Hunting, a few days later, fell to Serik and Sezim. Technically, it was supposed to fall to them and Anara, but they lost their patience while waiting for Anara to wake up and venture out of her room, and so they left without her. No one ever liked it when they went off on their own, but no one needed to know just then.
When they made it to the ransacked camp, they found that it had been even further ransacked. Everything of use had been taken away, and everything else had been tossed into a messy pile. The bodies in the tent were gone, though neither Serik nor Sezim were particularly inclined to go looking for them.
From there, they set off toward the next camp…and found nothing. Everything was gone. The tent. The generator. The equipment. The snowmobile. The lions. As if they had never been there, save for the telltale disrupted snow.
Slowly, the twins shared a look before they both bounded off together into the snow. They had to find the camps, lest Aibek or Anara stumble upon one on accident. (Perhaps it didn’t make much sense, the younger siblings worrying over their older siblings, but they had never been particularly concerned with making sense. It sounded boring and overly tiring.)
They were thorough as they searched, and they searched for well over an hour. When at last they found one of the camps, they both ducked low to the ground, watching quietly from the snow. From there, they could see the second camp within spitting distance of the first. The lions had apparently decided on ‘safety in numbers.’
As if to make life even more difficult, one of the lions was pacing a line between the two camps, in human form and well dressed for the weather. He glanced around periodically, checking the surroundings for anyone approaching or for anything out of the ordinary.
The twins weren’t sure how long they crouched there, watching to see if they could learn anything new. Their hearts sank when, eventually, the patrolling lion ducked back into one of the tents, only for another lion to take his place. They were patrolling in shifts, then. They were never going to be off their guard.
Once again, the twins shared a look. They had to move on. They needed to handle the actual hunting still, and then they needed to get home to share the aggravating news.
Slowly, they stood up, though not completely. They straightened up just enough that they could move through the snow without revealing themselves entirely. Even so, the patrolling lion squinted in their direction, and they had to drop flat into the snow until she turned around to resume her patrol, back and forth between the two camps.
They took the opportunity to bolt, sprinting away as quickly as they could. They hunted efficiently after that, not taking the time to play the games they normally would, and they took turns to drag the buck back up the incline before they left it in the butcher shed.
*
“We can’t ransack another camp!” Sezim announced, the words laced with outrage, as she and Serik loped into the kitchen. “We will die if we do!”
“You aren’t supposed to be going near them on your own at all,” Aibek pointed out, pausing with his spoon raised halfway to his mouth before he lowered it again. “But why not?”
“They wised up,” Serik sighed, slumping sideways against the counter. “Moved the last two camps and are constantly keeping watch. They almost saw us, and we were just passing by.”
“Well, we kind of figured something was going to happen,” Amelia pointed out, stirring a spoon through her coffee. “But seriously, what were you guys doing out there on your own?”
Sezim threw her hands up over her head and burst out in exasperation, “Recon! Because we figured the something that was going to happen would be a bit more explosive than this.”
“You are not supposed to be out there on your own, even if it is just for recon,” Aibek informed them both sharply, though Serik seemed to have already checked himself out of the argument, instead shoving himself away from the counter to start rummaging through the cupboards for a snack.
Amelia began to tune them out after a moment as their argument continued. So much bad news of late was starting to make her queasy, and she wasn’t going to encourage the feeling any more than necessary.
No one questioned it when she excused herself to the den, burying herself in yet another book. She appreciated it.
*
Aibek and Anara went to see it with their own eyes that night, following the loose directions their younger brother and sister had given them. They got just close enough to the camps that they could peer at them through the snow. They could see, even in the dead of the night, someone sitting by a fire, bundled in a jacket and keeping watch. She didn’t appear armed, but that meant little when she could be a wildcat literally in seconds.
They didn’t venture any closer than that. Their only purpose for being out there was to confirm Sezim and Serik’s story. With that done, they turned toward home again.
