Heart of a Lion (Awakening Pride Book 11)

by Lacey Thor

  “I wish he could have known her,” Quinn admitted.

  “We’ll tell him all about her. Plus, I have boxes of pictures from when you were growing up. Pictures from when your mother and I first met and started dating. Some of us when we were younger. Some with your grandparents.”

  “I’d love to see those.”

  “As soon as I get back.”

  “As soon as you get back,” she agreed. “Stay safe.”

  “I will. I’ll have Griffin with me. I’ve been training him. The boy’s a natural healer. No formal schooling, but between Professor Mueller and I, we’ve been teaching him everything we know. He’s a fast learner. He’ll make an amazing doctor.”

  She vaguely remembered meeting Griffin once in passing. Mostly because she’d been with Ariel and he’d stopped by to talk to the other woman. Apparently, the two were close friends. Ariel said they’d gone through a lot together. Looked like Griffin was important to her dad, as well. She’d have to make an effort to get to know him better. She needed to do that with all the pride in general and the men who worked with Mitch. After she dealt with Talbot.

  “How could he not with you as a mentor?” she teased.

  “Are you still interested in medicine?”

  She paused at her dad’s question. Once upon a time, she’d thought about going to school to follow in her dad’s footsteps. Once she’d discovered shifters, she’d asked her dad a million questions on what she’d need to study to help them. Now, the thought of dealing with wounds and broken bones and, god forbid, a surgery of any kind made her break out in a cold sweat.

  “Hey, it’s okay.” His arms came around her again. “I shouldn’t have asked that. Of course, you don’t want that path. I wasn’t thinking.”

  “I’m all right.” She patted his arms as she eased out of them. “I haven’t really thought about what I want to do now.”

  Now that she had a future to think about. Something long term instead of getting through the next few minutes, the next few hours, just one more day. Not once since she’d escaped had she given a passing thought to what her future might hold. She’d merely hoped she had one. One with her son and Mitch. Now, it felt as if she could think past that. Plan for something more than the next moment.

  “We can talk about that when you get back, too,” she offered. “Maybe, you can help me find a way that I could contribute around here.”

  “Honey, you need to focus on recovering and spending time with your son. No one expects you to do more than that right now.”

  Quinn smiled. “And you better get going. You’ve got a pregnant lady to check on.”

  “I’ll be back as soon as I can,” he promised then gave her another kiss and was gone.

  She watched until he was out of sight. He was wrong, though. Recovering and taking care of Emery weren’t all she had to do. She’d paid attention to how the pride worked. Everyone had their role to play within their group, and she wanted one of her own. She needed to find her place within the pride and contribute. Maybe speaking with Talbot and pressing for the answers they desperately needed would be a start. Then she’d have to think of what she could do to help out.

  “Hey, I was hoping to run into you.”

  She turned to watch as Mitch walked closer. She was in love with him. Sometime during their long conversations while snuggled together in bed, she’d fallen for him. He spoke to her as if she were the most important person in the room. If she were honest, She’d started falling when he’d asked her consent prior to touching her when they’d first met. Then every moment with him after. All of them, big and small. He was… There was no word to describe how she felt about him.

  Moving into him, she gripped his shoulders and tugged him down, not stopping until his lips met hers. Then it was on. What words couldn’t convey, lips and tongues could. They crashed together. Soft and slow at first until the tide engulfed them, sucking them in. Then they devoured. Licking and nipping and sucking as they consumed one another. He was hard against her. Muscles tensed and bulging, but her focus was on the part of him between his thighs. The masculinity that hadn’t been as noticeable when they’d first touched.

  Yes, she’d felt him. Numerous times, both when falling asleep and when waking. He’d never made a big deal of it, so neither had she. This time, she rubbed against him, trying to climb so they aligned perfectly. His fingers covered her ass, lifting her as he turned. Her back hit the wall, and Mitch covered her front. She bucked, wrapping her legs around his waist, while her fingers tunneled through his hair.

  Mitch stilled, and she skimmed her lips along his jaw then up his neck to nibble on his ear. His hands clenched on her ass before he tapped his fingers as if trying to get her attention.

