She could feel the Alpha's eyes on her back as they walked and it made her self-conscious. She should have put the stupid sweatshirt back on when they left the clearing where Grayson and Melissa were.
"The scars on your back," she heard him say, breaking the tense silence they had endured since leaving the clearing, and she stopped, bristling.
"What about them?" she asked softly.
This wasn't something she wanted to bring up with anyone, least of all Christian. And why the hell did he sound like he actually gave a damn?
She could hear him approaching her and she tensed when she sensed him standing just a heartbeat behind her. He was so close she could feel his body heat against her skin.
Don't touch me, she thought desperately and flinched when she felt gentle fingertips tracing one of the long lines that ran over the back of her right shoulder. A moment later, she felt his free hand curl around her left side, as if he were trying to hold her in place.
"Tell me," he said.
"What do you want to know?" Quinn asked.
"Everything."
*
"Treason!" Viktor Antonov announced coldly as he and the rest of the Hunter Council looked down at her. "Alexandra Antanov, for your crime against the Hunter Order, you no longer have the right to call yourself a Hunter or an Antanov. The punishment will be five lashes and banishment, to be carried out immediately."
Quinn expected nothing less for what she had done. The whole purpose for the Hunter Order was to kill monsters and she had let almost one hundred of them go.
She let herself be shackled to a post in the middle of a viewing area where the Council could oversee the punishment. And when the first bite of the whip cracked against her back, she bit back the urge to scream in agony. The back of her right shoulder felt as if it was on fire, but she wouldn't give them the satisfaction of hearing her pain.
One after the other, the whip was brought down across her back and every time she made no sound, the next lash got even harder, bit even deeper.
When it was over, Quinn was gasping for breath and her back felt as if someone had set it on fire. She was released from the shackles and watched as her grandfather approached her with a cruel emptiness in his expression.
"You are an utter disappointment," he said, before he backhanded her so hard her ears rang and she tasted blood. Unable to keep her balance, Quinn fell to the floor and cracked her head on the stone floor of the viewing area.
She had no idea how long she had been unconscious, but when she woke, she found herself in a holding cell beneath the Antanov home and long cuts into her back had been sewed up. As she tried not to focus on how much pain she was in, she thought about her actions.
The people in that encampment clearly had no idea that they were about to be set upon by a small army of Hunters. They were unprepared, nothing like the growing army Viktor had told everyone they were. They were just people, innocent and scared.
The only monsters she had seen in that encampment had been the Hunters.
Every pain she had endured afterwards had been worth it, she was sure of it, but did that mean that everything she had ever been taught about the supernatural races been a lie?
"Such a waste."
Quinn turned to the bars of her cell to see her cousin Jessa watching her with an expression that was nothing short of glee. The slim blonde with cold grey eyes very much like Viktor's had always been jealous of the time their grandfather had put into training Quinn. She resented Quinn with a passion that had led to Quinn being blamed for countless of the bitch's pranks over the years. She enjoyed making Quinn's life a living hell whenever she could.
"What do you want?" Quinn asked softly, narrowing her eyes suspiciously at her cousin. There was an ulterior motive if Jessa was actually speaking to her.
"I'll be his favorite now," Jessa said gleefully. "No more pedestal for poor little Lexi. You'll be lucky if you don't spend the rest of your life in some dank, dark hole somewhere."
Quinn allowed herself to smile at her cousin. The stupid bitch had no idea what she was in for.
Instead of telling her, though, Quinn noticed a metal bowl of something that smelled like disinfectant just to the left of her feet and she quickly picked it up, throwing it straight at Jessa's head.
"Fuck off, Jessa!" she hissed. "If I never see you again, it will be too soon!"
Jessa was too slow to avoid Quinn's well aimed makeshift projectile and she found herself drenched in the disinfectant, her ridiculously figure hugging leather clothes staining with the stuff.
"Bitch!" Jessa screeched, pulling out a small pistol and aiming it at Quinn. "If the Council won't kill you, I will!"
The door to the holding area opened and one of the Antanov retainers, a man Quinn had actually liked, entered. He took one look at Jessa and his mouth became a stern disapproving line.
"You are not permitted to be down here, Jessa," he almost sneered at her and she stomped off, muttering promises to rip Quinn to shreds under her breath.
"Now that you are finally awake," he said to Quinn in a voice so cold she felt as if she had been blasted with a wall of ice. "It's time you left. I have been instructed to escort you off of the estate. You will not be permitted to take any possessions with you."
Quinn had expected nothing less. Any proof of her existence would be erased.