It was not good news to bring, but at the same time, it could have been much worse.
*
They all expected something to change. They expected something to give. For the other shoe to finally drop. But still, the lions simply lurked, day after day. The silent, ever-watchful presence was beginning to stress Amelia out so much that she was getting ill, her stomach rebelling each evening.
It was well into February by then. She had missed so much of the semester back home that there would be no chance of making it up, and she would have no choice but to give the semester up as a lost cause. The idea of just deciding to accept the failure rankled at her, but she had rather limited options.
She missed her parents. She missed her friends. She missed feeling safe. She knew Aibek and his family would protect her, but that didn’t negate the fact that she had to be kept safe to begin with; it didn’t change the fact that she was being hunted, and she still didn’t even know why.
On top of that, the others kept giving her strange looks, like she smelled weird. It bothered her more than it probably should have.
“A question, honey,” Faina started abruptly, as Amelia left the bathroom after yet another bout of throwing up. “Have you wondered if maybe your stomach problems aren’t caused by stress?”
“What do you mean?” Amelia sighed, dragging a hand through her hair.
Faina’s eyebrows rose, as if she thought Amelia was being intentionally thick. “Throwing up all the time. A bit moodier. Sezim mentioned that you smell off. Considering I know you and Beka have been canoodling like it’s going out of style,” she pointed out, heedless of the way Amelia’s face heated, “are you sure you aren’t pregnant?”
Amelia stared at her blankly, blinking slowly. The words made sense if she thought about them one at a time, but they refused to actually fit into place in her mind. Pregnant? Really? She was pretty sure that wasn’t even possible. A shifter getting pregnant from a different type of shifter was rare to the point of impossibility.
“Just some food for thought,” Faina finished, waving her off and turning her attention back to her book. “Don’t mind me.”
Amelia could recognize when she was being dismissed. Slowly, she turned and made her way into the den, where she sat down on the couch. She pulled Serik’s tablet from where he had tucked it between the cushions and after only a moment of hesitation, she began to research morning sickness and other early signs of pregnancy.
*
“Have I smelled off lately?” Amelia asked, looking at Sezim expectantly. Her arms were folded over her chest, her chin propped up in one hand.
Sezim stared at her like a deer caught in a floodlight, and her mouth worked noiselessly for a moment. “Not, like…bad,” she managed after a moment, as if she thought she was going to be scolded for it.
Amelia held her hands up in a pacifying motion before letting them drop to her sides. “I was just asking. I’m not annoyed.”
Sezim did not looked remotely convinced, but she nodded slowly nonetheless. “Alright,” she agreed dubiously. “Is there a reason?” she asked a moment later, slightly hesitantly.
Amelia shrugged broadly, her shoulders lifting and her palms raised toward the ceiling. “The jury’s out,” she answered, since it was not technically a lie. “I’m still trying to figure it out.” And she was, technically. Oh, sure, she was pretty sure she knew the reason, but she wasn’t done looking yet. She wasn’t actually going to stop looking until she was sure. That was only the responsible thing to do, after all.
Sezim still didn’t look convinced, but she nodded slowly once again. “Okay. Let me know if you figure out the mystery, then.”
“Mmhm,” Amelia hummed in agreement, already turning her attention back to the borrowed tablet and her research. She made a mental note to remember to clear out the browsing history when she relinquished the device.
*
“You seem a bit down,” Anara remarked, leaning over Amelia to look down at her.
Amelia, sprawled on her back on the couch with one forearm over the upper half of her face, groaned incoherently for a moment before she shifted her arm downward just enough to actually look at Anara over the top of it. “That obvious?” she sighed.
Anara glanced at her prone position pointedly, one eyebrow ticking slightly. “Not at all,” she deadpanned. “What’s wrong?”
