Page 35 of Wicked Wolf

With that, she, Jesse, and Quinn were alone in the room. She got up off the bed, her legs shaky. She hadn’t been sleeping or eating right in the past couple of days, and with the added-on magic, her body was feeling it. She knew she needed to take better care of herself, but it had been hard when her heart hadn’t been in it.

Now she didn’t have a choice.

“I’m going to go home and eat and rest,” she said finally. Quinn had his eyes on his son, not her, so it made it easer for her to speak.

He turned toward her, and her mouth went dry.

His wolf was in his gaze, the gold rim around his irises glowing. “Thank you,” he said, his voice strong. “Thank you for coming here when you didn’t have to and saving my son. I will never be able to repay you for that.”

She raised her chin, her heart pounding even as her soul died just that much more. “I wasn’t going to let a pup be hurt because of my—no, your—issues.” There. She felt a smidge better. Not much, but at least she wasn’t lying to herself.

Quinn’s jaw tightened, and he nodded. “Thank you anyway.” He let out a breath and looked down at his son. “Gina…”

He was going to ask her. After all he’d done to her, after all he’d said, he was going to ask her about the mating. She knew they would have to in order to save Jesse’s life, but she didn’t know if she could handle hearing it in her weakened state.

She raised her hand and stopped him. “I’m going home to sleep and to eat. We can talk about everything that was said here and previously after we’re rested.” She paused and looked at Jesse. “He’s more important than anything, Quinn. I get that. But right now? I’m not in the right state of mind to talk about anything. I hope you get that.”

Hope and something else she couldn’t quite place flittered through his gaze before he nodded and stood.

“I’ll come to you this time,” he said softly. “Tomorrow?”

She shook her head. “We’ll meet in neutral territory.” She shrugged at his look. “My family isn’t in your fan club right now, and I don’t want to test them.”

He nodded. “I understand.” He let out a breath. “Tomorrow okay though?”

“Yes. In neutral territory after sunrise, so we can get it over with.”

Not the best way to talk about mating someone who was supposed to be her soul mate, but at this point, she couldn’t put too much emotion into it. If she did, she’d lose whatever part of herself she had left.

“We can talk about what we need to talk about,” she said, being vague. “Council matters can come later.”

He let out a breath. “It’s getting complicated.”

She gave him a sad smile. “It was always complicated, Quinn. Don’t lie to yourself.”

With one last look at a sleeping Jesse, she left the room and then the house. She passed the Talons, not looking at them. She didn’t want to see the questions in their eyes, or the pity.

Her family waited for her on the front porch, and she moved out of the way of their touch. If she let them hug her, console her, she’d break. She only had to make it to the car outside the wards, and then she could cry until she made it into the Redwood wards.

She could do that.

She was far stronger than she felt.

At least she hoped so.

By the next morning, she was slightly more energized and ready to get this talk over with. While she might have stayed up all night thinking, Hannah and her mother hadn’t let that happen. Instead, her family fed her then made her drink tea that would make her sleep deeply. Thank the goddess she did because she wasn’t sure she’d have made it here this morning if she’d stayed up all night tossing and turning.

What she was about to agree to was going to kill a small part of her. She knew that, but she didn’t see another choice. She ran a hand over her hair, trying to center herself.

When she was a young girl, she’d been afraid of mating, though she’d never said it out loud. She’d been afraid of finding a wolf, falling in love, and creating a bond. Because once she did that, she’d have children, and those children could be left alone if she died.

Her birth parents died because a traitor had used them to try to frame another wolf for their deaths. The traitor had died painfully, as had the wolves that had used him in the first place, but in some ways, it would never be enough.

She’d never be held by her mother, never be lifted off the ground by her father again. She’d had more years with the both of them than Mark ever had, but those years hadn’t been enough.

Melanie and Kade had brought her into their home without a second thought. They’d helped nurture her wolf and her soul while trying to find a way to balance the magic within her veins. They’d never judged her for what she could do if she lost control.

She was a fire witch. A deadly one if she ever tried to use her powers for dark, rather than light. She could use the flame to burn those in her path or, if she focused hard enough, control a flame already made.