More Than Just Baser Instincts.

“No, Arianna; I have a mate already,” I whispered, so the words stayed between us. Louder, I asked, “So I’m an aunt now, to these little bundles?”

She nodded slowly, glancing down with indifference to the babies. “Two strong males. They will be fine mates, yes.”

“What are their names?”

“Names?” Why the hell did she look to Gerald!

“Arianna, my dear,” Gerald cooed, staring at the boys. “You need rest; you have used all your energy. Leonard, congratulations on creating such exemplary specimens. I knew your genetics would match well with my daughter’s.”

Bile rose in my throat. They were…arranged based solely on genetics? This place was awful!

“Quince,” I choked, “I’m ready to go home now!”

“I couldn’t agree more. This is so wrong.” He turned us around to face my parents. My mother smiled weakly to him, but my father’s face was hardened. “I’m not going to pretend that I understand how you rule your people—and to be quite frank, I don’t want to. But I think Elaine has had enough. She looks as if she’s about to faint, and I hate when that happens to her.”

“Faint?” Gerald muttered, glancing to me. I had never once fainted in my life! “My children are strong, mutt; she does not faint.”

The last thing I wanted to do was swallow my pride like the way Quince was all but begging me to do; I was strong, I was superior to everyone and everything! But… This was my mate. I went against everything that I stood for, because I knew Quince only lived to serve me just as I lived only to serve him.

So I wiped nonexistent sweat from my brow and shot Quince a wide-eyed glance before crumpling up at his feet. My mother screamed so loudly that my ears rung; but Quince caught me at the last second, cradling my limp body to his chest.

“Damn it!” he hissed, brushing the back of his hand across my cheeks. “Do you see what you’ve done? I said to let her get out of here! Do you at least have a bed somewhere where she can lie until I can rouse her? If I jostle her too much, she might end up going into a seizure again.”

“Seizure?” Gerald and Christine cried, but my mother was the only one who was concerned for me.

“Yes, it started happening when she shifted for the first time. I tried to stop her—because I knew she wasn’t ready yet—but her White lion superiority complex wouldn’t let her listen to reason... I’ll just go find a bed myself,” Quince muttered, pressing a soft kiss to my forehead.

I peeked out at him with one eye, and the loving look on his face all but melted my heart in my chest.

“I love you,” he murmured. “Please wake up, sweetheart; please be okay. I couldn’t go on without you.”

I stifled my smile until the door closed behind us. Quince helped me back to my feet, grinning down at me.

“You were brilliant, Elaine,” he whispered against my lips.

I pushed him away. “Quince, we need to get going, remember?”

“Right… But it’s not my fault that your hormones are slapping me in the face!” He took my hand firmly in his. “We’ll just go back the way we came, and we won’t start running unless they give chase first.”

“Hey… This place has a lead male.”

“Yes, it does,” he agreed, raising an eyebrow at me. “All prides have a top pair.”

“And who is at the top back in Home?”

“Elaine, must we talk now?” he asked, pulling me down the long hallway. “What if your father hears us?”

“Why won’t you give me an answer?”

“Because it’s not that simple!”

“Why not?”

“Because my father died shortly before you showed up at my doorstep.”

I gave him a look, and he groaned. But he turned to me, his hand hesitating as it wrapped around the door’s handle.

“Elaine, my mother died when I was a cub. My father… He wanted to die; his mate was gone. But they never became fully mated because—here’s the kicker—my mother was weak and she could have bled to death if he bit her. Because they weren’t ‘official’ mates, everyone expected him to take another female. When you’re at the top, you have to have a mate. My father bit the woman that his pride found most desirable as a ruler, but he refused to mate her in any other sense.”

He stopped talking, his eyes pleading with me to silence him.

“But you bit me…”

He nodded. “I… I wasn’t thinking about the consequences of it; I just wanted the security. Hell, I guess I got it. But no one knows yet. Home has been without a lead pair for too long already, but I don’t want to be at the top. Once we have a cub of our own, his fate is sealed, Elaine. And so is ours.”

“So… Now that we’ve mated, everyone is going to know.” My face burned bright red; that was hardly something I wanted to share with the world! “And you’re going to take control?”

He leaned down before me, taking my hand chastely to his lips. “Until our son is ready to take over, yes.” His eyes moved to my abdomen. “This isn’t the place to talk about this, Elaine—but even though I know that having a child will take everything from us (my job, your job, all the free time we once had), it’s all I’ve been able to think about since I saw you at the bar. I… I can’t defend myself for that, and I feel even more rotten knowing now that you had no idea I was trying to mate with you.”

“I love you.” I pulled him to his feet and slipped my hand under the collar of his shirt to feel the imprint that my teeth had left in his otherwise flawless skin.

“We need to get you back in bed, now,” he growled, grinning deviously down at me. “Such a minx.”

“But wait!” He gave me an impatient look, staring at the door. “My sister... I can’t just leave her here! You saw her, Quince; she’s all but dead now. And my mother.”

He nodded. “Once we get back, I’ll tell the pride that we’re mated; then, we’ll gather our allies and attack, okay?”

“That sounds—”

“You didn’t dare!”

I tried to whirl around, but Quince had already jerked me roughly from my feet, thrown me over his shoulder, and barreled through the door.

“Stop them! That mutt marked her!”

My body was jerked and jostled unbelievably as people just bounced off of Quince. He snarled every time, growling and roaring in warning; he was…trying not to hurt them?

“Back off!” he hissed, clawing at someone who had grabbed my wrist.

I just stared, trembling, as I saw the largest White lion I had ever seen—and it was approaching much too quickly! My wrist was bleeding horribly from the man who managed to tear into my arm, but I knew there was no way we could outrun him like this.

“Shift, Elaine!” Quince demanded, not giving me any time to question him.

I obeyed nevertheless, lunging after him and trying to keep up. But a tendon in my leg had surely been torn! I tumbled into Quince, whimpering and licking at the wound in the hopes of healing it faster.

“Elaine, I know it hurts, but we have to go!”

“Quince, go!” I spat, nudging at him. “Go and tell them that you’re mated. You can take them down, okay? I know you can.”

“I’m not going without you! You’re stupid to think I would!”

“I’m not giving you a choice.” I glanced back; Gerald was approaching fast, but Quince could easily outrun him and his goons. “You’ll get everyone and take down my father.”

“But Elaine!”

“Quince,” I whispered, licking his nose, “I want that man dead. And if I can’t do it, I want it to be you.”

“I… Damn it! I’m coming back for you,” he promised, glowering at the man loping towards us. “I swear, I’m coming right back, okay?”

“Just go!”

“I love you,” he whimpered before propelling himself into the forest.

“I love you, too,” I choked after him, unable to help the sneer that formed when I felt the presence of the disgusting roach standing beside me.

“He lied!”

“He did not!” I stepped up to him, but I surely looked like a Chihuahua in his midst.

“It doesn’t even matter; you’ll meet Tiberius tomorrow!” He snapped at my leg then, causing me to yelp in pain and skitter toward the way I had come. “Let’s see how that mutt likes it when your son has silver eyes and white hair!”

“Daddy,” I whispered, backtracking despite the pain and blood, “I can’t wait until you’re dead.”