Chapter 10: A Warrior's Lonely Path
Phil and Susan couldn't help but chuckle at the late night noises coming from her sister's bedroom down the hallway. There were snarls and growls, so loud that he was worried that it might wake his sleeping daughters. Finally there was a female's sigh and quiet returned to the duplex. Phil whispered into the ear of the grinning hyena lying next to him, "I told him to give her a good rutting and he did! If he doesn't get his ear notched after that, I don't know what else he can do?"
They waited in the dark and listened, he felt her pull his head onto her chest. Finally she whispered back, "Well she didn't run to the bathroom to pee his seed out, so she was serious about breeding after all."
Phil almost jumped as her paw tenderly rubbed the fur on his chest, because she had never done that before. He reflected that since she had given birth, she was more caring to him and she wanted him around her, even more than before. Being hyenas, they wouldn't admit that they loved each other. His species was promiscuous, with the males being selected for sexual favors by the larger and stronger females. It was a maternal society and the females were in charge, but they still were evolved animals and the longing for companionship from a favorite of the opposite gender was still there.
He actually tensed up as her paw moved down his chest and towards his waist. Feeling his reaction, she whispered, "It's been over six weeks since our daughters were born and the clinic nurse said I can have some sex, I'm just to take it easy."
He grunted as she pushed him onto his back and licked his muzzle and the side of his throat. He was aroused, swollen, and erect as he pressed himself against her long clitoris, which too had an erection of sorts. As she lowered her muzzle to lick him again, he took a chance and kissed her instead. She quickly pulled back and growled, "What the hell are you doing?"
"I've never kissed anyone before," he mumbled in an apologetic voice, almost a whimper. "You know, like the other mammals do?"
She rolled off him and sighed, "We're hyenas, not like the others. It's not our way, you know that!"
Instead of backing off he snapped back, "Why can't we change? I want to do things new and different. How can a kiss be that bad?"
"Fine, you want a dammed kiss!" she snarled and tossed him back onto the pillow. She lowered her muzzle and after an awkward moment, their muzzles met again. Her tongue entered his mouth and she became more passionate. His paws moved to her breasts and she moaned as he gently squeezed her tits, "We did something new, now I want you inside me the old way," she said as she turned to let him mount her.
Afterwards, he laid exhausted in her arms as she licked his ear. "Okay, so a kiss wasn't that bad." She whispered into his ear. "Now I'm going to pee. You had better not have made me pregnant again!"
He rolled onto his stomach and smiled as he watched her leave the room.
Early the next morning Phil went back to his apartment and dressed into his field uniform before he down the alpha's house. Old Ben greeted him at the door. "Have you had breakfast yet?" the elderly hyena asked. When the younger hyena shook his head no, he added. "We're around back on the patio, so go ahead and I'll get you a plate."
As he walked out onto the patio, he saw Margett sitting at the table reading a newspaper and sipping her coffee. She was dressed in slacks and an old faded tan uniform shirt, which matched the one that Ben was wearing. "Don't kneel!" she snapped at him as he began to lower himself down. "When you are in uniform, you are a warrior. Warriors only kneel to kings or queens as it is our right to stand before all others. But when you are out of uniform, I expect you to respectfully kneel."
Ben had come out of the house balancing three plates heaping with scrambled eggs, grilled fish, and melon. Setting the plates on the table, he stood back and nodded. "That's the closest to a kneel you getting from me this morning, I 'm still hurting from last night! I'm too old for all this up and down, traditions or not." he grumbled.
"While you're up, refill my coffee and get a cup for the officer!" Margett snapped.
"I'm your Shield Bearer, not an orderly," he complained as he took her cup back into the kitchen.
Hesitantly Phil approached a seat to the alpha's left, but the elderly hyena shook her head. "That's Ben's seat, he always sits to my left by tradition. A Shield Bearer always stands to the left, to protect a warrior's exposed flank."
"Sorry," Phil said as he sat down on her right side. "I was expecting the others to be here this morning."
"They'll be here in an hour or so, "she said. " I wanted time to talk to you about your place in the clan, because you're one of a few males who were ever warriors. Ben was a police officer too, but he is my Shield Bearer and not a warrior." Phil was surprised when she lovingly put her paw on the returning older male's arm. "A bond between a warrior and her Shield Bearer is unique, almost like a marriage. He is the father of eight of my ten children."
