Acceptance

by Grace R. Duncan

  He closed his eyes, arms tight around Miles as he savored the connection. A connection he never thought he’d want with another person. A connection he was sure that now he didn’t want to be without.

  Quincy eased out, and they fell over together onto the bed.

  Miles turned to him, yanked him in, and kissed him thoroughly. “I love you, Quincy, so fucking much.”

  He returned the kiss, then brushed is fingers over Miles’s cheek, then through the long red hair. “I love you, Miles. I’m… I’m so glad we met.”

  “Me too, baby.” Miles kissed his forehead, then tightened his arms. “Me too.”

  Quincy had no idea what was going to happen next, but he wasn’t going to let it worry him for the moment. Instead, he tugged the blanket over them, buried his nose in his mate’s scent, and simply enjoyed being in his mate’s arms.

  “OKAY. I’VE listened and relistened to the conversation. I don’t know him as well as you do, obviously,” Chad said, pacing the living room of the suite. “But nothing in his voice made me think he expects you to actually get hurt.”

  “I don’t think he does,” Quincy said, shaking his head.

  “We’re still not going into this half-cocked,” Miles said, scowling.

  Chad raised a hand. “Of course not. Aubrey is right about some things, though. For one thing, I don’t think this is really about you coming back anymore. Maybe it is, but I wouldn’t bet my bank account on it.”

  “Then… what?”

  Chad glanced at Jamie, then looked at Quincy again. “I don’t know exactly. I just… this feels bigger to me.”

  Quincy frowned but sighed. “I’ll trust your instincts on it. I think maybe I’m just too close to it.”

  Chad nodded. “That’s definitely likely. I think, first, we need to call Tanner. They should know the local pack is aware of the cats.”

  “That’s probably a good idea. I don’t know that they should call the prime yet. If what you heard in Rome has any truth to it….” Miles shook his head.

  Jamie scowled. “Then the prime can’t be trusted.”

  “Wait, what?” Quincy squinched his eyes at Jamie.

  Chad sighed. “When we went to Rome back in June, Mario and Luigi—”

  “Anthony and Raphael,” Jamie corrected him. At Quincy’s puzzled look, he laughed. “They trolled us, saying they were Mario and Luigi, then told us their real names.”

  “Ah. So, uh, what did they say?”

  Chad frowned. “The rumor over there is that our prime is xenophobic. Has more or less flipped out about anything not wolf. And not American wolf, at that.”

  Quincy blinked. “That’s a hell of a thing to accuse your prime of.”

  Chad nodded. “Yeah. Noah hasn’t done anything with it yet, of course, but it means we have to watch what we say to the prime. He was bluffing your father when he told him he’d go to the prime. Of course, if more happened, he’d have to, but….”

  “But with that hanging out there, yeah.” Quincy sighed. “So where does that leave us?”

  “I think Noah needs to see if he can find out how many packs know about the cats,” Jamie mused. Chad raised an eyebrow and Jamie nodded. “I mean, if this is as big as we think it is….”

  Chad nodded slowly. “And more information is never a bad thing.”

  “I’m sure Noah can be discreet,” Quincy said. “So we’ll call Tanner.”

  “Then, like it or not, I think the best way to go from here is to find the Three Ds. Unfortunately I think your father’s plan is best. Have him make noise about you refusing—again—to come back, possibly even staging the phone call he suggested, then let them come to you.”

  “I really don’t like this,” Miles grumbled.

  Quincy kissed him. “You’ll be there to patch me up if they get to me. But… I don’t think they will.”

  Chad shook his head. “I’m going to do everything I can to make sure they don’t. I didn’t spend the last two months just chasing skunks.” He flashed a grin, making Quincy chuckle. “I have been working with my sensitive senses. With the training I already have, I’m no slouch. Neither is my mate. He can kick just as much ass.”

  Miles took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “All right. So… he calls his dad?”

  Chad nodded. “Yeah, but we don’t make it too obvious. You still use a prepaid or something like it. They know you’re here in New York; they’ll find you from there. I think, though, we ought to be out on pride lands when you do it.”

