Copyrighted Kristen Banet All rights reserved.
Before you read this: This can POSSIBLY contain SPOILERS on the character, Quinn Judge. Read this at your own discretion, since he’s not revealed much information about himself in the books to Sawyer and this is in his head.
This is in a completely unedited, first draft state. Expect typos/errors by the butt-load.
Reupload, originally uploaded on Facebook
Quinn tended his garden, quietly, with Shade and Scout sleeping in the lean-to. He loved when he was alone on the property, able to just enjoy the land without anyone coming to bother him. He’d had a few peaceful weeks of it now, but he was also beginning to miss the human interaction he got from his pack. Elijah was his favorite, but he appreciated the others for what they brought to the pack. Team, he reminded himself. He always slipped into old habits, even after so many years with them.
Pack or team, it didn’t matter. He was beginning to miss them.
They were off catching that… female. Quinn curled a lip in disgust. They were bringing her here. To their home.
He’d promised Elijah on the phone that he would behave once they brought her here. They had caught her in the night before. They were on their way home with her. He’d broken the damn phone after that. Quinn could promise to try to not kill her for having breasts and a vagina, but that didn’t mean he was going to like it.
He didn’t trust females. At all. They expected strong males to take care of them. They abused their beauty and status as breeders to take whatever they wanted. If they had power, they used it to keep males in line.
He pulled weeds from his garden aggressively as an outlet for his anger. He called the earth with his magic to crush and destroy any remaining roots, so nothing grew back.
The sun was low when he felt them in the distance. Elijah’s truck was coming on the property and he had her. From the distance, he couldn’t feel much, only a second, unknown magic, but he knew it had to be her. They wouldn’t be able to feel him though, which gave him the element of surprise.
He didn’t need to say anything to get Shade and Scout to wake up. They could feel his anticipation. He didn’t even pass a thought to them. They were anxious because he was feeling violent. When he felt violent, people died.
He started the slow, long walk back to the house. This was it. A female in his space, around his pack. He needed to judge her, make sure he could trust her there or he was going to kill her on the spot. Elijah couldn’t stop him, and Quinn wasn’t going to give this female any chance he didn’t think she deserved.
As he got closer to the house, he began noticing more about how she felt. He could feel the more unique flavor of her magic. He ignored that though and judged her strength. Even with the inhibitor that he knew she had to be wearing, she was moderately powerful for a Magi. Not as strong as him, but no one was except for the Druids. She was strong than Elijah and that concerned Quinn. He was the second strongest person on the team. That meant, only Quinn could take her down if it was necessary.
He followed her and Elijah’s scents through the house. He’d helped set up the attic for her, but it amounted to him letting people come in and do whatever they needed. He stayed hands off. The female could sleep in the woods for all he cared.
He heard Elijah proposition her and her tell him to leave. That was a sign of some sort, but Quinn wasn’t sure if he should take it as a good one or bad. He was on the other side of the door when Elijah pulled it open.
He stepped into the room, looking at Elijah. His friend seemed at ease, which meant she wasn’t threatening him in any way.
Then he looked at her and stopped thinking for a moment.
Her skin was just a shade more gold than his own. While he had red undertones, she was more caramel. Her dark eyes were nearly black, and they looked over him just as he was looking over her. She wore a calculating expression that he didn’t like but would ignore for the moment. He was a new Magi to her, as she was to him.
What stood out to him was her scars. Her bottom lip had been split open enough to scar directly down the middle. He saw another peeking out the top of her shirt between her breasts. He glanced down quickly to her hands and the inhibitor on her wrist. She had kept her body posture relaxed, the hands gave it away, but he could feel and smell the anxiety from her. Interestingly, she was missing a finger on her left.
Her appearance told him enough.
The female was a survivor.
A warrior.
That changed everything, but he didn’t want it to.
He’d been hoping to put a little bitch out of her misery before she could use and destroy his pack.
The woman in front of him looked like she fought her own battles. She didn’t need them.
He met her eyes again and held her gaze.
“You must be Sawyer,” he said in a harsh, gravelly voice when he stopped a few feet from her, and she nodded slowly. He wondered if she would say anything about his damaged vocal cords. They had been ruined years before and nothing was going to fix them now. Hours of disuse didn’t help the scratchy, deep nature of his voice either.