“I need to tell someone something very important,” Amelia stated cautiously, finally pulling her arm away from her face entirely. “But I’ve never been very good at giving people news. Good news, bad news, I’m beans at both of them.” If nothing else, that was a neat way of getting around the fact that she had yet to decide if it was good news or bad news. Mostly, it was just frightening news.
“Do you need to tell Beka something?” Anara asked blandly. She seemed rather unimpressed by the scowl Amelia aimed at her, only lifting one shoulder in a shrug. “Seems the logical choice,” she pointed out. “If you want my advice, just spit it out at him. Beka does best with new things if you don’t give him any time to stew over them.” She snorted and folded her arms over her chest. “He’s a giant worrywart, and if he has even a millisecond to fret over something, he’ll work himself into a state. So whatever you need to tell him, just…spit it out. That’ll be the most painless way to deal with it.”
Amelia was quiet for a moment before she nodded her head once, slowly. “Got it. Thanks, Anara.”
Anara offered a smile so small it could barely be said to be there. “No problem.” She didn’t ask what the news was, or whether it was good or bad. She didn’t try to pry or make it her business or shove her nose in where it wasn’t wanted. If she was even curious at all, she made no mention of it. Amelia appreciated that.
Anara moseyed from the room soon after, leaving Amelia to her thoughts.
*
“Your mom thinks I’m pregnant,” Amelia stated that night, sitting on Aibek’s couch as if she had simply been waiting for him to show up so she could spring that detail upon him. Truthfully, she had been waiting for just that occasion and reason.
Aibek bumped into a shelf before he stumbled to a halt. “Pardon?”
“Your mom thinks I’m pregnant,” Amelia repeated in much the same, slightly offended tone. The affront in her voice rose slightly as she added, “I think she might be right.”
He opened his mouth to reply, paused, closed his mouth, and blinked at her dumbly. And that really was the best way to describe it: dumbly. Like he had been smacked upside the head with a trout and lost all of his senses. Amelia supposed she couldn’t blame him. He was really the only option as to who the father could be, and he had to realize that.
She wasn’t sure how she wanted him to take the news. She wasn’t even sure how she was taking the news yet.
“You…” he paused, looking dissatisfied with himself for a moment. “Are you alright?” he settled on eventually. “You are not…sick or anything like that?”
“Not to my knowledge,” she replied, rubbing the back of her neck with one hand before she scratched her fingers through her hair. “I mean, there’s been a lot of puking—you’ve probably noticed—but I think that’s pretty standard pregnancy stuff.”
“I was worried,” he admitted softly. “You were getting sick so often.”
“Surprise,” she offered, her voice a singsong, and she threw in some half-hearted jazz hands for effect.
They lapsed into silence after that, both of them lost in their own thoughts. Eventually, Aibek asked quietly, “Do you know what you will name it? I know you do not know much about it, but are there any names you are particularly attached to?”
Amelia didn’t answer at first, staring blankly at a wall. Naming the not-yet-existent kid, even just hypothetically, made it all seem too real. Too present and immediate. She didn’t want to deal with it yet. She didn’t want to acknowledge it yet.
She supposed she could have just kept quiet. She doubted Aibek would have argued with her about it, and she doubted he would try to poke or prod. He would let the topic drop. Knowing that, she couldn’t quite bring herself to just go mute.
“I like the name Jason for a boy,” she eventually offered, her voice a low mumble. “And Kasey or Alexandra for a girl.”
“You could pick one as the middle name,” Aibek pointed out.
“I guess I could,” she agreed. “I guess I have it all figured out if it’s a girl, then.”
They lapsed into silence again, but it was a weight off of Amelia’s chest. Knowing why she had been getting sick and telling Aibek. It was a relief.
“Beka?” she wondered after a few moments, as she squirmed around on the bed until she got comfortable. “I think it’s time to go to sleep.”
In the darkness and facing partially away from him at that point, she could just barely make out the sight of him nodding his head. “That sounds like a good plan to me,” he agreed without argument. They were all so good at making things easy. She could get used to it far too readily.