  “Are you kidding me? They’ll be right there!” Miles blinked at Chad, mouth hanging open in shock.

  “That’s the point,” Chad said. “First, we don’t want to be in the city. My status as a former cop isn’t going to mean jack squat if the NYPD finds us toting guns that aren’t registered to us or roughing someone up—whether they deserve it or not. On top of that, if they find the Three Ds with, say, a bullet hole that heals?”

  Miles sighed. “You’re right.”

  “Of course I am.” Chad grinned and Miles snorted.

  “Okay, that makes sense,” Quincy said, to get things back on track. “So….”

  “You find a place for us to lure them. There has to be someplace we can make them miserable that’s out of the way. We’ll call Tanner in the meantime. Then we’ll work on the timing of the rest of this.”

  Quincy took a deep breath and pulled the map of New York over to himself. He frowned down at it, thinking about the different places he’d gone as a cub. He’d found a bunch of spots that no one else seemed to go, but he had no idea if those were still left alone now. He also couldn’t exactly waltz up to his father’s house, not if he wasn’t “coming back.” So it had to be elsewhere on the pride lands.

  He dropped his face in his hands and rubbed it hard. “I need more coffee before I can figure this out,” he muttered and went over to the iPad to order food. “Anyone want food?”

  “Do I exist?” Chad asked.

  Quincy snorted and turned back to the menu.

  IT TOOK the rest of the evening to work out the plans. The call to Tanner had gone as Quincy had expected. Tanner hadn’t been happy to hear about the New York wolf pack any more than they had been. He’d conferenced his father into the call, and together they’d discussed what the four of them had learned. Noah had agreed to do discreet inquiries and promised to let them know as soon as he could.

  By that time, they were all exhausted. Quincy was comfortable with the plan, though. It wasn’t perfect—nothing like this could be—but it was the best option they had. Miles was still more than a little unhappy with the prospect of putting Quincy in the line of fire, but there wasn’t much Quincy could do about it.

  He understood too. If their roles were reversed, he’d be just as unhappy as Miles was. So he couldn’t blame Miles for feeling the way he did.

  Despite the exhaustion, none of them slept very well, but with about three pots of coffee shared among them and some solid protein, Quincy felt like he could face what they needed to do. His nerves were just about shot, and he hoped he could carry out the plan like they needed him to.

  “Relax,” Miles murmured once they’d settled into the back of the Challenger. “I know you’re nervous, but you’ll kick ass.”

  Quincy snorted. “I’m not worried about me.”

  “Hey, I can fight, baby.”

  “That’s… I didn’t mean…. I know you can. It’s not that. I just….” He shrugged and stared at his fingernails. “I never thought I’d want a mate. Now I don’t want to imagine life without you.”

  “Oh, baby,” Miles whispered, hugging him closer. “You’re not going to. I have a good feeling about this.”

  “Me too,” Chad said from the driver’s seat. “We still have some major shit ahead of us, but I feel good about this part, at least.”

  Quincy sighed. “I hope so.” He let the conversation go, watching out the window as they drove along the river. He realized, though, his anxiety had faded a little.

>   The drive itself only took a little over an hour. They’d timed it so they left before rush hour, but even so, there was traffic. Still, they made it to the forest the pride used for their runs in good time.

  Quincy directed Chad to the parking lot they were going to use, and Chad backed in, then turned off the car. “Okay, so.”

  “The cabin we have is that way about a mile,” Quincy said, pointing to the north. “If you go west, you can circle around and, I think, be far enough away to keep them from smelling you.”

  Chad nodded. “Good. Let’s check the phones.”

  They’d refilled the minutes on the phones they’d used during the dinner with Quincy’s father so they could use them again to stay in touch. Within a few moments, everyone was once again connected, and they climbed out of the car.

  “Ohhh,” Chad said, as the wind caught his hair. “Feel that wind.”

  Jamie grinned. “If we stay downwind from the cabin, we can be even closer because of that.”

