By the Tail

Chapter Eight

“I don’t like it.” Joy scowled at the big baby lying helplessly in his king-size bed, his arms stretched out on either side of him as she treated his wounds.

“It’s the perfect solution.”

“No, it’s not,” argued Jace from the doorway to Quince’s bedroom. Ellis followed him inside, with Rain, Dana and Willow not far behind.

Quince’s council. Except for Oliver. That weasel.

“I still can’t believe Oliver turned on you. Man, I’m going to have a serious talking to him when I see him again.” Joy frowned down at Quince, who was looking none too happy at his council.

“Hey, I’m wounded. Why don’t you guys take a break for a while?” He nodded to the door.

“No.” Ellis sat in a chair while the others alternately stood or sat on the bed with them.

“This is like a big sleepover,” Willow said with a grin.

Only the fact that the pretty cat had never slept with Quince kept her free from Joy’s territorial feline. The way Ellis eyed Willow told Joy she didn’t have to worry about Willow being free forever. But Dana…

Joy shook off her cat’s low growl of warning and concentrated on Quince’s idiocy. “As I was saying, offering the pride to the winner of a death match—knowing your opponent will lie, cheat and steal to win—is dumber than dirt.”

“Yeah, what she said,” Dana agreed and frowned at Quince. “I mean, come on. Ayers had the nerve to ambush you outside your own home while he distracted the rest of us with bullshit. You can’t possibly think he means to play fair?”

“Of course not,” Jace retorted. “He’s not stupid. With us at his back, and impartial elders acting as witnesses, we’ll be able to end the rebels for good.”

“Don’t call them rebels,” Willow complained. “That makes them sound like they’re up against the Empire. And we’re the Empire.”

Ellis blinked. “Dear God, did she just geek out and reference Star Wars? Now I’m really in love.”

Willow blushed. Ellis grinned, and Jace made a sound of disgust Dana and Rain echoed.

Quince groaned and closed his eyes. “You’re all giving me a headache.”

“So are you going to mate him or not, Joy? Because that would help a lot,” Jace said, and the room grew still.

“How would that help?” she wanted to know. She glanced back at Quince and saw him open his eyes wide.

“It won’t,” he barked.

“Dumbass.” Jace’s insult showed the difference between Quince’s rule and Lex’s. Quince tolerated what Lex would have killed upon hearing. “Of course it’s the answer. You mate Joy, the only woman you seem to want anymore, and you’re looking stable as pride leader. So that’s one more step to qualification. Plus, you annex the Bermin name and everyone else settles down about you having a real powerhouse in your corner, even if Miles does still hate your guts.”

Joy stared at Quince, wondering why he hadn’t pushed that agenda. “Makes sense.”

He glared at her, and to her shock, a flush darkened his cheekbones, even under the bruising. “No.”

She couldn’t catch her breath at his flat out rebuff. “Well I didn’t ask you to mate me, so don’t do me any favors,” she snapped. So embarrassing, being rejected in front of everyone.

“That’s not the way I want it to happen,” he snapped back, and she realized no one spoke or moved. The entire gathering sat as quiet as church mice.

“How do you want it to happen then?” she asked and tried to stand, wanting the advantage of looking down on him for once.

But Quince wouldn’t let her. He rolled onto his side on a groan and refused to let go of her hand. “I’ll take you out for a nice evening. Romance you, wine and dine you, we’ll come back, have fantastic sex and annoy everyone with you screaming my name.”

“God.” Embarrassed that he’d admitted all that in front of the others, she also couldn’t stop her joyous need to jump up and down with excitement. He really did want to mate her, not to take over the pride, but because he wanted to.

“Yeah, you’ll be all, ‘God, my God’, and screaming for more.” He grinned around a fat lip. She heard the others laugh but couldn’t look away from Quince, who seemed to have their mating all mapped out for them. “Then I’ll layer you with scent. Your cat and you will accept, and I’ll give you my grandmother’s necklace to seal the deal.” His eyes were so warm, so loving.