*
“It could explain why the lions are so interested in you,” Aibek mused the next night after they both had time to adjust, sprawled on his belly on his bed, his arms folded on top of his pillow and his chin resting on top of them. “You said Darius seemed a lot more interested in you once he realized you were a king cheetah. Considering cross-shifter pregnancies are only ever mentioned along with very rare shifters, it could be that king cheetahs are capable of it and he recognized as much.”
“I guess?” Amelia sighed, spread out on her back with her head resting on his back. “I’m still not sure why it’s apparently imperative that he have my babies, though.”
“Shifters are not actually common,” Aibek reminded her, as if she could have forgotten. “But lions have large families. Every lion on this mountain right now is likely his sibling or cousin. So if he wants any chance of having his own kids…”
“Then he needs to make a go at any potential breeding partner he finds,” Amelia acknowledged with a huff. “You’d think it would be faster if he just went in search of another eligible shifter, rather than waiting around on the mountain.”
Aibek scoffed. “He tried to capture you and came back to stalk you. Does he strike you as the type to give up easily when it would mean wounded pride?”
Still, she was baffled. “And the others are just…going along with it. They’re all cool with dying for his ruffled feathers.”
“Lions are not like cheetahs or snow leopards or other cat shifters,” Aibek replied, his words slow as he searched for a way to explain it. “They are inherently social, with a set leader. Whoever leads them may change—Darius likely took charge from his father, and he has likely had to fight brothers or cousins for the role—but there is still a leader who is followed without much question.”
“That’s creepy,” Amelia informed him, wrinkling her nose.
“A bit,” he agreed. “But such is the way of a pride of lions.”
Huffing, Amelia agreed, “Yeah, I get it. I would appreciate it a lot more if I didn’t have to understand it, though.”
Aibek made a low, sympathetic noise, but the conversation dwindled to a halt. Neither of them were asking the big questions or bringing up the important conversation topics. They weren’t talking about how it seemed likely that the baby would be born and raised without a father, considering how far apart from each other they lived.
Amelia knew they needed to talk about it. She needed to be an adult about it. They both needed to be adults about it. But she couldn’t bring herself to mention it. Not just then. She had time yet, after all. She could always ask him later.
*
Aibek jerked awake the next morning, the motion waking Amelia along with him. “Wha?” she wondered muzzily, blinking at him groggily. “What’s going on?” she asked, slightly more coherently. It was later than they usually slept, but Amelia found she liked sleeping more than ever lately.
“There is someone outside,” he stated, his voice low and frosty. He tossed the blanket away, tossed his legs over the side of the bed, and got to his feet. He moved over to the window, his feet padding soundlessly across the carpet, and peered out into the snow. Amelia joined him a moment later, leaning to look around him in time for him to point at a beige figure just barely visible, moving through the center of the cluster of structures. The form was large but not truly enormous, and the figure lacked an ostentatious, overly bushy mane. A lioness, then.
“What do you think she’s doing here?” Amelia asked, her voice quiet. “It looks like she’s all on her own.”
“Recon, perhaps?” Aibek suggested, his voice distracted. “Or she may have gotten impatient with the extended camping trip. I cannot do much more than guess, though.”
“Should we get the others?” Amelia wondered, though she was at a loss as to how they would do that without leaving Aibek’s room.
He didn’t answer immediately, watching the lioness stalk through the snow for a few moments, before he finally shook his head. “No,” he decided slowly. “There is only the one, but there is still too great a chance of someone getting hurt. We will deal with her a bit more…strategically.” He glanced at her. “I will need your help.”
Amelia perked up immediately, her expression brightening. “Of course,” she agreed without a second thought, eager for another opportunity to make herself useful and to do something other than lounge on a piece of furniture. “What do you need me to do?”
“You remember the emergency slope?” he asked, though most of his attention was still focused on the lioness outside in the snow. He glanced at Amelia enough to see her nod. “You will slip out and get her attention,” he explained. “The lions are here for you, so she should be eager to follow you.”
