Essence of Quinn Parts 3 & 4 (MxM)

No Excuses

Quinn leaned against the perimeter wall, sipping water. The pack had just finished a couple of warm-up laps around the Abbey grounds before Fire's gym session.

Since getting his sight back, Fire had made it his mission to drag Quinn back to peak condition. He'd tailored a nutrition plan to enable him to slowly gain back the bulk he'd lost, and a gym regime to build up his strength.

It was working. Slowly. But that was the point. Fire hadn't wanted to overwhelm him with it, and Quinn could feel he was steadily clawing his way back.

They'd be doing some CrossFit after this little breather, but it was going to have to take place in the main ghoul gym. Secondo's pack's private gym was undergoing some much-needed renovations, so they'd have to slum it with the others for the time being.

Quinn stared at Air over the rim of his bottle. His mate laughed too loud, roughhoused with Fire, leaned too hard into the performance.

After Quinn's fuck-up earlier that morning, where he'd made the dick move of closing down his bond with his mate-cutting off the tether of warmth and connection they shared-he'd waited by the door for Air. Eventually, the other ghoul had composed himself and gone to shower.

Quinn hadn't stuck around. Air had told him to fuck off, so fuck off he did. Like the coward he was.

He skulked off to the guest bedroom to tend to the slash Air had made when he clawed him, and to get cleaned up. By the time he was done, Air had left for the day. Without a word. Without even a goodbye.

Over the next couple of hours, Quinn had gradually opened the bond back up, wincing at the hurt and anger bleeding through from his mate.

His chest still ached from the abrupt shut-down, too. A spiritual pain that felt like a physical wound. A bruise on their connection. Another scar on Quinn's soul.

When the pack had met for their scheduled training session, Air had completely blanked Quinn. Putting on a front. Laughing too loud. Touching the others more than usual, if that was even possible. Doing everything he could to show that he was just fucking fine.

But underneath it all?

He was hurting.

Badly.

Quinn felt it right down to his bones, but he didn't even attempt to block it out.

He'd tried to pull Air aside to apologise. To offer some kind of bullshit explanation. To close the rift between them.

Air avoided him every time.

A presence beside him broke Quinn out of his thoughts as Earth settled his back against the wall.

"What the fuck did you do this time?" the big ghoul asked.

Quinn gave him a sideways glance.

"What makes you think it was me?"

Earth snorted.

"Because Air's given you the cold shoulder all morning, and you've barely taken your eyes off him. Usually he'd be lapping that shit up, but today? He's acting like you don't exist."

Quinn huffed, fiddling with the lid of the water bottle. He shrugged.

"Fucking nosey pack," he muttered.

Earth shoved at his shoulder.

"Fix it. He pisses everyone off when he's like this. He goes into overdrive. Poor Itzal will be next in his charm offensive, and I don't think that ghoul is quite ready to deal with Air's emotional crisis yet."