Beneath the Skin (de La Vega Cats)

  “Wait. Let me explain.”

  “This had better be damned good, buster, or you’re sleeping alone from now on. Offering scum like him a challenge! Why should he get to save face? Why? Huh? He tried to kill you! I know he’s related and I’m sorry and all, but I don’t care. I don’t care about any of them. I care about you. They made their bed. They ran off and then tried to kill you because they are cowards.”

  Her chin jutted out. She hadn’t said they’d tried to kill her. Her anger was that they’d tried to kill him. It only cemented his belief that she was his mate.

  The room had gone silent and his mother had that smile of hers. The one she wore when she thought all was right in the world and according to her plans. It was a smile that often scared him. But the female in his lap had claws and she was fully enraged. Which at any other time would have amused him and led to him fucking her senseless right there on the living room carpet. However they were in public and he wanted to explain so she wasn’t angry.

  “I made the challenge because I want to deal with this treachery openly and honestly. If I’d executed him back at the human’s house, it would have been a quietly taken care of problem. I want the whole jamboree to know about this so there is no more sympathy for this creature and his compatriots.”

  She continued to frown. “You could tell them. They’re not stupid. Given the history, what they’ve done, it’s silly to think they’d be resentful.”

  “My deal is this. I made the challenge publicly. The outcome of the challenge will settle the complaint once and for all. If I lose, the cousins who left will receive amnesty. All but Hal Pepper, but that’s done anyway. But if I win, those remaining cousins will be shunned forever. They will be marked for all to see as shunned so there will be no more setting themselves up to be a cancer in anyone else’s jamboree. Their line will end as they can’t reproduce.”

  “You can do that?”

  “Yes.” Kendra spoke from where she sat, giving Gibson a look much like Mia was giving him.

  “If they ever set foot in de La Vega territory or in Smithville territory, their lives will be forfeit. Kendra can do a spell which will key in to each one of their DNA, and it will alert us to their presence if they decide to be so stupid.”

  “Their lives are already forfeit! They broke laws. What if the next guy thinks hey, why not shoot the Bringer with silver, he won’t kill me, he’ll give me a chance to kill him instead?”

  Never one to just lie back and take whatever explanation she was fed. Which was a great quality he wished she didn’t have right then.

  And she wasn’t done. “Why not just set it to self-destruct? Like on Get Smart? They just blow up if they show up here again.”

  His cat pushed close to the surface and hers responded. He held her close for long moments.

  “I don’t like this. At all. I like this zero percent.”

  “You don’t think I can win?”

  She punched him in the arm. “I know you’ll win. I have no worries about that. But these cats will cheat. We have every reason to believe that so don’t even try to argue with me.” She glared at Max, who hid a smile and tried to look severe, but totally missed the mark.

  “I would never argue any such thing. As it happens I agree with you. I voted that they all be executed on the spot.”

  “Oh. Well. I like you better now.” She turned back to Gibson. “You? Not so much right now. However, I’m your second.”

  He stood, nearly spilling her to the ground. “No you won’t be.”

  She pushed right up into his space and it didn’t matter that she was half a foot shorter. “Oh yes I will. I will be your second. I will be in that challenge ring on the day of the fight and my weapon will be hot. I will shoot anyone who even thinks about cheating, and I don’t care what your feelings on that are.”

  “You’re a mate. You need to stay safe.”

  “Please do excuse my manners, Imogene,” Mia said sweetly and then turned back to Gibson. She poked him in the chest. “You can shove your orders right up your butt. You listen here.” She poked him again for emphasis. “I will indeed be your second. I will indeed shoot anyone who cheats. I will break the knees of anyone who tries to stop me. It is my right as your mate—and don’t think we’re not going to talk about how you just spring that on me without any warning—it’s my right as your mate to be your second. I’m invoking that right.”

  That was a very old law and he looked at his mother suspiciously. Mia hadn’t grown up active and well versed in jamboree history. The chances of her knowing that rule seemed very low. But his mother had no guilt on her face over it and he was confronted by the fact that Mia was right.

  He’d publicly declared her as his mate and she’d invoked her rights as such.

  “This whole thing is to keep you out of danger, damn it. That’s not at a challenge ring with a bunch of murderous cats!”

  “That’s why you should have killed him on the spot.” She sniffed and then poked him again. “I was in Iraq for two tours! I was nearly killed by these scumbag human hatemongers. This challenge ring and these gutless cowards don’t scare me. At all. You got me? I will be there and that is that. When is the challenge?”

  She crossed her arms and each woman in the room got up and moved to stand with her.

  He was totally fucked.

  * * *

  “You could have backed me up you know.”

  Max snorted. “Why? Kendra would have been mad at me. Our mother would have been mad at me, and your sweet Mia would have been mad at me. I don’t like it when women are mad at me. I prefer it when they all like me and make me smoothies and turkey sandwiches and have sex with me. The last thing was Kendra-specific. If I’d taken your side, Kendra wouldn’t be making me sandwiches and she sure wouldn’t be having sex with me. Plus, you’re stupid. Mia is right. She’s got a great eye and she won’t be put off by any sympathy toward an old relative. If Alberto cheats, she’ll see it and deal with it. And the cats in the jamboree will love it.” He shrugged.

