Pride Before the Fall Read online

  I smiled at him, my heart feeling like it was going to explode from all the damned feelings. "Because you're you, Con. Oisin was right. You're the heart of us. Home. Center. Whatever other yuppy bullshit title you want to use. You aren't just mine. You're ours. And I wouldn't have it any other way. That is how real family is supposed to operate." I grimaced. "At least I think so—I haven't had the best example."

  I stood. "Soak for a while. Don't drown. I'm pretty sure I heard the front door open a minute ago. I'll have a bitchy gryphon to deal with."

  I left Con to his bath and went downstairs to deal with my mother.

  I found her and Gabbi in one of the front sitting areas, yelling at each other in polite whispers, faces inches apart. I crossed my arms and cleared my throat, staring them down. "I see you made it home okay," I said to the thing that birthed me. "Want to explain what the fuck is going to happen now?"

  She straightened her spine, patted her perfect hair and turned toward me. "This should not have happened. I can't believe they came after you, Gesa. You are going to take over the clan like your father wished. And then we are going to unseat the current council. I've already been working on a few of the younger ones. They're sympathetic, mostly because they hate the old way of doing things, and—"

  I held up a hand to stall that line of bullshit. "Fuck no."

  She gaped at me. "But you came home! You saved your sister from their clutches. The workers at that farce of an institution even told me you declared yourself the clan head when you signed Gabbi out." She smiled at me, a genuine fucking smile on that cold face. It was eerie. "I'm so glad you're finally home, Gesa."

  I shook my head. "No. Nope. Never happening."

  Gabbi rubbed her temple and gestured at mom and me. "Please, someone tell me what the hell is going on."

  I paced over to the sideboard and found some whiskey and a glass. "Apparently, dad willed everything to his daughter," I said, pouring a double shot. And then some more for good measure. "And this dried up bitch has been either trying to destroy me or trying to force me into the role—I really can't decide which. Either way, she's a cunt. And I'm not doing it." I swallowed a gulp of expensive-ass whiskey and prayed that the guys who attacked us were there because of mom's political bullshit. Because if not, that meant they had been there for Oisin. And that was a thought I just couldn't handle right now.

  Gabbi stared at me for a beat before turning to Ida. "Mom? What games are you playing?"

  The thing that birthed us crossed her arms and rolled her eyes as if were both being ridiculous. "I'm trying to get rid of that outdated, backward council so our people can stand a chance of surviving into the next century."

  I gaped at her. That sounded...almost progressive. Almost like dad. "I don't believe you. There has to be something else going on."

  "Gesa?" Oisin's silky voice startled me and I turned to glare at him.

  "Stop fucking sneaking up on me!" I pictured the exact type of collar I was putting on him when we got home. There would be so many bells. And maybe a leash....

  He held out his cell phone. Mine was upstairs in a bag of rice just in case the coffee bath had gotten inside. "He won't stop calling. I think you need to take this."

  I glared. "What? Who? If it's Oswald, tell him he and his police buddies can function without me for a few more fucking days."

  He shook his head, his long hair loose and falling over an informal t-shirt and sleep pants that I know he wouldn't usually show anyone outside the pride. I held out my hand for the phone, not really wanting to know what had Oisin so concerned he had revealed anything but his best to my thorny mother.

  I glanced at the screen as the phone started ringing again, vibrating against my palm. "Motherfucker."

  I tried to hand the phone back to Oisin, but he wouldn't take it.

  "Who is it?" Gabbi asked.

  Oisin didn't look at her, his eyes still on mine. "Her boss. Answer it, Gesa."

  I growled, but did as I was told. "What?" I demanded into the phone.

  "Miss Lionheart," Derek fucking White's deep smoky voice purred down the line. "How are you this lovely afternoon?"

  I heaved a sigh. "What do you want?"

  He was silent for a moment. "I wanted to make sure my assets were all still in good condition. I sensed a... mild disturbance."

  The hairs on the back of my neck stood up. "I'm not your fucking asset, White." And what did he mean he sensed?

