by Mikayla Lane
“No, Quinn,” the beast assured her as it flooded her with warmth. “Your son would never harm you. He loves you greatly and wants nothing more than to be a good boy and make you happy. He will even eat your broccoli, although he’s convinced he will hate it.”
Quinn snorted and caressed her stomach.
“If he hates it, I’ll never make him eat it again. But only if he gives it a chance,” she conceded.
Quinn was unable to stop the smile that came over her face at the thought of what her son might look like in a few years. It was the one thing she’d hated about not being able to have an ultrasound—she’d never gotten to see him.
“When his father comes, he will allow his father’s people to take an image for you,” the beast told her.
Quinn didn’t try to stop the tears that flooded her eyes at the thought of seeing Chris again and hopefully getting back some normalcy in her life. She knew she couldn’t stay in DC, but she could easily disappear in a small town somewhere on the other side of the country.
Chris is an alien, she thought with a smirk. He can fly his spaceship to pick up his son for visitation.
“The females are returning,” the beast warned.
Quinn looked up to see Ainsley and Fiona coming towards the open kitchen door.
“You don’t think they’re bad?” Quinn asked in her mind as she studied the young girl.
“The child can be trusted. Fiona has her own agenda, but I do believe she doesn’t want to hurt anyone. I sense no danger from them, but I am remaining alert,” the beast replied.
Quinn sighed in relief and chuckled to herself.
“I was scared to death of you at first, now I don’t know how I made it this long without you,” Quinn said, surprised at how true it was.
Ainsley ran in through the open door with a bright smile on her face and placed some fresh picked flowers on the table.
“Sooo . . . what did you name him?” she asked.
Quinn was taken aback by the question, figuring it was a little too late to be changing Christopher’s name now.
“I’ve already been out-voted on it, so I was going to just stick with Christopher,” Quinn admitted with a shrug.
Fiona came into the kitchen and grabbed the tea pot before she sent a smile to Quinn.
“Ainsley means your beast. We already knew you would stick with Christopher.”
“Oh!” Quinn hadn’t thought about naming him at all. She still didn’t think it felt right to name something fully sentient and intelligent enough to name itself. Making up her mind, she turned her thoughts inward.
“What would you like to be called?” Quinn asked her beast and new friend.
When long seconds passed, Quinn assumed that she’d offended him and was getting ready to apologize when her beast finally spoke.
“I would like to be called Atarma if that is acceptable to you,” he asked with a questioning tone.
Quinn was thrilled with the unique name.
“I think it’s a beautiful name. I’m glad you chose it,” Quinn admitted before she grinned up at Ainsley’s expectant face.
“He’s chosen Atarma,” Quinn said, watching the girl’s face light up.
“That’s a really awesome name! I have to go now, but I’ll be back in an hour at the most,” Ainsley said before she surprised Quinn with a kiss on her head.
Ainsley waved at Fiona and disappeared behind the door that led to the portal in the basement. Quinn felt a shiver of fear skitter down her spine, and she looked up at Fiona as she made yet another pot of tea.
“Where is she going?” Quinn asked, feeling odd now that it was just she and Fiona.
“She’s getting that damn disc removed,” Fiona admitted as she brought the steaming pot to the table. “She’ll be fine. We haven’t lost one yet, and Ainsley will not be the first.”
Quinn couldn’t help but notice how tired and worried Fiona looked.
“You care about her,” Quinn didn’t bother posing it as a question, she knew she was right.
Fiona poured tea for the both of them and smiled softly.
“She grows on you so quickly you don’t have a chance to fight off the charming little thing before you’re wrapped around her finger,” Fiona admitted. “Moira and I helped raise her and a few of the others. But Ainsley . . . she’s special.”
Quinn smiled as she realized that’s how it happened with her as well. The pre-teen girl was very charming with her big expression-filled, blue eyes, that pouting lower lip, and her mysterious but sweet personality.