He opened her cell door and waited patiently as she slowly stepped out of it. He then pressed a small round object into her hands, his expression warming just a little bit.
"Hide this very well until you are off of the property," he instructed and she looked down to see it was her prized Fabergé music box. It was the only gift her mother had given her that wasn't Hunter related and he must have known how much it meant to her.
"You are no longer Alexandra Antanov," the retainer informed her, taking her out the back way of the property. "You can never come back here, on pain of death."
Surprisingly, the man embraced her gently, being mindful of her wounds and then left her outside the estates gates.
"Goodbye, Princess."
Quinn watched him leave and turned to walk away from the only life she had ever known. A cold feeling seeped into her core as the realization that she was well and truly all alone now hit her like a ton of bricks.
She had no one.
*
Quinn turned to face Christian when she finished speaking. The hand on her side didn't let her go and as she looked up at him. It simply came to rest on the opposite hip. The hand that had been tracing the lines on her back as she had told him the story behind them rose up and curled around the side of her face, the thumb gently stroking her cheekbone.
"Does Liam know any of this?" he asked softly. "Or Sophia?"
"No," Quinn replied. She hadn't told anyone about that night. "Just you."
She had no idea why she did it, but before she really knew what she was doing, Quinn stood up on her tiptoes, slid her arms around Christian's neck and pulled his head down. Telling him what she'd been through after the Gathering had left her raw and she just wanted some kind of connection with the man.
And he willingly allowed himself to be pulled closer until their lips met.
It was as if a switch had been inside of the Alpha. His grip on her tightened and he demanded her complete surrender as he kissed the breath from her. Quinn felt the hand that had been curled around her cheek slide up to dive into her hair instead, his fingers fisting in the soft locks as Christian tilted her head to just the right angle that he wanted.
She lost herself in the Alpha and his kiss, letting him back her up into the closest tree for leverage. The emptiness inside her was starting to fill and she could feel something within her start to come alive, something wild.
And then it was over as suddenly as it had started. One moment, Christian was trailing his lips down her neck to the place where it met her shoulder, and the next, it was like the switch had been flipped back and his whole body went rigid.
"NO!" he snarled as he tore himself away from her, taking several steps away.
Quinn leaned against the tree behind her, running a set of shaking fingertips through her hair while she tried to catch her breath. As she watched Christian eyeing her in disbelief, breathing heavily himself, heartache swelled inside her and she realized that she had just made a huge mistake.
Whatever moment she and the Alpha had just shared had been sympathy, nothing more, and it had disappeared as soon as she had kissed him.
"I'm sorry, Alpha," she whispered as silent tears began to well in her eyes and spill over. "I didn't mean to make you angry."
Christian looked back at her in surprise, his ice blue gaze lingering on her tears. "Quinn, that's not ..."
Whatever he had to say, Quinn didn't stay long enough to hear the rest of it. She was too embarrassed by her actions, too hurt by his reaction to them. It didn't matter that she had already endured a three and a half mile run already. She ran back in the direction of the mansion as fast as she was able, hearing Christian calling out to her and ignoring him.
Liam and Sophia were waiting outside her room when she got there.
"Quinn!" Sophia cried in alarm when she saw her friend's tears.
"What happened?" Liam demanded. "What did the bastard do? I swear, if he hurt you ..."
Quinn ignored them both and ran past them, slamming her bedroom door shut.
Stupid! she berated herself angrily as the tears continued to fall. What the fuck were you thinking!?
She strode over to the lamp beside her bed and threw it across the room with all the strength she had. It shattered against the wall satisfyingly, but the noise obviously alerted Liam and Sophia to the fact that she was losing it.
The door began to open and she heard Sophia call to her. "Quinn? I'm going to come in, okay?"
Quinn sprang across the bed and threw herself against the door, slamming it shut once again. As she leaned against the door, trying to get her tears in order, she heard the unmistakable heavy footfalls of their Alpha approaching.
"What the hell did you do to her?" she heard Liam demand angrily. "Damn it, Chris, I asked you to look after her, not break her! Can you not go one day without torturing her?"
"This has nothing to do with you, brother." Christian's voice was calm in the face of Liam's anger. The next moment, there was a knock on her door.
"Quinn?" she heard him call to her through the wood. "Can I come in? I think we need to talk. There are some things I need to say to you."
Quinn panicked. She couldn't face him and she definitely didn't want to hear what he seemed so intent on wanting to say to her. She already knew he hated her guts.
Without thinking, she sped over to her bedroom's balcony and vaulted over the railing just as the door opened and Christian stepped into the room.
"Quinn, don't!"