  He chuckled. "I am quite invested in you and your little pride, Miss Lionheart. Do bring them back in one piece, please."

  I growled. "I will take care of my pride, asshole. I don't need your feedback."

  I swear to the Gods, I felt a whisper of his weird magic against my ear. "I'll have a new job for you soon, Miss Lionheart. Please come home as soon as possible."

  I held the phone away from my face and stared at the blank screen. "He fucking hung up on me."

  Oisin took his phone back, having heard the whole conversation thanks to supe senses. "We should probably go home."

  I shook my head. I didn't want to jump whenever White ordered. But I sure as shit didn't want to stay here either. I smiled at my mother. "Oops. The boss needs me back home. Too bad. Looks like I won't be able to stay here and play with you."

  She fumed, her face turning bright red. "You would abandon you clan for that...that...devil?"

  I arched an eyebrow. I wasn't aware the thing that birthed me knew Derek White. But whatever. He was rich and powerful. She probably had a list somewhere of people to placate to keep her political standing in good order.

  "Get this through your head, mother," I said firmly. "I am not staying here."

  Gabbi gave me a sad look, then glanced at mother. "Mom. You know this isn't where Gesa belongs. She's always been meant to spread her wings. We'll figure this out somehow."

  I dropped my shoulders at the resignation in her voice. "Gabbi...you could come with us. You don't have to stay here with these medieval idiots. You could go live somewhere else, where people will accept you for who you are. New Paradise has its share of hicks still, but anywhere is better than this place."

  She shook her head. "These idiots are my people, Gesa. They might be ignorant, but they're worth saving. They just need someone to help them move into the modern era. If I left, it would feel like running away."

  I bit back my anger at that. She thought that's what I was doing. I was running away. I was proud of the gryphon inside me. But I sure as shit was not proud of my people.

  "Leave Gesa's name on everything," Oisin said calmly.

  I turned to him in disbelief. The traitor.

  "But appoint a seneschal to make decisions in her place," he continued, the medieval word flowing from his lips like he had lived it. Which, he probably had. He turned to my mother. "Your husband's will stated his daughter would inherit, yes?" At her nod he shrugged one elegant shoulder. "Well, you have two daughters, madam. I don't see what the problem is."

  I grinned at the wonderful, amazing, evil fairy. Okay, he could have the title of pride alpha—the mate who had responsibility for all the others—he'd earned it. I wrapped my arms around him and lifted him off his feet, spinning him around before setting him back down, disheveled and laughing.

  "Yes. There you go,” I hurried to agree. “Gabbi, for some reason I will never understand, you love the clan, even when they are behaving at their worst. You're also the most progressive bitch in this town. You can throw around the threat of your big, dangerous sister if anyone won't listen to you, and I'll come back and put them in a coma. But I'm pretty sure between you and this scheming monster that squeezed us out of her vagina, you can whip this place into shape in no time."

  Mother groaned at my language. Gabbi gave me a soft smile that said she knew I had finally realized what her role in this whole backward place was. "Thank you, Gesa. I will make you proud, I promise."

  I waved that off. "Like I give a fuck. Do what you want! Burn the place down if they refuse to listen to
reason, for all I care."

  She laughed and clapped her hands together like an excited teenager. The freak. "Oh, this is going to be so much fun!"

  Mother was already on the phone with her lawyer, asking for paperwork to be made up for us to sign.

  "It better be here by tomorrow morning," I told her over Gabbi gushing to Oisin about how clever he was. "Because we are going the fuck home as soon as I can get the tickets exchanged."

  Chapter 11

  The flight home was pretty much the rollicking good time I had come to expect from this whole fucking trip. Con and Kaimana got two seats next to each other on one side of the aisle, and she spent the whole time fussing over him, feeding him snacks from the food cart, making sure he had a pillow and blanket and snuggling in beside him to nap. It did not escape me that she was doing her clingy octopus thing, her arms laced through his, her head tucked onto his shoulder in a way that looked tender, but really said "mine, don't touch," loud and clear. Note to self: do not endanger Kaimana's human.