“And then I lead her up the emergency path?” Amelia guessed, already beginning to strip her sleepwear off.
“Right,” Aibek confirmed. “Lead her on a merry chase at first so I can slip up the path first, and then once you lead her up, the two of us will shove her right off the mountain.”
“Will that kill her?” Amelia wondered as she pulled her underwear down so she could step out of them.
“It very well might,” Aibek confirmed. “And even if it does not, she will at least need to go find somewhere to warm up before she can come hassle us again.” He looked at her again and belatedly began to strip his clothing off. “You are certainly eager.”
“Gotta stretch my legs,” she replied, shrugging easily, her palms raised to face the ceiling. “Are we good to go?” she asked as Aibek shucked his pants and boxers.
“As good to go as we are going to be,” he confirmed.
“Good. For luck, then.” Amelia leaned up on her toes and kissed him before she turned and made her way to the door. She opened it and transformed, trotting out onto the snow-coated porch. She hopped up and over the railing, onto the ground below. Instantly, the lioness was watching her.
Amelia cocked her head at the lioness before crouching low to the ground, as if she was nervous and had been caught unaware. She turned and began to trot away, laboring more in the snow than was strictly necessary.
Just as predicted, the lioness’ attention was locked on Amelia like a laser. She followed at a cautious distance, her ears alert and the end of her tail swaying through the air.
Amelia darted about the little village, even coming to the rocky slope downward at one point, before pausing at the top of it as if she couldn’t figure out how to climb down. Finally, she turned and loped across the snow toward the upward incline, and steadily, she began to climb. Her paws were cold and her ears were colder, but she could hear the lioness crunching through the snow behind her. At least, until she rounded the bend at the top of the incline.
Amelia leapt out of the way, and Aibek surged forward. His full weight slammed into the lioness’ side, and with a final roar, she went tumbling down the side of the mountain. Cautiously, Amelia peered down after her. When she looked over her shoulder, Aibek had transformed again, crouched on his toes in the snow. He reached out to drag his fingers over the top of Amelia’s head, and then pointed back down the slope. “Head back to warm up. Send whichever sibling you run into first out to come investigate with me.”
Amelia nodded her head once, and as she turned away, Aibek transformed back into a snow leopard and sat down to wait. Amelia bolted down the incline, her legs stretched out beneath her until it felt like she was flying, and she came to a halt in the miniature village so abruptly that she tumbled down to the snow and rolled. She popped back up a moment later, shook herself from nose to tail to shake off the snow, and loped over to the main structure. She only had to bonk her head against the door twice before someone opened it.
Sezim blinked down at her and stepped out of the way to let her in. She waited until Amelia was sitting in front of the fire before tossing a blanket over her. Thus covered, Amelia transformed, drawing the blanket closer and basking in the warmth.
“Beka’s at the top of the emergency trail,” she explained, shifting on the rug to get comfortable. “He needs some help to investigate a possible lion death.”
“Oh!” Sezim exclaimed, like she was being handed a birthday present. “Okay!”
Amelia flopped over sideways on the rug, pulled the blanket snug around herself, and rolled to face the fire. Behind her, she could hear Sezim rustling around, and soon enough, the door opened and closed once again.
It seemed like a good time for a nap, Amelia decided. As a courtesy, she transformed again so no one would unexpectedly walk in on her naked in the middle of the den. She folded her legs beneath herself and curled her tail close before she closed her eyes.
*
Sezim frisked her way up the slope, bounding on large paws over the snow. She stumbled to a halt just before she could run into Aibek, still crouched at the top of the incline. She bonked the top of her head against his cheek before she circled away to a reasonable distance. Aibek batted lightly at the top of her head before he heaved himself to his feet.
Carefully, Aibek led the way down the mountain, padding carefully downward until the scent of blood was stronger in the air, and he burst into an easy, ground-eating lope.
