"Ria, I'm...worried," Mary said.

"About what?"

The two of them were in the kitchen, cleaning up after dinner. Ellen was sitting at the island, appearing to ignore them as she looked at her phone, but Ria could tell that she was listening with at least one ear. Tim had convinced Victor to shoot pool with him in the basement, and he had reluctantly agreed with Ria's urging. She was nervous about him killing the poor man, but he had promised her with a roll of his eyes that he would behave.

"He seems to be a bit...brutish."

She had to agree there. "Yeah, he is a bit. But he has to be."

"...Why?"

Ria shrugged. "It's a tough world. Male ferals have to be strong like that to fight and kill and protect what's theirs."

"Are you safe with him? He won't hurt you, will he?"

She smiled a little. "He's big and dangerous, but he wouldn't do anything to me. I'm safer with him than I am anywhere else."

"There's so much to your life that I don't understand," Mary frowned. "I'm still concerned about you being...mates, or whatever you call it."

"What about it?" Ria felt a twinge of annoyance. She really didn't want to have this talk with her. Mary was a god-fearing woman. She went to church every Sunday. There was no way she was going to be telling her about going into heat and having children with the man she just called a brute.

"Is it like...animal mates?"

Ria saw Ellen glance up from her phone. "In a way."

Mary's face reddened. "And why are you with him? When did you meet him, exactly?"

"A few months ago. Like I said, it's feral stuff."

Mary frowned deeper and made a tutting noise as she left the kitchen to collect more plates from the table. Ellen took the opportunity to perk up.

"Does that mean you've had sex?"

"Yes." Ria answered flatly.

Ellen looked more excited than she had all night. "Was it good?"

Ria moved to rifle through the cupboards for post-dinner snacks. "You're talking like you would have something to compare it to."

"Maybe I do," she said smugly, crossing her arms.

The mutant raised an eyebrow. "Guess you aren't the kid I remember anymore, are you?"

"I've been dying to tell somebody who actually knows things." Ellen said. "Everybody at school...they say they know, but they're just like me. And you're so old. You've gotta know so much!"

Ria snorted and grabbed a bag of gluten free chips. "Don't you still go to a private school, little miss nunnery?"

Ellen rolled her eyes. "It's not a nunnery. It's co-ed."

"A bunch of horny teenagers in one place, then." she leaned over the counter, opening the chips. "I assume you've been naughty lately."

Ellen's face reddened. "Only a bit."

"What exactly-"

They both fell silent as Mary began humming in the other room, but when Ria poked her head around the corner to find the woman cleaning with earbuds in and clearly ignoring everything around her, she looked back at Ellen and started talking again.

"What exactly have you been up to?" she asked, returning to her former spot.

"There's this boy-"

"Already bad news." Ria cut her off jokingly.

"-his name is Michael. We...messed around a little." she looked down sheepishly. "I want to go further, though."

"Be safe." Ria offered. Honestly, what was she supposed to say? She clearly wasn't a good role model at this point.

"How? Condoms? What do you do?"

"Do you honestly not learn any of this shit in school?"

"You didn't answer me."

She threw her arms up in defeat. "There's tons of ways. You've got no excuse. Don't fuck your life up if you do this, but also...if you wanna, then do it. Kick him in the balls if he makes you do something you don't wanna. Hell, call me if he tries something."

Ellen smiled a little. "Will you send Victor after him?"

"Worse." she put her hands on her hips. "I'll go after him myself. You don't want a leopard on your tail, trust me."

She smiled wider. "So...it's okay?"

"What? Sex?" Ria walked around the island to sit next to her. "Fucking ain't no joke." God, she was starting to sound like Victor. "...But it is pretty fun."

"Will it hurt?"

"Maybe."

"...Will I bleed?"

"Sure hope not." Ria wrinkled her nose. "I think I did. Hard to remember, though. Besides, things were different then. Now you've got tons of shit to help out. When I was your age, my best birth control was my own."

"What, tracking?"

She barked a laugh. "That shit doesn't work. Believe me, I've known plenty of girls who've tried that and ended up with babies." she sighed. "No, I've got something you don't. Part of my mutation."

"What is it? Super vagina?"