  I envied them. I wanted to curl up between them and sleep the whole way back. Instead, I got stuck in the middle of three seats on the other side, between Oisin and Hisashi. The fox had been drunk since we left Lionheart lands. He was currently singing a song about ghosts and bloody death that was making all the other passengers shoot us uncomfortable looks.

  I nudged him with my elbow. "Thought you were going to stop being a fucking tool," I reminded him.

  He lay his head back on his seat and stopped singing long enough to focus slightly silver eyes on me. "Sorry. Sorry. I'll behave."

  He made a zipping motion over his lips, locked it, and threw away the key.

  Not two minutes later, he was staring at something over his head, his eyes drifting as if following something the rest of us couldn't see. "So pretty," he cooed. "Creepy as fuck, but pretty." He reached out as if to touch whatever he was looking at.

  Oisin reached across me and slapped Hisashi's hand out of the air. "Don't," he commanded.

  Hisashi peered at him, eyes slightly unfocused and his whole body starting to go...wispy around the edges with that foggy look he got when he was fighting the assassins back in the clan lands. Oisin surged up to his feet, barely even having to duck to avoid hitting his head on the overhead storage area. "Switch me seats gryphon. Now!"

  I heaved a sigh, but the trace of fear in Oisin's voice had me moving my ass. Oisin and I switched seats and the fae gripped the back of Hisashi's neck and forced him to look into a pair of furious green eyes. "You can't do that here. We are in the fucking sky, fox. Moving incredibly fast."

  I felt my heart stop. What?

  Oisin shook Hisashi again and the fox went solid. He closed his silvery blue eyes and let out a shuddery breath. "Sorry." He reached up a big hand and gripped Oisin's wrist, keeping him in place. "Just...don't stop touching me. Please."

  I swallowed down the fear trying to claw its way up my throat. Instead, I unwrapped my sandwich and took the jug of fucking sake Oisin passed over to me. Where the fuck was the kid getting this stuff? And what the hell was in it that it could knock out a nine-tail? I uncorked it and sniffed curiously. I'm pretty sure my nose hairs burned off. "Jesus, Buddha Odin, Hisashi what the fuck is this?"

  He smiled dreamily, still clinging to Oisin's hand. "My special sake."

  I stowed it under the seat by my feet before the flight attendant could see it. "When you are sober again, we are going to talk about where the fuck you pull that out of."

  Oisin leaned up and whispered something in Hisashi's ear that I couldn't quite catch, even with my eagle hearing. Hisashi winked and put his arm around the fae. "Fine. Just don't move 'til we get home."

  I watched them, wondering just what the fuck was going on, but not wanting to ask in a plane full of humans.

  They were drawing enough curious—and sometimes lusty—looks as it was, the two gorgeous men cuddled up like a couple of lovebirds.

  I glared at one particularly blatant woman. Great. Now I was possessive like a fucking alpha male. I really needed to get my feet back on solid ground, in my own fucking territory before I lost it. I didn't realize how attached I had become to our little bookstore home.

  Hisashi slowly sobered up as we made our way home from the airport. But he never moved far away from Oisin, and they were always touching. A brush of shoulders as they walked. Hisashi's arm around the fae's shoulders as he told a ribald joke. Oisin's hand on Hisashi's hip when they crossed paths. I'd find it adorable, if I wasn't pretty sure Oisin was doing something to keep Hisashi together.

  The cab halted in front of our gorgeous, dusty, run-down old bookstore and I felt like I was a pilgrim arriving at the holy land. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. Fucking finally.

  We piled out of the over-stuffed cab and I tipped the tolerant driver as Hisashi, Oisin and Kaimana unloaded the luggage, making sure Con wasn't trying to carry his own.

  We all headed toward the shop door, but we froze when Hisashi stopped in his tracks, whispering "the wards."

  I pushed out what little magical awareness I had. And used my purely human eyes. "Fuck." There was a light on in the shop. And the wards on the door weren't buzzing like they did when they were live and locked up.

  "You guys, back up," I said, preparing to go open the door and tear someone a new asshole.

  Oisin stepped past us, a glimmer of tears in his emerald eyes as he breathed "Evalyn...."