Sezim bounded ahead of him as soon as she spotted a glimpse of beige fur, sprinting down the mountain until she stumbled to a halt beside the heap that had once been a lioness.
Her neck and one of her legs were twisted at odd angles, and blood was staining and melting the stone beneath her face. The fall may not have killed her, but the sudden stop at the end of it had most certainly not been kind.
For a moment, Sezim and Aibek sniffed and prodded at the body, just to make sure as much as they could that she was entirely dead and wasn’t going to suddenly leap back up and have another go at them. There was no movement from the lioness, though, and already, she was getting cold. Thus assured, they dragged her away to get the body out of the way as best they could, before it was too rigid to move it at all.
From there, they made their way home. It was a leisurely trek. They were nowhere near the lion camps, and it was nice to just not have to panic for a moment. It almost felt like they had a chance to relax for a little while.
Once they had clambered onto the porch of the main structure, Aibek sat back on his haunches and lifted a front paw, heaving his weight against the knob until he could shoulder open the door.
The den was empty, save for Amelia napping beneath a blanket in front of the fire. Sezim glanced around briefly but didn’t linger before deciding to return to her own room with Serik.
*
When Amelia woke up, she was not alone. Though she was still beneath the blanket, someone else was behind her, curled up on top of the excess blanket. Slowly, she lifted her head and turned to look.
Her chest felt warm as her eyes landed on Aibek, curled up on his side with his back against hers. He had one paw draped over his muzzle, and the end of his tail twitched placidly back and forth every so often.
It was a good way to wake up, even at a slightly inopportune hour. It was dark outside the window. She hadn’t meant to sleep for quite so long.
Twisting beneath the blanket, she leaned over to prod her muzzle against Aibek’s head until he stirred. And then she continued poking at him until it seemed like he would stay awake for more than three seconds.
Finally, Amelia transformed, lying on her belly on the rug with her legs stretched out behind her and her arms folded beneath her so she was propped up on her elbows. “Well?” she asked, her head cocked to one side expectantly. “How did it turn out?”
Aibek transformed beside her, rolling onto his other side to face her before he squirmed his way under the blanket. “The lioness is dead,” he answered. “She did not survive the fall, and she was twisted into some pleasant geometric shapes on the way down.”
Amelia snorted out a laugh. “Well, that’s good to know. That brings us down to four lions, then?” she guessed. At Aibek’s nod, she sighed and flopped down flat on the rug, her arms folding tighter and her chin resting on them. “Well, I like those odds better than I did when there were nine.” She slid him a sidelong glance. “Do you think this will be over soon?”
“I think so, yes,” Aibek answered after a moment of thought. “They will have no choice. Personally, I think they will make a move sooner rather than later.”
“You think so?” Amelia mused, rolling onto her side to face him, one arm crooked beneath her head.
“They are running out of lions,” he pointed out. “Either they attack, they die, or they leave. That last one seems rather unlikely, given everything they have done up until now.”
Amelia hummed in acknowledgement but otherwise fell silent, until she groused unenthusiastically, “It just keeps on coming, doesn’t it?”
“It does,” he agreed mildly. “But we have all made it this far, and we will all make it through. None of us are the type to give up easily, at least I do not think you are.” He offered her a small, cheeky smile.
Scowling without any heat, Amelia punched his shoulder. “Of course I’m not,” she scoffed. “And of course we’re all going to make it through this. It would just be great if there wasn’t a ‘this’ to make it through.”
“Most people feel that way when there are problems, do they not?” he wondered, idly reaching out to push her hair back behind her ear. “Even so, I did get to meet you because of this, and I do not regret that.”
She smiled gently, though it wilted after a moment, and she cast a glance downward, in the general direction of her abdomen. “Even with…?”
His gaze followed hers, and for a few seconds he was quiet, before he decided firmly, “Even so, yes.”
Maybe it was good news after all.