  “But she’ll be in the middle of a challenge ring!”

  “Protected by Dario, who will be there with her. No one will hurt her. You know that. She’s safer there than any other place I can imagine. And she’s a badass little cat, in case you haven’t noticed.”

  He huffed an annoyed breath. He was so angry at her, angry at the circumstances that he’d put her to bed and gone out for a walk where he’d met Max doing the same thing.

  “She loves you, Gibson.”

  “Ferociously.” Gibson nodded. No one had ever loved him that way. Oh sure his parents loved him. But this was different. Mia would give her life for him. Which touched him deeply even as it scared the shit out of him. “I can’t live with the idea of her being killed.”

  “She won’t be. It’ll all be over tomorrow. They underestimate you. Big mistake.”

  “They were raised by a male who thinks strength comes from how much noise you make.” He shrugged. “They don’t know about shit. And that’s to my favor because Alberto is strong. Just not as strong as me. Or as smart.” In fact, they’d found out why the cats had used silver on Gibson that first night but never again, or on Mia. They’d only had enough for that first attack and they’d run, leaving their ammunition in a hotel room. They’d used regular 9mm ammo from then on because they hadn’t thought ahead to bring enough silver. The ridiculousness of it, the casual nature of plotting to kill a relative aside, only convinced Gibson that his cousin posed no threat at all in the challenge ring.

  And just maybe he wanted to publicly beat down anyone who tried to harm his mate.

  “But he’s a coward. She’s right, you can’t trust a coward.”

  “I know. I don’t trust him. But I can beat him either way. And if he makes a bad move, I’m under no compulsion not to kill him. He tried to kill m
y woman, Max. You remember what that feels like.”

  Max growled and began to pace. “I do. Fuckers. If I could rip them all into pieces I would.”

  “Exactly. But if anything happens to me, I expect Mia to be taken care of.”

  Max snorted. “Nothing is going to happen to you. But you know we would. She’s ours just as Kendra and Renee are ours.”

  * * *

  Mia woke up just a few hours later and snuggled into his body, so warm. She breathed in his scent and gave his side a lick. If he could keep her up all night and then spring this stupid challenge shit on her, then she wouldn’t feel bad about waking him up.

  She nuzzled his neck and he moaned softly as he surfaced from sleep. His hands found her ass and held her tight as she kissed and licked over his neck and shoulders. Her cat was protective; her claws came out a moment, making Mia’s mouth water to taste more. To possess this big, strong male in her bed.

  His heart beat steady as she listened, her head on his chest.

  And then she turned her head and sunk her teeth into his biceps.

  He snarled, his hand holding her tight, his cock hardening against her belly. “Yes,” he hissed.

  She held on until she knew the mark would show that day when he was in the challenge ring. Everyone would know he was hers. Most especially the piece of shit who’d tried to kill him multiple times.

  Then he pulled her up and rolled on top. “Goddamn.” He kissed her so senseless she nearly forgot her own name and when he released her, her lips were swollen and his taste lay against them.

  “Just try to get killed now. You’re wearing my mark. No one gets to kill you but me.”

  He grinned as his locks fell around their faces. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

  He slipped inside her and she wrapped her legs around his waist. But it wasn’t hard and fast. No it was torturously slow and deep. His gaze was locked with hers the entire time.

  “You’re mine, Mia Porter.”

  She quirked up a grin. “Yes, yes I am. I was hoping you’d figure it out at some point.”

  “I’ve known since I opened my eyes to catch you getting naked to shift that very first night.”

  “And you’re mine.”

  He looked toward the mark on his biceps. “I am indeed.”

  He continued to stroke into her body, and she was content to be with him, to enjoy the feel of his weight against her body, of the feel of him so thick inside. Time seemed to slow as they were together, no need to speak, tangled in the other.

  “You need to come first. Do it for me.”

  She managed to get a hand between their bodies and found her clit swollen and ready. She was so easy for him it was sort of embarrassing. But she wouldn’t have it any other way.

  A few strokes, along with the scent of him, the heat of his skin against hers, the little shocks of sensation each time he thrust in and pulled out again, drew her so very close. But when he sunk his teeth into her neck, where it met her shoulder, she couldn’t hold back. Pleasure rushed through her hard and fast, and there was nothing but Mia and Gibson. They were everything.

  He snarled and followed her shortly after, falling to the side and pulling her close until they fell back into sleep for another hour.

  Chapter Fifteen

  The entire jamboree crowded inside the gymnasium owned by one of their members where the ring had been set up. The air was filled with a macabre excitement as the stands filled with shifters. Several cats she hadn’t known very well had approached her to speak. Some to wish Gibson well, some just to say hello and introduce themselves to her.

  It would have seemed odd to an outsider, but it was uplifting to be so welcomed, especially at this event. The crowd wanted to see Alberto get his punishment for attempting to harm their own. And Gibson had been right to do it this way, though she’d wait to tell him until after it was all over.

  Mia looked for her parents and found them not too far away. She made her way through the crowd to them where her mother hugged her tight.