“Try not to worry too much; she’ll be back in 30 minutes or so,” Fiona said, interrupting Quinn’s thoughts.
“How the hell can someone dig in her neck and have her back that quick? What about the anesthesia? The stitches?” Quinn asked, furious at the thought that someone may be hurting the girl.
“Ah, that is the other thing you will notice now that you have a beast; you will heal very quickly,” Fiona said with a smirk. “That means your childbirth shouldn’t been too bad for you. It never was for any of the other mothers. The beast helps block the pain, and when it’s over, he helps you heal at a much faster rate than a normal human.”
“What’s that got to do with Ainsley? Is she even being sedated?” Quinn demanded.
“Of course she is! It only requires a local, and the reason it’s so quick is because it’s explosive! Of course it needs to be fast; no one wants to play with the thing or mess with it any longer than they have to,” Fiona countered, sounding a little exasperated.
Quinn felt kind of stupid and took a sip of the tea to hide her embarrassment.
You’d think the girl was my child the way I worry about her, Quinn thought with a shake of her head.
“Satalis will be coming soon, and you’ll be able to go home,” Fiona said gently, refusing to look at Quinn.
Quinn’s brows knitted together as she wondered why the previously tough as nails woman appeared so vulnerable right now.
“What’s really going on?” Quinn suddenly asked, surprising herself.
Fiona chuckled and toyed with her cup.
“I’m worried for my sister. Satalis has been torturing her for a long time now because of her defiance, and if everything goes well, today will be the first I’ve seen or spoken to her for two years. I wonder if we can even save her now,” Fiona replied as she stared into her teacup.
“I’m so sorry,” Quinn responded, reaching out her hand and squeezing one of Fiona’s in support. “I think you’re doing a great job of fighting what he did to you and the others. If anyone can help her, it’s you. She needs her sister more than anyone else.”
“I pray you’re right,” Fiona whispered.
“I did it!” Ainsley said as she suddenly appeared in the kitchen.
Quinn shrieked in fear, and when she saw it was Ainsley, she slapped at the girl as Ainsley danced out of her reach and laughed.
“I’m sorry!” Ainsley said as she tried and failed to smother her bright smile.
Quinn watched as Ainsley moved her hair away from her neck, and when she saw the angry red scar she immediately stood and went to inspect the girl.
“There’s no stitches? No incision mark?” Quinn said in wonder.
“We heal too fast for that!” Ainsley assured her. “You’ll never know it was even there in another hour or so.”
Quinn couldn’t help herself and she hugged the girl tightly.
“I’m so glad you’re safe now,” she whispered.
“My turn,” Fiona said as she stood. “I’ll be back real quick.”
Ainsley and Quinn watched her go down the stairs to the portal before Ainsley headed to the computer and began logging in.
“What are you doing?” Quinn asked as she moved to sit beside the girl at the table.
“I’m logging in to the security cameras at the estate. Fiona hacked into the Dranovians’ feed so we can watch them kill Satalis. He should be there before Fiona gets back, and I don’t want to miss it,”
Ainsley said as her fingers flew across the keyboard.
Quinn watched as live feeds began popping up on the screen, and she sucked in her breath at the first she’d seen of Chris in four months. She watched as he sat on the bed she’d slept in and couldn’t believe it when he fisted the comforter as if he really did care.
“He loves you both. I can feel it,” Ainsley said with a smile as she placed a gentle hand on Quinn’s stomach. “Christopher is excited about meeting his dad.”
Quinn placed her hand over Ainsley’s and was getting ready to ask how the girl knew that when she saw Chris bolt from the room.
“What’s happening?”
“It’s started,” Ainsley whispered in awe.
They watched the events unfolding on the screens for several minutes, each of them praying the Dranovians would kill Satalis when they saw the melee spill outside.
“He’s trying to get away!” Ainsley whispered angrily as she saw Satalis running for the trees.
“Chris is going after him,” Quinn replied, sitting on the edge of her seat and full of nervous energy.
