"Boy," Triana said. "It's a boy. And she won't keep him away from you, Tarrin. Males don't get involved with raising cubs, but we don't deny them from seeing them either. Besides, Mist would walk through fire if you asked her to."
"Well, she doesn't have to do that," he said dismissively.
"Anyway, come down to breakfast, then we'll start on your lessons again. We're running out of time."
Downstairs, he felt very uncomfortable. They all stared at him. Rahnee just stared at him, Singer tried to stare but was trying to be discreet, and Shirazi had a slight smile on her face. They wouldn't say anything. All three of them just stared at him. He really didn't ever know what to say to them anyway. They were kin, his kind, but they were… strangers. He didn't fear them as he did humans, because they were his kind, but it didn't change the fact that he didn't know them. He never knew quite what to say in the face of Rahnee's blatant sexual interest, or Shirazi's predatory bent. Singer was a complete mystery to him. He was their kind, but then again… he wasn't. He was turned, had once been human, and that meant that his mindset and basic personality was somewhat different from theirs. His upbringing marked him as different, and it was a different set of morals and beliefs than theirs. Looking at them, he realized that that one fact made them treat him differently.
"Well, we heard what happened with Mist," Singer finally said. "That was sweet of you, cub."
"And you thought he was too weak," Rahnee snorted at Triana. "I think this means I have the right to court him now."
"Mist was a special case," Triana shot back at the sharp-featured Were-cat. "Besides, it's moot. Laren will be here with Shayle and Thean around noon. You can wait for him."
"Who are Shayle and Thean?" Tarrin asked.
"Shayle is my daughter," she replied. "I have five children, cub. Jesmind you know. There's also Shayle, the next oldest, Laren, my first son, Nikki, my youngest daughter, and you. Think of the others as step-siblings. Thean is another male, one of the older ones."
" Three males in one place?" Shirazi said in surprise. "That's not very common."
"How did you know they're coming?"
"I'm a Druid, cub," she said plainly. "You keep forgetting that. Thean has enough talent to be able to use the spells of sending. I got a message from him this morning."
"Oh," he said. "What are they like?"
"Shayle is rather mellow," Triana answered. "Laren is-"
"A disappointment," Rahnee said with a snort. "I've never met such a vain, self-centered-"
"He has a few faults, but he's still my son, Rahnee," Triana said in a cool voice, a voice that instantly cowed the sharp-featured Rahnee.
"You should have beaten that out of him as a cub, Triana," Shirazi said calmly.
"He picked that up after I set him loose," Triana grunted. "If he acted like he does now back when he was under my care, I would have killed him."
"I think it's just a form of rebellion, Triana," Singer said. "He's always felt a little overshadowed by you and his older sisters. I think it's just his way of getting attention."
"It better be," she said bluntly.
"Anyway, Thean is one of the older males. He can tell you all about your side of our society. He has alot of experience."
"I'll say," Rahnee said with mischief in her eyes.
"As you've seen, Tarrin, Rahnee has something of a one-track mind," Singer said with a wink.
"You keep your track, I'll keep mine," Rahnee shot back. "So I like males. Deal with it."
"Rahnee is the oversexed tart among us, Tarrin," Shirazi added, giving Rahnee a cherubic grin. Seeing humor out of Shirazi was something new.
"I'm no tart, and there's no such thing as oversexed," Rahnee huffed in reply.
"This from the Were-cat who wants to be human so she can be a prostitute," Singer teased.
"I can't think of a better way to make a living," Rahnee shrugged. If it was meant to be an insult, it had no effect on the blunt, daring Rahnee. She seemed to have little shame.
"Why don't both of you drop it," Triana said. "Tarrin isn't used to that from us yet."
"I can deal with it, mother," Tarrin said cooly, giving Rahnee a challenging stare. Jesmind had warned him about Were-cat females. He had a good idea that if he admitted they were embarassing him, they would just try harder. "At least that will be a problem I won't have."
"What problem?" Triana asked.
"Finding a date," he said, staring right at Rahnee. "You probably scare them off. You really should say hello before you start trying to undress them."
The other three laughed, but Rahnee's ears almost laid back, and she gave him a hostile look. "We're all adults here, cub," she finally managed to say. "This is what adults do. You'd better get used to it."
"Rahnee, you have the mentality of a human teenager in puberty," he told her. "You were supposed to outgrow the period where you think of nothing but what's under a man's trousers."
Shirazi laughed so hard she almost fell out of her chair.
Rahnee shot Shirazi a venemous look, but then her face turned calm. "Just wait til your wound heals, cub, and I'll show you why that's a good thing," she promised him. "No male forgets a night with Rahnee."
"Why? Because it was that good, or because some things are too horrible to forget?"
Shirazi fell over backwards with her chair. Her feet and tail were standing straight up, her toes flexing and the tip of her tail shuddering as she tried in vain to speak, but then just gave up. "I think… I broke… my tail!" she finally managed to wheeze.
"You better put your tail down, before Rahnee sees it and starts getting the wrong idea," Tarrin suggested lightly. That sent Shirazi back into gales of helpless laughter.
Rahnee gave him a withering look, standing up abruptly. "I don't have to sit here and stand for this," she declared in an indignant tone.
"I was so hoping that you'd stand here and sit for this instead," he replied with a steady gaze.
Rahnee stormed out in a seething fury, and that made Shirazi only laugh harder. Singer had her face on the table, on her paw, as the other pounded against the table as her shoulders heaved with mirth. Triana was even laughing, putting a paw on Tarrin's shoulder and patting it.
"That was masterful, cub," she said with another chuckle. "I haven't seen anyone dress Rahnee down like that in a while."
"At least… he wasn't… undressing her down!" Shirazi gasped from the floor.
"I hope she's not too mad," Tarrin grunted.
"She'll get over it," Triana promised. "She'll probably respect you for standing up to her like that."
"Rahnee likes them fiesty," Singer laughed.
"Don't worry, cub," Triana said, looking where Rahnee went. "She's not normal. Rahnee's mind is a bit one-sided."
"At least I think about other things," Shirazi grinned as she got her chair back in a standing position, then sat back down. She had her tail in her paws, rubbing a part of it delicately. "Rahnee goes around in a state of perpetual heat."
After a hearty breakfast that was probably too much food for him, Tarrin wandered away from the others. He hadn't really been in the inn, and he found out that it was very large, very elegant, and very empty. Triana had kicked everyone else out when she rented it, and there was only a very small complement of maids, cooks, and valets on hand. The inn was decorated with very expensive-looking art, and rare carpets from the mysterious lands east of Nyr, and china and vases from the masters of Telluria. Made by the Tellurians, bought and transported by the Wikuni, and sold wherever they made port. He worried about his Wikuni. Keritanima, alone on that ship, sailing back into the pits of the Abyss. Goddess only knew what was waiting for her there, but with Miranda to help her, and Binter, Sisska, and Azakar to protect her, Tarrin felt that she had a good chance of coming out of it in relatively good shape. She knew now that all she had to do was call, and that made him feel better. If she were in trouble, or she just needed to talk, she could reach out to him or Allia.