  “Good. Less time to stall,” Quincy said. “Okay, then. Here we go.”

  The cabin only had two rooms—one main room and one bathroom that had a stall-type shower, tiny sink and toilet, and not much else. The main room had a table and four chairs on one side, a narrow bed against another wall, and a galley-style kitchen opposite the huge stone fireplace. Two doors led into and out of the cabin, opposite each other—a front and back door. He’d chosen the cabin because it was close enough to civilization to have power—and a cell signal—but still be far enough away that any noise shouldn’t carry.

  Quincy and Miles set to work making it look like they’d been staying for a while. The suitcase they’d brought sat by the bed. Miles lit a fire in the fireplace—since it would get cold as soon as the sun went down—and Quincy found the old percolator coffeepot and cups and made the coffee they’d brought along.

  “What was the cabin for? I meant to ask earlier. I somehow don’t see the cats doing much roughing it,” Chad asked through the phone.

  Quincy chuckled. “No. It was here so we had some place to leave clothes to shift and run. It also had supplies if we found ourselves in cat form and needed them.”

  Miles raised his eyebrows. “Ah, that’s kind of cool. We ought to build something like this on the pack lands. We usually end up having to lock our clothes in the car and hope no one finds the key.”

  “Oh my gods, yes,” Jamie chimed in. “Be a lot safer to hide a single house key than a car key right by the car it goes to.”

  Miles chuckled. “Okay, Quince. You ready?”

  Quincy sighed. “As I’ll ever be.” He pulled out the prepaid cell phone and laid it on the table.

  “Remember to put it on speaker so we can hear it,” Chad said.

  “I will. Bossy puppy,” Quincy muttered.

  “I heard that.”

  “You were supposed to.” Quincy shook his head when Jamie laughed. “Here goes.” He hit the speakerphone button, then the number for his father he’d programmed in earlier—so he didn’t fuck up the number or something because of nerves.

  He kept it short and to the point. They’d gotten a message to his father at the office the day before via Miles, who’d shown up with the excuse of “telling his partner’s father off.” They’d half expected that to bring the Three Ds down on them, but it hadn’t, and Quincy guessed his father’s office itself wasn’t bugged, just the phone lines.

  When his father picked up, Quincy gave a curt, “Father.”

  “Quincy. Have you come to your senses?”

  Quincy sighed. “No. Or, rather, not in the way you want me to.” He didn’t have to fake being annoyed. The fact that he had to do this at all still annoyed him and he used that now. “Can’t you get it through your head? I don’t want anything to do with the pride. Or being tepey. Or anything like it!”

  “Quincy, you need to get back here to New York, now. I’m tired of playing these games.”

  It took all Quincy had to keep from saying, “Me too.” Instead, he said, “Then don’t. Leave me alone.” He kept his eyes glued to his watch. He had about ten more seconds to be sure they’d have enough to trace him. “I’m not coming back. Not now, not ever. Good-bye, Father.”

  He hit the disconnect button and turned off the phone, then sat back and sighed. “And now… we wait.”

  Chapter 12

  THERE WAS a reason Quincy had pursued his art. Entirely aside from it being what he loved, it didn’t require the kind of patience this sort of thing did. It could, conceivably, take hours for the Three Ds to find them.

  “Should have brought cards or something,” he muttered as he made another trip back and forth in front of the fireplace.

  “No kidding,” Jamie said. “Is this what surveillance is usually like?”

  “Yup. There’s a reason they drink a lot of coffee and eat a lot of donuts.” Chad chuckled at the three snorts.

  “Can I blow you or something to pass the time?”

  “We’re still here!” Miles said, shaking his head. “I do not need to hear that.”

  “And I don’t want to. Just… no,” Quincy said, shaking his head as well.

  “Well, next time be done before we get back from Times Square.” Chad snorted.

  Quincy closed his eyes. “I’m going to kill your mate, Jamie.”

  “Get in line,” Jamie said.

