The Beast and the Homecoming Queen (20 page)

Justin touches her face and she grins. “Yes, and I even got a ne
w phone.” She pulls out her pink sparkling smartphone. “And a surprise for later.” Quinn winks and moves to the table to sit down.

Breanna is smiling at her. “So since you don’t talk to your bes
t friend anyone you must hate me.”

Justin sits next to Quinn and puts his hand on her knee.

“I am so sorry, I have been so busy. But we will talk later,” Quinn says, and her best friend winks at her.

“Oh we will.” Quinn laughs.

After lunch Quinn and Justin walk to her locker holding hands. “Justin I saw the hunter today.”

His hand tightens around hers. “Where?”

Quinn opens her locker, and pulls out what she needs. “At the mall, he was the phone guy. He seemed surprised that I gave Kaden my blood.”

Justin closes his eyes, and pinches the bridge of his nose. “Quinn you can't tell people that. Our pure blood is sacred, and never given to heal a half blood.” He opens his eyes to look at her. “What did he say after you told him?”

“He said that I was different from other pure bloods, and he would follow me to his death.”

“Well that is a good thing then, you just got yourself a dangerous friend, and he has given you his life. You are his queen in his heart.”

Quinn eyes widen, she doesn’t want that, she wants to live her life how she wants. “I don’t want to be queen.”

Justin smiles, and touches her face. “My love you will be queen and I am your king. You were born to rule, and my dad knows that he nee
ds to step down.” Quinn thinks that is too easy.

“Why would he just step down?”

“He doesn’t have a choice. Since we are both eighteen he needs to step down, or fight to keep his rule,” Justin says and smiles.

“I might have to fight your dad?” Quinn could never do that.

“I don’t think it will come to that, and it's a fight to the death,” Justin says, and Quinn shuts her eyes. Another fight to the death, but this time with her boyfriend's father. Justin wraps his arms around her. “I know if it comes to fighting him I will do it, and I won't let you tell me different this time.”

Quinn moves away from Justin, and shakes her head. “I can't talk about this right now. I’ll see you later.” Quinn gives Justin a quick kiss, and smiles. She loves this man, and can't believe she doubted him.

“Okay see you later.” Quinn smiles and Justin smiles back. She starts walking away, and he yells. “Hey Quinn!” She turns around. “I love you to the moon and back.” Justin winks at her, and she laughs.

“I love you to Neptune and back.” She says and he laughs.

“This is why I love you, you get me.” Justin says, and puts his hand on his heart. Quinn laughs and walks away.

Chapter Fifteen

Mother

Quinn is sitting in the last class, and she smiles. Justin and
she are perfect; she never thought she would have a boyfriend that she was crazy about. Kaden and she are complicated; she isn’t going to deny the feelings she has for him.

There is a knock on the door, and Mrs. Schmidt opens it. A man carrying dark and light pink dahlias walks in. Quinn's heart drops, there has only been one person to give her dahlias, and Justin glares at a smiling Kaden.

“I'm looking for a Quinn Murphy,” the man says, and Mrs. Schmidt points her out. The man walks over to her and smiles. He hands her the large light and dark pink dahlias bouquet, and walks away. She grabs the card, and keeps her eyes away from Justin. Quinn opens the card.

I won't give up on us, and I am giving you all my love.

Kaden

Quinn quickly puts the card in her back pocket, and looks at Mrs. Schmidt. “Rest of class is free time.”

Quinn closes her eyes knowing that Justin and Kaden will be standing in front of her. “I'm guessing these are from you, Kaden.”

Quinn opens her eyes, and sees Kaden smiling. “I don’t know what you are talking about.”

If looks could kill, Kaden would be dead right now. “You are the only one that has given Quinn dahlias. Why do you want to come between us? Don't you want Quinn happy?”

Kaden looks at her, and she doesn’t know what to do. Sometimes she feels like they are tug-a-war with her, and she wants to scream.

“Are you happy with Justin?” Kaden asks her, and she doesn’t even need to think about that.