“No!” Ainsley suddenly shrieked as they watched Chris’s energy turn a bright orange.
“What’s happening?” Quinn asked feeling sick to her stomach as she watched Chris on the screen.
“He’s going to kill himself!” Ainsley whispered.
Quinn watched in horror and fear as the girl completely disappeared from the kitchen and appeared on the screen beside Chris.
Chapter Fifteen
One moment Chris was staring into the dark prime’s eyes and the next he was standing in the middle of a field. He was just beginning to wonder if he was dead and in the afterlife when he heard laughing beside him and looked down into the smiling blue eyes of a young girl.
“Come on, Quinn is probably worried for you,” she said before she took off running towards a small home.
Quinn? Chris thought in confusion. Where the hell am I? Did I die?
He took one more look around before he headed towards the house to get answers from the strange girl. He almost tripped when he saw someone in the doorway and realized it was Quinn. Chris quickened his pace as a heavily pregnant Quinn started making her way towards him with the young girl beside her.
“Quinn?” Chris screamed when he saw the tears in her eyes and starting running, wondering if she was hurt.
Moments later, Quinn was sobbing on his shoulder as Chris held her in his arms. He was sifting her energy to make sure she was all right when he felt another energy presence and he pulled back a little to look in her eyes.
Chris sucked in a sharp breath when he saw the dark swirls in her normally bright blue eyes. He looked accusingly at the young girl smirking beside them and knew she had to be a part of whatever horror had been inflicted upon Quinn.
“What did you do to her?” he demanded.
Without taking his eyes off the child he set Quinn down and placed her behind his back as he faced the anomalous hybrid and prepared to destroy the damaged beast within her.
Quinn wasn’t about to be shoved into a corner, not after the hell she’d been put through, and she looked up at Chris to say something when she saw the look on his face, and she moved quickly to put herself between Chris and Ainsley. Quinn shook her finger at Chris as her relief that he was alive turned to anger.
“You leave her the hell alone! If it wasn’t for her and Fiona I’d be dead! So don’t you dare show up after they’ve saved me and pretend to be the hero here! And if you open your mouth to harm her or her beast I’ll hit you with your own juices and see how you like it!” Quinn glared at Chris as she kept Ainsley behind her back.
Chris gritted his teeth as he stared at the girl behind Quinn and calculated how to get to her without harming his mate. Unwilling to take a chance of harming Quinn, he tried another tactic.
“Quinn, honey. You have no idea what’s going on here. I need you to trust me and step away from her,” Chris warned as he took a step forward. He almost growled when Quinn and the girl took several steps back.
“Ainsley! What did you do?” Fiona asked as she ran out of the house to stand in front of Quinn and Ainsley.
She had just come through the portal and had no idea she’d be faced with this, but she bravely faced the powerful and angry leader of the Dranovians.
“We didn’t hurt her! I swear we didn’t. We don’t want to hurt anyone, we just want to be left alone to try and heal our beasts,” Fiona said, her voice shaking in fear.
Quinn glared at Chris over Fiona’s head and moved to stand in front of both hybrids, unwilling to let them be harmed when they’d done nothing wrong.
“They protected me and Christopher, and neither one of us will let you hurt them,” Quinn said, standing her ground against the rage on Chris’s face.
“Who the hell is Christopher?” Chris roared as he looked around for the other person she was speaking of. He tried to control his jealousy over the affection he could hear in Quinn’s voice.
“It’s your son, you bastard!” Quinn spat, her own anger over the last months taking over. “The one you denied! The one you didn’t want! The precious, innocent boy who wanted to be named after his father even though his father is an asshole!”
Quinn screamed the last and laid a hand on her stomach. As she did, four blue bolts of energy arced from her stomach and nailed Chris in the chest, knocking him back several feet.
Grai dropped from the transport just as he saw Chris hit in the chest and thrown back on the ground. He roared in fear and tore off after his son. He had no idea how it looked from Quinn’s point of view to see him drop from the sky followed by the rest of the Dranovians and Tezarians.
