Fate Stained - Part Two
Chapter 36 - And Then There Was One

She was mine. They were mine - both Quinn and the baby. I’d dreamt of this day for as long as I could remember, the day where Quinn’s heart would belong to me and only me.

But now that it was here, it was unbelievably bittersweet. I stared silently at Quinn as Kyanite disappeared through the back door of the pack house, ‘I loved you too’ being the last words she heard before the door shut firmly behind him. In that moment it was as though I wasn’t here at all. She was alone, all alone and the look on her face was one of someone that had just lost the love of their life.

And how did I feel about that? I couldn’t tell you. I never ever wanted to see the woman in pain. I’d always said that if I could take her pain away and make it my own, then I would, every time. But here she was, absolutely broken in front of me but I knew the hurt that was necessary - and, thank the Goddess, it wasn’t the usual pain of a severed mate bond - that would have been a pain too severe to bare witness to.

I rose slowly from my chair and moved towards my mate.

My mate.

She stared blankly ahead at the doorway, her hands cradling her stomach, silent tears rolling freely down her cheeks. Standing behind Quinn, I carefully wrapped my arms around her shivering body, cloaking her in the warmth and safety of my own.

“Shhhh” I soothed softly in her her, my face nuzzled into the crook of her neck, “I’m so sorry Quinn. I wish there was something that I could do. I wished it didn’t have to hurt like this”

Small shudders wracked Quinn’s body as sobs tore between her lips, but even with her raw grief and hurt, she still melted back against my body and I released a small sigh of relief knowing that we were ok.

“Our wolves” she whispered, turning her body slowly until we faced each other.

I took a small step back, allowing room for Quinn’s beautiful, round stomach to fit between us, and gave her a look as if to say I wasn’t sure what she was talking about.

“Our dead” she elaborated, “we need to retrieve our dead from the forest…and Panthera’s”

Sighing, I stroked my hand along Quinn’s arm and allowed my fingers to nestle between her’s as she cradled her bump.

“It’s taken care of. I linked Cam. He and Matt have already brought them back through a portal. Please, let me worry about everything for now, you have enough going on”

“Has there been any sign of the Point Invictus pack?”

“Quinn—”

“Jayce, please. Now is not the time for me to sulk and brood. I need distraction. Luckily for me, we have plenty of that going on at the moment”

I shouldn’t have been shocked. I’d known Quinn long enough to know that she wasn’t one to focus her attention or energies on her own pain and suffering. She would use her grief as her driving force behind dealing with our problems at hand. She really was a true Luna and Queen.

“No” I sighed, “There has been no sighting of them, no word from them. No inkling that they even know about Vincent and Anton’s fate”

Just then, Quinn flinched and grimaced, a look of discomfit passing across her face. I didn’t have to ask what was wrong, because I’d felt it too. We both looked down to her belly and my palm spread across it, waiting for what I thought I’d just felt.

Then there it was again.

“Was that—?”

Quinn nodded, a smile finally showing itself on her otherwise sad face.

“She kicks a lot now, it’s actually quite uncomfortable”

With my heart swelling in my chest and everything else melting away into the back of my mind, I leant down, my lips gently meeting Quinn’s. The kiss, as simple and as soft as it was, was a kiss - that for the first time in three years - had nothing else between it; nothing else between Quinn and I. It was her and me. Alpha and Luna. Mate and mate. Father and Mother. She was mine and I was her’s and any other drama that we had going on right now just didn’t seem like it even came close to overshadowing that.

Then Quinn kissed me back, softly at first, then with a little more warmth and need. It was as though she suddenly realised all the same things that I did. Her heart was no longer torn two ways, she had the freedom to love me with the full strength of her bond and the full force of her animals.

And I planned to take full advantage of that.

Her lips parted gently as my tongue traced the softness between them. I smiled against her mouth as she manoeuvred her body to accomodate the very welcome obstacle between us.

“I’m sorry” she breathed, “I’m so huge”

“Never, ever apologise to me for this” I whispered, my hands moving to slide over the curves under my mate’s dress, “Your body is amazing, you’re amazing. Every time I look at you, every time you open your mouth, every time you breathe…I’m left speechless. I fucking adore you Quinn”

Her ice blue eyes softened at my words and yet she still looked away, a soft pink tinting her cheeks.

“What is it?” I asked, cupping her cheek and bringing her gaze back to meet mine.

“Nothing. I just— oh Goddess, these bloody hormones. It’s just a bit…warm in here”

As Quinn bit down on her lip, drawing the soft skin hungrily into her mouth, I knew what was wrong. There was nothing wrong. I felt my eyes darken, the corner of my mouth curving up slightly as Quinn’s eyes darkened at the same time.