“Yes,” s
he says without thinking.

Kaden nods. “It doesn’t change how I feel about you.” When the bell rings, Quinn jumps up. She has never been happier to hear ringing. “See you at home sweetheart.” Kaden winks a dark blue eye at her, and walks away.

Quinn picks up the flowers, and Justin raises an eyebrow. “Hey they are beautiful.”

“I still don’t like you having flowers from someone else, and Kaden is doing it to get und
er my skin,” Justin says, and puts his arm around her shoulders. “What did the card say?”

“Justin
, please,” she says as she stops at her locker.

“Quinn
, I am seeing that light I fell in love with come back, and it isn’t just with me I see it. It's with Kaden too. That card made you sparkle like a diamond.” Quinn doesn’t miss the hurt in his voice, and it breaks her heart.

“Justin I love you, not Kaden.” She turns to face her boyfriend. “When I think about my future, I am with you.”

Justin blinks and smiles. “I know you love me, but you love him to. Even if you don’t want to admit it, I know you do. You are in my future too, the only one I ever want to be with.” He kisses her lips gently, and pulls away way too fast. “Go pick up Lizzy, and I will see you after practice. I love you to the moon and back.”

Quinn smiles, she doesn’t care if it's corny what she has with Justin is real. She loves that they are like this. “And I love you to Neptune and back.”

She gets to her red bug, and puts the flowers in the backseat along with her backpack. The flowers fragrant fill her car, and she smiles. She really loves these flowers, but she will have to talk to Kaden about doing this. She is with Justin and it bothers him that he keeps doing it she needs to put a stop to it. Quinn knew when they moved in it wasn’t going to be easy, but she needs peace at home. She parks her car in front of her sister’s junior high, and Lizzy is talking to a group of boys. Quinn shakes her head; her baby sister is growing up too fast.

Quinn smiles at her sister as she gets into the car. “Where's my phone?” Lizzy asks, and Quinn grins.

“Sorry kiddo I didn’t have time.” Quinn shrugs, and sighs.

Lizzy punches Quinn in the shoulder. “Whatever, hand it over.” Quinn laughs, she put the phone under her seat
so she could hand it to Lizzy.

“I already added Justin's, Kaden's and mine to your phone. I don’t want you to be texting everyone and their momma, this phone is so I can get a hold of you. Or for the guys to get a hold of you.” Quinn puts the phone out for Lizzy to take, and pulls it away right before she could take it. “I'm not playing, I don’t want you to mess around on it.”

“Quinny! I understand, please give me my phone. Pretty please with a big fat cherry on and rainbow sprinkles.” Lizzy pouts her bottom lip, and Quinn laughs.

She hands Lizzy the phone with the green sparkly case, and she squeals. “I take it you like your new phone.”

“OMG I love it! Almost everyone in my class has a phone, and now I do.” Lizzy's smile melts Quinn's heart.

“I'm not joking about the phone. I love you but I will take your new phone faster than you can say
what. Okay?” Quinn says, and stops at a stoplight. She looks at her sister, and she smiles.

“Yeah I know.” Quinn smiles as they drive home.

When they get home, Quinn sees a car she doesn’t recognize and Kaden's motorcycle in the driveway. “Whose car is that?” Lizzy's asks and Quinn shrugs.

“I have no clue,
” Quinn says, and gets out of the car. She wonders if it could be a hunter, and if Kaden is in danger. “Lizzy I want you to stay behind me.”

“Quinn I’m not a baby.” Lizzy puts her hands on her hips, and Quinn glares at her.

“I know that, but just do what I say. Got it?”

“Yeah, yeah.” Lizzy
mutters and Quinn shakes her head.

Slowly they walk into the house, and Quinn can hear Kaden talking. Quinn slowly walks into the kitchen, and
sees Kaden smiling and talking to a woman. Quinn can only see the back of her, and she has short blond hair.

“Quinn can I talk to you for a minute?” Kaden asks, and she can tell he is hiding something. The woman turns around and smiles. Quinn
remembers her clearly it's the woman that dragged Kaden to his waiting death, and her mother. Quinn wants to punch this woman in her face, and ask her why?

