From inside a tight closet with two young shifters, Bree looks out at a fiery red haired fox shifter with dark green eyes, abundant curves, and wearing a short light brown leather dress. Her pointed claws are painted red and her fox ears and tail are exposed.
"Just give me the silly little bunny girl and I'll let you become one of my mates. What would a big strong battle scarred wolf shifter want with a little bunny shifter anyway? Is she your little snack?"
"Why are you here, Sasha?"
The fox female skims her finger along Byron's jaw and then licks the tip of her finger, "tasty."
Then after walking around him and looking him up and down, she stands back in front of him. "I can smell her, I can smell the path she took through the woods, I can smell her scent in this house, I can smell her scent on you, and I can smell you're scent, the scent of a mated male shifter. A male that I have had my eyes on was snatched up by a little prey shifter. Now why would a mighty wolf shifted who knows he has my interest agree to be mated to a lowly bunny shifter? The only answers I can come up with is either she played a trick to capture him or he's intending for me to kill her in a fun little game before he becomes mine."
Byron slaps her hand away as she reaches out to him, "I'm not interested in you and I never have been. There are no games between us, I'm not trying to catch your attention, play hard to get, or any of the other nonsensical things you've accused me of previously."
"Be careful of what you say, you don't want me to take your rejection seriously. I don't take kindly to my things being stolen from me, if I want something and can't have it, I certainly won't allow others to have it. You have until the end of the week to give up the girl and become my mate, otherwise I will bring out the entire village to capture her and burn down your house as a traitor. I'm sure that the village would thank me while excommunicating you and selling your daughters, you could feel proud that they would sell for such a high price, well at least your one daughter would, your other daughter is just a filthy fruit bat shifter. She's practically a winged mouse.
"You will not talk about my daughters in that manner or Bree and you will walk out of my house before I pick you up and throw you out," says Byron.
"Temper, temper. You know it's forbidden for you to touch a female in any way that she doesn't allow. Luckily for you, I like a bit of rough play," she whispers
"I miss my old clan, the males there had a lot more spirit, but you, you've been in how many wars now? That little female you used to have was quite the trouble maker, wasn't she? I hear that she's been stirring up more trouble. She always did thrive in an environment of discord and conspicuous attention. Imagine exposing her muse marking at a Lord's dinner party, the whole affair turned into a blood bath. I wasn't there to witness it, but my cousin was and luckily made it out relatively unharmed. Did you know? I'm sure you didn't being cooped up in this tiny shed, isolated from anyone of importance. Imagine my surprise when I discovered my old flame hiding in this backwater village, in the middle of the woods no less. Really, you belong in the city, on my arm. A war hero has no business being out here, it's such a shame. I'll see you at the end of the week," she says while trying to seductively walk out the door.
Byron closes the door and leans against it while breathing heavily and unconsciously digging his claws deep into the front door. His ears, tail, fangs, and claws are exposed due to his high state of emotions.
The closet door creeks open and out tumble three snoops who look up at him with guilt written on their faces.
Byron looks down at his loved ones while frowning in thought, "You two, grab your sister and Glen, I want you to secure down everything that's breakable and collect all of your belongings outside that you want to take with us, we're leaving."
"Yes father," says Noor.
"But what about the girls in town, I was gonna show off my Mom!"
"There won't be a Mom to show off if we don't leave," says Byron.
"They want to take away my Mom?! Those bad Mom thieves! Just because something's good doesn't mean they can steal it! Who says I'll let them steal it?! I'll go grab Uncle Glen right now and we'll just see if they can steal my Mom! We'll see right now! Uncle Glen will pound them into paste! We'll see just who will be able to take her away after they've become paste!"
"Alright, calm down. Go do as I said. Your Uncle is good, but there's no reason for us to kill off an entire village if we can avoid it," says Byron.
