied himself with the kettle, as Eva’s heart cracked at the thought of not only Quinn, but Adrianna, too.
Eva resigned herself to the ache that had opened up in her chest; the pull of her bond with Quinn tugged at her consciousness. She was doing her best to ignore it – her anguish was drowning out anything other than that pull deep within her. She wasn’t sure how she was going to live out the rest of her life with that sweet torture reminding of her of all she had lost; she just knew she had to tr
y to ignore it as best she could.
Angus brought their tea to the table, and sat down heavily. Eva hated to admit it, but her father had aged in the months that she had been gone. One thing would never change, she knew that – the light of laughter would never leave Angus’s eyes.
“Do you want to talk about it?” Angus asked softly in the silence that stretched between them.
Eva shook her head, “And say what, Dad? That I fell in love with him, and now I’ve left behind not only him, but the very biggest part of my soul? Do you want me to tell you that I wish things were different? Well, I don’t. I don’t regret loving him. I don’t regret knowing a love as strong as what I feel for him. Was leaving easy? No. He ordered me to; he went full alpha on me. There was nothing I could do about it.” Eva’s voice broke, as tears threatened to overwhelm her.
“I can’t outrun him – our bond didn’t break,” Eva continued as she felt herself calming down.
Angus’s eyes widened at that – he knew well what that could mean.
“Eva, that’s not possible. He can’t still hold a bond to you – unless. Oh, God,” Angus inhaled sharply.
“Unless what?” Eva asked half-heartedly.
“Unless you claimed him. Did you claim him, Eva?”
Eva’s breath hitched in her throat, as she thought back.
“I thought the claiming was done in full view of the tribe?”
“Usually, yes. But if your bond is a true bond – the kind we tell stories about – then you don’t fall into the formalities of a normal claiming.”
“Could something as simple as saying ‘I’m yours’ do it?” Eva asked.
Angus shrugged, and said, “Sure, I guess so.”
“Oh.”
Eva’s own words echoed in her mind, then, those very words she had said to Quinn on the first day she had arrived.
“Know this: you may own me, but I will never belong to you.”
How very wrong she had been. She couldn’t fight the knowledge that she would always belong to Quinn, no matter what she did, or where she went. Her love for Quinn would never let her be free – their bond would follow her for the rest of her days. Just as surely as she loved Quinn, Eva knew that she had claimed him as hers, and she was his.
Bought By Their Alpha Page 12