  “Quinn.”

  Her name was like a purr to her ears. The throat that cleared behind them wasn’t. Neither was Tony’s voice.

  “Maybe, you two should find a room to take care of things before we make plans for later.”

  She growled. Mitch dropped his head into the curve of her neck. Tony laughed.

  “I swear. One of these times, I’m going to kill you, Tony,” Quinn groused as Mitch eased her down his body then held her until her feet were steady under her.

  “Funny you should mention killing.”

  Tony stood there with a grin, fingers stuffed in his front pockets as he watched her and Mitch.

  “Tony.” The warning in Mitch’s tone was impossible to miss. Her gaze bounced back and forth between them.

  “What are you two up to?” she demanded.

  She tried to step away from Mitch, but his arm anchored her to his side, and she needed his touch. The man calmed her, which was important when she was in Tony’s immediate vicinity. He made her blood boil. She’d wondered if there was any familial scent shared between him and Talbot, and if that could be why Tony got to her, but she was too mindful of his feelings about that connection to mention the possibility. Still. The question popped into her head whenever he was around.

  “Nothing, love,” Tony offered then grinned wider at her growl.

  “Mitch.”

  “I have a plan to get the most out of Talbot. I spoke with Tony, and he agrees.”

  “Why do I feel like I won’t like this?” God, she wanted to wipe that smirky grin off Tony’s arrogant face.

  “Probably because I love it,” Tony stated.

  “Stop baiting me and spit it out,” she warned.

  “I told Tony—”

  Mitch started to speak but Tony interrupted, speaking over him. “I get to kill you, Quinn. What’s not to love about that!”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Mitch’s jaw was so tense he was worried about breaking his teeth. His hands clenched to the point veins bulged in his arms. It took everything he had to stay on the outside of the room, watching the scene play out before his eyes through the two-way mirror. He kept telling himself Tony was playing a role intended to draw out Talbot, but it wasn’t helping. At the moment, Mitch was willing to take out both men with no remorse.

  “Remember it’s all lies,” Reno told Mitch, reminding him he wasn’t the only one watching.

  To Mitch’s right were Tah, Reno, Amia, and Abby. To his left were Jonah, Jensen Holloway, Derrick and Jess. Quinn was down the hall, waiting for him to come get her when the time was right. He’d planned to have her by his side where he could see her and touch her, reminding him that Tony’s report of her death were falsehoods. Quinn had opted not to, saying she didn’t think she could handle being that close to Talbot again and remain still and silent. The longer Mitch stood there, the more he understood her worry. He was finding it hard himself.

  “You did what?” Talbot’s voice was small and shaky.

  “Losing your hearing now, old man?” Tony jeered. “You’re little experiment is dead.”

  “You’re lying to me!”

  “She was attacked by a group of Blane’s men. Hell, you’re men for all I know.”

  “No.” Talbot shook hi
s head frantically. “She’s not dead. It’s not possible. Take me to her!”

  “Not likely,” Tony vowed.

  Talbot surprised Tony, as well as Mitch, when he stepped into Tony and clenched his fingers in Tony’s shirt, giving a shake.

  “I said take me to her. It’s not too late. I can save her. I know what to do.” Then Talbot paused. “The baby? Is the baby okay?”

  “Did you not hear me say she died? No, the baby isn’t okay. He’s dead.”

  A scream of anguish left Talbot’s throat. “No!”

  “Yes,” Tony countered. “Do you think I didn’t try to save her? Hell, once I got inside her, I didn’t know what the hell I was looking at. What the fuck did you do? I think you killed her before she ever landed on my operating table.”

  “No. I saved her life, you miserable fuck. I made her stronger, better, assured she’d live a long life. Gave her a son. A piece of her friend she could keep forever.”

  “Please. Save your breath with that pack of lies. Whatever you did, it wasn’t for her.” Tony stared down Talbot while the man trembled with emotion. “You took her organs. How the fuck was that to save her?”