She blinked away sudden moisture, totally moved by his declaration of intent in front of his friends.

“And if I say no?”

He shrugged. “Then I’ll keep asking until you say yes. I figure I can wear you down, eventually.” His easy attitude vanished. “But we’re not goddamn mating for the pride. For once, I’m not going to martyr myself and my future for everyone else. Sue me.”

Silence reigned, until Dana whispered, “Oh, that was just beautiful.”

“Yeah,” Willow agreed.

“Dumbass,” Jace disagreed.

Joy knew she’d been handed her future on a platter. Quince wanted her, and he refused to use her to become pride leader. Proof, if she hadn’t known already, that he would never sink to such despicable levels as rape and bullying to achieve his own ends, even to help the pride.

“I don’t get it.” Jace shook his head. “He loves her. She loves him. But they can’t mate to save the pride? Fucking emotions give me a headache.”

“I think I want to throw up,” Ellis added. “Hell, Quince. You’re meeting with him tonight. Why don’t you just hand him the pride and be done with it?” Ellis sounded disgusted. “Quit being such a pussy and just ask her to mate you.”

“Shut up.” Rain shocked them all. “Everyone, out. Let’s give them time to talk.”

While the others scurried out the door, Joy watched Quince, unable to look away from the man she’d come to love against all odds. He glared at her in anger, though why he should be mad at her she couldn’t fathom. She heard the door shut, giving her and Quince the privacy they needed.

“Quince—”

“No.”

“No?” He was so cute when angry. That frown line bisected his smooth forehead, and he had a hank of tangled hair obscuring one bruised eye from view.

She pushed the hair aside and heard his breath catch. A subtle glance at his body showed his nipples hard and his jeans stretched tight across his groin. She had to love a man she could turn on despite him being in abject pain. Joy felt powerful, loved and strong enough to do the right thing. Not the Bermin sister lost in the shuffle, but a woman of independence and fortitude who would claim her mate not if—but when—she was ready. Which was right now.

“No, I will not allow you to sacrifice yourself for the pride. You either mate me because you love me, or we don’t mate, period.” He tried to sit up, but she shoved a hand on his chest and held him down.

“I don’t think that’s your call to make,” Joy said quietly, keeping her face expressionless. Her cat rolled and hummed with pleasure. The woman she wanted to be was in full control. She’d found a man to love, a cat to mate, and she decided she wanted what he had to offer. Truth be told, she loved the big guy and always had.

Wondering about his involvement with Lex had put her off men for months. Even her forays with other relationships, years before, had been a litmus test, to see how her feelings fared for them against what she tried desperately to stifle for Quince.

With gentle fingers, she trailed her hands over his shoulders and chest to toy with his nipples.

He sucked in a breath. “Joy, don’t—”

“Don’t tell me what to do,” she said, infusing her voice with anger. Then she slid her hands lower, down his tightly corded abs to the snap of his jeans. She unbuttoned him and pulled the denim apart. Then she slid her hands inside his boxer briefs and tugged them down, showcasing his thick, hard cock. “Don’t tell me what to feel.”

“Joy,” he choked. “I, oh, baby, fuck. Don’t—”

She lowered her head slowly, teasing him, and then sucked his cockhead with a tight grip. She slowly eased the rest of him into her mouth and to the back of her throat, conscious to breathe through her nose as she took him in.

“Joy,” he moaned and palmed her head.

She bobbed over him, wanting him to lose control.

“Fuck, baby. I love you so much,” he moaned as she cupped his balls and put more pressure on his dick, running her teeth against the underside of his crown. “Shit. Oh man. I’m going to come.”

She sucked harder, moved faster and ran a hand up his chest to pinch his nipple.

He bucked up and cried out, coming down her throat.

She dimly heard the door open then close in a rush while she was swallowing her mate’s seed, laying her scent marker over the male with a surety she felt to her bones. That he returned the affection, his animal spirit completely in tune with hers, told her without a doubt she hadn’t made a mistake.