  “Will you sit with us?” Then Ellen’s eyes landed on the mark on Mia’s neck. Marks were serious enough, but marks given to be seen, deliberately placed on the neck, were declarations of intent. Gibson was telling the entire jamboree that she was his. It tingled as she thought about it, and she looked over her shoulder to where he was speaking quite intently with Max.

  Her mother sighed. “All right. I can accept that. Does he make you happy? Really?”

  “Yes.”

  “All right. Grandchildren would be nice, by the way.”

  She kissed her mother as her father gave her a hug from the side.

  “I can’t sit with you. I’m his second. I’ll be at the edge of the ring.”

  Her mother’s brows flew up. “Young lady, you’ll do no such thing.”

  “If it was Dad down there, what would you do? If you had the skills to protect him, wouldn’t you use them?”

  Her mother huffed and threw her hands up. “Yes, yes of course. Damn it. Mia, you’re going to give me a heart attack. You know that don’t you?”

  “I’m safe. I’m not the one in the ring. But if that gutless fool of a cousin of his tries anything, I will take care of it. If he plays by the rules he’ll be fine. But he won’t. Because you can’t turn your back on a gutless man.”

  Her father nodded.

  “I have to go. I need to be there when they recite the rules. Stay up here. No matter what happens, don’t rush down there. You’re safer up here or out of the building. All right?”

  “If you think I’m leaving this building when my baby is in danger, you’re out of your head.” Her father said this seriously and she squeezed his hands.

  “I’ll feel better if I know you’ll do it. It won’t happen, but if it does, I can’t be worried about you all at once. Please.”

  Her father put an arm around her mother’s shoulders. “We’ll do it.”

  She heaved a relieved sigh. “Thank you. Thank you really. I love you both. Thank you for being here.”

  She made her way back down the stands, pausing when she caught sight of Grace and Cade.

  Grace hugged her. “Just here to give you moral support. We have no doubt Gibson will be victorious. But I know what it feels like to be in your shoes right now.”

  She swallowed hard. “Maybe I’m a hopeless fool, but I’m not worried he won’t win. I’m just... I hate this and I hate that it’s his own blood making him do it.”

  Grace sighed. “I know that feeling. We’re still on for lunch day after tomorrow, right? I’ll tell you the story then, and you can tell me about that.” She tipped her head to indicate the mark on Mia’s neck.

  Mia grinned, blushing. “Well.” She cleared her throat. “Yes to lunch. I want every detail of the challenge you were in with Cade. I’ve heard rumors but the truth is always better. I am to understand he was nearly naked.” She winked and Grace laughed.

  “He was! By the way, did you know that if you shoot a shifter in the kneecaps, it’s very hard and very painful to heal? Shattered bone takes a lot of energy to heal. Could take a year or two to fully get back to normal.”

  She squeezed Grace’s hand. “No I didn’t know that. Very interesting information. Always good to have that kind. Now keep your eye on that cousin of Gibson’s.”

  And his kneecaps, apparently.

  Mia hugged Grace again and turned to head back to the ring.

  It was Gibson she watched as she approached where he stood with Dario, Max and the referee, an elder of the jamboree. One of the wolves would serve as a spotter as well. Not Jack as he was too closely allied with Gibson. But Dave, who listened with a serious face.

  “This is my second.” Gibson held a hand out to her as she approached. The referee looked at her long and hard and then dow
n at the weapon.

  “You may not have that in the ring.”

  “I have no plans to use it unless the opponent cheats. At which time I will invoke the right to use it to prevent the cheating.”

  “No weapons.”

  Galen approached. “With all due respect, a second may have a weapon as a means of warning. I can get you the pertinent passages if you’d like, sir.” He held up a sheaf of papers. She had the best brothers-in-law ever.

  “If you use it unfairly, do know your champion will be disqualified.”

  “Understood, sir.” She averted her eyes, giving him her respect and he let it go.

  He went over the rules. First man to hit the ground of the ring for longer than twenty-five seconds would forfeit, and the deal they’d brokered would go into effect. She hated this part. In her opinion, Alberto should go to prison at the very least. But it wasn’t for her to decide.

  The referee told them to get into positions and moved to go give the rules to the other challenger.

  Gibson took her aside. “I love you. Be careful. Dario will be right next to you. If anything happens, let him take over. He knows what to do.” Gibson smiled when he saw the mark on her neck again. She’d worn a shirt with a wide neck so it would be easily identifiable. “I like that.”

  She grinned, tiptoeing up to kiss him. “Me too. I’ve got your back.”

  He took her hands. “I know. It’s a miracle to me.”

  And then he took his shirt off and moved to stand in his spot. She heard the whispers about the marks. Heard the disappointment of a few females. Tough luck! He was hers and she wasn’t giving him back, sharing him or letting anyone kill him either.

  Alberto came out wearing a sneer. Stupid move given his already tenuous situation. The crowd, which had been curious, was repulsed and the hum of conversation went in a negative direction. She rolled her eyes.

  Tension in the room made her cat nervous and she focused on Gibson. The scent of sweat and fear only made things worse. Her cat wanted to jump on Alberto’s back, beat him to shreds and grab Gibson and get out of there.