“You must be Quinn.”
He could hear a small shake in her voice. No one else may have noticed, but he did. She was aiming to remain casual, and he had a sliver of begrudging respect for it. She didn’t run screaming at the idea of him being in the room. She, at least, wasn’t a coward.
He turned away from her, a complete dismissal of her existence. He didn’t like the nudging feeling in his chest that she was different. That the scars on her body were a testament that she wasn’t like other females. Female and warrior were not two words he wanted put together. He had raised by strong females and they were all monsters. Even when they could something on their own, they still had wanted others to serve them. Bow to them. They were willing to hurt others to make that happen. Quinn knew that weaker females just wanted to be saved and doted on this.
Sawyer was different. She didn’t fit either category of females he’d previously encountered.
He wanted to hate her for it and he was also curious. That made him mad at himself.
“Did I do this right?” Quinn’s tone remained harsh. He meant the room, preparing it for her. That irked him. It wasn’t her fault that Elijah had left him to the job, but he wanted it to be.
“Yeah.” Elijah grinned at him, and Quinn relaxed at the clear, deep voice of his closest friend and his approval. “Now we just need to test the internet and electricity.”
“I let all those people in to handle it,” Quinn growled. He didn’t know how to test the internet and electricity.
“We’ll get it figured out.” Elijah reached out and patted Quinn’s shoulder. After a moment, Quinn closed the distance between them. He wanted the closeness of his friend. He’d missed Elijah quite a bit and now he had his near-brother back. “I think we should get a TV in here, a couple of couches. What do you think?”
“You say that like I am going to be up here,” Quinn huffed out. He wasn’t coming back to this room unless the female needed to be put down. “You are here now, you do it.”
“Yeah, I’ll stop bothering you with this.” Elijah was still grinning. Quinn knew Elijah was teasing him now. “But seriously, Sawyer, you want a TV in here?”
“I don’t really care… I can just buy one of my own, if I want one.”
“Well…” Elijah nodded slowly and looked back to Quinn, who held his hands up and left the room before anything more could be said.
Quinn didn’t care about the rest and whatever Elijah was about to tell her, wasn’t his problem. He’d met the feel, sized her up, and that’s all he needed to do.
He could hear Sawyer’s screaming over whatever Elijah had just told her. He stopped on the second floor of the house and waited, in case he needed to go back up and help his friend. Even trapped and cornered, the female was a threat, maybe even more so. Just because she didn’t have her abilities didn’t mean she wasn’t a contender in a fight.
“I pissed her off,” Elijah told him as he walked down as well. “You might want to give her some space.
“That female is a warrior.” Quinn noted.
“Woman. Not female.” Elijah corrected, smiling. “She probably won’t appreciate being called a female.”
“That woman is a warrior,” Quinn repeated, using the correct term. He hated when he got corrected and he didn’t really care about her feelings, but he would do as Elijah asked.
“She is. Tough shit. Fights for fun. Obviously fought some hard battles. Fucking hates that we brought her here for her own protection.”
“Then let her leave,” Quinn told him.
“We can’t.” Elijah sighed. “Give her a chance? Let your brothers meet her. They have a good sense about these things.”
Quinn growled softly and began to walk away.
“Quinn.” Elijah tried to get his attention. Quinn just kept walking back downstairs and outside as Elijah followed. “You have to give this a chance. She’s not like most women.”
“That much I noticed,” Quinn growled. “That much I have figured out. I just don’t know if that’s a good thing or bad thing, yet.” Quinn grumbled, clenching his hands. “I also noticed she’s more powerful than you.”
“She is, but she’s got an inhibitor. She can’t use her abilities,” Elijah reminded him. “So she’s powerful, a woman, and a warrior.”
“Yes, a powerful, female warrior. It impresses me a little.” Quinn regretted the words as they came out of his mouth. “I’ve never encountered that before.” And now that he had encountered it, he felt like she was going to change everything.
“You complimented her, and you just met her.” Elijah was grinning again. “I’ve never heard you compliment a woman before.”
Quinn snarled and stormed back out to the woods.
A minute-long interaction with her and she was already changing everything.