"Well that's no fun, bad shifters are bad, there's no reason to keep around things that are rotten. But I am a good girl, so I'll listen to what you say. Even if I don't think that garbage should be collected and saved," says Midori.
Midori and Noor quickly walked off to do what they were told while Byron looked at Bree with a serious face. "Is there anything that you need to do in this area before we leave?"
"We're leaving? Were are we going and how will we leave? Aren't the woods full of scouts these days and aren't the trails leaving the village being patrolled by the villagers?"
"It's much easier to see than for me to explain and easier to believe once you've already seen. Just know that we will be leaving soon. So again, is there anything that you have left to do before we leave?"
Bree thinks for a moment while debating in her heart and weighing the risks, but she really doesn't want to give up on a certain little kitty cat with tearful and adorable eyes.
"There is one little thing, a certain cute kitty promised himself to me and I agreed to take him in as a mate I want to at least leave a my mark on him before we leave," said Bree.
Byron frowned while thinking about all of the different beastmen in the village. "Do you know his name?"
"He told me that his name is Sam."
"That does make things a bit complicated. It's well known in the village that Vera has her eyes on Sam and has claimed him as her future mate. All of the other females have assumed that Sam will belong to Vera in the future and so none other females have ever approached him. You said the two of you have an arrangement? Most young males won't disregard a female pursuing them and trying to claim them, since it's so difficult to get a mate at all. Unless they happen to be a male that is highly sought after or a male who is focused on improving his strength and had no interest in finding a female. What is your arrangement with Sam?"
"Sam said that he wants to be with me and asked if he could be my mate. Since you're my mate now, I suppose it's safe to tell you that he was planning on helping me escape from that oversized bird cage that that awful village shoved me into. Speaking of which, why would you guard a poor innocent girl to stay in a cage so that she can be abused by an entire village? What kind of male does that?" Said Bree.
"I'm a mercenary, I'm a wondering, rejected, and scarred beastman and in some instances I'm not much better than a rogue. The only difference is that the things I do are for the benefit of the cubs that I've adopted and not for my own selfish reasons. I'm not actually a member of this village, so I don't get the protection of the village or any of the benefits of being a member. I get paid to do things that I'm not always proud of, but I do them because my jobs pay well enough that my cubs are well provided for regardless of not having more hands to assist me. I could either keep my pride or provide for my cubs, I can't do both. And finding a female that won't abuse my cubs isn't an easy thing to accomplish because most females don't want some other females cubs in their home den. Unlike a female centered family with many males to help out, it has been just me and Glen and Glen just stuck around because he felt like it and had no where else that he needed to go. He could leave at any time."
"Things must have been hard on you after your mate left and you adopted your friends cubs," said Bree.
"It's really not a good excuse though. At least I don't want it to be anymore. I'm sure that with time our family will grow and with the extra hands, I'll be much more selective of the jobs that I pick up. I don't want to do anything that will tarnish your reputation or disappoint you in any way. If you want, I can send Glen and Noor into the village to discreetly contact Sam while they load up on supplies," said Byron.
"Thank you, I'd appreciate that. It does seem pretty strange to have my new mate send a message to another male that I'm planning to make my mate though."
"It isn't strang at all. It's a male's honor to be chosen as a female's mate and have a female that's desired by others. That is, as long as the male in question is a worthy male and not one who will treat their female poorly, not contribute to the family, dishonor their female, harm the family in any way, or bring disharmony to the family. If such a thing happens, I absolutely would object. I'm sure there are other males who feel differently, but I've been in a mated family unit before. Sam's a good male and an excellent healer, which will be a wonderful addition to our family."
Bree could feel her face heating up as this conversation progressed. She remembered parts of her previous life, ok. Having her man encourage her to pick up another man was embarrassing her to no end.
"Alright then, I'll just pack up my things and make..."
"Actually, there's no reason to pack anything up, just make sure that anything breakable is secured down. Go find the girls, they'll give you a hand," said Byron.