Heart of a Lion by Lacey Thorn
Chapter Nine
Quinn did her best to remain calm as more people came through the door. She’d expected the alpha and his mate, and Tah and Abby were the first to follow Diane into the room. Professor Mueller was with them, giving a nod toward her before taking his place by Abby’s side. Gideon’s mate Vic was next, though Gideon wasn’t with her. She was a tall, leggy blonde who’d fought with Tah in the Marines then rejoined him when the pride had been in Colorado. That was really the extent of what Quinn knew about her, except that she was close to Ariel and a force to be reckoned with. Not a woman Quinn wanted against her.
Gabriel Ericson followed slightly behind Vic. He was one of the pride members Quinn did know a lot about. They’d met. After all, Gabriel’s father had been the one to recruit her father then later her, as well. Isaac had always spoken of Gabriel as the Angel or dropped the fact his son was a liger shifter, a rarity among shifters even though there were two within the pride now. She hadn’t realized Gabriel had a brother until she’d briefly met Daniel when she’d stopped at the ranch with her dad. Isaac hadn’t wanted anyone to live on their land back then. He must have thrown a fit when Tah and his pride had moved in.
The door to her room closed with a firm snap that seemed to echo around her, bringing tension to her frame as she tried to brace for what the next few minutes would bring. She glanced around, taking in the others in the room. It surprised her that neither Reno nor Logan were among them. They were the alpha’s two closest friends, and she’d rarely seen him without one or the other close by.
Mitch wasn’t there, either. She was coming to realize just how much she depended on him. He was always there for her. She knew something must have held him up or else he’d be with her now, but she couldn’t use him as a crutch. She was a woman. One with a child who depended on her to keep him safe. She couldn’t fail them both.
“I’m going to head out,” Diane said before the interrogation could begin. “I’ll head down and take over baby duty from Gideon.”
Quinn wondered if her father was taking Emery to join Abby’s daughter, Regan, and Diane’s daughter, Amala. There was also a set of twin boys in the pride, the children of one of the male shifters named Calloway and his mate, Darby.
“Good luck prying him away,” Vic teased with a laugh. “I had no idea how much he loved kids until I saw him with Regan, Amala, and the boys.”
“He’d make a great father,” Abby tossed out.
“Don’t you start,” Vic warned, but there was no fire in her voice. It was all humor. “When it happens, it happens.”
“Send him up to join us,” Tah commanded softly. “He knows more about hunter labs than any of us in this room, excluding you, Quinn. He’ll have insight the rest of us won’t.”
“I’ll send him up,” Diane promised. “I’ll check on your dad and Emery, also. Though I doubt your father will let me get any newborn snuggles while he’s on baby duty. I’d say he’s completely enamored with Emery.”
“We’re both lucky to have my dad,” Quinn admitted.
She’d do her best to make up for all the time they’d lost and to make sure Emery didn’t lose any precious moments with his family. Which meant she needed to work on building them a home where they’d be safe. She wanted that home with Mitch. She hoped it would also include this pride that had taken her in without question or suspicion.
“He’s just as lucky to have you,” Diane whispered, squeezing Quinn’s hand as she passed on her way to the door.
As the door closed behind the other woman, Quinn felt the stares of everyone else remain firmly on her. None with malice. It was all curiosity. Support. Acceptance. How were they able to make her feel as if she belonged without saying a word? It was disconcerting and fear inducing. She’d been conditioned to know nothing good came when she called attention to herself. She’d give anything to disappear into a dark corner and hover unseen.
“You’re ready to talk now?” Tah asked, bringing her attention back to him.
“Not really,” she answered. “I want to spend all my time wrapped up in my son, but I won’t get that luxury as long as there are questions hanging over me.”
“We could have spoken sooner,” Tah reminded her. “Waiting has always been your choice.”
“It has.” But fear was a hell of a motivator when it came to being silent. Talbot knew exactly how to exploit fear and build on it. “I don’t know where your missing shifter is. I swear that’s the truth. I never saw him. I know Talbot had a shifter that Marcus Blane sent to him. They were both excited about having him. I don’t know why. And I don’t know where that shifter ended up. Or even if he’s still alive.”
“Where were you kept?” Abby asked.
“With Talbot. When he traveled, I was packed up and moved with the rest of his things.”
“That’s how you met Emery’s father?” Vic asked.
Quinn nodded. “I met him at one of the facilities Talbot went to.”
“Let’s start from the beginning,” Abby stated. “Isaac Erikson sent you to infiltrate a known hunter controlled lab to gather information for him. True or false?”
Quinn saw Gabriel wince but didn’t curb her answer. He had to know the man his father had been. Good and bad.
“True.”
