By the Tail by Marie Harte Read Free Book Online Page A

not
her
.”
    Jace laughed until Quince swung a vicious glance his way.
    “I caught your scent on her when I picked you guys up from the airport,” Ellis explained. “She had the mating scent on her. But it’s faded. Are you keeping her or what?”
    Quince dragged his hand through his hair. “The woman is running me ragged. I told her I wanted her to be an important part of the pride, and she’s taking this new position of Female Liaison to heart. I can’t get her to stop moving long enough to mate her.”
    Jace shook his head. His blue eyes looked sad. “Dude. Come on, Quince. Use your head. Trick her into some alone time. Take her out to the House.”
    The pride’s meeting place in the Glades was a hidden gem. A huge house off the grid, solar-powered and large enough to accommodate all the pride at once, the wooden structure had enough niceties that close to a hundred cats could mill around and laze to their hearts’ content. Just forty minutes away, but once out in the pine forest, it felt like another world entirely. The pines, salt marshes, canals and flat land all around were resplendent with wildlife and vegetation. God, he needed to run.
    “Take her out to the House?” he asked on a huff. “When? Every five seconds around here someone has a new problem. Then the Rochert deal went bust, and I spent two days patching that.”
    “Which is holding, by the way.” Ellis gave him a thumbs up. “So Jace and I think you should take Joy away. The House is a perfect escape. We’ll put the word out to everyone to steer clear of it for a few days for maintenance issues. Between Jace, Dana, Willow, Rain, Oliver and I, we’ll hold down the fort. You go work your magic.” Ellis wiggled his brows.
    Quince sighed. “I get within scent of her, and she’s gone. I don’t know how she does it, but she’s fast.”
    Jace shook his head. “What dumbass meant but didn’t say—”
    “Hey!”
    “—was that she’s a Bermin. Joy’s too smart to fall for ‘nice’. Tie her up, kidnap her, whatever it takes. But you need to do something about fixing your unmated status pronto or you stand to lose the pride.”
    “Shit. I know that. But I don’t want…”
    “What?”
    He didn’t want to mate Joy to grab the pride. He wanted the woman to come to him because she couldn’t do without him. Except she wouldn’t let herself talk to him, let alone make love to him again. It just figured she’d be a pain in the ass about everything.
    He groaned. “Damn. Fine. Just watch things for me tomorrow. Joy and I will be busy as of tonight. But not a word, I’m telling you. The woman hears and sees all. It’s a little scary.”
    “Yeah, she’s a sharp one.” Ellis nodded. “Come on, Jace. Let’s get his schedule to Willow so she can reroute meetings.”
    “Okay. And I’ll take the northern run. Got a few felines I need to double-check.”
    “Right. I’ll grab the immediate coast. We’ll put Oliver and Rain on as leads.”
    They left discussing pride business, and he knew they’d take care of things in his absence. Quince loved the guys. After Miles had immersed himself in work, Ellis, Jace, Rain and he had found common ground working for Michael. Watching over the pride, fixing problems, reporting any and all issues. They’d grown tight, so when Michael had gone missing, they’d known something was wrong.
    While Quince had gone undercover acting like Lex’s trusted lieutenant, the guys had publicly snubbed him while secretly keeping him in the loop about goings-on in the pride. They’d helped protect the weaker members while he did his best to smother Lex’s efforts when it came to those who fought back against him.
    Because they’d had his back and supported him taking over the pride, many of the others had accepted his return. Then too, with Dana, Willow and Oliver’s help spreading the word about what had really happened with Lex—as well as recovering nearly fifty million dollars in pride funds—he’d