“Sweetheart, we need to talk.” Quinn nods but keeps her eyes on the other woman. “Liz why do you go to your room and do your homework.”

“Yeah, sure,” Lizzy says and walks out of the kitchen.

Kaden walks to Quinn, and turns her around. “We'll be right back.” He says over his shoulder, and pushes Quinn out of the kitchen. “You can't kill her.”

Quinn looks at Kaden, and he is staring at her. “Why not, she brought you to your death?”

Kaden sighs, and removes his hand that he left on the middle of her back. “Kristen
, Murphy doesn’t like to be told no, and I wasn’t going to get on her bad side again.” He winks.

Quinn laughs. “You are scared of a girl?”

“Hell yes!” Quinn laughs again. “Glad to know you enjoy my pain.”

Quinn grins and shakes her head. “What does she want?”

Kaden looks away, and Quinn arches an eyebrow. “You, she wants to talk to you. I already called Justin, and he is on his way home.”

Quinn nods, and glances at the kitchen door. “Okay let me talk to her, and you check on Lizzy.”

Kaden grabs her arm, and she looks over her shoulder at him. “I can't let you be alone with her. She is kind of unstable. Justin told me to stay with you, and technically he is my alpha.”

“Aren't I your
Princess?” she asks him, and he grins.

“That you are,
but you won't hurt me, he will,” Kaden says, and she smiles. That is very true.

Quinn pouts her bottom lip, and Kaden chuckles. “Fine
let’s get in there. I want to find out what she wants.”

Quinn and Kaden walk into the kitchen and her mother is smiling at her. Quinn stares at her, and sees how she looks like her. She has the same eyes, and the same hair.

“You are so beautiful, and you look a lot like me when I was younger.” The woman that is her mother says. But she left Quinn. And she never looked back.

Quinn narrows her eyes at her. “Why did you leave, and why didn’t I know you were alive?”

Her mother looks down. “Your father didn’t think it was best for me to be around you. After I promised you to Justin he was really mad, and told me to leave. He told me that he would tell you that I died. I didn’t fight him about it until about seven months ago. I knew your first change would be coming and I wanted to be there for you.” She looks up at Quinn, and there are tears in her large hazel-blue eyes. “Quinn, he wouldn’t let me, and I went crazy. I killed him.” It takes a few seconds before Quinn understands what she just heard, she can feel her legs give out on her, and arms catch her. Gray-yellow eyes are staring down at her, and concern is written all over Justin's face along with anger. Her heart pounds loudly. Her mother, the mother that she thought was dead, just admitted to killing her father. All the sorrow and heartache in her life is because of her own mother.

Quinn feels her hot tears streaming down her cheeks, and her throat feels tight.
“I think you should leave.” Quinn can faintly hear Kaden say over the pounding of her heart.

“Quinn, I snapped and I didn’t know what I was doing until it was too late.” Quinn taps Justin's shoulder so he can put her down, and he does.

“You killed my dad.” Quinn whispers and looks up at the woman that gave birth to her. “Because he wouldn’t let the woman that walked out on me, see me?”

The other woman walks over to Quinn, and her
boys growl. She puts her hands up to stop them.

“You will make a great ruler, and I just hope I am still around to see it.
It’s up to the pack to decide what happens to me. That really means that it's up to Chris.” She reaches out to touch Quinn's cheek and Quinn slaps her hand away. “Every day I was away, I always thought about you. Every second, minute, and hour of the day I wonder what you were doing. I am sorry Quinn, and I will welcome death for what I have done to you.” She gives Quinn one last teary smile, and leaves.

Quinn takes a deep breath and closes her eyes to steady herself. “I did not see that coming.” Kaden whistles.

“Kaden, can Quinn and I be alone?” Justin asks, and Quinn keeps her eyes shut and thinks about her breathing.

“Yeah
, I will check on Lizzy,” Kaden says, and Quinn feels arms wrap around her.