“How long before they discovered you were a plant?” Vic asked, her voice soft as if she had an idea of the hell that discovery had meant. Perhaps she did, through her mate who’d spent time within various hunter labs, as well.
“Almost immediately,” Quinn admitted. “I was young, gullible, and had no idea what I was really doing. I was fired up on anger and hate, led by emotions instead of intellect.”
“You were a sitting duck,” Gabriel snapped, but she knew his anger wasn’t directed at her.
“It’s not your fault,” she pointed out, but that only made his face flush more.
“My father isn’t exactly here to answer for his actions. For what it’s worth, I’m sorry. There’s no excuse for what he did, what he cost you.”
“I’d go through it all again for my son.”
She knew that in her heart. Had known it from the moment she’d known he was there, growing in her womb. “You have to understand that. Just as you have to make your peace with the man your father was. None of us is perfect. We all have good and bad in us. No matter what side of this battle we’re on, we all fight for what we believe to be true and just.”
“We don’t hunt down people, torture them for our pleasure, then kill them on whim simply because we can,” Abby countered.
“You want me to believe you haven’t spilled blood? With Talbot held nearby even now? And I understand he has a scar on his face from your mate.”
“Are you trying to defend them to me?” Abby stepped forward, and Tah wrapped an arm around her waist, hauling her back and anchoring her against his chest. “You’re defending Talbot to me?”
“Never. I’m trying to give you insight. The key to taking your enemy down is to understand what motivates them.”
Talbot had drilled that kernel of knowledge into her over and over again with lessons she’d never forget.
“I have more reason to hate them, to hate him, than any of you.”
“No, you don’t,” Abby challenged. “You don’t know what he did to any of us because you’ve isolated yourself instead of taking the time to get to know any of us. You were happy to accept our help to get you away from him but offered nothing in return.”
“Away from him?” Quinn growled, feeling her temper rise. “You brought me to the same place he is. Then you stuck me in a place guaranteed to remind me of where I’d been. My environment didn’t change. Hell, knowing Talbot the way I do, I wouldn’t put it past him to have set this all up. Getting captured knowing he’d be brought here. Knowing I’d be here. If anything, this all plays into his grand plan.”
“Well, hell.” Vic was the one to step forward. “We didn’t think about that. About how it must have felt to have you stay at the medical center when you’ve been kept in a similar environment by them.”
“You think Talbot may have planned for this very outcome?” Tah asked.
Quinn nodded. “I’ll tell you right now, he was captured because he wanted to be. Whether that has to do with you, the pride, me and Emery, or is solely about Tony, I don’t know. The only person who knows that is Talbot, and from what I gather, he isn’t really saying much either way yet.”
“That makes perfect sense to me,” Gideon added as he joined them, going immediately to his mate’s side and wrapping an arm around Vic’s waist and tugging her into him.
It was a thing all the mated couples did. They were always touching their mates in some way, openly affectionate with no care about PDA. She envied them that. Craved it with Mitch.
“There’s one thing you should know before we keep talking,” Professor Mueller said, his voice rife with warning. “Whatever the future holds for any of us, Emery can’t leave the pride.”
“You won’t take my son from me!”
She’d lived with that threat from the time her son had been planted inside her womb.
He belongs to me. The same as you do. I’ll tear him from your womb as easily as I put him in there. Remember that and do as your told. One word and that thing inside you is gone.
Talbot’s words still brought nightmares to disturb her sleep. She’d be damned if she let the pride give her a similar threat.
“What he means is, both of you need to stay with the pride. Both,” Gideon tacked on, giving the professor a shake of his head. “Despite his appearance, your son is premature. It’s important for him to remain close, so we can watch over him. Then there’s whatever is going on with you. Even you have to admit it’s not normal.”
“I left normal behind a long time ago,” she assured them. “About the time I met Dr. Victor Talbot and became his personal experiment.”
Tah came forward, stopping at the side of her bed and staring down at her. There was so much emotion in his face, as if he were letting her glimpse an unguarded moment, sharing a piece of himself with her. It spoke to a part of her she’d thought had died long ago. That scared little girl who’d longed for an older sibling to turn to in all the moments both big and small throughout her childhood and into young adulthood. Someone to share secrets with.
“Normal is superfluous,” he growled, but his expression remained gentle. “You’re one of us, Quinn. We’re not here to hurt you. We don’t want to take your son away from you. We want to keep you both safe. From Talbot, from hunters, from any danger that presents itself. And we’ve veered away from our original conversation. What happened when you were discovered?”
“He drugged me. I woke up tied down and naked on a cold, metal table. There was a light over me and, though I couldn’t feel it, when I looked down, I could see I was split open and his hands were inside me. I almost choked on the bile that rose in my throat.”
“He operated on you while you were awake? A human woman?”