"I can tell you it was no fun sleeping in the hallway while you rutted other males," Ben grumbled.
"You keep whining like a dog and I might decide to take Phil into my bed tonight," she chuckled.
"Well you two can rut right next to me," Ben laughed. "I'm too old to sleep on a pallet in the hallway."
Phil was shocked when the elderly hyena leaned over and actually kissed the male's cheek. "Shut up and eat your breakfast dear," she chuckled. Turning back to Phil, she continued, "Being a male you can't have a Shield Bearer and as a warrior, you can never become Susan's either. But I've seen the way you look at her, you love her."
Phil looked down at his plate, "Then what you're saying is I can never bond with Susan as long as I am a police officer?"
"By tradition, no," Margett sighed. "But Susan is not a warrior, so she can never have a Shield Bearer anyways."
"Too complicated!" Ben grumbled. "That's why we're never going back to the homeland. Too many traditions, too many do's and don'ts. We need to change some of our ways or otherwise we will always be outsiders."
"Not your place dear," Margett snapped. There was a hint of steel in her voice and Ben's ears went flat.
"Coffee," he abruptly said and stood. Picking up her cup, he ambled towards the kitchen. Phil could hear his angry muttering, "I'm just a male…not my place…damn!"
"So what are you telling me?" Phil asked.
"Did you know my mother was not a warrior, but a farmer?" Margett said and to the younger hyena, it seemed that she was avoiding an answer. "I have six brothers and sisters, all with the same father. My mother took others to her bed when she was younger, but only bred with my father. When he died, she carried him to his grave and never took another to her bed. Love among us hyenas can be strange, but it does exist and always by has. Maybe we understand that no mammal can or should ever own another, but if we truly love each other then we should just enjoy the times we are together."
"So my life is set to go where I'm told, to wait to be summoned by any female who wants me?" the younger hyena sighed. "At work I 'm an equal and at home, I'm less because I was born a male."
"That's our lot in life buddy," Ben said as he handed Margett her coffee cup. "To always be second class citizens."
"You're over dramatic dear," Margett sighed.
"No I'm not!" the elderly hyena snapped. "I was thirty before I was allowed to vote in the homeland and that was only because of the lions changed the laws, not any hyenas. That's why I'll never return there! At least here in this city by law I'm an equal and I only stay here by your side because I swore an oath to you as your Shield Bearer."
The female hyena's ears flattened as she asked, "Is that the only reason?"
"You know it's not," Ben grumbled. "I'd miss your grouchy old puss too."
"As I would be lost without yours," Margett smiled as she rubbed the notches in his ear.
"Sometimes I wish I was born a wolf," Phil sighed. "At least their males think that they're in charge, even when they really aren't."
Both Margett and Ben chuckled at his statement.
"I don't want to be disrespectful, but the old ways are not the ways of the city," Phil said in a timid voice. "In school they teach that we should all be equal, whether we are male or female, predator or prey, and straight or gay."
"Yet in school don't you have males who try to dominate females, prey which fear predators, and straights who hated gays?" Margett asked. "We all bring our cultural beliefs with us to the city and it's our past which is part of us for good or bad."
"And if you pee in the water, it's tainted!" Ben grumbled. "So we teach our cubs not to do so. Isn't it as simple as just changing our ways?"
"Dearest, not all the females would agree with change," the elderly female sighed. "They hold close to the old ways and traditions. To them, all else is wrong."
"With that mindset, we would all still be running on all four paws and eating zebra meat," Phil added. "We had to evolve ourselves before, maybe we have to do so again?"
"The others are here," Ben announced.
"Well my dear warrior it's time to get to work," the Alpha said to Phil. "Now you're going to find out how badly we are set in our ways, because it's time for you to tell us what to do. Remember, you are in uniform and that makes you their equal. Some won't like that, but they will obey, because today you're in charge."
Some of the females were not happy at all, but Margett was right and they would do as told. By midmorning a small army of hyenas were poking around the neighborhoods. The trap was closing on the old tiger and hopefully he was unaware.