He moaned her name repeatedly and stroked her hair while she finished swallowing him and licking him clean. Then she raised her head to smile down at him with tears in her eyes that she saw reflected in his own.

“I’ve been dreaming about this for years,” he admitted. Then he laughed. “But I never would have imagined I’d be the one on the bottom while my mate stole my sense with a killer blowjob. I thought I’d be the one proving my worth.”

She grinned. “There’s plenty of time for that, Quince.”

“God, I hope so.” He drew her down on top of him and kissed her. “I know it’s probably weird to hear, but tasting myself on your lips is a huge turn on.”

“Yeah, like after you go down on me then kiss me. I like it too.”

He and she stared at each other. “We’re gross,” they said at the same time and laughed.

Quince sobered. “You heard me admit I love you.”

“I did.” She said nothing more until he glared up at her. “Oh fine. I love you too. Happy now?”

He smiled, and the pleasure in his entire body, animal and man, took her breath away. “Yeah, I am. I’ve been waiting for you forever.” He sighed. “I’d prove it to you, but I had to give it to Miles.”

She blinked. “Huh? You gave what to Miles?”

“Remember that ugly little bracelet you gave me years ago? When you went through that jewelry phase?”

She frowned then stared at him in amazement. “Oh my gosh. You kept that?”

“I did. You gave it to me. Honey, I loved you back then. But you were my best friend’s younger sister. If I’d looked at you the way I wanted to, your brother would have kicked my ass. Besides, you were too young for me then. I was twenty and you were still a teenager.”

“But I’m not now.”

He grinned and ran a hand down her front to snake under her shorts and panties.

“No, you aren’t.” He found her wet and swollen and played with her, stroking her to the edge of a killer climax in no time. “You’re so fucking pretty,” he said on a sigh. “Nothing I like better than to watch you while you come. Come for me, baby. All over my hand.”

His animal spirit stroked her as well, settling into her bones and rubbing all over her feline. The dual pleasure rushed her past enjoyment into cathartic rapture, the physical and emotional needs so long denied now satisfied. Together.

Loving her mate made all the difference in the world, and it made her strong and proud and delighted at the same time.

When she came down off her high, Quince pulled his hand away and cuddled her into his side.

“Easy,” she whispered, not wanting to hurt him any more than he’d been.

“Nothing easy about you. Just the way I like you,” he teased. “I love you so much. I don’t want anything but you.”

“You really don’t want to be pride leader.”

He hugged her tighter and groaned. “No. But no one else worthy wants the job, and I refuse to leave it to someone as bad as Lex. There’s really only one guy I can think of that would do a stellar job, and he hates my guts.”

“Miles.” She dragged her hand over his side, petting him, and heard him purr. “He thinks you raped and killed Belinda Roberto.”

His purring ceased and he rolled over her, staring down with shock. “What?”

She repeated what Miles had told her, about how Alissa and Belinda had painted Quince as the villain.

“That’s not how it happened at all.”

“I know.”

He searched her expression, then seemed to ease. “I found her dying, Joy. In the days when everything was going to hell and Lex’s regime on a rampage, I found Belinda lying in the middle of the estate. She’d been abused by a half dozen of Lex’s men. And one of them had tried to end her. But she had enough anger in her to curse me for it all. Said if I’d just accepted her or Alissa as mate, none of it would have happened.”

“I’m so sorry.” She rubbed his arms, hating the grief she saw in his face.

“I wanted to stay with her, but the guys had returned. She told me to go after them, so I did.” He paused, and anger brightened his gaze. “I finished them. But I returned to see Miles with her, and there were others to help. I left Belinda to his care. As to Alissa’s claim, I never told Lex about Stacey. As soon as he saw her, he kicked Alissa to the curb, and I don’t think she ever forgot it.”

“You think?”

He frowned. “What did Miles say after you told him he was dead wrong?”

“Called him an ass too,” she added. “Nothing. He changed the subject to my designs, which he actually likes.”

“Don’t sound so surprised. You’re good.”

