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Gavin looked at Nick, ran the conversation back through his mind, and then met Lauren’s gaze. “What are you prepared to promise us?”
“I’ve already promised I won’t have sex with anyone blood-bonded to you without checking in with you. My assumption is that, so long as it won’t cause a political problem, you’re going to give the okay if I ask.” She looked at Nick and back to Gavin. “When I first arrived in Branson, Nick told me his lions are off limits, and I gave him that promise. At this time, I don’t want to fuck anyone besides the two of you, but if someone pops up and catches my interest, I plan to consider it.”
Gavin wanted her to agree to only be with him or Nick, but he understood why she wasn’t going to. He’d heard Kirsten say she wasn’t willing to offer monogamy to someone who couldn’t give her the same in return. Gavin had no idea whether Kirsten was ever with anyone besides her two men. He’d heard of the wild orgies on Alfheim, so it was possible she was. At any rate, Lauren’s role model was her mother, so she wasn’t going to give more in a relationship than her partners could give.
“I need you to use discernment with any supernatural in the city, but I trust you to be smart and not stupid, so I’m not going to try to lay it all out. Talk to us if there’s someone you’re interested in, and we’ll go from there, yes?”
She shook her head. “You’re saying to talk to you even if it’s someone who isn’t attached to the two of you? Like I need permission? I’m not asking for the two of you to get the okay from me before you fuck someone, and I don’t intend to make that promise to you.” She sighed. “Honestly, I’m not interested in anyone beyond the two of you, but I’m not willing to make promises. I would hope you trust me not to do something to undermine your authority and position. Do you really need me to promise to check in with you before I fuck someone else?”
Gavin recognized this as the challenge it was, and he stood and paced a few moments before sitting in a chair across from his two daywalkers.
“I’ve been Master of a large territory in the past. Before I met Zander, I ruled with terror. People have watched me to see how I handle my people this time, and I’ve tried to do as I’ve learned from Zander — a combination of the carrot and the stick. I’ve been brutal when correction has been called for because I don’t want to have to correct people often. This means that if you do something that demands I respond, I would have to be brutal with you, and we both know that would end us. So, while Idotrust you not to do something to intentionally undermine me, I worry that you might unintentionally do so. If we’re in regular communication about the tricky subjects, that’s less likely to happen.”
Nick kissed Lauren on the head and told her, “He’s right, and you know it. We all know you aren’t going to promise more than you’re comfortable with, so maybe we table this discussion until we’re back home and the current crisis is over?”
Gavin nodded. “I can absolutely live with that.”
“Mom says I form disorganized attachments,” Lauren told them. “From the outside looking in, it means sometimes I’m clingy and other times I want to be left alone.”
“I’m used to it,” Nick told Gavin. “The important thing, though, is that if she hurts my feelings by pushing me away, I have to tell her.”
“He doesn’t actually tell me, because he’s a cantankerous cat, but he brings it to my attention. Usually by telling me he realizes I need space and he hopes I don’t decide I need too much. It’s enough to point out how I’m making him feel so I can do better.”
Nick chuckled. “And bydo better, she means a quick hug before she makes her retreat, but it’s enough to reassure me.”
“No,” Lauren argued, “when I realize you need me, even though I need space, I stick around. I might do it from across the room, but I don’t completely leave.”
He hugged her to him and closed his eyes, and it reminded Gavin how much of a history these two had between them.
Lauren’s eyes opened and she met Gavin’s gaze. “Can you come back over here, please? I don’t like you sitting by yourself. It feels wrong.”
“It does,” Nick agreed. “Even the lion is telling me something is off, and normally I’d expect him to be happy to have Lauren all to ourselves. Why are you over there?”
Gavin stood, walked to them, and stood in front of them. Sitting beside them didn’t feel right, so he lifted Lauren, sat her sideways in Nick’s lap, sat beside the lion, and pulled Lauren’s feet into his own lap.
Lauren leaned forward, hugged Gavin, and then sat back again, leaned in the crook of her lion’s arm, and told them, “I won’t have sex with anyone besides the two of you without talking to you first for two weeks. That gives us some time to hammer out the wording for a longer-term agreement we can all live with.”
“Thank you,” Gavin told her. “I am going to begin having sex with Queenie again, and with anyone in need of punishment, should the castigation call for it. I will also most often fuck whomever I feed from.”
“No change from me,” Nick said. “My people are on a rotating schedule they’re not aware of. I’ll continue to stick to my schedule, and make adjustments should someone’s attitude mean they get moved up.”
“You use your barbs with your people?” Gavin asked.
Nick sighed. “You know I have to, and we all know this means there’s a chance I can create babies. Condoms aren’t possible because the barbs rip them. For natural lions, the barbs make the eggs drop, and a female lion doesn’t usually get pregnant the first half-dozen or so times. Our lore tells us we’re usually safe for about two hours, so I try not to fuck my females vaginally longer than an hour and a half. Anything after that is most often anal.”
“But I know the odds are, he’s going to have babies with several of his lionesses. It’s how the pride works. Nathan’s doesn’t work that way because the Amakhosi has control most Rexes do not, but all other prides work that way. I saw it first-hand with Presley’s pride in Massachusetts.”
“Most of the females in my pride would have an abortion if they became pregnant. They’re here to perform on stage and aren’t prepared to become mothers just yet. A few, however, would carry to term and raise the child, either for moral reasons or because they are ready to become a mother.”
“Aren’t you obligated to impregnate the women who want cubs?” Gavin asked.
“Yes and no. I get the final say in such things, but if a woman’s biological clock is screaming at her, then my choice is to get her pregnant or move her to another pride where the Rex is willing. As of now, I have a few approaching ready who’ll be pleased if it happens, but they aren’t ready to do it on purpose yet.”
“It’s going to happen,” Lauren told Gavin. “I know it will, and I also know how that looks in a healthy Pack. Nick will be their father. Hierarchically speaking, he will decree how they are raised, and their mother will have to follow his orders. Realistically, I’m guessing he’ll run things similar to the way Presley handled things, so he had a handful of hard-and-fast rules, and each mother was mostly able to raise her children in her own style within those rules.”
“Presley doesn’t allow television programming or free access to the internet until the children are eight years old,” Nick said. “Some educational videos are allowed from the beginning, as well as learning software fairly early, but he has to vet everything. All children are hand-spanked until the age of three, and then with a paddle or belt, depending upon the offense. The mothers have the choice of homeschooling, or paying one-third of the private-school tuition, which is steep for the only school Presley approves of. He pays two tutors who handle all of his high-school aged children’s learning needs that go beyond each mother’s ability — mostly higher math and science, I believe.”
“So she’s right?” Gavin asked. “You plan to model your fathering blueprint after his?”
