The entire scene was a cliché – even for a dream. Around Quinn was only darkness, the kind that was eerie and all encompassing. She stood in the center of a circular piece of white marble floor, illuminated by a light somewhere overhead that she couldn't find the source of no matter how hard she tried.
Concentrating, Quinn tried to extract herself from her dream, or at least to turn it into a more pleasant scene, but nothing happened. So, she rolled her eyes and did the only thing she could. Since she was stuck in her dream, she began walking.
After a while, she noticed little flecks of red breaking the white marble beneath her feet. Sometimes the flecks would get bigger in patterns she was sure she recognized but just couldn't quite put her finger on. That is, until she could swear she smelled something faintly metallic in the air.
Blood, she realized.
Her heart began to race as a sense of dread rolled through her. Something was terribly wrong. She shouldn't be seeing this blood. Still, unable to stop herself, Quinn found her feet following the trail of blood, her dread turning to fear as she moved.
Something appeared several paces ahead of her, several somethings, actually. All lying in awkward positions, as if they were ragdolls that had been tossed aside by a careless child. There was something familiar about the shapes, something that struck a chord inside her and had her gasping for breath in absolute horror.
Sophia, Liam, Melissa, Grayson, Caine ... All of them dead.
No! She tried to scream, but no sound would come out of her mouth.
She sank to her knees in horror, tears streaming from her eyes. They were gone. The people she cared most about in the world, the people that meant everything to her were gone. Why? Why was she suddenly dreaming something so horrible?
"Animals ... Filthy animals ..."
Cold seeped into her veins as she heard the all too familiar voice in the darkness.
Viktor Antanov.
"They trusted you," he said as he stepped from the dark and circled her like a predator. "They trusted you to help them, to not betray them, to lead them and look at what you've done ..."
Quinn lashed out with her arm, but it connected with nothing. Viktor was no longer behind her but several paces away, holding a bloody mass in his hand for her to see, a cruel smile on his lips and his eyes glittering with almost crazed delight.
"It was almost too easy," he taunted as he watched her watching blood drip from his fingers. "You led him right to me, girl."
Bile rose in her throat as the shape of the bloody thing in his hand finally registered.
A heart. He was holding a heart.
As if on cue, the floor beneath Viktor's feet lit up and she saw a large naked body lying sprawled in front of him in a pool of blood. One look at the vicious wolf tattooed across his back and she instantly knew why her grandfather was so pleased.
No! Over and over, the denial ricocheted in her mind. No! No! Please, gods, no! Not him! Please not him!
And through the denial she could hear the unmistakable sound of a wolf howling, its grief matching her own.
"NO!"
"Quinn! It's just a dream, little wolf! Wake up!"
The sight of Christian's lifeless body faded into the blackness and she screamed again, not wanting to be left alone in the dark.
Something gripped her arms tightly, shaking her. She fought against it, lashing out, consumed by grief and terror. "No!"
Her nails connected with something, raking downwards, and she heard a grunt of pain. "Quinn, it's me, damn it! STOP!"
The command hit her like a tidal wave, stopping her as she was going for a punch this time. She blinked and the terrible vision faded until she saw a pair of ice blue eyes watching her anxiously in the blue-grey gloom of a moonlit room.
"Christian?" Quinn's voice was barely more than a whisper and she watched the Alpha's body visibly relax as he leaned over her, though the concern didn't leave his eyes.
She took a moment to look around and saw they were in his bedroom, where they had been before she had let herself drift off to sleep.
She had no idea how long she had remained in the gallery after Caine had left her, trying to hide her distress from her Alpha. He didn't need the added stress of her emotions when things were so tense with the other Alphas. By the time Christian had found her, having become tired of waiting for her to return to their suite and unable to sense her emotions, Quinn had huddled in a ball with her head pressed against her knees as she fought off a panic attack.
Caine's expectation was clearly for her to take his place as Alpha Prime. When she'd mentioned that she didn't want the job, he hadn't told her he would reconsider his choice. He seemed to really believe that she had what it took to lead his people. The weight of such expectation was almost too much to handle. She barely understood her own place in her pack, let alone the world. Could she really be responsible for so many lives?
"Do you want to talk about it?" Christian asked, breaking Quinn from her thoughts. "What you were dreaming about?"
Of course he would know what she was dreaming about, thanks to their bond. Quinn said nothing and rolled onto her side with a sigh, her whole body tense. She was still a little too raw to break down what she'd seen in her dream, what she'd felt.
She felt him shift until he was lying behind her. Then she felt his fingers start to massage the back of her neck, just to the left and right of where it met the base of her skull, in an effort to get her to relax.
"It was just a dream, little wolf," she heard him say softly. "You know that, right? Nothing is going to happen to anyone in our family. Nothing is going to happen to you or to me. I won't let it."
Quinn closed her eyes and tried to focus only on the movements of his fingers, feeling an easing of the tension in her body if only a slight one. It felt as if everything around her was in chaos and she was standing still, unable to do anything about it. Her thoughts, her dreams, the course of her life, her Alpha's position in the werewolf circle of leadership, all of it swirling around her. It was almost a blessing to have a quiet moment with Christian like this, however fleeting, and it was so tempting to just lose herself in it. It was enough to make her feel like purring.
A low chuckle sounded behind her and a moment later Christian brushed his lips against her neck. "A wolf purring? What an imagination you have, little wolf."
Quinn grabbed a pillow and pulled it over her head to hide her embarrassment. Purring? Seriously? What was wrong with her?
She felt Christian shift and then she could feel him lying on top of her, pulling the pillow away from her face.
"We can certainly try and see if wolves can purr," he said with a smirk that had her blushing. "I'm sure I can find ways to make you purr."
The knowing twinkle in his eyes told Quinn he knew exactly what kinds of thoughts his words were putting in her head and, not for the first time, Quinn found herself irritated with her mental connection with the Alpha. There was no space for her to work through her thoughts and emotions when he teased her like that and he knew it. It certainly didn't help that he found her reactions terribly funny. Just once, she wanted her thoughts to be her own again, to be able to think what she wanted without having to remember to try and censor what was going on in her head for fear of embarrassment or judgement.
"Is that what you want?" Christian's voice was hard now, all the humor gone from his expression. "For our bond to be gone?"
She looked up at him, seeing the hurt in his ice blue eyes that he couldn't quite hide from her.
"No," she admitted softly. "I don't want it gone. I just want to know when I'll stop thinking stuff that makes me cringe when you're around."
Christian looked at her for a moment longer and then his face lit up in something that looked suspiciously like a goofy grin. Before she could get a better look at it, however, he rolled onto his back and pulled her against his side, keeping her there by wrapping an arm around her back.
For a long while, Quinn lay there listening to his strong, steady heartbeat, wondering how much longer she would be able to fall asleep like this. Christian had bitten her in a state of high stress, when his wolf was in control. In that moment, Quinn hadn't wanted to be bound to him and his human side certainly hadn't wanted it, so the bond was temporary. In just two or three days the bond between them would be gone and there was the very real possibility that the closeness they now shared would cease to exist.
"Stop obsessing," he said softly into the quiet. "Everything is going to be fine. We're going to be fine. I promise."
With the sound of Christian's heart as a lullaby, Quinn let herself drift off into another restless sleep.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Finally, a new chapter in Quinn's story. Sorry for the crazy long delay in posting. My work life has gotten unbelievably busy and I'm still working on fitting in time for writing. A short one this time, but I felt it was important to get this into the story.
Keep watching this space. A new chapter is coming soon!
xxx