  “She couldn’t withstand the torture. Her body wasn’t lasting. I made her stronger.”

  “Jesus,” Mitch muttered under his breath. Quinn hadn’t mentioned the torture, but he’d seen the look in her eyes more than once when she’d told them Talbot had done whatever he wanted to her. Knowing he’d altered her body so she could withstand more torture made it hard to stay where he was.

  “Breathe,” Jonah whispered beside him.

  “So you gave her the organs of a female shifter. A lioness.”

  “I was planning to kill the animal anyway. She’d outlived her usefulness. None of the breeding took with her. No matter how many times I had her covered and seeded, nothing took.”

  Bile rose in Mitch’s throat at the way Talbot spoke of the horrors he’d perpetrated on a woman. People like him and Blane and the rest of the hunters didn’t deserve to live.

  “You’re wasting time,” Talbot continued. “Take me to Quinn. I can save her.”

  Tony shook his head slowly, keeping his gaze on Talbot’s face. “You can’t. She was shot. I had to take an ovary, her uterus and the baby, and I still couldn’t stop her from bleeding out. She’s gone. The baby she carried is gone.”

  “No.” Talbot’s head shook frantically back and forth as he paced around the room. “I can save her like I did before. Gave her a new heart. One that won’t stop. She’s not gone. She’s going to come for me. They can’t stop her.”

  “I didn’t stop her. Your men did.”

  “Blane! That bastard won’t stop until he gets his daughter back. Until he destroys her mate and every member of his pride.”

  “Oh, God,” Amia moaned. Mitch knew that was one of the things she feared.

  Reno wrapped around his mate and pressed his lips to her ear, murmuring to his mate.

  “Please,” Tony scoffed. “You expect me to think Marcus Blane loves his daughter that much.”

  Talbot laughed. “He hates her that much. Little bitch ran away. He punished her. She broke in and helped several of his captured animals get free. He punished her. Then she had to go and fuck one of them. Mate with one of them. The ultimate salt in his wound. He won’t stop until he has her mate’s head on a pike. His tiger skin as a rug.”

  “Never going to happen,” Tony taunted.

  “Fucking right, it won’t,” Tah agreed with a growl.

  “I don’t fucking care. I give and I give and I give, and he just keeps taking. He won’t take this from me. Now, take me to her. There are plenty of animals around here. Find one for me. Doesn’t matter which one. Any will do. How long has she been out?”

  “Gone,” Tony corrected. “And long enough.”

  Talbot jerked back around, face flushed and angry.

  “How long?” he screamed.

  “Long enough that you can’t bring her back. They’re cleaning her up now. Her and the baby. They’ll be buried together.”

  “No!”

  “I’m not taking you to her.” Tony’s voice was soft, calm in contrast to the rage in Talbot’s.

  “The baby doesn’t matter. I can create another.”

  “Not for a dead woman.”

  “She’s not dead!”

  Tony grabbed a phone from the table and manipulated the screen before turning it to face Talbot.

  “Dead.”

  Talbot grabbed the phone, head going again while he stared at it. “No! I created her! She’s mine! You can’t take her from me!”

  Tony laughed. “I’m sure you have other pet projects.”

  Talbot stopped cold, and even Mitch could see the calculation in the other man’s gaze.

  “I have something you want. Take me to her, and I’ll give it to you.”

  Mitch felt everyone around him tense up. To his right, they wanted to know where Murphy Dockery was. He’d disappeared during a confrontation with Blane and his men in Illinois. To his left, Jensen Holloway wanted to know where the surviving female bear shifters were that had been taken during attacks on his den years ago. Females that the den had been told were killed.

  “You don’t have anything I want,” Tony stated as if daring Talbot to try to suggest otherwise.

  “I can give you the bears.”

  Tony laughed, and Jensen grew rigid where he stood beside Mitch.

  “We know where the bears are,” Tony scoffed. “You’re not that hard to figure out.”

  “I knew you’d find the ones we tried to hide in the national park. Too close to the Holloways. I tried to warn Blane, but he thought it was funny to keep them right under their noses.”