“Yeah, but not great.” She pulled him next to her and rolled onto her side to see him. They entwined hands, and she confessed her burdens, feeling lighter and freer because of it. “I’ve been the other Bermin sister for so long. Not one of the talented, beautiful twins or the sexy, blonde diva. I’m not the amazing financial wizard Miles is either. I’m just Joy.”

“Nothing ‘just’ about you, baby.”

She smiled at him. “You see the real me.”

“I always have.”

“Yeah, but now I’m seeing it too. I’m the best hunter in the family. I know that. But my cat is only half of who I am. It’s taken me a long time to see that I have more to offer than crappy design ideas.”

“Crappy?” He lifted a hand to stroke her cheek. “Honey, you’re amazing. In and out of bed. Joy is great, remember?”

She chuckled and melted under his sincere affection. “Yeah, I am. I have a mate I love. And I’m sneaky enough to guess what you put in that note to Miles.”

“Now now. Let’s not change the subject.”

“You’re going to trick him into challenging you for the pride, aren’t you?” She had to hand it to him. Quince had devious down to a science. “If that’s what this is really all about, I’m in.”

He blinked. “You are?”

“I’m going with you to this fight. You’re going to kick Ayers’s ass. I’ll make sure his cronies don’t jump in and try to kill you while you’re maiming Greg. Then we’ll let Miles do his thing. I assume you gave him a time and place to meet you?”

Quince smirked. “Maybe I did.”

“Yeah, if that punch to the face didn’t annoy him all over again, the note probably will. I assume you wrote something offensive to get him to meet you tonight?”

“Don’t worry. He’ll be there.”

“So that part’s done. Now we just have to make sure he doesn’t kill you.”

“Thanks for your confidence, mate.” The twinkle in his eyes distracted her.

“Well, you two are so evenly matched. And that’s not counting injuries. You’re going to have to handle Ayers, his bunch, and Miles.”

Quince kissed her. “That’s why I’ve got you and my guys. To help me out. I’m not wanting to run anything solo. I trust you, the way I trust them.”

And that meant the world to her. “Then don’t get dead, or I won’t be responsible for what I do to your corpse.”

“Right.” He snuggled with her again, but Joy had other ideas.

“You know, we have a little time. How about I lock that door, and then you can prove to me what a great decision I made, accepting you and all.”

His wide grin was all the answer she needed.

Miles sat inside the warehouse and did his best to calm down. He’d never been so fucking angry, not since learning of Michael’s murder and Quince’s betrayal.

Joy had almost had him convinced that he’d been wrong about Quince. Of course he’d questioned how a man he’d known for three decades could turn a one-eighty. Quince used to laugh, joke and pal around. They had fun together going after the girls and hunting in the Glades. They’d gone to school, graduated in the same class, played the same sports. It had been a natural separation when Miles attended college and business school while Quince worked closely with the pride, with Michael, their surrogate father.

Like Quince, Miles had also lost his dad at an early age. But by that point he’d been heavily involved in helping to raise his teenage sisters and attending school while Quince had worked under Michael.

So to hear that Quince had killed Michael so Michael’s bastard sons could take over the pride had been a shock. But Quince hadn’t denied his involvement with the dick back then. They’d been tight. And Miles had seen with his own eyes the damage Quince had done to several members and organizations within the pride. All that, on top of what Alissa had told him and finding Belinda torn up… He’d believed the worst.

He scowled down at the note Quince had left him while fingering the soft bracelet in his other hand. Joy’s bracelet.

“You want your sister back in one piece, fight for her. If you even remember how to. Be at the House at nine. Come alone. I win, you leave the pride for good. Joy is mine. You win when I’m dead and gone.”

Miles rubbed his jaw, wondering how Joy could be so blinded to the kind of man Quince really was. He kept seeing Belinda in his mind’s eye, and then he imagined Joy reaching out to him, so hurt, so lost.

Dead and gone? So be it. He pocketed the bracelet and left the office. He had a fight to get ready for and a corrupt dictator to end. Once and for good.