“I’m huge” she muttered again, her voice a little more breathless than it had been before.

“Quinn. I’ve never been more attracted to you in my life. You are carrying my baby. Your breasts, your belly, your hips…” I groaned, my hands tracing her body as I described it, “There is nothing more sexy to me than seeing you like this. You are not huge. You are fucking perfect”

With that, my lips were on her’s again and I lifted her up into my arms effortlessly. To me she weighed no more than she ever had, if anything, there was just slightly more to love, to hold on to…to grip on to.

“It’s time for you to have that lie down” I grunted, my lips separating from Quinn’s long enough for me to get the words out.

“I don’t want to sleep—”

“We don’t have to”

“Oh”

Flynn POV

I sat patiently out the front of Moira’s clinic, waiting for my sister to finish talking to Jayce and Kyanite. I wasn’t sure why she’d been so desperate to talk to them, but I wasn’t one to argue - especially with what I’d seen her do in that forest.

It was fucking terrifying. Quinn hadn’t been herself, it was like in that moment she’d been possessed. With a blink of her eyes, she’d killed three bears. They didn’t stand a chance, and the more frightening thing was that she had no memeory of it or even wanting to do it.

I had a gut feeling, one that I’d expressed to Moira and even though we both didn’t want to believe it, it had to be something we explored - this power that Quinn possessed had something to do with the baby - a baby that was going to be here very, very soon.

Moira had already contacted the Alpha of Eastern Ridge, Cassius, and asked him to come to Fern Creek. Moira believed Cassius might be able to give some insight into what might be going on as he was a very skilled and experienced mage.

I knew I was more powerful than Blake and this Cassius guy combined, but there were so many things that I just didn’t have the experience in as all of my skills were either learnt from an evil witch or developed on my own in Hell.

The more we could know about this pregnancy and why it was so unusual before the baby came, the better. Quinn didn’t need anymore surprises, and I knew that as soon as Atropos discovered the identity of the baby’s father…then Quinn was going to have the worst surprise of her life.

The sound of footsteps and the familiar scent of panther filled my senses and I looked up from where I was sitting to see Kyanite, walking rather fast, in the direction of the creek. Something wasn’t right. I felt Pieter come to the surface slightly as he picked up on my unease.

“Kyanite!” I called out, loud enough that I knew he would be able to hear.

Nothing.

Something is wrong.

Jumping to my feet, I jogged over to the panther Prince and fell in sync with his rushed steps as he drew nearer to the creek. His body was tense, his face slightly stained from what I couldn’t only imagine was tears.

Shit. He knows about Zeus’s plan.

“Kyan…It’s going to be ok—”

The panther stopped in his tracks, turning sharply to face me with his emerald eyes narrowed and his jaw twitching in an almost uncontrolled anger.

“You know? How?” He hissed.

“Atropos told me, when I first found out Quinn was pregnant. I was sworn to secrecy”

“Atropos to you that Jayce was the father?”

Fuck.

“No…I— No, only that Zeus planned on severing a bond once he knew who the father was”

Fuck.

The anger in Kyanite’s features simmered somewhat but an unmistakable sadness took over. My heart broke, it was done. Quinn had only one mate and from the grief that smothered Kyan’s entire aura, it wasn’t him.

“I’m so sorry Kyan. When…?”

“Just before. She is still back there with Jayce”

“I— I don’t know what to say”

“There is nothing to say. She isn’t my mate. The baby isn’t mine. It is what it is. No point crying about it”

I wasn’t sure I liked the edge the panther’s voice was taking on, but right now he was free to feel however he needed to feel. Sad, angry, indifferent…this wasn’t a normal situation, so it sure as Hell didn’t warrant for any normal behaviour.

“Are you leaving?”

Kyanite blinked. Perhaps it wasn’t even something he’d thought about.

“Leave?”

“Sorry…I didn’t mean…It’s just, well, she may not be your mate anymore - by no choice of her own, I might add - but she still needs you. We need you”

Kyanite laughed, not a sliver of humour meeting his cold, emerald eyes.

“Quinn’s never needed me. She is quite capable on her own. But if you’re asking if I’m going to leave before this shit with Darius and Point Invictus is behind us? Then the answer is no. The Alpha and I had an agreement and regardless of my lack of a mate bond, that agreement still stands. Quinn’s safety and the baby’s safety is paramount. She is the Shifter Queen and the baby is our future”

I nodded my head, relieved that was the way Kyanite felt. Before he allowed me to say anything else, he turned on his heel and continued on in the direction of the creek.

“But the second all this shit is over” he called back without turning around, “I’m fucking gone”