Quinn saw all the huge, heavily armed men drop from the sky and rush towards them, and she panicked, throwing her hands out in front of her just as Grai reached Chris and helped him to his feet.
Quinn was stunned to see the glowing blue shield that now surrounded her, Ainsley, and Fiona, but as she saw the hard, cold, chiseled faces heading towards them, she was really damn glad the shield was there.
“Am I doing that?” Quinn whispered, hoping the shield would stay up.
“Christopher is doing it,” Ainsley said with a strange pride in her voice. “He wants to make sure none of us are hurt.”
“Who the hell are you?” Chris demanded as he shook off Grai’s help and stomped towards the child.
Quinn and Fiona immediately moved behind the shield to block Ainsley from Chris and the anger radiating from him.
“Her name is Ainsley, and I told you—she and Fiona saved us, so knock off the nastiness and quit being an asshole!” Quinn snapped back.
“Damn, she knows you real well, Chris,” Alex said as a few other brothers snickered.
Chris turned to glare at his siblings until they shut up and looked away from him before he turned back to Quinn and prayed for patience.
“Quinn, come here, honey. I have a lot to apologize for, I know that, but I just want to get you out of here safely,” he said as he tried to remain calm.
Quinn snorted and couldn’t help but notice a few of the other men trying to hide their smirks.
“Don’t pretend to give a shit now! It’s been almost four months since your ass dumped me in the middle of a packed restaurant, while yelling at the top of your lungs that I was a lying whore trying to con you with a baby that wasn’t yours!” Quinn accused.
“Oh damn,” Alex muttered, sympathy for Quinn oozing from his energy as he looked at her. “I’m so sorry.”
A few of his other brothers muttered their agreement at Quinn’s words, and Chris knew he needed to get control quick if he planned on talking to her about this in private—before his family helped Quinn eviscerate him.
Chris looked up at Grai and saw his raised eyebrows, the disapproval clear in his father’s eyes, and he knew he had to get Quinn away from his family. Chris was horrified at the things he’d said to her, and he knew there was no excuse for it other than the deep pain
he’d felt when he believed her to be lying to him. It was still no excuse to treat her so badly.
Grai hadn’t raised him to be intentionally cruel, and he knew he’d be answering to his father after he spoke with Quinn. Hoping to end their standoff quickly, Chris took a tentative step forward.
“Quinn, I swear to you, I am beyond sorry. But there are things going on right now that you aren’t aware of, and I need you to step away from them so we can go home and talk about it,” Chris said, not liking the way Quinn’s eyes narrowed at him.
Quinn knew he was lying even before Atarma warned her, and it pissed her off even more.
“You just can’t stop lying to me can you?” Quinn asked as she folded her arms over her chest defiantly. “Let me guess, these are the siblings you rarely ever spoke of right? The alien ones. Or should I say, the part alien ones?”
“Quinn,” Chris began, not liking the look on her face.
“Don’t you dare, Quinn me, you lying bastard!” Quinn shot back, throwing another bolt of energy at him that threw him back onto the ground.
Suddenly, the very large man blocked her from hitting at Chris again, and she glared up at unsmiling dark eyes.
“I am Grai T’Alq, Chris’s father,” Grai said, keeping himself between Chris and Quinn. “I understand your anger, and if you wish to continue pummeling him, I will hold him for you while you do so. But the man that took you, Satalis, got away from us and we need to get you to safety. Please, think of my grandson right now and not my idiot son.”
His words had the effect of throwing cold water on Quinn, and her anger dissipated quickly as she turned to Ainsley and Fiona. She hugged Ainsley to her as she looked at Fiona with tears in her eyes.
“I’m so sorry they didn’t kill him,” Quinn whispered. “Will you be safe? Did you get Moira?”
Fiona smiled sadly at Quinn and nodded her head as she tried to ignore the fear rushing through her for Ainsley and her own beast. There were far too many Dranovians close by for her to feel safe.