  I stared at him in shock at what amounted to an outpouring of emotion in the typically unruffled fae.

  The door opened, and a delicate, stunningly beautiful woman appeared on the threshold. Long golden curls tumbled over her shoulders, and her graceful hand curled around the door as if holding on for dear life. Purple eyes like spring flowers were riveted on my fae. "Oisin?"

  She was down the steps in a flash of floral print and honeysuckle perfume, her arms locked around Oisin's neck as he clutched her to him and shook like a leaf while she rained kisses over his face.

  We all stared. What the actual fuck? This was the other fae Oisin was hiding from his father? I growled and scooped up the suitcase Oisin had dropped, then I brushed past his heartwarming reunion and into the house. I couldn't. I just fucking couldn't.

  I couldn't stop seeing Oisin's face. Filled with longing and love and absolute heartbreaking joy at the sight of the fae woman with the golden aura.

  I tromped through the shop, ignoring the warm glow of the vanilla fucking candles the woman had lit in Hisashi's corner of the shop. Up the stairs past the smell of something simmering on Con's shiny chrome stove. The lingering scent of honeysuckle and fae magic in the air hit me like a smack to the face in my fucking home.

  I opened my bedroom door and threw my bag and Oisin's into the room. Turning, I almost bowled Hisashi and Kaimana over. Kai threw Con's bag in after mine so hard it bounced off the foot of the bed. It landed with a thump and she met my eyes, her lips twitching. Then she bent over in silent laughter.

  I glared at her for a minute more before finally succumbing to a short laugh myself. "Yeah, okay, fine. I'm an asshole. I don't care."

  Con slipped in past Kaimana and gave me a commiserating look. "Just calm down, Gesa. I'm sure she's just a... friend..." he trailed off lamely.

  I shrugged. "I don't care what she is to him," I lied. "My gryphon doesn't like to find strangers in our house after we were just attacked." Better. But still a lie.

  Con sighed. "I'll go down and make sure we have things set up for a guest." He turned and I caught a muttered, "although she's already made herself at home in the kitchen. Guess I don't need to cook dinner."

  I almost laughed. He sounded as grumpy and insanely jealous as me. But it wasn't fucking funny. If Oisin was hiding a damned lover this whole time I was going to slap his pretty head right off his shoulders.

  Kaimana rolled her eyes and made a crazy sign by her head at me before skipping out into the hall, clearly unconcerned at my pouting, as usual.

  I glan
ced at Hisashi, who was standing there, quietly staring out into the hall with no expression on his hauntingly handsome face.

  Sighing, I dragged him into the room, slammed the door, and shoved him into the overstuffed chair by the bed. Then I started unpacking my clothes, throwing everything into the over-sized hamper with a little more force than necessary.

  After I emptied my bag, I opened Oisin's, upending the whole thing into the hamper. I hoped his silk and cashmere ended up in the washing machine. He'd have kittens. His hairbrush tumbled to the floor and I kicked it viciously, like a child having a temper tantrum, sending it sliding across the hardwood and under the bed with a sharp clack.

  Hisashi was still staring into space.

  "What's wrong with you, fox?" I demanded. Though I was pretty sure I knew.

  He glanced at me, a wry smile lifting one corner of his mouth. "Stop storming and come over here."

  He held out his arms in invitation. I crossed my arms. I didn't want to cuddle. I wanted to punch something. Draw blood. I knew I was being irrational. I was being a complete drama queen asshole.

  But that didn't stop me from being angry. It was strange, being so insanely pissed off and feeling like I was watching myself from the outside.

  Oisin never promised me monogamy, and I obviously didn't promise it to him. But this was different...this felt like betrayal in a way it never did when he flirted with the rest of the pride. Seeing that look of utter adoration turned toward someone who wasn't our family hurt.

  Hisashi sighed. "If you won't come over here for yourself, then come over here for me. Please. I'm still all...unstable."

  And of course, I couldn't refuse to help him if he needed me. And he knew it, the fucker. I kicked off my shoes and padded over to him, crawling onto his lap like a weak little girl.