Chapter One
“There are some things that you never forget, no matter how old you become.” Gwini tugged
the brush slowly through Mira’s black-tipped mane. “I just wish you could understand how
important this is. It would make matters so much simpler if you submitted to your fate
instead of complaining about it.”
“I don’t want a mate—not yet.” Mira scowled at the reflection, wincing when the brush
caught in a tangle of tawny hair. How it ended up in such a mess she would never know.
Unlike Gwini who always appeared to be perfectly groomed, Mira had resigned herself to
always looking as though she had just been dragged through a bush backwards and then
tossed in the nearest pool. With lush fur and ink dipped tips she could have been as
beautiful as her sibling if she ever managed to find a way to comb her mane into some form
of co-operative state. “I’m not ready to settle down with a mate and children.”
Great creator, children! As if anyone who knew her could ever foresee her as a mother.
Please. A wild thing would have taken better care of cubs than she ever could. Out of all
of the Tygra’s in the settlement, she was the last one any in their right mind would ask
to cub sit.
Trees. Climbing rocks. Exploring to the very edge of the perimeter just to see what new
delights lay beyond the safe confines of their home. Those were the joys of her life, not
younglings.
“What you want and what your body is ready for are two different things.” Gwini threw the
brush down on the bed. “I felt the same way when it was my turn to enter the forest for
the hunt, but it worked out. These past few years with Jyrn have been some of the happiest
I have ever known.”
Mira’s lip curled in a deeper scowl, her sharp canines exposed. Jyrn. If any male had
deserved to be removed from the mate hunt it was that weak willed excuse for a Tygra. She
had never known one like him. No matter what her sister wanted Jyrn backed down and let
her have it. So much for the hunt being a way to find the strongest, most compatible mate.
If that had been the plan, it had failed miserably with him.
She had never even heard him growl, not in the three years since he had been claimed as
Gwini’s mate.
“I know you don’t think much of him,” her sister said as if reading Mira’s mind.
“Gwini, that skinny male of yours jumps at shadows. How can you expect him to help you
protect your young, when you have them, if he can’t even stand up for himself against the
local rogues?” Mira nodded toward the window. “I’ve stood there and watched as those
un-mated males do everything shy of tweaking his ears, and he’s let them. How can you
stand it?”
“Some males are made for fighting and others are more the intellectual type. Let’s be
honest, I have quite enough of the hunting instincts in our bond to make up for his lack.”
Mira frowned, running one set of long claws through her fire touched mane.
“Besides I don’t know why you have a problem with him,” Gwini said. “He’s my mate, not
yours.”
Mira turned, giving her sibling a long, hard look. Gwini could have had her pick of the
males. With her soft golden red fur, the long mane of hair that curled down to her waist
and deep sapphire eyes, she attracted the attention of any male with a pulse when she
walked through the settlement. Like all of their kind her body fur was short and silky,
covering Gwini’s skin like a wrapping of velvet revealing the sleek well-formed figure
beneath. She could hunt, stalk, wrestle and still had all the protective qualities needed
in a good mother, so when she had paired up with the settlement book worm it had been the
shock of the year.
“It’s just as well that one of you can fight, or he’d have lost you to a challenge within
a few days of the mating taking place.” Mira tugged one set of claws across the bedding,
her tail snapping through the air in angry twitches. “There’s no way he could have
defended you, and the rogues know it. They even come after me now because of him.”
Un-mated males.
They could be a problem, more so when there weren’t enough females around to sport with.
Not that they ever got as far as mating—the rough and tumbles at least kept them partially
under control until the time of the hunt.
When they entered the forest the rules changed.
The forest changed everything.
It lay beyond the walls of the settlement. Wild, untamed, filled with dangers —or so the
keepers of the lore told them. Beasts that were not seen anywhere else lived among the
tall trees and large plants. Creatures that would hunt and kill a Tygra if they had even
half the chance; and that place, with all its dangers was where the young of the colony
became adults at last.
Even in all of her daring explorations at the edge of the colony Mira had never dared to
break the rules concerning the forest. That was the one place she had no desire to enter.
“They’d be coming after you now no matter who I was mated to. They’re nothing but walking
hormones, and you know it. All bluster and no bite. As for why they are coming after you,
it’s because they can smell you. You’re pheromones have kicked into gear; that’s why your
name has been pulled out for the hunt this time.” Gwini smiled, shrugging off the
complaints. “You’re more than capable of keeping them under control. I’ve taught you how
to fight, so did our mother. If you have a problem with the rogues and you don’t think you
can handle it, cry out for help. They know they are not allowed to force you outside of
the hunt.”