  “Sorry.” Chad didn’t sound the least bit sorry, but Quincy was too nuts to call him on it. The grunt that came through the phone was satisfying, though.

  “Where did you guys end up?” Miles asked.

  “We can see the back door from here. Is it unlocked in case we need it?” Chad asked.

  Quincy went over to check, then flipped the bolt. “It is now.”

  “Good. The call finished about half an hour ago. How long does it take to trace something like that, Q?”

  “Hmm.” Quincy pursed his lips as he thought. “It really depends on how good their info guy is. It would take me about an hour to two to find the right cell tower and get a rough radius. After that, it’s process of elimination on where it could be. The last time they found me in about three hours. But I was in BFE Virginia.”

  “And this time you’re in home territory. So, likely less.”

  “If they can narrow the cell tower down, yes.”

  Miles sighed. “So… at least another half hour, though probably even longer.”

  “Yup,” Chad agreed.

  Quincy sighed too. “More coffee, I think.”

  “So not fair,” Chad grumbled.

  “Should have stopped at the convenience store. Or Dunkin’ Donuts,” Quincy replied, grinning.

  His only reply was a “pbbbt” through the phone.

  IF QUINCY hadn’t been so hypersensitive to everything around him, he wouldn’t have known they were there. As it was, even cats couldn’t be completely silent when in human form, and the sound of shoes on the wooden porch—even though it was barely there—was enough.

  “They’re here,” Quincy said.

  “Roger. On our way.”

  Quincy forced himself to sit at the table and pick up his coffee cup. He met Miles’s gaze, and Miles nodded at him.

  “You got this,” he whispered.

  Quincy blew out a breath and nodded back. It took all the control he had, all the discipline he’d ever learned, to keep the SIG in its holster at the back of his jeans instead of pulling it out. He’d have felt a hell of a lot better facing them with it in his hand, but if he did, he’d blow things.

  It annoyed him to no end that he jumped when they kicked the door in. In part because he spilled some of his coffee. He turned to them, scowling. “Oh, for Bastet’s sake. Did you have to break the door?”

  The one in front—Dee—blinked at him in confusion for several seconds, then covered it with a grin. “Hey guys, look, we get the stupid dog too.” He laughed, and Dumb and Dumber laughed with him.

  “We’re here.”

  Quincy’s scowl deepened. “Did
you really think it would be that easy? You really are Dumb and Dumber.”

  That stopped the laughter. All three scowled. “Who are you calling dumb?”

  Quincy just rolled his eyes. “Never mind. The names obviously fit. Did you really think I didn’t know you were out there? Or looking for me?” He shook his head.

  Dee hid his surprise quickly, but the other two weren’t so successful. “Doesn’t matter if you did. We’ve done this once before, haven’t we?” He gave a nasty sort of smile, which Quincy returned, making Dee scowl.

  “Yeah, we did,” Chad said from behind them.

  Dee spun around. “Another fucking dog?”

  Dumber grunted. “Shit.”

  Chad flashed him a grin.

  “Um. Two more,” Jamie said, stepping up onto the porch. “I see why you use those names,” he said, nodding to Quincy.

  “Yeah, not all that bright.” Quincy shook his head. “Well, get inside. Might as well get this over with.” Quincy stood, pulling the SIG from its holster at the same time as Chad and Jamie pulled out their weapons. Miles had the other Glock Chad had brought, though he wouldn’t be using it. He had it purely for intimidation purposes.

  Dee shook his head. “You think that little thing is going to stop us?”

  “Maybe not,” Chad answered for him. “But there are four. And I’m pretty sure, as fast as you are, you can’t beat a bullet. This isn’t The Matrix and your name isn’t Neo.”

  Dee scowled, and Dumb and Dumber looked confused again.

  Quincy sighed, lifted his weapon, and pointed it straight at Dee. “Really? Let’s get this over with.”

  Dee shook his head and started across the room toward Quincy. Dumb and Dumber stepped in behind him, but kept their eyes on Chad and Jamie. Quincy would have been worried if he didn’t know just how well Chad could handle the weapon in his hand.