"No," she said slowly. "I'm half animal. I'm a beast in my core. My body goes into heat for a few days at a time, and that's the only time I'm fertile." she looked at Ellen sternly. "But you're not me, and you're using protection. Got it?"

The teenager nodded. "So…"

"So?"

"So are you and Victor…"

"Are we what?"

"Are you going to use protection?"

"When I go into heat?" she started crunching on chips. "Doubt it."

An almost scandalous look crossed over Ellen's face. "Why?"

Ria shrugged. "It's...something deep down. I don't know."

She did know, but there was no way she was going to have an in depth discussion about this with a kid. She would talk with Ellen about sex and steer her right, but telling a child everything about the now seemingly very adult world of ferals wasn't on her agenda. She didn't want to look at this kid, whom she had known as an actual child last time they were together, and tell her that she was listening to some primeval instinct telling her to do what ferals did and raise hellions.

"Well, you should name one after me."

Ria laughed lightly. "As if."

Ellen was always so cheerful. She was naive-not as naive as Ria had previously she thought, she now realized-and being brought up the way she had been hadn't shown her very much of the world, save for their yearly cruises. She had always been Ria's favorite, like the sister she never had, and if she had been a mutant as well, Ria would have taught her everything she knew.

But she was born completely normal, with no mutations aside from the simple ones that made her hair straight and her eyes blue. She didn't have much of a place in the mutant world, and especially not in the feral one. Ria wasn't about to drag her into it with talk of cubs and fucking like rabbits because it's what the leopard and tiger wanted to do.

"So...say I do end up doing it," Ellen said. "What...what do I do?"

Ria smiled at her innocence. She wasn't going to delve into her mated life, but she was willing to teach this girl what she needed to know to stay safe and healthy in a school of church kids. She had been involved with enough peep shows and bordellos to know how normal, human men worked, and she also knew how things could turn out if Ellen took a wrong turn. Ria had grown up in a time when many diseases didn't have treatments, and she had seen her fellow dancers and friends go down with syphilis and other infections.

She had also seen what happened to the children that some of them had in secrecy, behind closed doors, afraid of what the rest of the world was going to say and do. Times had been different back then, and things had been grisly and unfair, but some parts of life were similar now, and if Ellen's mother wasn't going to tell her daughter what she needed to know about the world, then Ria sure as hell was.

Shit, she was thinking like a mom now.

Victor was enjoying about ten percent of his time with Tim and Danny. The rest was annoyance. At least he was good at billiards.

"You're damn good at this, Victor," Tim said as he lost.

"I've had practice."

"Pool shark?"

"Rarely. There's better cash elsewhere."

"Doing what?" Danny asked from where he sat next to the minibar. This basement was a total man cave, and while Victor liked part of it, it was so...human.

"Kid, you don't wanna know." he smirked.

"You said you were in the service?" Tim asked, putting his stick down to get himself a drink.

Victor nodded with a grunt. "Army. Infantry. Then...special ops."

"Funny, I never thought Ria would go for a jar head."

"First of all, kid, that's marines." Victor finally took his coat off and tossed it on the chair next to Danny. He put a hand on the back of it, flexing his claws.

Tim paled slightly as he noticed how sharp they were.

"Second of all, how would you know?"

"I've known her a lot longer than you have." Danny said stubbornly.

Victor growled quietly. Was this pipsqueak seriously challenging him?

"Come to think of it, I can't recall her ever having anyone special in her life," Tim commented. "Scotch?"

"That all you got?" Victor asked.

"It's the best I've got."

"Yeah." he looked back at Danny. "You got some guts, kid."

Danny looked a bit proud until Victor added, "That ain't a compliment."

"Why not?" he asked. "Seems good to be brave."

"Not in dangerous company." Victor said as he took a glass from Tim and downed the scotch. "It'll get you in trouble with the wrong crowd. Or the right one, dependin' on who you wanna be."

"Are you saying you're dangerous?"

The kid didn't know when to quit.

Victor snarled, his fangs bared. "Do I look dangerous?"

Danny opened his mouth to retort, but Tim cut him off. "Everybody just calm down, now. Nobody's threatening anyone."

Victor's nostrils flared in irritation. This was ridiculous. He had better things to be doing with his time. He was agitated enough as it was with Ria out of his sight, but now he had this...child trying to tell him about his own mate? If he hadn't promised that everybody would survive the night, he would have strung his innards up an hour ago for daring to challenge him.

