Chapter 12

When Shawn came back to Belmor Town, he was no longer the same wolf. He quit the court, shut himself in the Yates Den's study, and sat among walls of scrolls with a jug of strong liquor never leaving his paw.

"Shawn, you can't go on drinking like this," the steward said cautiously.

"Get out!" Shawn roared, blood-shot eyes, hoarse voice.

He downed another swallow, the fiery liquid burning his throat, but it would not burn the jealous knot in his breast.

Leah, how could she bind herself up with another?

He thought she was just throwing a tantrum, that she would return. But this day in the border land, her cold, indifferent stare half frightened him to death.

"Shawn," Quinn came in carrying a bowl of sobering broth, dressed simply in a frock, with a single hairpin of white jade, looking as sweet and gentle as a brook.

"You will ruin yourself drinking like this," she said gently, putting the broth on the table.

Shawn did not even look up. "Go away."

Quinn bit her lip, her eyes welling up. "You haven't spoken to me for half a moon."

"I say, go away!" He snapped his head up with a glare as sharp as a sword.

Quinn quailed, the tears flowing down as she backed away. "All right! I will go."

She turned, choking back a sob, but at the first step she put her hand up to her mouth and gagged.

Shawn frowned. "What ails you?"

"Nothing," said Quinn, wiping her eyes. "Only I have been sick lately."

Shawn's eyes opened wide. "You are--with pup?"

Quinn nodded shyly. "The healer says two moons."

The jug slipped from Shawn's hand and clanked down on the floor, making liquor pool around his feet. A pup?

He stared at Quinn's belly, the knot in his breast loosening some. This, probably, was the great pack's way of effecting peace.

From that day, Shawn quit the bottle. He returned to court, tackled his duties, seeming to pull himself together. But deep down, in the quiet of night, those cold borderland eyes haunted him.

"Shawn, I'm craving those candied fruits from the south side," Quinn whined.

"Shawn, this soup's too hot!"

"Shawn, the accountants are shorting my allowance. Do something!"

Flush with pregnancy and new-found nerve, Quinn trampled through Yates Den. She scolded the staff and shattered crockery at the faintest irritation, charged the accountants with embezzlement until the aged steward knelt and pleaded, and finally ordered Shawn to surrender control of the den's affairs.

Initially, Shawn tolerated her.The one who carried his little foundling was a sufficient reason for that. But he soon grew weary of her tantrums.

“Shawn, Quinn made the cook kneel all night long—”

“Shawn, Quinn smashed Madam Yates' heirloom vase—”

“Shawn, Quinn said—”

“Enough!”

Shawn said, his voice icy.

“Don't tell me any more of her nonsense.”

From that time he took to hiding himself away in the study, and kept entirely from her.

Quinn saw the distance he had maintained, and felt the tumult of rage and fear surging within her. She had struggled so hard to establish his affection, she could not by any means permit Leah to reach an interest in his mind.

“Shawn!”

One evening, her abdomen showing its slight protuberant curves, she pushed gently open the door to his study, her eyes full of tears.

“Do you resent me?”

Shawn did not raise his eyes from the papers before him.

“No.”

“Then why avoid me?”

She asked, her voice quivering nervously.

He laid down his pen and met her gaze with a chilly stare.

“You've been out of line.”

Quinn paled, and her thoughts took up the role of the starved victim.

“I just want to lessen your burdens.”

“Lessening?”

Shawn responded with scorn in his voice.

“You are causing discord.”

Her body shuddered and tears rolled down her cheeks.

“Shawn, I'm carrying your little foundling, and how can you treat me like this?”

He was now silent, softening against his will. With a sigh,

“Go and rest. Do not overdo it.”

Then Quinn, seeing his tone soften, threw herself into his arms, weeping.

“Shawn, you're all I have!”

He patted her on the back stiffly and felt his heart chilly as stone. In that moment he had the vision of another she-wolf who had clung to him like this.

And he had pushed her away from him and used top disentangle her from him.