By the Tail

Miles clawed him across the face and struck out with his hind legs, raking them across Quince’s belly.

Quince didn’t fight back. At all. “Pussy,” he said with bravado, smothering a groan. He needed Miles to engage, to make the fight look real. “Fuck, Miles. That’s a fifth grade move, if that.” Then, because he wanted no one to doubt that Miles had beaten him without question, he added slowly, so that he wouldn’t slur, “Your sister moves better than that. You should see her on her knees…”

Miles’s next assault knocked Quince down and left him unable to move.

As he went down, he saw Willow holding a gun, Dana and Joy in feline form watching Ayers’s people, and heard Joy shrieking his name as she bounded to his side.

Then he closed his eyes as blackness descended. They’d won, and his mate was safe. That was enough.

“Damn it. Leave him alone.” Joy threw herself at her brother just as he’d stopped himself from going for the final blow sure to end Quince’s life. She landed hard on top of him, but he didn’t try to move her.

He was breathing hard and staring past her at Quince, confusion making his whiskers twitch. He flatted his ears then raised them. “Joy?”

“We have a winner,” Alan Danville said with enthusiasm. For an old cat, he moved with the speed of a juvenile in his prime. In seconds, he leapt from the platform and reached them in four strides. “Congratulations, son.”

“Uh, thanks?”

Beyond them, Willow stood naked holding a weapon on what remained of Ayers’s groupies while Jace, Ellis and Rain pushed through the dead and injured. Dana remained a feline, hissing at the others until they stopped trying to escape into the woods. Maybe ten of Ayers’s people remained alive. And of course, Alissa happened to be one of them.

While Quince had been fighting the drug in his system and Ayers, Joy’d kept her spirit glued to his, giving him the strength to see past the fog in his mind and the lethargy in his body. But the poor baby had given his due. Especially to her brother.

“Joy, can you get off me now?”

“Oh, sorry.” She stepped off Miles and moved back to Quince. Danville had his hand on Quince’s neck and his eyes closed. “Is he okay?”

“He’s in pretty bad shape.” Danville opened his eyes, then smiled. “But he’s a fighter and he’s newly mated. He’ll survive.” He turned to Miles. “Well, pride leader? What do we do with them?” Danville nodded at Ayers’s group.

“Wait. What?” Miles blinked at the judge.

“Good thinking.” Danville nodded and said over his shoulder, “Nettles, secure Everton. He colluded with Ayers to cheat. Jace and the rest of you, handle these idiots.” He pointed to the group Willow watched over. “Put them in the cells underground.” The judgment cells located under the House, where offending felines went while waiting judgment. It had been a long time since Michael had imprisoned anyone. But she supposed the time had come to totally clean house, so to speak.

“Well, young lady. Do you want to explain things or should I?” Danville asked her, his voice gentle.

“I…” She looked down at Quince and had to work not to cry. He looked so still, so vulnerable lying there. “Could you, please? I have to see to my mate.”

A rush of voices and the scent of more cats poured through the woods. She leaned down to lick Quince’s injured face, remembering it wasn’t so long ago that she’d done the same in Cougar Falls. Then she sat by his side and waited for Doctor Hicks to reach them.

Miles stared in confusion at the chaos around them and shifted back to human. “What the hell is going on?”

From Quince’s provoking note and that fight, to Greg Ayers lying dead in cat form, to the battle he’d stumbled over tonight, nothing made sense. What were three judges doing presiding over this mess, and in the challenge ring no less? And why was his sister licking that bastard like he belonged to her? Fuck, that scent. They’d mated. Yet Joy looked proud to be by Quince’s side. And Jace, Ellis, Rain… They’d all been loyal to Michael and remained protective of Quince, keeping a watchful eye over him and Joy.

“Well, son. It’s like this,” Alan Danville, one of the most respected members in the pride—and with Michael gone—probably the most respected, answered. “You beat Quince in a Pride Fight. That makes you pride leader. Did you or did you not win? You’re standing. He’s not, correct?”

“I, well, yes. But I didn’t know it was a Pride Fight.” Those antiquated battles for supremacy still happened? “And now that I think about it, something wasn’t right with Castille. It wasn’t a fair—”

“Nonsense. You won. I witnessed it. So did Nettles. Ignore Everton.” In a lower voice, he whispered to Miles, “Everton overlooked Ayers’s cheating. My guess is Ayers drugged Quince somehow, because the boy doesn’t smell right. And he didn’t fight at top speed either. A little sloppy, if you asked me.”

“Huh?”

In a louder voice, Danville continued, “You see, Ayers has been pushing to take over where Lex left off. Quince, naturally, wasn’t having any of it. So he asked me to settle the score by watching over a Pride Fight. An old tradition we rarely use anymore. Mostly we vote as a council, of course. But our council’s been pretty messed up since Michael died, I’m sorry to say.” Danville sighed, then smiled. “But hey, we’re good now, aren’t we Miles?”

“Good?” As reason returned, he started to make sense of it all. And he realized Quince had never been or done all those bad things of which he’d been accused.

He glanced at the group of Ayers’s supporters moving past him. Alissa scowled at Joy as if she wanted nothing more than to wipe her off the face of the planet.

“You lied to me,” he said softly to Alissa, but she heard him because she looked his way.

Alissa smiled through her teeth. “Hey, Miles. Welcome home.”

He glanced back at his sister, who kept a paw on Quince’s torso, protecting what she obviously considered hers.

“See? She’s standing where her loyalties have always been—with the enemy.” Joy sniffed. “You owe me and Quince a big apology. Oh, and I want my bracelet back. I gave it to Quince. It’s his.”

“Nice looking couple, aren’t they?” Ellis asked as he joined Danville and Miles. “I’m thinking we’ll be back to three lieutenants again. And boy, am I glad about that. So Miles, we’re going to take the guilty into the cells. Dana and Willow are drafting a notice to all the pride. We need a meeting, big time. But I think we should hold it in the House once Quince is on his feet. You need him and us for solidarity, but I don’t see anyone protesting your appointment.” He glanced at Danville. “That sound about right, sir?”

“Yes, yes.” Danville waved him away. “I’ll pass the word to the other judging council so we can at least tell everyone that there’s been an official change. ’Course, the others will spread the rumor.” More cats filled the area, everyone talking at once. “And boy,” he said to Miles. “You’re going to have to move into the estate. With Jace, Ellis and Quince working for you, you’ll have the pride whipped into shape in no time.” He slapped Miles on the back. “Now I’d best be going. Talk to you tomorrow at two in the conference room. Don’t be late.”

Miles watched, dumbfounded, as Danville walked away whistling. The field was abuzz with cats and people staring at him, nodding and smiling. Ellis and the others rounded up Ayers’s group, dragged the dead away and tended the wounded.

A few cats had gathered around Quince and carried him back to the House while Joy trotted by his side. Miles changed back into his cat form and hustled after her, full of questions needing answers.

Quince had told Miles to meet him here, knowing he’d be involved in a Pride Fight. Was Miles there to defend Joy in case things had gone sour? Then why had Quince egged Miles on with all that smack talk about Joy?