He was snarky and he was clearly unhappy with Victor and Ria being together. Victor could only guess that he had some kind of boyish crush on his woman, and he didn't like that, no matter how stupid and childish it was. The kid was like a fresh spring buck trying to stake his claim, and Victor was a very, very unhappy king of the forest.

"What? I just want her to be safe." Danny said haughtily.

"She is." Victor snapped.

"Can you guarantee that?" Tim asked.

"Do I look like I'm kiddin'?"

Tim swallowed, trying to stand his ground. Something about Victor was terrifying, and it wasn't just his size, or his claws, or his obvious strength. It was something else. Maybe it was the way he was always on the alert, or the way he watched everyone as if they were prey. It was deeply unsettling, and Tim had no desire to be on this man's bad side.

But he did want to keep his children safe, all of them. That included Ria. As a father, he didn't like this situation very much; gone for years, apparently tortured, suddenly shows up with burly, snarly new boyfriend-sorry, mate-with no apparent concerns for her own safety around this strange mutant man.

He had a feeling that if he was impolite, though, Victor was going to paint the walls of his beloved hangout with Tim's own blood.

"I'd like to see proof." Danny said, crossing his arms.

Tim was really starting to wish his son would just shut up.

"The proof is that she's alive." Victor growled. "She'd be dead in the woods without me."

"You said you own land in the forest?" Tim said, wanting to lift the mood.

"In a sense."

"How much? What do you have?"

"Few hundred acres. I have everythin' I need there."

"You a hunting man, Victor?"

Victor snorted. "Hunter of what?"

"Everything." Danny grumbled. "Humans."

"You askin' if I've killed before?" Victor laughed darkly. "All part of the job."

That wasn't exactly what Tim wanted to hear. "And can you support Ria and yourself with this...job?"

"I could support us without it."

"You understand we're just concerned about her safety," Tim said. "We all loved her very dearly. When she disappeared...well, it tore us up. Having her back, knowing that she's alive...we all just want the best for her."

"You think she's yours. I get that." Victor laughed again. "But she ain't ever gonna be a human like you. She's got her own life. Her own plan." his gaze shifted to Danny. "She belongs with her own kind now that she's done pretendin'."

"She didn't pretend anything." Danny was holding his gaze.

"Kid, she's older than your grandparents. You think you know so much about her? You didn't even know she was more than a pretty set of claws and fangs."

The air was growing tense, and as Tim racked his brain to find a way to keep this from going downhill and resulting in the death of his big-mouthed son, the phone rang from the floor above, and then Mary called from the top of the stairs.

"Tim, dear! It's Bob, from the firm!"

"On my way up!" Tim yelled. He finished his drink, gave Danny a harsh warning glare, and rid himself of the conversation as quickly as he could.

Victor watched him go, pleased with this chain of events. With him out of the way, he was free to address this insolent child.

"So, kid." he walked around the bar to pour himself another glass. "You got a thing for my girl."

"No." Danny said quickly, denying it as fast as possible.

Victor looked up at him. "No point in lyin' to me. I can smell it."

Danny frowned. That was seriously weird. "I don't have to tell you anything."

Victor finished his drink in a few seconds. "It's in your best interest if you do."

"Okay, so I had a little crush on her. So what? I'm allowed to."

"Is that what you think?" Victor moved back around to Danny's side and put a hand on his shoulder, claws fully extended. "Don't pretend I don't see what you're up to, Danny."

The kid gulped nervously.

"You think you can tell me what's what. Think you're hot shit. I could snap you in half right now if I wanted, and you wouldn't be able to even blink."

"Y-you're crazy!"

"You know that ain't true." Victor leaned in close. "You put a hand on her an' you won't have any hands left. Got it?"

"Yes sir." his human eyes were filled with the panic of a prey animal staring death in the face.

"I'm not kiddin', shit stain."

Victor released him, pulling his claws out from the fabric of Danny's shirt. He would beat down anyone who tried to make any kind of moves on Ria, even this scrawny excuse for a suitor.

"Yeesh," Danny mumbled.

"You got more to say?"

"Not to you."

"That's a good answer."