“And that’s another reason I don’t want to enter that damn thing.” No bite, not yet at
least. During the hunt their bites would be all too real, and their claws unsheathed ready
to defend their chosen mates from any male that came too close.
Why would she need one of those damn rogues to defend her?
Gwini was right, she could take care of herself and did not need a mate for that. Well,
most of the time she could. When it was one on one, or two on one. More than that and she
tended to err on the side of caution by avoiding the rogue pack completely. Besides, most
of the trouble came from the rogues themselves, and not from other sources.
“Ah, you want to pick your own mate, without answering to the call in your blood? Silly
cub. Don’t you know it was that sort of foolishness that almost destroyed our people
generations ago? If we forget what we are and turn our backs on our heritage, our nature,
we will be no better than those who caused the first of the upheavals.”
Cub, she had not been a cub in years. Just what was so wrong with the idea of her
choosing her own mate without taking part in the hunt? Did they really think that the
world would end if she stepped outside the traditions that chafed at her very soul?
Nonsense, complete and utter nonsense. There was no way that things were going to tumble
into the abyss just because one female refused to enter the hunt.
“That’s just legend,” Mira said “Foolish tales told to youngsters so they won’t question
why the hunt still takes place.”
“Not according to our historians. There are records of this, ones kept in the parliament
building.”
“Have you ever seen them? Do they actually exist, or are they just another way of keeping
us all under control?” Mira demanded, fixing a harsh gaze on her sister. “I mean has
anyone ever seen them?”
“Jyrn has.”
Mira blinked, opening her mouth to speak only to find she lacked the words. Jyrn had seen
documents that were that important? Why would anyone trust such a weak male with that type
of information? The wrong look from a rogue and he would spill his guts in order to save
his own life.
What a waste.
“Are you sure that he’s seen them and he’s not trying to make himself seem more
important?”
“Are you accusing my mate of lying to me” Gwini snarled as the hair on the back of her
neck rose, and her tail snapped through the air.
“No, I’m not. I was just thinking aloud.” Gwini should have been paired with a strong,
alpha rogue. One that would father healthy cubs, provide for her when she was nursing and
not rely on her to be the hunter of the family. Just what had happened in the forest to
make her choose Jyrn no one knew except Gwini and her mate, and neither of them was
willing to discuss it.
“I don’t want to ever hear you put my mate down again, is that understood?” Gwini’s gaze
narrowed on her younger sister. “He may not be the type of mate you would have wanted to
see me with, but that doesn’t change the fact that he and I are life mated. I expect to
hear you speaking more respectfully about him in future. Is that clear?”
“Yes,” Mira whimpered, backing down. The last thing she needed right now was to end up in
a tussle with Gwini.
Slowly the tension eased from Gwini’s body, the violent snaps of her tail turning into a
slow snaking through the air until the last of the anger vanished from her brilliant eyes.
“Now sit down and think this through. We’re Tygra’s, our entire species are hunters. Can’t
you accept it? This is how we were designed. We have this drive to find the right mate and
have children. Even with the boundaries secure, we know that our world could go through
another upheaval at any time and we will be right back were we started, struggling through
the rubble trying to rebuild.”
“Designed by the mythical elders. Those wonderful beings who raised our people up from
their low status, invested us with the ability to walk on hind legs, speech and the
written word.” Mira grumbled as she curled up on the bed, reciting the litany she had been
taught as a cub. Bad enough that she had been brought up by Gwini over Jyrn, now she had
to sit through a lecture. “They left the planet a millennium ago. No one even knows if
they ever existed beyond the few bones scattered here and there. Another set of cub
tales.”
“You know better than that.” Her sister reached out, cuffing her quickly behind the ear.
“I should wash your mouth out with soap and water for disrespecting our creators like
that. I’m not sure what’s gotten into you of late, you never used to be like this.”
Mira grimaced. Soap was a horrible creation. Trying to clean it from her fur took
forever, and the taste was disgusting. Just why Tygra’s ever used the stuff was beyond
her. It was hard enough to get a Tygra to step a washing pool. And why would they when
they could relax and groom each other?
A wet Tygra could be a miserable looking sight.
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