Reclaiming Quinn - Parker Williams Page 0,24
took it and smiled. He cracked the bottle and drained it in one go.
“Thank you. The trip wiped me out.”
“How is Sean getting here?”
“They have a jet now.”
“A… jet?”
“Seems the Chicago Alpha reached beyond his station. He practically drained the money from his pack to buy it and didn’t give a damn about their needs. Gareth’s already replaced him, but he wants the man found before he can cause any other problems.”
“I’m sorry, I didn’t know.”
“Not your fault,” Lyram said, tossing the bottle into the recycle bin. “Listen, they should be here in an hour or two. Why don’t you go take a nap?”
Quinn frowned. “I’m not tired. I just want Master back here.”
“And I’m telling you to sleep. We might need your help, and you won’t be any use to us if you’re exhausted.” He pointed toward the door. “Go.”
“Yes, Alpha.”
Quinn trudged to the room and lay down on the bed. He stared up at the ceiling, but sleep wouldn’t come. He could hear Lyram in the other room on the phone, confirming with Dani that Quinn was okay, that they were looking for Master, and that Sean and Gareth’s children had made it safely. Quinn’s eyes fluttered shut.
“I don’t understand. Explain it to me?”
Sean gave a patient smile. “When I claimed Gareth in front of everyone, the Mother granted him a portion of her power.”
“But why did Gareth help you at all?”
“Because he’s a good man. I didn’t think any still existed, but Gareth—no, Lydon—showed me otherwise. The people reawakened my faith that some wolves were worth saving. And now look. We brought people from Ryker’s pack, and they’re flourishing. Margaret, who never went to school, is reading at a fourth-grade level now. That’s amazing.”
“But Gareth is an Alpha. I thought they were all bad.”
Sean clutched Quinn’s hand. “I know I told you that, but I was wrong. Lyram and Gareth are good, honorable men, and they’d give it all to protect the pack.”
“And you said that Gareth was your mate? I don’t understand that at all.”
“The Mother told me that each of us has another half out there. While our human and wolf are one being, we’re not necessarily whole. Oh, we can be happy, but a mate is something totally different. They care for you, protect you, keep you safe. They love you and always want to do what’s best for you.”
Quinn jolted upright, his heart hammering. Deke had told him he wasn’t a slave, and now Quinn understood why. What the reason was that he was so drawn to Deke, and why Deke would willingly go with someone to save Quinn. He got up and stormed out into the room where Lyram was on the phone with Gareth.
“Deke is my mate.” It wasn’t a question, it was a fact. “And you knew it.”
“Yes.” There was no prevarication on Lyram’s part at all. “Deke told us.”
“Why wouldn’t he tell me?”
Lyram held up a finger, then returned to his phone. “Gareth, I’ll see you when you get here. I have to talk to Quinn.”
He hung up and slipped the phone back into his pocket.
“Come over here and sit down, Quinn.”
He put his hands on his hips. “Just tell me.”
Lyram took a deep breath, then pinned Quinn with a sharp stare. “Quinn, I’m asking you nicely. Please don’t make me order you. I’ve been very lenient so far, because I know you’re upset, but I will take any further disobedience as a challenge, and I promise you that you don’t want to do that. Now, please sit down.”
Quinn swallowed hard. “Yes, Alpha. I’m sorry.”
After he sat gingerly on the sofa, he turned to Lyram.
“The reason Deke didn’t tell you was because he had no idea how you’d react. You had been abused and were mistrusting of people. If a man you didn’t know had come to you and said ‘You’re my mate,’ what would you have done?”
The answer was all too easy. “I wouldn’t have believed him.”
He’d been somewhat comfortable around Deke, but not enough to call him by his name. How would that make Deke feel?
“He loves me,” Quinn whispered. Now that he saw all the things Deke had done with his eyes open and seeing Deke not as Master, but as Mate? Yes.
“He does. More than his own life. I know it’s hard to understand, and most of us are still coming to grips with it, but our mates mean the whole world to us.”
“You have a mate, Alpha?”
A cloud passed over Lyram’s expression. “I do,