  “Fuck!”

  Laramie Holloway’s exclamation came through clearly over the line Jensen held open on his phone. Mitch didn’t doubt that members of the Holloway den would be heading out soon to begin searching.

  “Actually, I didn’t know about that one,” Tony deadpanned with a shrug.

  Talbot glared.

  “Then you’ve found the one’s in Olympic National Park. I don’t care about the bears. They’re of no use to me. I never cared for the wolves or bears or any of the breeds of shifters except the cats. I’ve always loved cats.”

  “You have a sick definition of love,” Tony told him.

  “Take me to Quinn, and I’ll give you the cat shifter Blane captured for me.”

  “You’re bluffing.”

  Talbot did that head shake again. “Blane took him outside Chicago before he grabbed another from the city.”

  Tony tensed. The mask he wore dropped for a split second, but as closely as Mitch was watching, he noticed. Raw emotion. Surprise that quickly bled into anger then fear. Whoever the other person was Blane had picked up in Chicago was important to Tony. Perhaps the person Tony was going after.

  “Where are they?” Tony demanded, and Mitch knew Talbot had caught the slip too.

  “Take me to her, and I’ll tell you exactly where to find them.”

  “This isn’t a negotiation,” Tony warned. “Tell me where they are.”

  Talbot’s gaze darted around the room.

  “She’ll come for me. You won’t stop her. She’ll come for me. You won’t stop her.”

  “Shit,” Jonah muttered. “He’s losing him.”

  Mitch knew several of the shifters in the room were on edge, ready to break at any moment. They’d been willing to go along with the plan as long as Tony worked to find out where the Holloway den’s female bears were and where Murphy Dockery was being kept. Tony had to be careful how hard he pushed.

  “Nice try. Do you think I can’t see the clarity in your gaze? Don’t try this act with me. It’s laughable.”

  “She’ll come for me.”

  “As a ghost maybe,” Tony said before Talbot could add the second part of his favored mantra. “Is that the issue then? Too many ghosts in your head.”

  “Must have missed my invite
.”

  Every head jerked to the side as Kenzie Marshall passed them and jerked open the door to the room Talbot and Tony were in. Kenzie was Gabriel’s pregnant mate. Mitch was surprised to see her away from her mate since that’s where she’d stayed since he’d been shot. Of course, he also knew both Tah and Gabriel were awake now. Even Professor Mueller had shown signs of coming around. The only one they were still uncertain of was Vic.

  He waited for Gabriel to follow on her heels, but the other man didn’t appear. Kenzie was fired up though and had every right to be. Talbot had literally ripped her from her mother’s womb then given her blockers to prevent her animal side from presenting fully. Kenzie had known it was there but hadn’t been able to truly connect or shift. Then she’d met her mate. His bite had started unlocking what Talbot had done. Until he’d managed to get a planted shifter close enough to Kenzie to give her another shot of inhibitor.

  Talbot had been captured after a failed kidnapping he’d expected to net him Kenzie. Instead, he’d ended up with Ariel and her friend, Rissa, mate of Slade Holloway. Talbot had been taken when Slade and Daniel had gone after their mates with a vengeance. The only hunter left alive had been Talbot, and only because he had information they needed.

  None of that mattered, though. Not at the moment. What mattered was Kenzie’s presence hadn’t been part of the plan. Hell, Mitch didn’t even know if she knew there was a plan. She stepped in the room, drawing every eye on both sides of the glass to her.

  Talbot froze, eyes widening before a smile touched his lips.

  “I knew you’d come for me. No one would stop you.”

  “Son of a bitch!” Mitch exploded.

  It wasn’t about Quinn. She’d been more of a pawn than any of them had realized. Yes, Talbot had been angry, but he’d never given up on his original experiment. He’d been after Kenzie all along.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Quinn was tired of waiting on Mitch’s signal for her to come down the corridor to join them. Something had changed or gone wrong or who the fuck knew, but one thing was certain. No one was signaling her. She slipped out of the side room where she’d been waiting and headed along the corridor to join her mate, Tony, and Talbot.