Hunter's Heart

Chapter 30

She was saved from having to endure the woman's gaze for much longer when the last person in the procession of people entered the room and took his place behind the seat to Mira's right, the centermost seat. When Quinn's gaze met Caine's, she could have sworn his lips twitched in the briefest, almost indiscernible smile and winked at her, but it happened so quickly she couldn't be sure.

Every chair at the table had someone standing behind it, except for the one to Caine's right. When he saw her looking at the empty seat, Caine's eyes seemed to become sad and it dawned on her that this seat was where his right-hand man should have been seated, only that man had been killed when she was just a baby.

'Quinn?' Christian's tone was concerned as he sensed the sudden wave of loss that washed over her.

'That's his seat, isn't it?' she asked him, her eyes prickling dangerously. 'The empty one next to Caine?'

Her father. Quinn couldn't let herself say the words, not even to Christian, but she knew he understood and she felt a surge of warmth come from him. His body angled ever so slightly for a moment, as if he wanted to reach back and touch her, but she knew he couldn't in front of the other Alphas and the people at the front table who Quinn now understood to be the Elders.

'Just say the word,' he told her. 'And Liam will get you out–"

"So, the great Christian St. Clair has finally decided to grace us with his presence."

Quinn tore her gaze from the empty seat beside Caine to see a man with cold, dark eyes and a sneering mouth standing behind one of the desks across the room from Christian's. He looked like a child on the playground who liked nothing more than getting others into trouble. Looking at him, the word 'hyena' came to mind. Beside him, his second looked as if he wanted nothing more than to grab his Alpha and yank him from the room.

"I don't think I'm the only one who thinks the rest of us should get an explanation for his absence yesterday," the man added. "Just what was so damned important that an Alpha General felt he could shirk his responsibilities?"

As the man spoke with a derisive tone, his dark eyes moved from Christian to come to rest on Quinn and she, like the others would, heard the subtle implication he was making. Fury coursed through her on her Alpha's behalf, but that changed into revulsion at the way he dragged his gaze over her, making her skin crawl. A brief, but strong, sense of desire wafted over to her and she balled her hands into fists so tight her nails were a second away from drawing blood, a reaction that seemed to amuse him.

"Pretty little thing," he said with an almost triumphant smirk. "I'll give you that, St. Clair. Is that what you were doing yesterday? Teaching her tricks in some private little den? Was she so good she made you forget your position?"

The last of the sadness she'd been feeling evaporated and in the back of her mind Quinn's wolf snarled with pure fury. Her body went bowstring taut, ready to launch over the gallery's railing. How dare he? Just who the hell did he think he was? Never in her life had she ever let anyone talk about her that way. And she refused to tolerate the bastard tarnishing Christian's reputation in front of the entire werewolf leadership.

'Don't make a scene,' Christian warned her down their mental link, a command thick in his tone. 'it's what he wants. This isn't the first time he's tried to have a go at me in front of the other Alphas and he knows I won't take the bait. It's you he's trying to get to now. The others know you were bitten by one of our kind, that you're supposed to be a forced turning. He wants to make you look unstable.'

And by extension, make Christian's leadership look weak, Quinn realized and she worked to force down the rage coursing through her veins. She could feel her Alpha's anger at the other male's open perusal of his mate, of the suggestion he was making for Christian's absence from the mansion the day before, but Christian was a lot better at hiding it than Quinn thought possible. He hadn't moved a muscle in reaction to the bait the man had dangled in front of him, hadn't made a sound. Liam seemed to be keeping his cool, too, but he kept throwing furtive glances at his brother, just in case he snapped this time.