Dhampirs of Sgiach

41. Kieran

For the past few weeks, Kage had been going out to feed three times a week and returning home later each night. The scent that covered him each time worried Kieran, a smell like sulfur, but Kage said he was fine. He had come home wobbly and giggling like he was drunk last night.

Kieran sighed as he turned onto the road that would take him to the lodge. His father had called and told him to meet him there. Altina had come to a decision, and Auron had mentioned something about a new place for Kieran and the other cheetahs to move to. Auron’s tone of voice had also been one Kieran knew not to argue with, even if he was now considered of the same rank as his father.

Echo sat in the passenger seat next to him, and Artem and Hikaru were in the back seat. Since Kage had come in late last night, and Mika was at the apartment with him.

“Kage says he’s fine,” Echo said as Kieran parked in front of the Lodge.

The parking lot had a few cars that Kieran didn’t recognize, and along with his parent's car, he noticed the car of the wolf pack Alpha. “I know he says he’s fine, but I know I smelled alcohol on him when he came home last night,” Kieran grumped.

“You can’t keep babying him like he’s a child,” Hikaru said as they got out of the truck. He made a push-away motion when Kieran growled at him.

“He’s right, Kieran. You can’t always be there for Kage. So far, he’s come home safe and sound,” Echo chimed in.

Artem dashed ahead and opened the door for everyone. “But he’s gotten home later each time and won’t tell anyone where he’s going,” he said. He looked worried as well.

“Yeah, but we all have to have faith in him,” Hikaru countered. “If he gets into trouble, we’ll be there.”

“Not if we don’t even know where the hell he’s going or who he is spending time with,” Kieran growled.

“You’re a Furian. Not even other Shadow Walkers can hide from you.”

Kieran grunted at that. He still hadn’t told anyone other than Kage that he was sick. Or that Dr. Sorcha had advised him to avoid using his magic. His last shifting lesson with his father had left him coughing for almost five minutes straight, and the mucus had been tinged pink.

The conference room had leaders from all of the local wereanimal groups, including what was left of the raccoons after their women had overturned the men. The local mayor of Exagora was there as well, and the meeting Auron had called for was to go over the local areas to find a place for Kieran and his cheetahs.

Kieran tried to object to his parents paying for the construction of not only a house for him but an entire housing community for the werecheetahs, but his mother had told him that his tiny apartment was no place to raise a baby. A baby he had been agonizing over since he got back from the Snow Shroud Mountains. He relented, and by the time he was freed from the meeting, he was sore, tired, hungry, and cranky.

The housing community would be built on the edge of the grasslands outside the established animal territories. Kieran’s home would be constructed first and would house not only him and his child but also Artem, Echo, and Kage. Hikaru and Mika had requested their own home, and both had already found jobs in the city.

If Altina chose to become his mate, she would join them there. Kieran had also found a law firm willing to hire her for last-will disputes. They had contacted her father in Mallum Sanguinem the previous week, and she had already been cut from the family as if she had never been born.

Kieran followed his father into the holding cells under the Lodge. Most days, they were empty. The Sleuth only kept prisoners for a short time. But two of the cells towards the back were occupied. Lacy was in one, pacing like a caged animal. Her belly had already begun to swell, and her last ultrasound had told them the baby was a boy.

Lacey glowered at the two men, but they ignored her as they stopped before Altina’s cell. She sat primly on the edge of her cot as she looked at them. Unconcerned that she was in a cell, possibly awaiting execution. Kieran found himself breathing her funnel cake scent in deeply.

“Have you made your decision?” Auron asked.

“Do I really have much choice?” Altina asked.

“If your father had taken you back, we would have pardoned you under the condition that your family never raised arms against us again. Unfortunately for you, your father felt you were expendable,” Auron said.

“Do I have to produce the fanger an heir?”

“You don’t even have to sleep in the same room with me past the two more times to complete the mating ritual,” Kieran said. He felt his fangs extend as he smiled and flashed them. “Mason is the Alpha Heir.”

“You’re going to make a fanger the Alpha Heir?” Altina sounded scandalized by that.

Auron glared at Kieran, but he ignored his father. “Mason will grow up a Lurah werecheetah.”

“What if I produce an heir?”

“They will be second in line. Just as I was third in line for the Sleuth.”

Altina looked at him thoughtfully for a time. “And where is this Mason?”

Kieran gestured to Lacy. “He’s the Luris that Martin wanted. Once he is born, Lacy will be executed for crimes against the Third Prince of the Blood Oak Sleuth, just as you will be if you decline. You will be killed if you accept and later betray me or my son.”

“Will binding a Sanguinai to myself and forming a unit of Telum grant me an execution as well?” Altina asked.

“Yes,” both Kieran and Auron answered together.

Altina sighed as she stood from the bed and walked to the bars. “I figured. Either death or marrying a fanger. Tough choice.”

“At least the second option, you know you’ll outlive me and only have to have s*x with me twice. Once I’m dead, you can leave and do whatever you want, as long as it doesn’t hurt my werecheetahs or our friends and allies,” Kieran stated. He ignored Lacy’s curious inquiries about the last.

“And if a child is born from those two times? May I take them with me?”

“Only if they renounce all claim to the position of Alpha in my Clan. If anything happens to Mason before he can either take the position or produce his own heir, they stay with the Clan.”

“Do I get out of this cage today if I agree?”

“As long as you don’t mind living in a tiny apartment until the house is done being built.”

“Will I get my own room?”

“In the house? Yes. You can sleep on the couch or my bed in the apartment. Your choice.”

Altina growled at him. “Why won’t you give the bed to me and sleep on the couch yourself?”

“It’s my bed, and you were going to enslave me,” Kieran pointed out dryly. “Besides, it’s large enough that we won’t have to touch each other. Unless we want to.” He added the last with an intentional leer at her.

“Fine,” she finally relented. “And don’t you dare leer at me again.”

“Then stop saying fanger or any other dhampir slur,” he countered as Auron unlocked the cell to let her out.

Altina glared at the werebear. “Didn’t you teach him any manners?”

“I did,” Auron responded. “It seems your father neglected to teach you any.”