The Pride dispersed after the potential recruits’ departure, Daunte, to patrol with Jas, others to return to their tasks; he knew Tracy had a deadline looming over her, which made her hide in her office and scream at her computer screen every other day.

When he came back to the Pride House in the afternoon, a smile tugged on his lips as he took in the sleepy female bundled in on one of their largest sofas, not even pretending to watch TV.

“You’re okay?”

Clari lifted her head and bobbed her head, holding a hand in front of her mouth as she yawned.

“Yeah, just really tired.”

Of course she was. Cats always were.

He had so many things to tell her. I’m sorry. Don’t be afraid. You’ll be fine. I want you. He wasn’t sure she’d find much comfort in any of that.

“I have no excuse though. I slept like the dead for a good eight hours last night after all that Brandy. Do you think it’s that?” she asked, her hand flying to her throat.

The bite mark had been so shallow, made by the smallest of fangs, barely bigger than needles - it should already have practically disappeared. It hadn’t. In fact, the two puncture scars looked a little bigger than the wound had been. If it had been benign, they wouldn’t be there - Daunte tried to stay expressionless as he looked at the puncture marks.

“Maybe.”

If maybe meant, yep, definitely.

“You know, with everything going on, I don’t think anyone took the time to ask you how you felt about all that. Possibly becoming furry, you know.”

Clari surprised the shit out of him when she broke into a smile.

“Well, that very much depends what type of furry I turn into. I can deal with being a badass cute little munchkin like Ace.”

Daunte chuckled, trying to imagine his sister’s face if she’d heard that. The Alpha female loved Clari, but she might very well challenge her for the offense. She was just a little sensitive about the fact that she turned into a tiny little lynx-like cat, barely any bigger than a domestic cat.

“I can totally deal with being big and scary, or super fast. But if I turn into an overgrown sphinx submissive, I demand a redo.”

He smiled indulgently, shaking his head.

“I read up on it. You’ll turn into something similar to your maker - or a feline associated to his bloodline. That means, a Cross, or a Wayland. I don’t think either of our families is weird enough to produce anything close to a sphinx. As for the submissive thing, that won’t be determined by your change. You’ll stay you. If you’re a submissive now, you’ll stay submissive.”

She lit up at that.

“Ace thinks I’m very dominant. Unless she was just being nice.”

She grimaced at the thought, and he wouldn’t have that.

“She wasn’t. Ace doesn’t see being submissive as a flaw - none of us do. Do you think we’ll think about any of our children as defective, if they grew up without the will to throw their dominance about? There’s a certain balance in the world, thanks to submissives. Without them to keep the peace, to be the voice of reason, and to give us a reason why we shouldn’t jump into a fight and leave them defenseless, we’d constantly be at war.”

Clari seemed to think it through, and nodded.

“I see your point. And yet, your Pride is full of dominants - everyone except Christine, right? And she just seems to stay to either take care of the kids or cook and tidy up. She doesn’t seem to mind, and there’s nothing wrong with that, but it’s not me. And when you opened up new places, you only called for fighters.”

He saw how she could have jumped to that conclusion, with a limited understanding about shifters.

“There’s eight children in our Pride, and just ten adults. That’s nine members we need to take care of, and nine members trained to fight,” he explained. “We’re balanced. As for the try out, today, Rye only called to the fighters, yes. Because, for one, it makes sense to measure them against their peer. But soon, we’ll also be seeing the non-fighters. I looked through the applications, and amongst the ten people we’ve selected for that round, three of them are dominant. They can take care of themselves, but then again, all of us can. Including the children. Including Christine. Try to pinch some food off of her before she sets the table, you’ll see what I mean. Her submissive status just means her first instinct isn’t to jump at someone’s throat.”

He could tell he’d given Clari a fair bit to think of; there was a cute little wrinkle between her eyes. Daunte had a hard time resisting the urge to drop his lips on it.

“Fair enough,” she conceded. “I guess it wouldn’t be so bad, then.”

As she’d come to respect both positions, he decided to put her out of her misery.

“Good. But Ace was right, you’re dominant.”

Humans, like every other mammal out there, could exude dominant vibes - they just couldn’t feel them on a conscious level. He’d felt Clari’s just fine, each time he’d been an ass and ignored her. She hadn’t liked it, and her glare had been accompanied by distinctive pushes of her potent power, clearly stating, “try to piss me off any more, just try it.”

And yes. That had made him so fucking hard. Each time. She had no idea how much self restraint he’d needed to exert to give the impression of indifference.

She shot him that smile, the one she reserved to those who’d earned it, the one he’d fucking hated, because it was never directed toward him. Her chocolate eyes shone, brightening the entire room.

“Tell me more,” she asked, and he did.

He told her about the various ranks in Prides, the authorities in place amongst the shifters, the systems humans had to keep them at bay; he even spoke of the time before either of them were born, when the sups had emerged out of nowhere - as far as humans knew, in any case.

Clari knew of the dark days - the Age of Blood - but she’d heard about it in a human perspective.

Vampires had been the first to come out. Some said they’d been selfish to reveal themselves that way without consulting other races, but Daunte wondered if they’d done it because they were some of the strongest creatures out there; they’d done it so that the entire paranormal community could have a chance to exist in harmony with humans.

Of course, it hadn’t been all flowers and rainbows. At first, humans chose to attack - and they lost, almost overnight. Vampires ruled the lands, for a time, and slowly, other sups revealed themselves; shifters were amongst the first.

The reign of vampires only lasted three decades; they earned a peace amongst witches, humans and their kind, and swore to leave the rule of the world to mortals, as long as each race had a say.

“Technically, we’re still under an oath. If humans take it too far, or if witches try to rule us, there’s a good chance that the vampires will come back. Our dad fought in New York during the Age of Blood, and he says that’s why he couldn’t bring himself to shift back for a time. There are memories haunting him; vampires aren’t evil, but they are cold, and the world was a dreadful place during their time.”

Clari nodded.

“My aunt and uncle won’t speak of it. They were young, and lived in the country at the time, so they can’t have dealt with the witch war, like your dad, but they still refuse to tell us about it.”

Daunte could imagine why.

Catching something that seemed odd, he asked, “Your aunt and uncle? How about your parents?”

She smiled. “First of all, this is not a pity party. I had an awesome upbringing.”

Basically, that was the gracious way any pity party started, but he let it slide.

“My mother got pregnant with me during her summer break after high school. She’d just got a scholarship to Yale, full ride, and no one wanted her to miss out. She refused to have an abortion, though, so, she gave birth to me and her older sister took me in. The deal was, she was going to earn her degree and come back, but she’s smart. After her bachelor, she got a master, and a PhD, after that. Then, she got a very important job in a lab - we’re talking, super secret, and seventy hours a week. So, I stayed with my aunt and her husband, who were awesome. My mother visits on holidays, and she’s fun. She gives the best presents, and tries to force an allowance on me. Without success, I might add. But yeah, I guess she isn’t exactly my mother.”

He nodded, seeing that while there might be some pain and resentment lingering underneath the facade, she’d been right. It wasn’t a pity party at all.

“I get it. My mother raised Ace; they might not share blood, but she’s her mom. Like your aunt is for you. And we haven’t given birth to our kids, but they’re ours. I may just be Zachary’s uncle, but he’s mine too. Prides aren’t blood, but they’re family.”

She smiled sleepily, and yawned again.

“I’m keeping you up. You rest,” he said. “Tomorrow will be a long day.”

She didn’t question it, thankfully. He didn’t want to have to tell her what he knew. What he smelled. What he saw in her eyes as they flashed red.

Tomorrow, she was going to shift.