Jaime's pov
"I'm sorry I had to leave you alone again last night, baby. Were you good for the guard?"
Wiping spilled baby food from Desmond's tiny mouth, I placed him on the floor and quickly knelt down to his height.
"Mama."
I smile as Desmond uses a nearby chair to pull himself to his feet and toddles towards me, holding out my arms as he gets closer, just in case he falls. He amazes me more and more everyday, he's only a few months old, but he's meeting milestones of wolves much older. My smile slips a little when I think of my other pups, are they able to walk or talk yet? A small part of me really hopes not because I know what they're being taught. I take a deep calming breath as images of the pups echoing the pack's names for me along with Nicholas's indulgent smile as the pack looks on proudly. But that's not my worse fear, it's only a matter of time before they give in to the pack's intense hatred of Omegas and Desmond becomes a target. I'm doing what I can to prepare him for what's coming, but I can only do so much. I study my youngest pup and for the first time, I realize he's a carbon copy of me and a completely new fear takes over as I stare into blue-green eyes that look so much like mine, someone from this pack is going to force themselves on my pup if we don't escape soon and there would be nothing that I could do. After all, why would Nicholas allow his precious Luna to protect a worthless Omega?
"Mama?"
The uncertainty in Desmond's tone pulls me back to the present and I pull him against my chest just as he takes the final steps and falls into my arms. Looking down at him, I see a bruise I hadn't noticed before on his arm.
"How did you get this?"
Hearing the anger in my tone, Desmond whimpers and huge tears fill his eyes. I immediately lifted him into my arms, rocking him gently.
"Oh, baby, I'm not mad at you. I'm sorry I scared you."
Desmond's whimpers and tears slowly faded and he eventually drifted off to sleep, wrapped in my protective arms. Lying him on the bed, I quickly unzipped his jumper and examined his tiny body, covering my mouth to hold back a cry of shock and horror. There were small intricate chains made of silver encircling both of his wrists and ankles as well as a slightly larger one wrapped around his neck. I instinctively reached out and tried to remove the one around his neck, instantly jerking my hand away when the silver started burning my skin. How long have they been there and why would someone do this to an innocent pup?
"Are you stupid or something?"
I froze in terror at the familiar voice behind me.
"P-Please leave."
"Is that any way to talk to the only friend you have here?"
"We're not . . . We're not friends, Quinn, now get out."
"Oh look, the little Luna's trying to grow a pair. Maybe I should remind him why that's not a good idea."
"A-Are you the one that did this to my pup?"
"If I did?"
"Please take them off."
"I thought I told you once before, I only follow my Alpha and until he wants those chains removed, they stay on."
"He sent you here?"
A sly smirk tilted Quinn's lips and he circled me until I was facing him.
"He thought you might be bored so I brought a little video for us to watch."
Taking out his phone, Quinn grinned as he quickly pulled up a video.
"Let me just fast foward to my favorite part."