Abby’s expression showed how shocked she was, but Quinn knew the truth.
“It doesn’t really matter to them if you’re human or shifter. If they want to hurt you, they’ll validate that need in their mind and make it the victim’s fault. I was there to spy on them and report back to the enemy. Anything they did to me was on me. I chose to be there. Their logic, not mine,” she added when several of them looked ready to argue.
“Do you know what he did to you?” Gideon asked.
“I’m not deflecting when I say whatever he wanted. I mean that. Literally. I have no idea what he’s done to me. You and Tony probably have a better idea because you’ve seen inside me. I haven’t. All I know is Talbot is fond of telling me I’m his greatest creation. I know there were several times my heart stopped, but he brought me back every time.”
“I can tell you what I saw, but Tony would be the one who has the bigger scope of what’s what.” Gideon held her gaze as he spoke, not shying away from what he was going to tell her. “The ovary we removed, wasn’t yours.”
Quinn closed her eyes and swallowed. Hard. She told herself that didn’t mean Emery wasn’t hers. No matter what Tony had said about blood. Her son was just that. Her son.
“What else did you have to remove?” Quinn asked.
“The bullet hit your side and went through your uterus. The baby was in immediate distress. The first thing we did was to get him out and over to Diane. Then we focused on you. You lost a lot of blood. We had to remove the one ovary and your uterus. I’m sorry for that. There was no way to save it.”
“It doesn’t matter. Thank you for making my son the priority.”
“You were both our priority,” Gideon corrected. “But we had to remove him so we could focus on you. I need to tell you something, though. Your son had two umbilical cords.”
“What? How is that even possible?”
But she knew. Talbot!
“There was one from you to him, and one that led back from him to you,” Gideon shared.
“I had your dad give me access to your medical records prior to when you left.” Professor Mueller entered the conversation. “I can tell you that there are several anomalies. You don’t have the same blood type.”
“What?”
God, she felt as if she were on repeat, and that was the only word making it through the fog in her brain.
“I’d like to get with Tony and find out what he saw. I’d also like to do some additional testing to try and figure out not just what else he’s done but how. How did he manage to change your blood type? And the thought that you believe you died several times and he brought you back. Why? And how? I won’t lie and say I don’t find this and you fascinating, but I will tell you that you and your child are a top priority. Your health and wellbeing come first. I won’t sacrifice either of you for answers.”
She’d known that about Professor Mueller. He’d always been kind to her, shown interest in her child’s growth and health. He had a paternal way about him. Though she’d also seen him lay into others when they did or said something he didn’t like. Which meant there was something she needed to share.
“I need to let you know something. It might change the way you feel about Emery and me being here.”
“We know they’re coming for you,” Tah told her, reminding her he was more than just the alpha.
He was also a man with a military background, a Marine. The members of his team had followed him into the civilian world and come to his aid as soon as the call for help had gone out. He’d had a pride before he even knew who he really was.
“As long as they are, we’re all at risk,” Tah warned. “Every mate. Every child. Every man and woman living here.”
“I’m moving in with Mitch. If that’s not enough, I can—”
“No,” Tah interrupted. “The most important thing is for you to be here. We’re stronger together. Hell, if we’ve learned anything from all we’ve been through so far, it’s that we’re stronger when we’re together. All of us. You’re not alone anymore, Quinn. It’s not you against them. It’s us against them, and I’d lay my money on us every time.”
“I want to stay,” she offered. “To belong here, to the pride.”
Something buzzed and everyone glanced toward Vic.
“What the hell?” Vic reached in her pocket and dug out her phone. Alarm filled her face as she glanced up and yelled. “Move! Move!”
Tah reached for Quinn and jerked her to her feet, shoving her with Abby behind his back even as Gabriel repositioned to help him. Vic and Gideon attempted to grab the professor, but it was too late. It was too damn late.
“Well, isn’t this sweet?”
Quinn jerked her gaze toward the door where one male held open the door while several others spilled in, guns drawn and at the ready.
“No scent,” Gabriel muttered, his words filtering through to answer the question weighing on her mind. How the hell had they approached without anyone knowing?
“No scent gives us an advantage. The earlier breaches helped us gauge response time as well as your approach to a threat. Intelligence. It’s what’s always separated man from beast, and despite appearances, you’re all dumb animals when it comes down to it.”
All the shifters growled.
“Most of you anyway. The rest of you are just fucking animal lovers.” He nodded toward the men with him, and they spread out along the front wall of the room.
“You won’t make it out of here alive,” Vic warned.
Chuckles echoed around them, making Quinn’s skin crawl.
“That was never the plan. Seems to me, you all have a decision to make. Three humans, three shifters, and Talbot’s monster. Looks like we have the numbers. Who wants to be the first to die?”